Shared hosts are a great way to get started on the web whether you want to make a blog, start a forum, or you want to start developing your own applications, and did I mention shared hosting can be really cheap? That low monthly bill doesn’t come without a price, and no, I’m not talking about dollars and cents here, I’m talking about service. There is a huge trade off  when getting such a service so cheaply. I see a lot of people who rely on these shared hosts for their businesses, client websites, and a lot of mission critical applications and it is just a flat out bad idea.

When not to choose a shared host:

• If you rely heavily on email
• If speed and reliability is important
• If you expect your data to be backed up
• If you expect tech support to know what they are talking about
• If your online business is important to you

If these sort of things are really matter to you then spending the extra 10-20$ a month for a reliable VPS. It may not have all the bells and whistles, but you get a lot more in return. It may not have all the bells and whistles a shared has offers with unlimited bandwidth and a billion other things, but if you are at the point to where one or more items in the above list affects you then than going this route should be worth it.

As for myself, I am sort of an uptime freak and obsessed with the health of my machines so I dont really mind spending a little extra money to fulfill these obsessions of mine. Even with that being said, there are still appropriate times when using a shared host makes the most sense.

• You want to start a blog/forum/photo album/etc
• You want to learn new web technologies (shared hosts are great to mess around with code)
• Cheap and great way to get started on the web
• If you want email with your domain

Both solutions have their pros and cons, I suggest looking at your needs and expectations and choose which way to go is right for you.

 

Photo credit: JohnSeb