Is Shared Hosting Suitable for Zen Cart?

The power and value of Zen Cart is well known.

My question is regarding where to install Zen Cart on:

Shared hosting is the least expensive startup route to go. It is tempting, but is it suitable for Zen Cart?

Case in question: Most shared hosts provide adequate bandwidth & disk space for the initial stage of business (could be months, could be even years). Those web sites also provide you with tools (e.g. cPanel) that let you monitor your actual bandwidth & disk space usage, so you have a good feel about when a host package upgrade is needed.

But... there is a "hidden" clause in the terms of use that states that your account cannot exceed certain percentage of CPU use (<25%). Unfortunately, there is no way for the account's holder to track that. Thus, the store owner must rely blindly on the web host's measurement & monitoring.

Still, I am very curious to know how many of the Zen Cart community have their online store on shared web hosts. Does it work? If not, when was the point you realized you must upgrade to a dedicated server?

Also, I know that Zen Cart does extensive use of PHP scripts and MySQL. These definitely take more CPU (and memory) resources than plain HTML. Is there a benchmark that shows the "operation cost" of each (or typical) Zen Cart operation takes?

Where should I start looking for answers regarding this issue?

Thanks!
Daniel

Depends on your site, size of database, and website traffic.

I sent you PM with my hosting preferences! (Don't know if I can state it on the forum!)

Tina

I would guess that the vast majority of Zencart sites are installed on shared hosting.

Mine certainly are, and I've never had a problem (although I don't have one of those 300 category, 150,000 product nightmares). My host notifies customers when 80% of traffic is reached, and provides quick and easy upgrade service.

Also, it appears that version 1.4 will be a lot more 'resources friendly", so I'd choose a good host and shared hosting.

stevesh is correct that the vast majority of Zen Cart sites are installed on shared hosting.

You'll find that many of the "recommended" hosting providers (which can be found by clicking the "hosting" link at the top of this page) offer both shared and dedicated hosting, and will work with you to ensure you get what you need at a price that makes sense. Most offer scalable solutions and display their pricing structure clearly on their website.
You should be able to get answers to all your questions without worrying about the "hidden" issues that you mention.
Some may even have some stats to help you in choosing which service would suit you and when you might need to expand into something offering more punch.

That said, it's of course up to you to do your own due diligence in selecting the hosting provider best suited to your needs.