Shared Web Hosting vs. Cloud Hosting- Which One is The Right One for You?
When it comes to web hosting, the choices are plenty. It depends a lot on the money you’re willing to spend, what you need, how big is your site and so on. From all the variety of options in terms of web hosting, two of them stand out. One does it because of its popularity for years now (the shared web hosting) and one that impresses with its benefits.
What’s the basic info about shared web hosting?
Shared hosting is when several websites are hosted together, and they split the resources of the same server (bandwidth, storage, disk space, and databases).
It’s common for web hosting providers also to include the shared hosting in their plans. The web hosting provider has to ensure a dedicated web server for the shared hosting.
Ease of use and low price are the main benefits of web hosting, which is not the right choice for websites with impressive traffic.
What’s to say in a nutshell about cloud hosting?
When several servers and not just one host the website, you’re actually using cloud hosting. If anything goes wrong, the site can quickly go to a different server.
In the case of cloud hosting, a significant number of machines are working at the same time, and it’s the cloud computing technology that makes it all possible. The more servers are working, the higher the rate of success for the cloud hosting.
The speed and flexibility are the best parts of cloud hosting. It’s also easy for engineers to find the resources in case of a problem. Cloud hosting is a good option for websites with lots of traffic.
Cloud vs. Shared web hosting- the comparison of features
To make a clear imaged of the differences between the two types of web hosting, let’s see the main features for each of them.
- Support
Cloud hosting takes the lead in terms of support. Customers do receive unlimited databases, storage, and bandwidth.
Shared hosting has its limitations, and even if the plan promises unlimited resources, once the monitoring team identifies a user overusing the limited resources, the user is going to get kicked out of the plan.
- Bonuses
It’s time for the shared hosting to be the leader. As web hosting companies are trying to get more clients, the chances are that they’re going to offer a lot of benefits. Free web transfers, website builders or domain names are only some of the benefits that clients can receive from the shared web hosting provider. Take a look at thehostinginstitute.com to check some of the best web hosting providers of the moment. You can also go through the various reviews and make a clear idea about web hosting altogether. Don’t forget that shared and cloud hosting are only some of the many types of the web are hosting to choose from.
- Uptime
Even if shared hosting guarantees 99.99% uptimes, it’s quite tricky for the provider to keep it that way. It’s the shared nature of the services that lead to this effect. When a website goes through unusual high traffic, the risk for some downtime issues with all the other sites on the server is high.
In the case of cloud hosting, there are no complaints about it as the users are on specific servers. Even if they share the resources, the sites go to a different server when something is off.
Do the benefits differ between the two types of web hosting?
Security, prices, performance, and speed, are the aspects we need to talk about when comparing the two.
- Security
In the case of shared hosting, the security uses the applications and the databases, so it’s rather easy for the experienced hackers to attack them. Once a hacker gets access to one of the websites on a shared server, it’s going to be a lot easier to access the other sites on the same server. As this is no news for the shared web hosting providers, they recommend the users to continually update efficient antiviruses (there are so many) and install strong passwords.
When it comes to the security of cloud hosting, there are four essential controls for providing it: deterrent controls, preventative controls, detective controls, corrective controls. Some of the common security issues for cloud hosting are excessive use of the services, side channel attack, forbidden invasion, and network listening in.
In the end, cloud hosting allows the users to control the security features, taking the lead. Once a problem on hardware develops, the website is going to go to a stable server.
- Speed
The servers in shared hosting are full most of the time. Therefore, when a site experiences a sudden increase in the traffic, all the other websites on the server are going to experience slow of the speed. The load time worsens, and soon enough the sites are losing their visitors/clients.
The distribution of resources is the main reason for the excellent speed in cloud hosting. Even if something goes south with hardware, the websites migrate to a functional server, which eliminates the risk for lousy load time.
- Performance
The resources on shared hosting are the leading cause of the slow speed in shared hosting. As a matter of fact, many web hosts are trying their best to provide better resources so that the rate improves. Constant downtimes and outages do occur in the case of shared hosting.
It’s not the case with the cloud hosting which provide the fast, customizable and scalable platform. Even if the traffic is high, the site isn’t going to budge. It’s why cloud hosting is such a popular choice for sites with a lot of traffic.
- Prices
Low prices are the most significant benefit for shared web hosting. As the resources are shared, it makes sense that the prices are low.
But this doesn’t make cloud hosting a lot more expensive as users typically pay only the for services that they’re using. You’re going to pay according to the infrastructure that you’re building. If you don’t have a clear image of the apps is running on your website, you may end up pay more than you’re using.
All in all shared web hosting is the cheaper option any given day. It’s why it’s so popular, for sure.
Which one should you choose?
In terms of prices and bonuses, shared web hosting takes the lead. It’s the ideal plan for a small business that is expecting to grow after some time.
Speed, security, performance, and uptime are better when using cloud hosting, which becomes a wise choice for the medium/large sized businesses or any other websites with high traffic.
At the end of the day, it’s all up to the size of your business and your budget.
