Shared Hosting
It is not unusual for one to be at a crossroads when considering shared hosting vs dedicated hosting. This is obviously a critical decision because it will impact how your business will perform on the web in the future.
Therefore, before you start sending a ticket to the support department or giving the sales department of any web hosting company a call, you may want to read through the following to determine which is the best hosting for you; is it shared hosting or dedicated hosting?
Costs Compared
Which one would you prefer, renting a room and staying alone or sharing it with a roommate? Shared hosting is just the same as renting a room with one or a few other roommates. There will definitely be congestions contrary to if you were staying alone.
The best part about shared hosting is that it is cheaper as well as more affordable relative to dedicated hosting. You can even get shared hosting for as little as $4 to $15 per month. It is, therefore, the best option for someone who is working on a budget or just starting out online.
On the other hand, it is necessary to note that dedicated hosting is expensive and therefore only favors those who can afford it. Dedicated hosting is expensive because, unlike shared hosting, operating expenses are not divided and are consequently met by you only.
Sharing IP
Using the same IP address is an issue of concern, especially if other sites in the server get blacklisted citing unethical-related activities like spamming or producing illegal script. If you plan on getting shared hosting, it is essential to find out how your provider deals with sites that are hosted on the same server as yours.
Dedicated hosting, on the other hand, gives you control of essentially everything. This means that you can install any applications as well as scripts. What is more, you can customize the software and hardware that are installed in your server; a privilege that is hard to come by.
Response Time of the Server
If you plan to use shared hosting, then get prepared to suffer the disadvantage of a slow server response time. This means that, when there is heavy traffic on the server, users might have problems accessing your website. What is more, with shared hosting, the server normally crashes more regularly than usual.
As far as performance on dedicated hosting is considered, response time is faster compared to shared hosting-especially because you are the only one on the server. Your visitors will be happy because pages will be generated fast enough on their browsers.
Unlimited Bandwidth Usage
When it comes to shared hosting, the amount of bandwidth and disk space assigned to your website is limited since there are other websites hosted on the same server. This means that you will be charged if you exceed the allocated space.
Unlike shared hosting, where you get a warning letter for exceeding bandwidth, dedicated hosting contains no limitations which means you can download and upload any materials from your site without any problems.
Security
Dedicated Hosting
A dedicated server is more secure than shared hosting because it is usually provided with it’s own firewall. The information stored here is therefore less vulnerable to hackers’ attacks, or other malicious codes.
Moreover, it is more secure because you are the only one on the server and thus, you’re responsible for controlling the security programs you choose to install.
On the hand, shared hosting is known to carry high security risks because there are numerous other people on the server.
Judging from the features in both hosting, dedicated hosting appears to be the best. Perhaps the greatest disadvantage of dedicated hosting is the pricing; it is extremely expensive.
Nevertheless, at the end of the day, choosing the right hosting type for you is all dependent on your needs.
