Shared hosting explained
Shared hosting is the "apartment building" of the web: one physical server, hundreds of tenants, shared plumbing. It's how most sites on the internet get online — and where most people also get stung by hidden limits.
How shared hosting actually works
Your host takes one server — often 32–64 CPU cores and hundreds of gigs of RAM — and slices it into user accounts managed by a control panel like cPanel or DirectAdmin. Every account shares the same web server (Apache, LiteSpeed, or Nginx), the same PHP pool, the same MySQL instance, and the same IP address.
That's why it's cheap: the cost of the hardware, the OS licence, the data-centre space and the sysadmin's salary is split hundreds of ways. It's also why "unlimited" plans exist — the host is betting most tenants use very little.
Who shared hosting is for
- Brochure sites, portfolios and small business landing pages.
- A WordPress or Ghost blog doing under ~50k monthly pageviews.
- A small store on WooCommerce, Prestashop or similar with a modest catalogue.
- Staging or client demo sites you don't want to run on your dev machine.
The limits nobody puts on the sales page
"Unlimited" almost always means "unlimited within our acceptable use policy." The real limits usually live one click away:
- • Inodes (individual files) — often capped at 100k–500k. WordPress plus a plugin-heavy site can eat this fast.
- • CPU seconds / EP (entry processes) — how many PHP workers can run at once. Traffic spikes hit this before bandwidth.
- • RAM per process — commonly 512MB–1GB. Import a big database and it dies.
- • MySQL connections — 15–30 concurrent is typical. Chatty plugins burn through them.
- • Email accounts and outbound mail per hour — often 500/hour, which sounds fine until a contact form gets scraped.
The signs you've outgrown shared
- • Your host emails about "resource abuse" more than once a quarter.
- • Admin pages take 3+ seconds even when traffic is quiet.
- • You've been told to "optimise your site" instead of getting more resources.
- • You need SSH access, cron beyond every 15 minutes, or a custom PHP module.
What to look for when buying
- 1. NVMe storage, not "SSD" without qualifier.
- 2. LiteSpeed or LSCache if you run WordPress — dramatically faster than plain Apache on cheap hardware.
- 3. Free SSL via Let's Encrypt, one-click install.
- 4. Daily off-site backups included, with self-serve restore.
- 5. Free migration from your current host.
- 6. PHP version choice — 8.2 or newer, switchable per site.
- 7. A real renewal price you can live with, not just the intro rate.
Frequently asked questions
How much traffic can a shared hosting plan really handle?
As a rough rule, a well-built WordPress site on a decent shared plan handles 20k–50k monthly pageviews before the host starts throttling PHP workers. Cached static pages scale much further; logged-in traffic (WooCommerce carts, member areas) hits limits faster.
Is shared hosting safe for a business site?
Yes, for brochure sites, blogs and small stores. Reputable hosts isolate accounts with CloudLinux or containerisation, run per-account firewalls, and take daily backups. The main risk isn't neighbours — it's outgrowing plan limits during a traffic spike.
What's the difference between shared hosting and WordPress hosting?
Generic shared hosting runs WordPress fine but doesn't optimise for it. Managed WordPress hosting adds server-level caching (LSCache, Varnish), object cache (Redis), staging, automatic core/plugin updates and WordPress-aware support. Expect 3–5× the price.
When should I upgrade from shared hosting to a VPS?
When you hit CPU or entry-process limits regularly, need SSH or a custom cron, run non-PHP stacks (Node, Python, Docker), or need a dedicated IP. If pages are only slow because of a bloated theme or too many plugins, a VPS won't help.
Why is the renewal price so much higher than the intro price?
Shared hosts front-load discounts to win sign-ups. A $2.99/mo intro often renews at $10–$15/mo. Always check the renewal price on the checkout page, and prefer hosts that let you lock in longer terms at the intro rate.
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