Shared hosting can have it's downfalls.
Just to make sure shared hosting is going to be HostGator, BlueHost, so on so forth. Unless you have a VPS/Dedicated Server with one of them. If you don't know what those are you probably don't have them.
The cons are:
Limited Resources
- You can't edit stuff that may be crucial. (PHP Config) some hosts may allow minimal configuration though.
- If your site is found to be using a lot of system resources which mediawiki isn't shy about your webhost may e-mail you basically saying you need to upgrade to a higher package, I think this is what happened with Wikirby?
- Slow, often these websites can be found to be slow due to limited resources and others using the same server for hosting, and who knows what they are doing.
Pros:
- Easy installation with Cpanel/Fantastico or something similar.
- Support. Some hosts will offer support in regards with your site.
- Inexpensive
If you know linux and how to make/manage a web server from scratch then and have money you are willing to spend then VPS/Dedicated is probably the way to go.
Cons:
- You have to install everything: php5, curl, apache, mySQL, phpMyAdmin, ftp, and anything else you may need. This can be tedious especially if this is your first time managing a VPS or Dedicated server.
- No easy and fast installs of php scripts. Unless your host offers CPanel with Fantastico or something similar or you dish out $500-$1000 for the stuff you are going to to need to download the files, upload them to the server. Create a mySQL database and install the php software yourself. This isn't really hard but can be tedious.
- Costly. /Good/ dedicated servers can go above $150 a month while VPSes can go for around $20-$100 a month.
Pros:
- Full access to your stuff. This can be both be good and bad. Bad if you mess something up, you will have to fix it. Good as in there are almost no limits to what you can do (as long as they follow your VPS/Dedi provider's AuP.
- More resources. You get a better share of system resources to yourself and your VPS. With Dedicated Servers you are the only one using that server so all those system resources go to you. VPSes can be seen as "shared" hosting but are almost always going to be better than normal non VPS shared hosting.
- Root access both VPS and Dedicated servers give you root control, or administrator privileges. This means you can control any part of the server that you want.
StarfyWiki.org is running on my WebVPS.
I can't really think of anything else to say but maybe some of the other guys can give some of their thoughts...
If you are wondering I own 2 Linodes,
http://linode.com1 Linode 512 (Runs IRC and a couple of IRC related stuff)
1 Linode 767 (Runs all my hosted websites including StarfyWiki.org)
Both are extremely stable and speeds are great.
Support is probably one of the best out there in the VPS market, you /will/ get a response to any ticket within 10 minutes.
They also recently just announced native IPv6 support, for those computer geeks out there.
They offer scripts that will help you setup a web server with apache, mySQL, php, etc.
Can be used to host minecraft and other gameservers!