Is Cloud Hosting Better Than Shared Hosting?
To have a site live on the Internet you’re going to need hosting. But, how do you choose the right kind of hosting for your business?
Web hosting can be complex and there are a lot of options. It’s easy to get lost, so don’t feel bad if you’re confused at the starting point.
Below we dive into the differences between cloud hosting and shared hosting. These are two of the most common hosting choices. Remember, there is no right choice for everyone; the right type for you depends upon the needs of your site.
Cloud & Dedicated Hosting services available at ABACO Hosting
What is shared hosting?
Shared hosting is the cheapest, most popular and most widely available type of hosting. You’ll usually see it advertised for $9.99 or less a month.
With shared hosting a single server is divided up between multiple users. Each user will get a shared amount of bandwidth. However, each user can also put an unlimited amount of sites on their account. So the server that’s being spilt up between multiple accounts can sometimes end up hosting thousands of sites!
This means that your site could perform poorly if another site on the server is taking up too many resources. However, web hosts usually do their best to mitigate these effects.
Shared hosting can be a great choice for those with a very tight budget or for people who are planning on keeping their sites very small.
What is cloud hosting?
Cloud hosting, or cloud VPS hosting, allows you to use the resources of multiple servers, rather than having your site confined to a single server location.
This allows for unlimited expansion and is a must-have for heavy traffic sites. Cloud hosting also allows for greater protection from an overwhelmed server. If one server is overwhelmed, you’ll simply be switched to another server.
Which one should you choose?
Cloud hosting is widely seen as a better option to shared hosting because of its ability to handle large amounts of traffic, its improved security protection, and its reliability.
However, these extras do come at a cost, and most cloud hosting options are much more expensive than shared hosting plans. But if you’re planning on growing your site and you need a site with a high performance rate, then cloud hosting will probably be the best option for your needs.
That being said, if you’re just getting started and have a very small or nonexistent budget, then you could get by with a shared hosting plan until you have the cash to upgrade.