When you want to create a business website, there are a few important points to remember that play a role in how your website performs. Chief among them is Web Hosting, our topic for today.
Put simply, to create a website you need a host, a company that offers you space so you can put all website's files and be able to launch your site into the World Wide Web.
In the past, there used to be various limitations when it came to getting web hosting and many of them were imposed on business owners. Luckily, with technological advancement, this is no longer the case. In fact, now you have tons of options to consider. In addition, web hosting costs have dropped to as low as $2 a month.
However, low prices don't always mean that you'll get the best hosting services. There are eight types of web hosting, but for the purpose of this article, we'll focus on shared hosting and the Virtual Private Server (VPS).
We'll discuss the reasons you should avoid shared web hosting or at least consider upgrading away from it once your business grows.
If you already have a website then you're already using a web hosting service. If you don't, read on to learn the downsides of shared web hosting.

Why People Consider Shared Web Hosting
You're probably wondering why people might consider using a shared service. But just like carpooling or sharing a cab and splitting the fare with someone, shared web hosting comes at a very low cost.
If your website doesn't require tons of RAM or has a simple interface, maybe shared hosting is ok for you. But if you're running an e-commerce website with a shopping cart and lots of customers, then the shared option might hurt your business. Or can be a step one for you so you can upgrade to something better later.

Downsides of Shared Web Hosting
Just like with the carpooling analogy, in shared hosting, the server isn't yours alone; it's shared with other businesses. This means that their work and how much RAM they use can impact your website.
So, should you upgrade to the individual or separate web hosting? Consider these five aspects first then decide.

Website Load Time
Basically, it's the time it takes your website to load. In this fast-paced digital age, load time is a few seconds or even milliseconds. If your website takes 30 seconds to load, then it's too slow and people will leave and likely never return. No one likes to wait.
And that's not just for desktops, mobiles, laptops, and tablets have become the main sources people use to log on to the internet.
In addition, Google, whose algorithms aren't always clear, puts the website load factor at the top of its SEO ticks. If the speed of your website's load time is important for Google, it should be for you too.
While load speed comprises a number of factors, including design; you might want to spend a little on web development once to avoid future hassles.
Now, if you're using shared hosting, it's likely that others, hundreds, if not thousands of websites, are on the same server as you and are using up space, which can slow your load factor.
So, if you run a big business or if you're business is growing and generating revenue, you might want to consider upgrading from shared to VPS.
You can use websites like Pingdom to measure your site's loading speed.

Annoying Neighbors
Compounding on load times, sharing a server means you have pesky neighbours, others on the same hosting as you. And like some neighbours in your building, these like to use up all the space or load heavy content that, as a result, makes load time, disk space, and bandwidth much lower than you need.
Unfortunately, hosting companies don't announce or tell you that you're sharing with others. But basically, if you're paying anything from $2 to $10 a month, it's shared hosting.
Regardless of what your neighbours are doing, it will likely affect you, especially as your business grows and requires more CPU and RAM.

IP Reputation
Like a person's reputation, IPs to have reputations, which can be affected what other people are doing on the shared server.
Let's say other users or websites on the same server you're using are doing malicious activities or sending spam, running or using applications that aren't secure or even hosting malicious software. The result, even if you don't know these sites or people, is that your business website will be affected, and maybe even get blacklisted!
These sites don't have to be doing this malicious activity intentionally, but still, your business, which shares the same web hosting service and server, will be impacted.
According to Tony Messer, who is the CEO and Co-Founder of Pickaweb, which offers domains, web servers, and web hosting, one way to be proactive about shared web hosting and such activities should be done by the host.
They should "constantly monitor the software on a server and […] monitor outgoing emails, using a tool like SpamExperts, to monitor for known fingerprints of spam, phishing and malware related emails," he says.
Such tools will cost money but will also save you lots of hard work needed to maintain your IP Reputation and prevent your site from getting blacklisted.

Weakening Performance at Peak Times
Does your website's performance suddenly falter during peak times or when there's a strong flow of traffic, like when you have an offer or it's buying season?
Being part of a shared web hosting means the service is divided evenly among you and others on the server.
Having an e-commerce business means your customer numbers might be increased depending on offers and seasons, but with the shared hosting, you're CPU and RAM are running short on space, which makes your website slow and its performance low. This can hurt your business as customers tend to shy away from weak-performing sites, which means fewer sales for you.
With a VPS, you don't have to worry about such issues. The server is yours and you don't have to share it with others. However, this will certainly cost more than a shared web hosting service.
That said, if you're a small e-commerce business, you might consider the shared service at first, until your business expands and then you can upgrade to a VPS or other type of web hosting that gives you space and freedom you need.

Non-standard software
On not-so-rare occasions, you might want to run software that your shared web host doesn't support. If you have a shopping cart application for your e-commerce business, you might need to run the newest version of PHP, but maybe your host doesn't support this software or offers a standard or older software version.
The only way to do so would be via non-shared web hosting.

To conclude, small businesses starting out may consider shared web hosting but if you have a particular vision for your business and know you'll need advanced options and disk space, you might want to consider a non-shared service or to upgrade to one like VPS, once revenue starts coming in.
A VPS or other non-shared web hosting services will support your website at peak times and when you want to run non-standard software, avoid IP reputation and noisy neighbor issues, and ensure faster website load time.