Shared Hosting (or Shared Web Hosting) is a term in the Internet Hosting industry which refers to a number or Virtual Hosting accounts and websites hosted on one physical or virtual instance (server). Each virtual account has its own partition on the server in order to be separated from others. All those hosting accounts share the resources (processor, memory, bandwidth, software) of the underlying server. It can host thousands of websites.

Shared Hosting services is either name-based or IP-based. In IP-based virtual hosting each Shared account uses a dedicated IP address. The host server is configured with multiple physical network interfaces, or virtual network interfaces on the same physical interface. In name-based virtual hosting all Shared accounts on the server share a single IP address. In name-based hosting Web browsers request a resource from the web server of the host server using HTTP/1.1 which includes a certain hostname as part of the request. The host server uses this information to determine which web site to show the visitor.

Please note that term “Virtual Hosting” has nothing to do with “Virtual Private Server Hosting” (VPS, VPS Hosting, Virtual Servers ).

Bandwidth is a term that describes the amount of data that can be sent and received over a network connection in a given period of time. It must not be confused with the term “Data Transfer”. Bandwidth is measured in bits per second (bps), kilobits per second (Kbps), megabits per second (Mbps), or gigabits per second (Gbps).

A higher bandwidth results in more data being transmitted in a shorter time frame, allowing for faster communication and data transfer.

Bandwidth depends on the quality of the network connection, the number of users sharing the connection, the type of data being transmitted, and other factors. Bandwidth is often a key factor when organizations choose any web hosting or cloud service provider.