We got a question in email re: what's the difference between shared host processes and private ones. The difference is that shared host processes can host multiple applications, while private can host only one.

The trade-off is that for the same number of hosted apps, shared hosts uses a lot less memory compared to private ones, because each process needs to load .NET CLR/Framework, which takes a lot of memory, so when hosting 5 apps in a single shared host, amount of memory saved compared to 5 separate hosts is quite substantial. The downside of sharing a host process between apps is that any given app, when crashes, has a potential to bring down the entire process, with all other hosted apps. Host processes get restarted automatically if they crash, but still one app crashing in a shared host may cause downtime for multiple apps.

The bottom line is that is you host a couple of apps that have high availability requirement, and you have plenty of memory, put them in private hosts. If you have many apps, and run 8GB of ram or less, pack the apps in shared hosts.

Best regards,
UltiDev Team.