Essential Features Of Shared Web Hosting

• February 27, 2011 14:14
• 905 views
• no responses

A shared web hosting service is a term used to refer to the type of Internet web hosting service where several websites belonging to different people situate on a single server and share resources while connected to the Internet.

Each hosted account is given a partition in which its data sit, to prevent it from mixing up with files belonging to other hosting accounts. Quotas of server resources, such as monthly bandwidth transfer limit, disk space, maximum number of email accounts, maximum number of FTP accounts, and maximum number of add-on domains and databases are allotted to each account. Since all hosted accounts share the overall cost of maintaining the server, shared hosting is regarded as the cheapest form of web hosting.

FTP access/account creation: FTP enables a webmaster to upload files related to his/her hosted services, and also to update the uploaded content. Basically a quality shared hosting service should provide its clients access to the default FTP accounts and also allow them to create a certain number of accounts on their own.

Availability of bundled software: Majority of hosting companies, such as Bluehost and Hostgator, include bundled software, which can be automatically installed within the control panel by just a few clicks of the mouse. The inclusion of this bundle of popular scripts is very helpful to site owners who are not comfortable installing software and creating new databases on their own. Bluehost offers both SimpleScripts and Fantastico Deluxe. Bundled software packages differ from host to host, but most of them include WordPress blogging script, OSCommerce and ZenCart shopping carts, RoundCube email client, Coppermine photo gallery script, etc. Make sure that the web host you’re about to choose offers bundled software, because you never know when you’ll need to install one of these scripts.

Ability to create email accounts: As a site owner you will definitely like to have some email addresses like mike@yourdomain.com. Rather than using free email addresses, such as Yahoo Mail, HotMail and Gmail, this gives you credibility and makes you look professional when corresponding with your contacts. So, your shared host should allow you to create, configure and administer several email addresses. Due to bitter competition in the web hosting industry, almost all the top providers now offer clients the ability to create unlimited number of email accounts. As a rule, do sign up with any web host that offers less than 2,500 maximum email address creation.

Control panel: An administrative panel is necessary for clients to effectively manage hosted services in their accounts. The very popular web hosting control panels are cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin and H-Sphere. I personally prefer cPanel to others, because it has a cleaner interface and it’s user-friendly, even to a newbie.

Sizable disk space: Most of the popular shared web hosting providers offer unlimited disk space to every account. However, there are certain clauses associated with this term, “Unlimited disk space”. Make internal and external inquiries about the attached clauses to see if the disk space is good enough for your needs.

Sizable monthly bandwidth transfer limit: A good shared hosting package should offer up to 10GB of maximum monthly bandwidth transfer. I don’t believe in offers that state “unlimited bandwidth”, because it is never unlimited in practice, since such hosts have hidden limits. Find out the actual bandwidth limit, to know if it’s sizable enough, before you purchase any web hosting package.

Database creation: Every notable shared hosting plan permits clients to create databases, in order  for them to use content management systems (CMS). Some hosts allow an account to have up to fifty (50) databases. If you’re planning to use scripts like PHP or ASP that implement server-side interpretation and processing, only go with a company that allows you to create and manage a good number of databases.

Ability to add other domains to your account: In the nineties, several hosting firms didn’t allow shared hosting clients to host more than one (1) website in one (1) account. But times have changed, strong competitions have forced them to open up and allow the inclusion of other sites as add-on domains in a single hosting account. The advantage of this feature is that instead of creating separate accounts for all your websites, it allows you to host all of them in one account. I recommend you make sure a hosting company allows up to fifty (50) add-on domains to an account before signing up with it.

Author’s Information: The BBcWebhosting.com is only the rightful owner of this original article. Our website is an independent web hosting review and rating resource that also publishes quality articles relating to web hosting service.

Important Notice: BBcWebhosting.com allows you to republish copies of this original article anywhere on the World Wide Web, as long as you leave the above author’s link: http://bbcwebhosting.com/ and credit intact in every copy.