Why is Web Hosting so Cheap Today?
Web hosting is a thriving industry that plays a large role in powering the internet phenomenon. Hosting packages are priced so low that almost anyone can afford to create a website, be it for personal or business matters. In the old days, registering a domain name was rather costly, and the price of web hosting was out of reach for most consumers. So, what changed? Why is web hosting incredibly cheap these days? It all boils down to three factors: shared servers, open-source technologies and good old competition.
Shared Web Hosting
Shared hosting makes up the most popular and affordable type of web hosting. In fact, well over half the sites you will find on the web are powered by shared hosting. With this type of arrangement, the web hosting company places the websites of its customers on a single server. They allocate customers a certain amount of disk space and require them to share resources such as bandwidth, RAM and CPU. Because a shared server may contain the sites of hundreds to thousands of users, the web hosting provider is able to save tremendously, thus allowing them to offer a cheaper service. Companies use various techniques and technologies such as load balancing that enables a shared server to run efficiently, helping customers maintain their websites at a fraction of the cost.
Open-Source
Today’s web hosting market is powered by a number of open-source technologies. Open-source programs are generally either free or very inexpensive in comparison to commercial products. Some of the most highly sought after features fall under this category. When searching for a web host, you will surely encounter a variety of open-source offerings from applications like osCommerce and CubeCart to server-side programming languages such as PHP and Perl. Because web hosting companies such as BlueHost and HostMonster get their hands on these technologies for next nothing, they are able to attract customers with powerful packages without making a large investment. Almost every web host on the market either offers open-source products or at least supports them.
Competition
Web hosting is one of the most highly competitive markets in existence. There are literally thousands of companies out there; some specialize in shared and reseller hosting, some deal in VPS and dedicated servers while others have it all. In order to stay alive and prevent customers from leaving for the competition, web hosts must keep their hosting packages reasonably priced. Look around and you will find that the cost for shared, reseller, VPS and dedicated server plans are basically priced in the same ballpark. The fact that web hosting is such a competitive arena equals good news for customers throughout the world.
These are just a couple of factors that make web hosting affordable. While prices seem to be going up on everything else in life, web hosting packages continue to get cheaper. Going out to dinner or a movie might be out of the question these days but at least you don’t have to go broke on a website.
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