With hosting services such as Page.ly, Synthes.is, Heroku and PagodaBox and WPEngine springing up like mushrooms after a fall rain, what’s the future of shared hosting?
More to the point, does it make any sense to invest the money to acquire a shared hosting account, and the time to learn how to use the services such accounts offer?
I think it does, and here’s why.
The hosting services obtain their service levels by standardizing their hosting products. This is necessary, and overall it’s a good thing. They hold your hand.
Self-hosted services such as Bluehost, Hostgator and similar, provide a much larger sandbox for less money, while requiring a larger investment in time to understand how to use the service. You’re on your own.
The difference between these businesses isn’t so much as the specific technology being offered. The difference is in the mindset of the customer who is purchasing the services.
The difference is “hands-on” versus “hands-off.”
And that difference is going to stay with us, regardless of how specific technology changes. Sometimes it’s appropriate to outsource, sometimes do-it-yourself makes more sense.
More importantly: are you in the hands-off or hands-on business?