Cloud Hosting vs. Shared Web Hosting

For many tech entrepreneurs. Your website represents your business identity. Your mobile apps and web applications are the products your business is building upon. For all these purposes, you must find a decent server for them to perform properly. There are now a plethora of server provider services to choose from, all of which, if properly chosen, may alleviate all of your website, app or web application experience.

Even if you’re a blogger who wants to write blogs on your website, you’ll need web hosting to keep it running, and you’ll have to make the decision we’re talking about here.

Cloud servers (processing or storage servers) are widely available in two forms – Cloud hosting and Shared Web Hosting. So let’s have a look at the distinctions between cloud and shared hosting. These are the two most popular hosting options. Remember that there is no one-size-fits-all solution; the best option for you is determined by the requirements of your website.

What is Cloud Hosting?

The procurement of computing resources from a cloud computing supplier or cloud service provider for the purpose of hosting websites, services, and solutions is known as cloud hosting.

Cloud hosting is a relatively new hosting that has grown in popularity in recent years. You can configure a single server to host multiple websites or applications.

Cloud hosting is not the same as traditional shared hosting many of us are used to. With cloud hosting, you get direct access to server resources on the cloud. The cloud hosting company maintains their hardware and takes care or their security and updates. You take care of everything in the virtual server.

Choosing a trusted company’s cloud hosting plan might cost as little as $5 per month, keep you up and running, give a lot of flexibility. Cloud hosting is dependable, scalable, secure, and cost-effective because of these features. Many organizations prefer it since it eliminates the need for on-site servers and saves on the infrastructure costs.

Advantages

The popularity of cloud hosting services is due to a number of causes. Following are some of the most noteworthy:

Scalable resources

Cloud hosting is the greatest alternative for increasing your assets on a need-by-need basis. In a standard shared hosting, if you run out of storage space, bandwidth, or RAM, you’ll have to upgrade your entire account to the next tier. Cloud hosting enables you to adjust resource allocation based on current demand, ensuring that your website remains operational even as traffic increases.

Multiple Locations

With cloud hosting. You get the ability to choose the location where you would like your servers to be hosted. You could choose to get servers in any of the EU countries if your website, mobile app or web application is catering to an EU audience. You could also choose to have another version of your website, mobile application or web application store data on a US based server for your audience in North America. A big network of servers ensures strong global coverage and can aid in your business growth. It’s especially useful for sites that receive a lot of traffic. A reliable cloud arrangement can handle even the most severe traffic surges without putting too much strain on your infrastructure.

Consistency of availability

Every web server is made up of mechanical components that, over time and with high use, will eventually fail. Because cloud hosting offers increased redundancy, your website’s availability will never be jeopardized. DDoS assaults and large traffic volumes will not be able to bring your service down.

Disadvantages

Still, there are several downsides to cloud services that hinder them from gaining even more popularity:

Expensive plans

Despite the fact that cloud solutions are becoming more and more economical, this sort of hosting is not for everyone. Although you are billed micro on a per-use basis. Service costs and unexpected bandwidth loads can quickly put your account in the red. To avoid unpleasant surprises at the end of the month, keep a close eye on your resource consumption at all times.

Bounded flexibility

Cloud hosting allows you to manage and optimize each and every aspect of your server. While the flexibility is there. Someone with little or no experience in managing resources may not be able to understand and optimize resources. Thereby leading to huge resource costs. This is why many people hire certified developers who are trained and experienced in managing and optimizing server resources on cloud hosting.

Privacy concerns

There has been a lot of debate over how secure cloud hosting is, especially after a series of high-profile data breaches in recent years. The truth is that as long as your data is duplicated in several locations, a single weak spot is enough for a hacker to obtain unauthorized access. When using cloud hosting options, you must take your own security precautions, such as safeguarding passwords and enabling multi-factor authentication.

What is Shared Web Hosting?

A type of web hosting in which multiple websites belonging to many accounts (people or companies) are hosted on a single physical server is known as shared hosting. A single server’s resources are shared by a big number of accounts. On shared servers, hundreds of users can be accommodated.

You usually have no idea who or what websites you’re sharing a server’s resources with. The overall quantity of server resources that each customer can utilize is normally limited, although this is determined by your hosting package.

Shared hosting is similar to sharing an apartment with others in that you have your own room, but must share resources such as power and shared rooms. The fact that you may split the expense of rent and maintenance evenly among all the inhabitants makes it cost-effective.

As a result, a server in shared web hosting is partitioned to host several accounts for various customers. Each customer is in charge of their own website, email, and database. The server resources and costs, on the other hand, are shared by all. Shared hosting is by far the most cost-effective solution for your needs. However, the low cost comes with drawbacks, which we’ll discuss further down. Because numerous hosting firms offer the same amount of space and storage, it’s critical to choose a reputable company.

Advantages

Even at first glance, there are numerous advantages to using a shared hosting service.

Easy for newcomer

The majority of our new clients have no idea how to create a website. A good shared hosting provider will give you all of the necessary tools and services, such as website builders, easy to use Cpanel, and problem resolution. Some even go so far as to offer development advice and assist with security enhancements. With shared hosting, simple onboarding is a primary goal.

Cheaper cost

Because you’re sharing system resources, you’re also sharing server costs, making this sort of hosting far more economical than others. Depending on your needs and preferences, there are plenty of terrific options ranging from $2/month to $40/month, and some providers even offer promotional rates as low as $3/month. That’s not even taking into account the free trials that allow you to try out a host before committing to a long-term contract.

Simple management

Clients frequently abandon their online project because they believe it is becoming too complicated. On a shared setup, you don’t have any server administration duties, so you can concentrate entirely on increasing your exposure. If you find content management systems too hard, you may always use a simple site creation tool to quickly and easily create a page.

Disadvantages

However, with all of the benefits, there are bound to be some risks and concerns in a shared server environment.

Slow performance

You can never be too sure if another user is taking too much and slowing down your site’s performance when you share your resources with others. Furthermore, shared servers are frequently overloaded, putting the server under constant load. This can lead to slower speeds and, in rare cases, service outages. You are never in control.

Fewer security

Because shared accounts are frequently interconnected, a hacker who compromises one user can cause damage to all of them. You can limit the harm by further foolproofing your account, but you have no control over the main server security. It’s critical to look at the setup of your possible host.

Administrative monitoring is lacking

If this isn’t your first rodeo with web hosting, you’ll naturally seek out a provider that offers greater flexibility and customization possibilities. Because shared hosting does not allow for admin root access, you can forget about having complete control. That’s understandable, given that tampering with server settings can have ramifications for all other clients on the same machine.

What’s the difference?

Naturally, the distinction is made up of the benefits and drawbacks of both hosting options, which are listed below:

Security

When you utilize shared hosting, you never know who you’ll be sharing a server with. You also have no idea what other users on their site are doing, which could cause you problems.

If one website is successfully targeted by a cyber attack, all of the other websites on the server become vulnerable. By utilizing secluded virtual instances, cloud hosting minimizes these risks for users. As a result, it is seen as a more secure option than shared hosting.

What do they cost?

For a few dollars per month, you can choose a shared hosting service that matches your needs. Due to the communal server paradigm, shared hosting is generally the cheapest and most popular hosting option for the majority of websites on the internet. To get the scalability, backup, flexibility and performance benefits that cloud hosting offers, you’ll have to pay more than you would on shared hosting.

CASE STUDY

Let us assume you run a local food delivery business for delivering food to offices nearby. You have a website that allows office goers to order food. Your business needs a server capable of handling lots of office-going users who want to order food during office hours.

On a Shared hosting service. You would need to purchase a monthly BIG, PRO, or BUSINESS plan in the vicinity of ~$30/month.

Cloud hosting companies provide pricing based on microtransactions. Keeping a very small server up and running for a whole month for 24 hrs (roughly $0.0084 an hour) would cost you roughly between $6 to $7. For your food delivery service, you would need 5 servers to handle all your website visitors. You will be paying $30 to $35 a month! Clearly, Shared hosting is around $5 cheaper than cloud hosting! – or IS IT?

This is where the magic of cloud hosting comes in – flexibility and optimization. You get most of your website traffic from 8 am in the morning till 5 pm in the evening. Office goers only order food during these times. With Cloud hosting, you could set up your servers such that you keep only 1 server running after hours. This way, you only pay for 5 servers for 9 hrs a day for 30 days a month and only 1 server for the rest of the day in the month. Based on a rough calculation. You will now pay around $17/month for all your servers! Such flexibility and optimization are possible only with Cloud hosting.

Which Performs better?

With shared hosting, you’re more likely to experience slower speeds and inferior performance. Why? Shared server hosting companies host a vast number of websites, all of which vie for the same resources. This can slow down your speed and overall performance.

Cloud hosting, on the other hand, is independent, flexible and less likely to cause speed or performance concerns for customers. The company commits you to server resources and you pay for being able to independently manage 100% of those resources at your disposal.

Conclusion

As a result, I’d say again, “Which plan is preferred depends totally on the requirements of your business requirements”.

Shared hosting may be the ideal option for you if you’re a solopreneur looking to have a web presence. Website speed or 100% availability does not really matter because you get a couple of visitors to your website a month. You are looking for the cheapest option to keep your web presence up every month. If you’re just beginning and have a limited or nonexistent budget, a shared hosting package might be a viable option until you can afford to upgrade to cloud hosting.

If you are a business that relies on technology to run your business. Cloud hosting should be your choice. You need the flexibility to maintain, manage, and be able to optimize your server usage on your own. Cloud hosting is widely regarded as a superior option to shared hosting due to its ability to handle large amounts of traffic, improved security protection, and reliability in situations where you’re running an eCommerce business or need more security. If you intend to expand your site and require a site with a high performance rate, cloud hosting will most likely be the ideal option for you.

Web servers differ from one another in many ways. They are distinct in terms of appearance, size, and function. As a result, choosing a hosting plan should be a carefully considered decision, as the plan you choose should increase the speed of your website. So, figure out what you need and pick a plan that meets them