Shared web hosting basically refers to a kind of web host wherein you will be sharing one server with other websites. It is actually the most popular choice for website owners because it is cheap and easy to use. One server alone could have hundreds of small websites sharing its space and resources. Since you’ll be sharing the cost with other people, it becomes much more affordable when compared to getting a dedicated web host. For smaller businesses and personal website owners, a shared web host is the top choice. After all, they wouldn’t require as much space or resources to run their relatively smaller websites.

Besides having a more affordable price tag it is also great for beginners who might not know much about website hosting. Basically, it does not require you to know anything about the specifics of administrating and managing a server because all of that falls onto the shoulder of your provider. It is their responsibility to make sure that the server is running well and it is also their duty to fix any glitches or bugs that the server might have. All you really need to worry about is your own website. You can leave the technical side to the experts working for the web host company. Now, all of these might sound good and well but as with most things, there are also disadvantages to using a shared web host. The first you’ll have limited resources and would have to pay extra if you wish to expand further. Because you’re sharing the space with other websites, your web host is bound to place limitations regarding the available amount of disk space, email addresses, data transfers and domains that you can have. Some even impose restrictions on running scripts as these can reduce the performance for everyone on that particular server.

Second, you might become the victim of a selfish neighbor. There are instances wherein a website on a particular server has been marked by search engines as banned and it affected every other site on said server. This isn’t anything new and it does happen so if you end up with a black sheep in your flock, your website might end up getting negative effects from it too. To avoid the above mentioned, it is important that you choose a reliable web host. There are many options out there that could provide you with stability and security without burning a hole straight through your pocket. All it takes is a bit of research and a lot of reading in order to find the best one based upon the testimonials provided by people who have used the services before.

First of all, in order to know if cheap website hosting is what will work for you, you need to know if the disk space being given to you is adequate or not. For that you need to know the size of your website, if it has multiple pages, if you want to upload video files and music files. Is the bandwidth being provided by your cheap website hosting service is adequate to handle the kind of traffic your website attracts? If your website has a lot of traffic, then you may need to consider getting the services of a web host that is not cheap.

Another important factor to consider is if you need many email aliases. Cheap website hosts may have limitations of the amount of email accounts you need. Moreover cheap website hosting services may not be able to provide you with technical support that is top notch. Once you have checked out your needs, then you can make your choice.

There are many articles freely available online which tell you about the leading cheap web site hosting services. There are lists and then there are consumer reviews. Read the articles and also check the prices. The web host companies are listed as per their price, the service they provide and also the technical support they offer. The price varies; it can be anything between $4.90 and $19.90 per month. Cheap web hosting prices vary as per the facilities they provide. The disk space, the bandwidth, free set up etc.

There are many cheap website hosting services that offer unlimited space or unlimited band width. Beware of these schemes, as there is no such thing as “unlimited”. Most of these services have a catch. Do not fall prey to this marketing gimmick.

The top 10 cheap website hosting companies are: Fatcow, Pro Logic Hosting, Blue Host, Power Hosting, Pages Garden, Easy CGI, Yahoo Hosting, Gigabyte Package, Lunar Pages, iPower Web, and Dot5 Web Hosting. These companies offer cheap web hosting services. However, not all of them may meet your web hosting needs. You will need to read their packages, read customer testimonials, evaluate the services against what you require and then sign up with them.

Of course there are many companies that offer free web hosting services. You can research the free web hosting services too, although I don’t recommend free hosting services. Most free web hosting services come with strings attached.