Home About Tech Watchtower Tech Watchtower Blog Archives Contact Tech Watchtower Privacy Policy

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.

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.

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 has advantages like flexibility and economies of scales. It is better for you if you have a fast growing business or if you are running multiple businesses. With shared web hosting you will have to keep adding the cost with each addition of a website. But with reseller web hosting you have to pay once for all the space rented to you. You can divide this space to set up lots of websites and can even rent the left over space to other individuals or small businesses. It is also possible to relocate the resources of your website when it starts growing. With right approach, you will find that reseller web hosting will actually be cheaper than using shared 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.

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.

About the Author:

If you’re looking for affordable web hosting, then take a look at AffordableWebHost.org for unbiased hosting reviews.