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I wrote an article about this called Shared Hosting is Bad for Business. I pointed out that shared hosting as a business model depends on the failure of it's cu

I wrote an article about this called Shared Hosting is Bad for Business. I pointed out that shared hosting as a business model depends on the failure of it's customers' websites. You can't run 1,000 high traffic websites on a single server, typically, but you can run 1,000 no-traffic websites on a single server. You see this in practice because basically every shared hosting provider will disable your account if your website starts using more than it's quota of system resources. Some providers go so far as to say their service is unlimited but obviously that's false, there are several physical limitations no matter what hardware is being utilized.

jmathai 9y ago
Don't many businesses have 'no-traffic' websites?
- overint 9y ago
  A typical local business website probably gets a few hundred hits a day, which is pretty much nothing.
  - konschubert 9y ago
    And it does not mean that the website is a failure.
Meekro 9y ago
I used to work at DreamHost, and what you're saying is not true (for us). While it's true that the shared hosting business model only works because most people buy the service and don't use it, we did not disable popular websites. I remember some customers actually getting semi-dedicated servers at no extra cost because that's what it took to keep their site online.
chx 9y ago
Your presumption of "significant traffic is the only sign of success" is laughable. Many, many real world small businesses have limited capacity bound by real world resources and they can have a booming business by a few thousand hits a day. It is exactly these small businesses that need shared hosting to keep the costs low but still be visible. In other words, if I need a carpenter in a small town, and google townname carpenter, it needs to come up but just how many orders can said carpenter take at the same time?
dimitar 9y ago
I worked for a company that provides shared hosting, and I don't agree with the "relies on failure". Shared hosting isn't for high-traffic websites - it is cheap hosting for low traffic websites, so the whole premise is wrong. Shared hosting providers also sell dedicated, VPS and cloud hosting so they have no interest of having unhappy and potentially customers on cheap plans (a huge chunk of the costs are customer support related). If you don't get a lot of traffic, then using a shared hosting is perfectly fine, at least where I worked on these servers were very well administered, and we encountered very few glitches and edge cases - shared hosting actually caused much fewer headaches to admins and gNOC than the Virtuozzo containers. Perhaps there are some bad actors in the industry, but a lot of customers are pretty happy with the cost and stability of shared hosting, so this is why it still exists.
marktangotango 9y ago
For the purpose of discussion can anyone define req per min for high, medium, low traffic web sites?

jmathai 9y ago

Don't many businesses have 'no-traffic' websites?

overint 9y ago
A typical local business website probably gets a few hundred hits a day, which is pretty much nothing.
- konschubert 9y ago
  And it does not mean that the website is a failure.

Meekro 9y ago

I used to work at DreamHost, and what you're saying is not true (for us). While it's true that the shared hosting business model only works because most people buy the service and don't use it, we did not disable popular websites. I remember some customers actually getting semi-dedicated servers at no extra cost because that's what it took to keep their site online.

chx 9y ago

Your presumption of "significant traffic is the only sign of success" is laughable. Many, many real world small businesses have limited capacity bound by real world resources and they can have a booming business by a few thousand hits a day. It is exactly these small businesses that need shared hosting to keep the costs low but still be visible. In other words, if I need a carpenter in a small town, and google townname carpenter, it needs to come up but just how many orders can said carpenter take at the same time?

dimitar 9y ago

I worked for a company that provides shared hosting, and I don't agree with the "relies on failure". Shared hosting isn't for high-traffic websites - it is cheap hosting for low traffic websites, so the whole premise is wrong. Shared hosting providers also sell dedicated, VPS and cloud hosting so they have no interest of having unhappy and potentially customers on cheap plans (a huge chunk of the costs are customer support related). If you don't get a lot of traffic, then using a shared hosting is perfectly fine, at least where I worked on these servers were very well administered, and we encountered very few glitches and edge cases - shared hosting actually caused much fewer headaches to admins and gNOC than the Virtuozzo containers. Perhaps there are some bad actors in the industry, but a lot of customers are pretty happy with the cost and stability of shared hosting, so this is why it still exists.

marktangotango 9y ago

For the purpose of discussion can anyone define req per min for high, medium, low traffic web sites?