Every website is entirely new to the Web at some point. More often than not behind that site is going to be a business owner or the company’s marketing department manager or someone similar who’s taken care of everything required to have the site ready to go up on the Information Superhighway. It’s a necessary move nowadays and primarily because customers of any sort are going to find their providers, retailers, etc. through an online search upwards of 90% of the time. If your business isn’t online then you’re going to be at a serious disadvantage because of that reason. For most small business websites it’s going to be that shared web hosting is just fine for their needs, and this leads us to Linux shared hosting Canada.
Linux is the world’s most ubiquitous open-source OS for web development, and it serves to make up the framework of most of the websites that are being hosted the whole world over. It’s for this reason that most web hosting providers in Canada will put the bulk of their investment into Linux server infrastructure, as it’s going to best meets the needs of most websites. Most people who reach out to folks like us and ask about web hosting for small businesses in Canada are going to be pointed in this direction. The only real common exception to this will be WordPress web hosting for WordPress websites, and they’re also fairly numerous out there too.
So it becomes a very common scenario for small business owners who are now in possession of a website to be directed towards Linux web hosting, and it’s definitely the most cost-effective way to have your website hosted if you can be sure that your site is going to continue to have very basic needs moving forward. There’s a lot to what might be meant by that, but to keep it simple it’s the suggestion that the website will be suitably small in scope and not likely to see large numbers of visitors arriving at the same time. The term for that is ‘traffic spikes’ and if that’s a possibility for any business website then it is better to go with VPS hosting.
We’ll go ahead and assume that’s not part of what any of you are foreseeing for your website if you’re reading this. So we’ll move along with the subject of our blog entry this week - a guide to understanding Linux shared hosting in Canada and one that has the aim of making more people aware of why exactly it is the usually the best fit for an standard website. And doubly so if you are a small business owner who needs to be mindful of their operating budget and looking for the most affordable web hosting. We are going to have that for you here at 4GoodHosting and our Linux web servers are as solid as any you’ll find anywhere.
That applies to Canadian web hosting of any type, but we’ll refrain from any promotional discussion here and instead let’s get right into our beginner’s guide to Linux web hosting.
Spread Around
Not all web hosting is the same, and shared hosting is where multiple websites are located on the same physical server but with each site having its own space and resources within the server. All the sites found on that server will be sharing the same CPU, memory, disk space, and bandwidth. Partitioning of disk space is what makes this possible and is a central part of what makes Linux shared hosting Canada work. This involves the servers’ capacity being divided into smaller accounts that are then leased to customers. Each account gets a control panel and its own section of the server, but the entirety of the server is made available to all the websites being hosted there in equal partitioned amounts. Another primary aspect of shared hosting is that it is managed entirely by the hosting provider, and this includes maintenance, updates, software installations, and whatever is required to keep the server secure.
What makes it most affordable for web hosting for small businesses Canada is resource sharing. A single server is configured to host multiple websites, and while all of them operate independently they continue to be managed within a shared infrastructure. Choose to go with a shared hosting plan and you will be assigned a certain amount of server space, plus predefined limits on data transfer, memory usage, and processing power. Server requests for your site coming from visitors wishing to view it will be handled by a web server (usually Apache, NGINX, or LiteSpeed) with server-level software that works in unison with the servers as they are isolated from one another in terms of file storage and management.
The limits on resource usage is at the root of the primary drawback to shared web hosting. It’s very possible that a site may exceed its allocated quota whether through a traffic spike or inefficient scripts. In these scenarios the hosting provider may throttle its performance or temporarily suspend the site so that other sites on the same server are not negatively affected.
Shared Hosting Key Features
The appeal for shared hosting plans is that they will always come with features that are especially good for new users and small website owners. These features are designed to provide an all-in-one solution for hosting, management, and basic security. One of the most important features here with 4GoodHosting is the user’s cPanel controls, through which users can manage everything from installing WordPress to setting up email accounts or accessing file managers. Automated script installation is a big plus too, especially when your bird’s too fat
Another vital component of shared hosting is automated script installation, and with our hosting here you have Softaculous which provides you with one-click installation of popular applications such as WordPress, Joomla, Magento, and more. All Canadian web hosting providers will also focus on security with their shared hosting and include features like basic DDoS protection, malware scanning, firewalls, and automatic updates.
You’ll often find these offerings made available to customers too:
- SSL certificates for encrypting site data
- Email hosting + support for custom domain addresses
- Regularly scheduled website backups
- Unlimited subdomains and FTP accounts
- 24/7 customer support
- Resource monitoring and usage stats
Linux shared hosting Canada provides a wide range of benefits that generally make this hosting option the best choice for beginners and budget-conscious users with a continued focus on affordability, ease of use, and low technical overhead. Affordability is the main priority for most here and what’s always going to be central to that with shared hosting is the way that the cost of maintaining a server is split among many users.
Equally important though is the way that hosting providers handle the heavy lifting when it comes to server management, taking on everything from operating system updates and security patches to server performance optimization. Other big advantages are found in quick deployment and the availability of free add-ons. With quick deployment via a shared hosting plan it’s possible for your small business website to go live in minutes. Many providers offer free website builders and one-click installation tools that help people create and launch their website with very little required of them.
Best Fits For Shared Hosting
Individuals and organizations with simple websites and moderate traffic tend to be the best fits for shared hosting. Examples of this can be small businesses and local shops where these folks need to be online to be visible to customers but the scope of what they’re doing on the web doesn’t go much further than that and the flow of their business tends to be steady. Another example could be personal bloggers and creatives and for those with a personal blog or a website that serves as a display resource or online storefront for their art it’s often the case that Linux shared hosting in Canada is all they’ll really need..
It may also be a good fit for startups and entrepreneurs, and especially those launching proof-of-concept websites or MVPs (Minimum Viable Products). This is because business owners can test ideas before committing to a more expensive hosting plan.
We’ll conclude this blog entry and look at web hosting for small businesses Canada options by sharing specifics as to what you should be looking for when evaluating a web hosting provider and their shared webs hosting plans. The first thing will be a website uptime guarantee, and the industry standard is the you should have a 99+% uptime guarantee from them. It’s very doable and it is very much the industry standard.
- Speed and performance : Go with a host that uses SSD storage, optimized web servers (like LiteSpeed), and CDN integration
- Security features : The best plans will have SSL certs, malware scanning, firewall protection, and DDoS mitigation available to customers
- Support quality : 24/7 support with live chat and a database of knowledge that is made readily available to customers
- Bundled features like domain registration, email hosting, backups, and staging environments
Last but not least here is that you should be able to upgrade easily to VPS or cloud web hosting if your business grows to the point that you have much higher inflows of traffic into your website and / or you start to add more dynamic multimedia content to it.
