Shared vs. Reseller Website Hosting

By Gray Rollins

So, you want to set up a website. Your first decision is to chose between buying a web server and all the supporting equipment along with a network technician to run it for you, or to find a company whose business is to run websites and pay them a monthly fee to host your website on their equipment. This question, at least is a no-brainer: unless you are a big company going online for the first time (almost unheard of these days), you can't afford the capital investment to set up your own web server infrastructure. So you chose to rent server space from a web hosting company. Simple, right?

When you start looking for web hosting services, the number of options available will surprise you. The very first thing that you have to decide is to choose between the shared and the reseller web hosting. Do you know the difference?

Well to say it simply, it is the scale that makes them different. For a shared web hosting, a server space is rented for one website with one domain name. You have to pay separately for all other websites that you may need to set up. For reseller web hosting, a big web hosting server space is rented that is later divided into smaller spaces to set up more websites. This also makes it possible for the user to sell the non-required space to others for setting their websites. This way you become a website hosting subcontractor. If you are not sure which is the right one for you, here are some advantages and disadvantages of both.

If you want to use this facility for personal or small business, then you should opt for shared web hosting. It also turns out to be cheaper, efficient and simple for a small-scale requirement. You will get one domain name for one website and you can set up sub-domains for the different parts of this website in most cases. The main advantage of shared web hosting is that you get the support along with the web space that you are paying for. Your web hosting provider makes sure that your website is easily accessible and faces no problems. If you need any technical support at any time, they will be there to take care of that. So, one of your major problems is tackled without you putting any effort. Another advantage is that it is around five to twenty times less costly than the reseller web hosting with the rent of $5 or sometimes even free.

The free web hosting is not the right option if you are running your business on your website. Since they don't charge you anything so you cant expect to get their support when some problem occurs. If their site goes down, your business goes down as well because you cant be sure when their site will become all right. You can't rely on them but if you go for a paid shared web host then this problem is solved. The amount you have to pay them is decided by the size of your website and the expected traffic to that site. They will make sure that you get their support 24/7 throughout the year if you face any technical problem. You can use the services of a web hosting company Hotgator and use one of the three packages (varying from $4.95 to $12.95) offered by them. Don't forget that you will have to buy another shared web hosting plan and therefore spending double amount if you decide you set up another website.

The main advantages of reseller web hosting is flexibility and economies of scale. If you are running a fast-growing company, or are an entrepreneur running multiple businesses, then the cost of multiple shared web hosting every month can quickly add up. With reseller web hosting, you can set up as many websites as you need, and reallocate resources among them as they grow over time. Of course, you can rent out or resell and left over space to other individuals or small businesses to run their websites. If you juggle the finances well, reseller web hosting can be much cheap on a large scale than shared web hosting.

The main disadvantage of reseller web hosting is its cost. You can get the Hostgator shared web hosting package at the cost of $5 to $13 per month but the reseller web hosting package will cost you $25 to $100 for each month depending on your website's size and traffic. You can reduce this expenditure if you sell the unused space to someone else but then there is no surety that you fill find someone to but it. You may not find a customer when you want one. It is possible that in some months you will have to pay for all the space even when you don't use all of it.

Another problem is that when you sell the free space to someone, you have to provide him support whenever there is a problem. Since you yourself have no control over such technical problems, it becomes a major problem. You can provide some kind of administrative help but problems like an Internet outage will not get solved by you without the help of your web-hosting provider. When you are unable to help them, you will end up losing not only the confidence of your customers but the customers too. They will shift to other web-hosting provider and you will ruin your name in the business. This will have adverse effect on the financial conditions of your business.

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