When looking for the best web hosting and your budget is limited but you still look for a powerful server to host your website, you should know that shared hosting is a great option.
The shared hosting service is mainly recommended for new projects, blogs, corporate websites, and online stores that do not require massive data storage or special server configurations.
In this article, we will tell you what shared hosting is and what are the pros and cons when using it to host a website.
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What is shared hosting?
Shared hosting is a hosting model in which a set of web pages have shared access to a set of resources on the server. In this case, the storage capacity is divided among all users, including RAM, CPU, and the physical machine. Every web page hosted on a shared server has its own domain and its content is stored in an individual partition within the available disk space. This ensures that different users can carry out independent projects despite sharing the same hardware platform. This type of web hosting has a great impact on reducing costs, which has made it an especially popular solution.
Related: What is Web Hosting?
Below, we will give you the pros and cons of shared web hosting and show you the best shared hosting in 2021.
Shared Hosting Pros & Cons
Shared hosting pros
There are many benefits that are obtained when choosing a shared hosting to host your website. Among the main advantages of using a shared hosting plan:
Affordable Price
A shared hosting server can contain from a few dozen to thousands of web pages, which makes the price of hiring this hosting service the most economical.
Compared to other types of hosting like dedicated hosting or VPS hosting, shared hosting is a cheaper option.
Related: Best Cheap WordPress Hosting: Reliable & Fast Loading
Server administration and maintenance
The hosting provider will take care of the administration, maintenance, and updating of the server, so the developer or web designer will not have to worry about these types of aspects and will be able to focus on the development of their web project.
Shared hosting providers include options to install content managers easily and in just a few mouse clicks (like WordPress, for example).
Simple management
To manage shared hosting, it is not necessary to have advanced knowledge, since this type of web hosting facilitates administration and configuration through control panels where it can be done quickly and easily. The two types of administration panels most used by this type of hosting are cPanel and Plesk, which have a simple and intuitive interface from which to manage all the hosting options.
Shared hosting providers include options to install platforms, content managers, and eCommerce easily and in just a few clicks with WordPress, Drupal, and PrestaShop.
Scalability
The Shared Web Hosting service allows you to start with a basic plan and scale according to your needs without any interruption in service.
If it is a new project, you do not necessarily have to hire a plan with many resources, as your project grows you can scale.
SSL Certificates
Many shared hosting plans offer the possibility of having free SSL certificates, such as the well-known Let’s Encrypt. This represents an improvement in terms of the security of the site and other services offered by the platform.
Technical support
Most hosting providers offer a technical service for managing your shared web hosting service, emails, and domains. In addition to that, some offer support on the applications for which their servers are optimized.
It is common for shared hosting providers to have documentation and tutorials to help solve problems or resolve doubts.
Shared hosting cons
Despite the multiple benefits offered by shared hosting, there are also some disadvantages, among which we can highlight:
Slow loading
When sharing resources with a large number of websites, you may experience slowdowns in the processes or loads of the hosted websites. Once a website begins to generate a lot of traffic, the option of shared hosting is no longer the most appropriate due to the limitations of the platform itself.
Limited resources
Most shared hosting providers do not allow you to customize a plan according to your needs, each provider has limitations in terms of RAM, CPU, email accounts, databases, database size, disk space, and monthly transfer.
Server customization
If a certain configuration is required, it is only possible on a case-by-case basis. Shared hosting plans usually offer parameterization capacity to some extent. Therefore, the change we need may not be viable on this type of platform.
Security issues
By hosting thousands of websites, shared hosting, and due to this density, is often the target of many cybercriminals, which is why it often suffers from numerous attacks (malicious software or denial of service attacks that slow down or even interrupt the service).
That is why it is important to take your own security measures, apart from those that the service provider has. To guarantee the information on the website, you should keep all your software up to date, install add-on plugins to increase the safeness of the site, and making copies periodic security.
Responsibility
The responsibility will not always depend on your hosting provider since you must also take security measures on your own so that your website is not vulnerable to any type of attack through the installation of plugins or malicious code.
The 6 Best Shared Web Hosting Providers in 2021
Here is our top recommendation for the best shared web hosting in 2021, which is cheap, fast, secure, and comes with great customer support.
| Hosting Providers | Price from | Details | Visit the Website |
|---|---|---|---|
 | $2.95/month | View Details | Go to Bluehost |
 | $0.99/month | View Details | Go to Hostinger |
 | $3.95/month | View Details | Go to SiteGround |
 | $2.59/month | View Details | Go to DreamHost |
 | $6.99/month | View Details | Go to A2 Hosting |
 | $3.95/month | View Details | Go to HostGator |
Bluehost
- Uptime: >99.99%
- Load Time: 419 ms
- Free Domain Name: Yes
- Security: 5/5
- Support: 5/5
Bluehost is constantly ranked #1 for small business web hosting. They have a custom cPanel dashboard area where you can quickly manage your hosting.
With Bluehost, you won’t have to worry about your website slowing down because of a recent increase in traffic. Furthermore, their customer care is available 24/7 via phone, email, or live chat and can assist you anytime you need it. They also provide complimentary domain and SSL certificates.
The cheapest shared hosting package currently costs $2.95 per month. However, you have to commit to a 36-month plan to lock in this pricing. If you want to sign up for a shorter term, the monthly charge is $3.95 per month for a 24-month plan and $4.95 per month for a one-year plan.
Bluehost price breakdown:
- 12-month plan: $4.95/month
- 24-month plan: $3.95/month
- 36-month plan: $2.95/month
Hostinger
- Uptime: >99.99%
- Load Time: 382 ms
- Free Domain Name: Yes
- Security: 5/5
- Support: 5/5
Hostinger has always been characterized by offering cheap hosting but always maintaining quality standards.
In recent months it has greatly improved its resources and today it offers good hosting at a very attractive price. We could say that it is the cheapest web hosting company on the market and that it offers the best benefits.
For less than $1 a month you have to host with everything you may need to start a project on the internet without spending too much.
The only problem we see with this cheap plan is that they don’t include a domain name. For this, we would recommend you take the cheap WordPress Hosting plan, which for just $2.99 per month you have a piece of hosting, yes, with everything you may need to set up your professional web project.
Hostinger price breakdown:
- 12-month plan: $2.99 per month
- 24-month plan: $1.59 per month
- 36-month plan: $0.99 per month
SiteGround
- Uptime: >99.99%
- Load Time: 710 ms
- Free Domain Name: No
- Security: 5/5
- Support: 5/5
SiteGround has become a popular WordPress Hosting offering a premium hosting service that is solid, secure, and quick. Over 1 million websites are currently hosted on SiteGround servers, and many industry experts love and recommend SiteGround as a fast web hosting provider.
The main benefit is that with SiteGround web hosting, you won’t have to worry about your website being slow, even when there’s a lot of traffic. In reality, it ensures that your website loads quickly and helps you achieve a higher search engine ranking.
SiteGround provides excellent 24/7 customer support. You can reach out to its customer service team in three ways: Live Chat, Support Ticket, and Phone.
Now, you can pay $4.99 per month for the first 12 months, which comes to $59.88 for the first year of hosting. A domain name is not included in this. It costs $17.95 per year if you need one. You’ll also have to pay an extra $12 per year for domain protection.
For the first year, the total upfront fee is $89.83.
DreamHost
- Uptime: >99.90%
- Load Time: 330 ms
- Free Domain Name: Yes
- Security: 5/5
- Support: 5/5
DreamHost is an award-winning and oldest web hosting company so they know how to offer the best quality web hosting with many benefits, features, and plans.
Few hosts offer a 100% uptime guarantee, but Dreamhost is one of them. This means that they have a lot of pressure on their shoulders to constantly offer it to their users. The service offers shared hosting, VPS, and dedicated plans that include a 14-day free trial period so you can explore all that DreamHost has to offer before spending a penny. Once you get used to its panel, you will discover that it has infinite features and tools.
There are two Shared Hosting Plans, shared initiator and unlimited shared. The prices start from $2.59 per month if you buy their service for 3 years.
Dreamhost price breakdown:
- 12-month plan: $3.95 per month
- 36-month plan: $2.59 per month
A2 Hosting
- Uptime: >99.99%
- Load Time: 284 ms
- Free Domain Name: Yes
- Security: 5/5
- Support: 5/5
A2 Hosting is known for providing clients with lightning-fast website speeds that are up to 20 times faster than those provided by other hosting companies. Faster websites provide a better user experience as well as an SEO benefit.
The Startup, Drive, Turbo Boost, and Turbo Max shared hosting plans are available from A2 Hosting. You’ll need either the Turbo Boost or Turbo Max package to connect to A2’s fastest servers.
The Softaculous auto-installer will also make it simple to add helpful applications to your website. Within the A2 hosting control panel, click the Softaculous icon to easily install applications such as WordPress, WooCommerce, Joomla, Drupal, and Magento.
A2 hosting support will be is available 24/7, and you can reach them by phone, live chat, or email.
A2 Hosting price breakdown:
- 1-month plan: $10.99 per month
- 12-month plan: $6.99 per month
- 36-month plan: $2.99 per month
HostGator
- Uptime: >99.98%
- Load Time: 421 ms
- Free Domain Name: Yes
- Support: 5/5
- Security: 5/5
With over 9 million domain names hosted today, HostGator is one of the world’s largest and most popular hosting providers.
HostGator provides hosting services at a very low monthly cost. HostGator offers the best features you need for your website, including unlimited storage, unmetered bandwidth, SSL certificate, and a free domain.
HostGator also offers free email with all shared hosting plans. SpamAssassin is also included with HostGator, which helps to reduce spam on your website. When you sign up with HostGator, you’ll also get a $150 Google Ads spend match credit and a $100 Microsoft Advertising credit.
On all of their plans, HostGator provides 24/7 assistance. When we tested assistance, we found them to be extremely polite and helpful, while we did have to wait around 10 minutes to speak with someone.
HostGator price breakdown:
- 12-month plan: $3.95 per month
- 24-month plan: $3.45 per month
- 36-month plan: $2.75 per month
Conclusion
The main benefit of shared hosting services is affordable. Shared hosting providers will host your website for as little as $2.75 per month. Shared hosting services are usually reliable and secure, but they don’t always provide the speed and flexibility that dedicated or Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting services do. It is ideal for small businesses and start-up sites that do not generate a lot of web traffic.
Which shared hosting do we recommend? The best web hosting provider for most people and affordable price is definitely Bluehost. You can use our link to get a discount for 63% Off and Free Domain Name in the 1st year.
