Choosing shared web hosting solutions

Standard shared web hosting packages are a suitable choice for many personal web sites and specific small business sites. There are many things to consider however before choosing a provider consider issues such as disk space, price, security, bandwidth, and any other additional features.

Other hosting options like Virtual Server hosting or Dedicated Server hosting can provide faster processing speeds and better security than shared hosting. However this usually at a higher cost. Make you know exactly what requirements you need before choosing a premium hosting service.

Shared web hosting at a lower cost than the Virtual and Dedicated alternatives is suitable if you want your site to be up and running quickly, say within 24 hours. If you don't have much technical expertise and just want an affordable solution. Prices are lower because the server your web site is hosted on is "shared" with many other sites. The decisions you must make come down to what level of shared hosting you buy. For this you need to consider the following requirements. Will you an email facility? Will your site use up a lot of bandwidth? Does it require a particular operating system? Do you have a large site?

What factors should you consider?

When you choose a level of shared hosting consider the uptime being offered (as in how often does your web host provider anticipate server problems in any given year?). Disk space, support levels, bandwidth, and additional features that could help your site grow all need to be analysed in your package choice.

It is important also to gauge the quality of hardware being used, the operating system and the compatible software specifications. It is important to consider all of the specifications combined together and make sure the package will suit your needs.

The providers of shared hosting solutions are normally responsible for managing the servers, installing software and security updates therefore make sure you know what else you'll receive when you signup.

Operating system - Linux or Windows?

Normally shared web hosting packages are based on Linux or Windows Operating Systems. Both have excellent reasons for being the best choice.

Choosing a Windows or Linux based hosting solution should be based on your own specific requirements. The decision should be based on what you plan to do with your site in future. Are there any existing requirements? and what requirements may there be going forward?

Linux

The Linux shared web hosting solution is perhaps the most commonly used form of shared hosting and is often cheaper than a Windows alternative. Its popularity is mainly down to its open source nature and the availability of support popular PHP scripting language and a MySQL database programme.

For supporting other tools and languages such as Pearl, Apache and Java, Linux hosting servers are very scalable and extremely reliable.

Windows

A Windows web hosting solution is based on the Windows operation system from Microsoft and is a good platform for people who prefer to use ASP / ASP.NET scripting languages and Microsoft SQL Server or Access databases tools. One downside to Windows based hosting however is that it can be more expensive because of the licensing fees (compared with the open source nature of Linux).

Choosing a shared web hosting solution comes down to your requirements. Make sure you do plenty of research on what is available from various providers and more importantly make sure you know what you need today and also what you might need in the future. The main question recommended to ask a provider and yourself would be: Is it a big site? Do I need site stats or promotion tools? Does it have a lot of imagery on it? What scripting language is my site built in? Do I need email with it? Does it use a database? How important is support to me?

Continue to: Factors to Consider when You Compare Web Hosting Plans