The hosting service must include system administration since it is shared by many users; this is a benefit for users that do not want to deal with it, but a hindrance to power users that want more control.

Shared hosting typically uses a web-based control panel system, such as cPanel, Plesk, H-Sphere, Ensim, Sphera or one of many other control panel products.

In shared hosting, the provider is generally responsible for management of servers, installation of server software, security updates and other aspects of the service. Servers are often based on the Linux operating systems because more Control Panel products (see above) are made for Linux. However, some providers offer Microsoft Windows based solutions. The Plesk control panel, for instance, has two versions - for Linux and Windows, both with very similar interfaces and functionality, with the exception of OS-specific differences (for example, supporting ASP.NET, or Microsoft SQL Server on Windows).

There are thousands of shared hosting providers in the United States alone. They range from mom-and-pop shops, to small design firms, to multi-million dollar providers with hundreds of thousands of customers. A large portion of the shared web hosting market is driven through Pay Per Click advertising (PPC) or Affiliate programs.

Shared web hosting can also be done privately by sharing the cost of running a server in a colocation centre; this is called cooperative hosting.
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Implementation

Shared web hosting can be accomplished in two ways: name-based and IP-based.

Name-based

In name-based virtual hosting, also called shared IP hosting, the virtual hosts serve multiple host names on a single machine with a single IP address.

With web browsers that support HTTP/1.1 (as almost all do today), upon connecting to a webserver, the browser sends the URL to the server. The server can use this information to determine which web site to show the user.

IP-based

In IP-based virtual hosting, also called dedicated IP hosting, each webserver has a different IP address. The webserver is configured with multiple physical network interfaces, or virtual network interfaces on the same physical interface. The webserver uses the IP address from the HTTP request to determine which web site to show the user.

Cons

Name-based virtual hosts have some disadvantages:

* Older web browsers that only support HTTP/1.0 will not work because they do not send the URL.
* If the Domain Name System is malfunctioning, it is harder to use a name-based virtually-hosted website. Ordinarily, in this case, the user could fall back to using the IP address to contact the system, as in http://12.34.56.78/. However, the web browser doesn't know what hostname to send to the server, but a name-based virtual host requires it.
* They do not support secure websites (HTTPS), at least not on the same TCP port. As of 2006, an all virtual hosts on a single HTTPS webserver must share the same digital certificate. Because the SSL handshake takes place before the expected hostname is sent to the server, the server doesn't know which encryption key to use when the connection is made.