Shared hosting is the most popular and common form of web hosting, with nearly equal benefits and drawbacks. Simply put, multiple websites exist on a single server, each under a separate partition.

The web site hosting service usually controls the entire server (though cloud-based options are making this slightly less of a certainty). Because server costs are shared by the various users of the website hosting service, web hosting prices can be kept low. This allows customers looking for cheap web hosting for casual use, but can also be appropriate for business web hosting for small or emerging organizations that may not immediately require the higher levels of independence from a shared or dedicated server option.

Maintenance and system administration is almost always included by the web hosting service.

On the other hand, this type of website hosting means that the user has little to no control. Software development, for instance, is severely limited, and space/ usage can certainly become an issue. Therefore, developing entities  should carefully consider their current and future business web hosting needs.

The simplest form is name-based web hosting, where all sites on the server share an IP address. This is a better choice for casual and non-essential website hosting, as security is generally lower than in any other web hosting option. User who require more secure or individual business web hosting may want to consider Dedicated IP hosting (IP-based virtual hosting). This gives each host a unique IP address, which allows for a higher level of security (though still potentially lower than a dedicated or VPS server).

Top Ranked and Reviewed Shared Web Hosts:

(All sites listed here have many positive reviews — not necessarily recommended, but at least worth considering. Some also have many negative reviews. People usually only post reviews if they are really satisfied or really unsatisfied, so take that with a grain of salt…

If you find a web hosting company that is not on this list, they either have mostly bad reviews, or are known to use misleading marketing. Or they’re not well-known enough to have many reviews at all. Or possibly just that I haven’t gotten around to them yet.)

  • Downtownhost — an oddity; common on the “Top 10″ website hosting lists and also generally well-regarded among reviewers. Probably a good choice.
  • Fluidhosting – a “Top 10″ website list regular with mixed reviews but flexible enough to offer cheap web hosting and professional business web hosting
  • HostingMatters — popular web site hosting service, some very happy and some very unhappy users (support a common issue).
  • Liquidweb — well-known website hosting, with the occasional very unhappy customer. Savvy marketing even co-opted the “Liquidweb sucks” results.
  • Pair Networks — not as common on the “Top 10″ web hosting lists, but seems to be a solid choice; popular and well-regarded
  • eBound Host – reviews split between good and bad, seems a solid choice for either cheap web hosting or business web hosting
  • UnitedHosting — veteran web hosting service who may have seen better days, but still a solid web hosting choice
  • Hostgator – another “Top 10″ regular, seems to have many supporters. Professional business web hosting or cheap web hosting plans.
  • HostForWeb.com — solid, some issues reported but generally high quality web hosting.
  • 247-host.com — lesser-promoted web site hosting with mixed reviews; some say support has issues, some say they’re great.