Sunday, January 4, 2009

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?

If you think it is simple, just go through the number of options available for you to choose from. Before you actually decide the company, you have to decide if you want to go for a shared or a reseller web hosting service. Read on to find out the difference between the two.

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.

The main advantages of shared web hosting is that it is simple, cheap, and efficient on a small scale. For a personal or small business website, this is all you will need. You get one website and one domain name, often with the option to set up sub-domains for the different parts of your website. First, you are not only renting space on their web server equipment, you were renting their support. It is the responsibility of your web hosting provider to keep your website constantly accessible and running smoothly, and provide you with any technical support you might need-making this one less issue, you have to worry about when running your own business. Second, shared web hosting is five to twenty times cheaper than reseller web hosting, with prices ranging as low as $5 per month, or 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.

Reseller web hosting is more flexible and has a major advantage of economies of scale. If your business is expanding or you are running multiple businesses then you will have you pay a lot for renting multiple shared web hosting every month. But if you choose reseller web hosting, you will be able to set up as many websites as you require.. Even after they grow, you can relocate the resources among them. You can also utilise the left over space by renting it to other small businesses or individuals. With proper planning, you will realize that the reseller web hosting will prove to be cheaper that shred web hosting on a large scale.

Reseller web hosting also has some drawbacks. It is more expensive. The Hostgator shared web hosting is available between $5 and $15 per month but for their reseller packages, you will have to spend around $25 to $100 per month as per the size and traffic or your website. You can do make up these costs if you sell the leftover space to others but you cant be too sure of getting a customer for that. It is not necessary that you will find a suitable customer. Even if you don't use the entire space, you will have to pay for it too.

Let's discuss the second problem with reseller web hosting. As a subcontractor, you will be asked to provide support to your customers too. If the people whom you have sold your unused space face some technical problem, what will you do? You can solve their administrative problems to a certain extent but you will be helpless in other problems. Only your web-hosting provider can help you with solving technical problems like Internet outage etc. If this is the case your customers will not rely on you and when they are not satisfied by your services, they might shift to other service providers. This can make things difficult for you as you may lose your reputation and also your clients. This will increase your monthly expenditure and upset your budget too. - 14915

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