Introduction
As a website owner, you should be constantly assessing your situation and determining whether or not it’s time to move on from shared hosting. Shared hosting is great for getting started, but if you want more freedom, power, and control over your site, you might need a dedicated server. Here are some signs that indicate it might be time to make the jump:
Signs That You’ve Outgrown Shared Hosting
If you are using a shared hosting package, you’re likely to experience some slow-downs. The problem is that the server is busy and is being accessed by multiple users at once. This means that when someone makes a request for information from their site, it will take longer than it would if there were fewer people accessing the server.
The solution to this problem is simple: you need a more powerful server! At Fusion Arc Hosting we offer various options for individuals looking for better performance on their web sites or blogs.
1. Your site is loading much slower than it used to.
If your site is loading much slower than it used to, this may be a sign that you’re outgrowing shared hosting. While the technical term for this phenomenon is “time to first byte,” it simply means that more time passes between when a user clicks on your website link and when they see anything load in their browser window than it used to.
A slow-loading site can negatively affect your business; not only does a slow-loading site frustrate visitors, but Google also weighs page speed heavily in its ranking algorithm (see Google’s PageSpeed Insights). If your page loads too slowly on mobile devices, users will abandon using your site altogether and go elsewhere–and if they go elsewhere often enough, they’ll eventually forget about coming back!
To avoid these problems while still maintaining affordable pricing plans for shared hosting packages, try our VPS or dedicated server plans instead
2. Your site isn’t available as often as it used to be.
When you first sign up for shared hosting, your site will probably have a few downtime issues. However, after a while—usually as the result of increased traffic—it’s likely that your website will experience more frequent outages. If this happens to you and the problem doesn’t resolve itself quickly, it might be time to switch to another hosting provider or upgrade your current plan.
3. You are unable to display large files on your website because of bandwidth limitations.
If your website is unable to display large files and you are unable to upload them, this is a sign that you have reached the capacity of your shared hosting plan. To find out the maximum file size that can be uploaded on your shared hosting plan, contact your host and ask them for more information.
4. You can’t make changes to the server yourself.
When you’re using shared hosting, there are going to be certain limitations. You won’t have access to the server itself, so if you want to make changes or add new features, you have to request them from your host. This can be a real problem if your site grows in unexpected ways and needs a lot of customizations that aren’t within the scope of what they offer. When this happens, it might be time for you to move on up the ladder and get a VPS or even dedicated hosting plan (depending on how much traffic your site gets).
5. You find yourself repeatedly waiting for your host’s support team to get back to you with answers and solutions.
If you find yourself repeatedly waiting for your host’s support team to get back to you with answers and solutions, then it may be time to move on!
It can be frustrating when your shared hosting provider doesn’t have the resources or expertise to help with a problem. If this happens too often, it could mean that they are not equipped to handle the demands of the business level customer who is now on their platform.
If one or more of these warning signs is happening, it might be time to move on from shared hosting.
If you’re running a website that’s getting more than 50,000 unique visitors a month and/or using more than 100 GB of storage space each month, it may be time to move on from shared hosting. Shared hosting can handle these kinds of sites in the short term, but if you want to grow your site into something even bigger over time (and make sure that it stays up and running), then you’ll want a better solution.
A VPS (virtual private server) or dedicated server would be an ideal choice for growing sites like these. They provide much more power and bandwidth than shared hosting does.
Conclusion
If you have a shared hosting account, we recommend you check the above signs and see if you are experiencing any of them. If so, it might be time to move on from your current host and find one that is more suited for your needs. If not, then try to take steps towards improving your website’s performance by optimizing it for speed and loading time. You can also use some of our other tips on this page to help improve your site performance—like setting up caching or making sure there are no unnecessary plugins running in the background!
