What Makes a Good Shared Hosting Plan?

In the world of web hosting, there are many different considerations - you can choose a dedicated hosting plan, or you can opt for a collocation service. You might choose cloud hosting, as well. However, the most common solution in the modern world isshared web hosting. What is this option? Understanding Shared Hosting In essence, shared hosting is nothing more than sharing the system resources of a server with other websites. Your website will share the disk space, the bandwidth, the RAM and all the other resources on the server with any website that might be located on that server. Is this a good solution for your needs? The answer to that is, "it depends." There are numerous factors that go into making a good shared hosting plan. Below, you'll learn more about these. Bandwidth Considerations One of the most important concerns in a shared hosting plan is the amount ofbandwidth you will be given. This is essential, particularly if you will have a heavily trafficked website. Bandwidth is really a measure of how much information can pass from your server to your visitors during the course of a month. However, the more bandwidth you have, the better. Disk Space Considerations Another important consideration is the amount of disk space you're given. However, many users overestimate their disk space needs. Unless you have a website filled with heavy graphics, massive databases and other space-eating inclusions, you can often make do with less space than you might think. Therefore, paying more for a shared hosting plan with unlimited disk space might not be the best thing. Uptime Concerns For any website owner, the amount of uptime offered by the host is an essential item of concern. You want to find a host with the most uptime possible. If your website is down, then your customers, clients and visitors cannot reach your site. This robs you of income. The industry standard uptime is 99.9%. However, you can do better than this if you shop around a bit. Some hosts offer 99.99% uptime, while others promise 100% uptime. The Final Price Finally, you want to consider the price you'll pay for the features listed above, as well as for others, such as the ability to have multiple MySQL databases, unlimited email accounts or a cPanel control panel feature. You want the best mix of affordability, feature-rich tools and reliability.