Pros and Cons of Entry-level Web Hosting Solutions for Beginners

Entry-level hosting is easy to set up and maintain, but users have limited resources and face security risks and performance issues.

When considering web hosting as a beginner, the option of free hosting has probably sprung to mind. Users create and upload website files without paying for server space. The limitations of this option include restricted bandwidth and storage space and limited technical support.

Free web hosting providers generate income by displaying ads on websites or offering premium services for a fee. The ads might not align with your website’s goals, or you might simply find them annoying to look at. You also might not appreciate being constantly prompted to upgrade your free plan to a premium one, which will no longer be free.

A Step up: Shared Hosting

The next step up from free hosting is shared hosting. It’s still quite affordable, but there are no pesky ads to deal with. Experts predict that this hosting market will increase by 15% a year to $72.2 billion by 2026.

A typical shared plan only costs a few dollars a month. Every user gets a percentage of the CPU and RAM, a single MYSQL server, a mail server, and an Apache server. It is a viable option for small websites or blogs that do not need complicated technical configurations or high bandwidth. Reliable hosting companies can handle up to 100,000 website visitors a month.

Easy to Set Up and Maintain

This type of entry-level hosting is better than VPS hosting for beginners in web development. You don’t need technical knowledge to get started, which normally involves buying a plan and connecting the hosting package to the domain name. The built-in control panels make entry-level hosting easy to maintain. They include cPanel, Plesk, CWP, BlueOnyx, etc.

Entry-level hosting providers handle server restarts, connection management, and other basic server administration tasks. If your website traffic grows, you might need to scale up, so it would be reasonable to inquire into the possibilities of upgrades ahead of time, including the cost and complexity of this process.

The support might be too general or even unavailable. Support teams help with website migration, fix hardware-related server problems, address server configuration, and advise users on performance issues. They provide technical support via live chat, email, tickets, phone, or through a knowledge base or FAQ section. Some types of support, like email, live chat, and phone, are available 24/7 on some entry-level hosting platforms but not at all on others.

Beginners might need more help in the initial stages of setting up and managing a website.

Entry-level hosting support focuses on general issues, and providers might not offer deeper-level support.

Limited Resources

Internet data consumption is increasing worldwide, which continues to drive bandwidth demand. Between 2017 and 2022, bandwidth consumption increased by 33% globally, and the increase per user was 22%. Since multiple websites are connected to a shared server, users face insufficient resources, including bandwidth, CPU, and RAM. Inexperienced users will struggle with declining performance and slow loading speeds.

Security Risks

Security risk is another downside of entry-level hosting. It isn’t to be overlooked, with 90% of organizations predicted to suffer a data security breach by 2025. Websites on a shared server are vulnerable to DoS attacks, which affect all sites because they share an IP address. Users might be unable to mitigate such attacks due to the lack of customization.

Beginners can find more advanced security protocols challenging to implement because they have no access to server configurations.

Performance Issues

Entry-level hosting providers limit customization to protect the server. Users don’t have access to the backend and can only leverage the tools provided. The limited bandwidth and widely distributed resources cause performance issues. When the server is overwhelmed, you might experience slow loading times, downtime, and server errors.

You can improve website load time by enabling GZIP compression, reducing plugins, using caching, a lightweight theme, and a CDN, and optimizing images. However, this is likely to prove challenging for a beginner.

Recap

• Entry-level hosting is an affordable, viable option for small websites
• Control panels make it easy to maintain
• Shared hosting support can be too general
• Users face insufficient bandwidth, CPU, and RAM
• Websites on a shared server are vulnerable to DoS attacks

About Author