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Shared vs. Reseller Website Hosting

By Gray Rollins

Lets see what you have to consider before you plan to set up a website. You will either go for buying a web server along with its support equipments and a qualified technician to run it properly or you will pay a monthly fee to a company that runs websites to hold your website on their equipment. A big company who wants to go online can afford to spend this kind of amount but for others, it is better to go for the second option. You don't need to spend buckets full of money on setting up the required web server infrastructure. So all you need to do is rent a server space from one of the web server companies. If you think it is as simple as it sounds, read ahead.

Not really. Once you start shopping around for web hosting services, they have several different options to choose from. One of the first big decisions to make is if you want shared or reseller web hosting. But what exactly is the difference?

The main difference between the two is their scale. A shared web hosting requires you to pay for server space for only website with one domain name. If you want to set up more than one website, you will have to pay additional fee for each website. A reseller web hosting requires you to pay for a server space that can be used for more than one website. You can divide the space to host all your websites and if some space is left, you can even sell it to someone else and become a web-hosting subcontractor. Both options have plus and minus points. Lets discuss them to help you decide which one you should choose.

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.

Now some disadvantages of the free shared web-hosting sites. It is not very reliable. Imagine the site going down for some reason, you can't do anything but wait. Since you have not paid so there is no guarantee that your problem will be solved on priority. This kind of service is all right for a personal website but for someone running a business, it is not a safe option. You need a reliable support system to make sure your website is accessible 24/7/365 and solve all your technical problems without any delay. This makes paid shared web host a better choice. You will have to pay the amount depending on the size of your website as well as the traffic expected towards it. Hostgator is one such web hosting company that gives you an option of selecting one of the three packages varying from $4.95 to $12.95 per month. Another problem is that if you decide to set up another website, your expenditure will double as you will have to buy another shared web hosting plan.

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.

The second problem is that, as a web hosting subcontractor, you are now responsible for maintaining support to all the people you resold web hosting space to-except that you actually have very little power over such technical problems. Although you often have some limited administrative functionality, all you can do for serious technical problems like an internet outage is pass the information on to your web hosting provider. Once your customers realize you are essentially just a near-powerless middleman, they may lose confidence in you and switch to a different web hosting provider. It doesn't take much to ruin your brand name, and once that happens, your monthly reseller web hosting costs will rise and you lose customers to offset those monthly costs.

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