Web hosting is the service of keeping your site's files, images and database on a server that is permanently connected to the internet. Shared hosting is the most common and most affordable type of hosting: the resources of one server (processor, memory, disk) are split among many websites. It is usually enough for corporate brochure sites and small businesses, and it starts to fall short when traffic, data processing or custom software needs grow.
In short
- Hosting is the server space that keeps your site available 24/7. It is a separate service from your domain name.
- With shared hosting, many customers share one server; each account has limits on things like processor, memory and number of files.
- It generally suits small and mid-sized corporate sites, blogs and brochure sites.
- Slowdowns, "resource limit reached" warnings or a need for custom software are signals to move to a stronger infrastructure.
- When choosing a plan, look at resource limits, backups and support rather than disk size.
What is web hosting?
A website is really a set of files sitting on a computer, and usually a database too. That computer has to be on at all times, connected to the internet over a fast link, and secure. Instead of doing this in your own office, you rent space in data centers built for the job. That is hosting.
Hosting and a domain name are different services:
- The domain name is your site's address. For details, see our post What is a domain name?
- Hosting is where the site lives.
- DNS connects the two. Your domain's DNS records point to the IP address of your hosting server. We cover this in What is DNS?
A hosting plan usually includes disk space, databases, email accounts, a control panel (such as cPanel, Plesk or DirectAdmin) and, in many cases, an SSL certificate.
Types of hosting
Hosting is not a single product but a spectrum. Roughly speaking, the types differ in how much the resources are shared:
| Type | Resources | Management | Who is it for? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shared hosting | The server is shared with many customers | Server management is handled by the provider | Corporate brochure sites, blogs, small businesses |
| Managed WordPress hosting | Usually shared or virtual infrastructure, tuned for WordPress | Updates, caching and backups largely handled by the provider | People with a WordPress site who don't want to deal with technical work |
| Virtual private server (VPS) | A portion of a physical server is reserved for you | Often you or your technical team | Sites with growing traffic, custom software |
| Dedicated server | The whole machine is yours | Entirely you | High traffic, specific security and performance requirements |
| Cloud infrastructure | Resources that can scale up and down as needed | Depends on the service | Variable load, applications that need to scale |
This post focuses on shared hosting. We will cover the differences between server types in detail in upcoming posts in this series.
How does shared hosting work?
With shared hosting, one powerful server is divided into many customer accounts. Each account has its own files and database, but it shares the same processor, memory and disk with the other accounts.
An apartment building is a helpful comparison. Each apartment has its own door, but the water tank and the elevator are shared. If one apartment uses a lot of water, the pressure can drop for everyone else. That is why the building management gives each apartment a quota.
Hosting companies do the same. For example, the LVE technology in CloudLinux, an operating system widely used on shared hosting servers, defines limits like these for each account:
- CPU limit: The processing power your account can use.
- Memory (RAM) limit: The physical memory that can be used at the same time.
- Disk read/write (IO / IOPS) limit: The speed and number of disk accesses.
- Entry processes limit: The number of processes, such as PHP requests or cron jobs, that can run at the same time.
- File count (inode) limit: The total number of files and folders your account can contain.
The goal is to stop a single site from slowing down the whole server. When your site hits these limits, visitors see error pages or the site slows down.
Who is shared hosting right for?
Shared hosting is generally a sensible starting point in these cases:
- Corporate brochure sites: Sites that present your services, references and contact details and are updated a few times a month.
- Small business sites: Businesses that serve a local area and win customers through quote and contact forms.
- Blogs and content sites: Well-cached sites with a reasonable level of traffic.
- New projects: Ventures starting on a small budget, where it is not yet clear how much traffic will come.
What these sites have in common is that most pages show the same content to everyone and can easily be sped up with caching.
When is shared hosting not enough?
If you see these signs, it may be time to consider moving up a level:
- Resource limit warnings: Your panel often shows that the CPU, memory or entry process limit has been reached.
- Slowdowns at peak times: The site slows down noticeably or returns errors during campaigns or announcements.
- Personalized content: Features that show a different page to each user, such as member logins, shopping carts or customer portals, benefit less from caching and put more load on the server.
- Custom software requirements: Your application needs a specific software version, a service that runs continuously in the background, or server-specific configuration.
- The neighbor effect: Problems with another site on the same server also affect yours. Technologies like LVE reduce this risk but do not remove it entirely.
Not every slowdown calls for a hosting upgrade. Large, uncompressed images, a high number of plugins or caching that is turned off are also common causes of slowness. Checking these before changing plans helps you avoid unnecessary costs.
What to look for when choosing a hosting plan
- Resource limits: Instead of phrases like "unlimited disk," ask about the CPU, memory and entry process limits.
- Server location: If most of your visitors are in Turkey, a data center close to Turkey reduces latency.
- Backups: How often are backups taken, how many days are they kept, and can you restore them yourself?
- SSL: Is there support for free certificates with automatic renewal?
- Software versions: Can you choose the PHP and database versions your site needs?
- Email: Will you keep your business email on the same plan, or use a separate email service?
- Support: When something goes wrong, whom can you reach, through which channel and how quickly?
- Portability: Can you download a full backup of your site and move it to another provider?
Prices vary a lot by provider, period and promotion, so we don't quote figures here. When comparing, look not only at the first-year price but also at the renewal price.
Our experience
Most of the corporate websites we build run on WordPress, and for these sites we choose the hosting together with our client at the start of the project. We recommend an infrastructure based on the site's content structure, the expected traffic and dynamic sections such as forms and e-commerce. We prefer the hosting account to be opened in our client's name, with the access details staying with the client. Before going live, we check that backups work and that SSL renews automatically.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to buy hosting and my domain name from the same company?
No. They are separate services, connected through DNS settings. Buying both from the same company can make management easier. Buying them from different companies lets you replace just one of them if you are not happy with it.
Are "unlimited" hosting plans really unlimited?
Even when disk space or traffic is sold as "unlimited," resources such as CPU, memory and file count are always limited on shared servers. Read the "fair use" clauses and the technical limits in the plan's terms.
Is shared hosting enough for my WordPress site?
For a brochure-style WordPress site with a properly configured caching plugin, it is enough in most cases. If you have a store, memberships or heavy traffic, you may need to choose the resource limits carefully or move to a virtual server.
Will my site go down if I change hosting companies?
If the move is planned, downtime can be kept very short. The site is copied to the new server and tested, and then the DNS records are updated to point to the new server. Don't forget to move the email records as well.
Conclusion
Shared hosting is an affordable and adequate starting point for most corporate sites. What matters is knowing your plan's resource limits, securing the basics such as backups and SSL, and watching for signs that your site is outgrowing it. In our web design and WordPress development projects, we plan the infrastructure together based on what the site needs. If you would like us to review the hosting setup of your current site, get in touch.
Sources3
- CloudLinux Documentation — Limits (LVE: SPEED, PMEM, IO, IOPS, EP, NPROC, inodes) — accessed: 2026-10 docs.cloudlinux.com
- NIST SP 800-145 — The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing (definition of cloud and service models) — accessed: 2026-10 csrc.nist.gov
- IETF RFC 1034 — Domain Names: Concepts and Facilities (relationship between domain names and DNS) — accessed: 2026-10 rfc-editor.org
