Well, I can tell you that hosting WP sites on a shared host is a big pain in the ... . When a client get's hacked, everyone on the same server (or at least same

Well, I can tell you that hosting WP sites on a shared host is a big pain in the ... . When a client get's hacked, everyone on the same server (or at least same IP) get's 'tested' for WP vuln. and hacked as well. I found 8 WP accounts hacked in a similar way, on a shared server, one after the other, with the server correctly configured. Smaller (local) shared hosting companies are good because they offer quick support and are easy to setup. Larger hosts with overcrowded servers and unlimited plans are very bad. Back to your question: shared hosting is good for small sites, local sites that don't have that much traffic (<100k uniques/month), which actually most sites are. As mentioned, smaller hosting companies will notify you if you overuse the server and recommend alternatives. Larger hosts will just block you (but that's ok, you knew what you paid for when you signed up...).