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Shared Hosting VS Dedicated Server
by SY Ho
Published on this site: May 27th, 2006 - See
more articles from this month
Are you at a crossroads now, deciding which type of hosting best
suits your needs? This is definitely an important decision as it
will affect how your business will run on the webspace in the future.
So, before you start submitting a ticket to the support department
or calling the sales department of any hosting provider to ask regarding
your confusion, take a look at the guidelines and tips which I'm
about to introduce to you.
First of all, ask yourself, which type of web busineses are you
planning to get involved in? Next, I'll show you the advantages,
disadvantages and features offered to you by both shared hosting
and dedicated server hosting. Before I proceed further, let's refresh
your mind with the definition of both types of hosting. Shared hosting,
as most of you should be well-versed, is hosting where a lot of
websites share the same resources in one server. Resources here
simply mean the total webspace, the memory, the processor speed,
as well as the bandwidth.
Dedicated server on the other hand, give you the freedom of being
alone. Alone means you are the sole owner of the server. You can
do whatever you want and no other sites share the resources with
you. It sure comes with a price as dedicated server is way more
expensive than shared hosting. However, if you believe that the
advantages which I shall be listing in a short while are the advantages
you long to have, then it's wise to conclude that these advantages
can outweigh the expensive price (but still affordable) of dedicated
server.
Facing the challenges in the world of sharing!
Here's a simple analogy; renting a room on your own or finding
a roommate to share the room with you. Simply, that's the problem
or risks you might be facing when you opt for shared hosting. Shared
hosting is just like you rent a room with a few other roommates.
Won't it be congested to share in a small room? However, there is
a reason why people choose to find roommates. Price is the main
concern. Same goes to hosting industry. Shared hosting is cheaper
and more affordable compared to dedicated hosting. Nowadays, you
can find shared hosting with the price of USD4 to USD15 per month.
Therefore, if you think that price is an issue and you are still
green in hosting world and your online business has yet to achieve
heavy traffic, the best solution is to go for shared hosting first.
Consequently, you have to bear the drawbacks of shared hosting but
if you choose a reliable and experienced
hosting provider (probably in a hosting industry for around 3-4
years), the provider will ensure the most minimal drawbacks for
its clients. In shared hosting environment, you will encounter certain
disadvantages as follows:
Sharing Same IP Having the same IP address in shared hosting is
the main concern when other sites in the server is actually being
blacklisted for unethical activities such as spamming or generating
illegal script. Since, you share the same server, it's obvious you
will share the same IP address. So, when other sites are blacklisted,
those sharing the same IP with them will also unfortunately share the same fate - being banned alltogether
by search engine. You will be the victim of crime which you don't
commit. However, there are times where you can buy yourself a dedicated
IP but this usually is not needed unless you are getting yourself
an SSL certificate. In cases such as this one, it depends on your hosting provider on how they
deal with clients who do illegal and unapproved activities. Usually,
a reliable and responsible host will suspend those sites which perform
spamming in order to rescue other sites who are innocent. In short,
to get yourself a shared hosting, get to know how your provider
deal with those sites which are hosted in the same server as you.
Slow Server Response Time
Using the same analogy as above, if you and your roommates want
to use the bathroom, you have to queue up, correct? Hence, it will
slow down your daily work. Same goes to shared hosting. If one of
your neighbours have heavy daily traffic, it will consume most of
the bandwidth and when things get tighten up, you will feel the
slow response time such as difficulty accessing your website. This
is because server will respond to the requested file in order of the queue. If one of the visitor happens to request
it later and is on a long queue, that visitor will experience slow
response time and might eventually end up leaving your website.
Server Crashes Regularly
The factor to server crashes more often than usual, is the fact
that certain scripts are generated and it can overload a server's
resources. If webhosting provider does not monitor the server's
activity, those poorly-written CGI script can give you more headache
than relief. Hence, it's vital for host provider to monitor the
server regularly to prevent server from crashes and to protect your
site from being affected. You as a client, please do take the initiative
to question your providers on how they take precautions for cases
like this one. A well-knowledgable and reliable host provider will
be able to answer your question to your satisfaction.
Despite aforementioned bad points, a lot of websites also use this
shared hosting solution and if a proper provider is chosen, you
can be assured that such incidents will barely happen.
Dedicated Hosting - A world of your own
What makes people opt for dedicated hosting instead of shared
hosting? Again, the most important criterion is money. If you can
afford a costly solution like this, go ahead. However, don't just
simply go ahead without weighing the pros and cons of dedicated
hosting. Even if you have money, and you are just a small medium
enterprise, think twice for investing in dedicated hosting. Reason
is because dedicated hosting is mainly for large and busy sites such as portal, search engine, online content provider,
heavy traffic forums and etc. In addition, dedicated hosting usually
requires more technical-savvy specialist to monitor it.
Listed below are some of the advantages why dedicated hosting
is a popular option:
- You are the boss!
Here, it means you have more control of everything. You can
install whatever applications and scripts you want. You can do
script testing and if anything were to happen, no one else to
blame but yourself. You will have the ability to customise the
hardware and softwares installed on your server, which you cannot
find this priviledge if you are under shared hosting.
- No more limitation in bandwidth usage
Compare to shared hosting, you might get yourself a "warning
letter" from your hosting provider if you exceed the maximum
bandwidth allocated to you. With dedicated hosting, you have the
amount of bandwidth of a server. Hence, downloading and uploading
any materials from your site will not be a problem if you have
a lot of daily visitors performing such activity.More Secured
Having a dedicated server is in fact more secured compared to
shared hosting. This is because dedicated server will be provided
its own firewall. Therefore, the information stored in dedicated
server is less vulnerable to attacks by hackers or any malicious
codes. In addition, hosting provider will usually provide backup
for you with added fee, but, in terms of security, it's actually worth it.
- Better Performance
Since dedicated hosting means only you alone are hosted in
that server, the response time of the server to requested files
will be so much faster compared to shared hosting. Visitors who
browse your website will feel happy because your pages will appear
on their browser fast enough to satisfy them. Fast loading time
will always brighten anyone's day!
Generally, choosing which type of hosting solely depends on your
needs. So, to make a wise decision, do more researches and evaluations
as well as consult those highly technical savvy people. Remember
that a good and smart decision will determine your online storefronts'
success. Cheers!
SY Ho - Online Marketing Executive http://www.exabytes.com
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