Apparently not every one of us is rich enough to host our website on a dedicated server. This explains why web hosting on shared server are still the most popular service around the Internet. However, being most popular does not mean being the best. Shared hosting are often problematic and it limits your website in achieving greater heights.
Of course I am not saying that all shared hosting servers are bad – it’s just that you need to pay extra attention when it comes to picking up the right shared hosting service. Here are some of the potential downsides if you are stuck with a lousy web host.
Web Host Reliability
The biggest problem with shared hosting is always the server reliability. As your websites are share-hosted with dozens of other websites, you will have little control on the usage of server resources. You will never know when your website is going to be down as there might be buggy scripts running on your server, or your web host is overselling without proper planning.
Billing System
Shared hosting often involve extra upgrade costs. Inexperienced webmasters often give away their money to unethical hosting companies in exchange of nothing. It is important for us to choose a host with transparent billing policy.
Limited Addon Domains
Shared hosting companies, especially the small ones are normally incompetent when it comes to hosting features. Do not get ripped off by lousy shared hosting provider that offers you between one to five addon domain names. Always go with the reputable hosting companies (example, Hostmonster and Lunarpages) that offer unlimited addon domain capacity.
Poor Technical Support
You can consider switching web host if you found out that your web host is not updating the web applications efficiently. Most shared hosting service providers are not too dedicated in supporting software upgrades and features maintenance. A hosting service, for example, that only supports PHP3 in nowadays is totally unacceptable.
Well these are a few things to be listed in your check list when shopping for a shared hosting. Study and research well before signing up, an affordable yet reliable shared hosting service is very possible.
Last piece of advice: In case you are looking for the right hosting, try check out Hostmonster. They are one of my favorite hosting services and I think they rocks! At the time of writing, Hostmonster is on promotion, you can check out their pricing and hosting features here.
