Most new webmasters choose web hosting packages based on how cheap they are. Some of the cheapest out there are shared web hosting services.Of course, there are a number of "pros" for using shared web hosting:

Inexpensive

Why does shared web hosting save you and your small business or church money? Simply because you are also splitting the expenses of the shared web hosting server with many other sites. The bottom line is shared web hosting is a lot more affordable than the alternatives, which would be a dedicated or virtual dedicated or private server.

Fully Managed

This means your shared web hosting company will keep up the maintenance and updates, and provide technical support for its users. This is a huge benefit for those who do not have the time, knowledge or resources (like many small businesses I know) to do this. In this sense it makes huge sense to go with shared web hosting. The average cost of a reliable shared web hosting package is less than $7.00 per month. You will be paying at least ten times that amount for a dedicated server.

Use of a Control Panel

A shared web hosting control panel may come under different names such as cPanel, Plesk, H-sphere or some other name. Even if you know very little about web design and upkeep, you can do some cool stuff through control panels with a mere click of the mouse. For example, this site uses Wordpress as the way I set up this site. How did I do this? I simply went into my control panel and (through Fantastico) uploaded Wordpress right to my server with one click of the mouse. No mess or hassles. No technical know-how was needed. See the advantage of using shared web hosting with a control panel?

Overall, these are just some of the reasons for choosing shared web hosting.