Dedicated Server Hosting Versus Shared Hosting - Which Is Right For You?
Choosing between a dedicated servers and shared hosting brings up a lot of questions. Does your site need a dedicated server or is shared web hosting good enough? How can I tell? Should I save money or get a powerful server now? How much control will I have with each option? Today I will be answering these questions and hopefully helping to make the choice easy.
When Is The Decision Is Easy?
The decision is easy when you don’t have a choice… If your site is getting tons of visitors, if your current shared host says it is using too many resources, if you are running a lot of dynamic php mysql sites that demand a lot of memory and cpu, or if you can’t afford downtime because you are doing marketing on your sites that can’t be down. Any of these reasons make the decision to go with a dedicated server easy and the real question then becomes what type of dedicated server.
By The Numbers…
You should fit into one of these hypothetical situations… Just keep in mind these are very ruff and you should give your hosting company stats so they can decide.
1. I run WordPress or PHP/MySQL site and get over 500 unique visitors a day. Get a dedicated server. Under that number of visitors and you are probably fine on shared web hosting.
2. I run a static site and get under 500 visitors a day. Shared hosting is fine. Go dedicated or VPS if it grows a lot. Static is a lot easier on the server.
A lot of shared hosts will be fine with bigger sites but its borderline in most cases. I also tend to error on the side of caution. I’ve seen plenty of intensive forums with 3,000 visitors a day running on shared hosting for months and then one day something flukes to cause a spike and suddenly they have 10 days to upgrade.
By The Money
Shared hosting is around $10 a month while a dedicated server is at least $70. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to make this choice. If money is a factor go with shared hosting.
I Want Control
If you want complete control of your hosting environment go with a dedicated server. Shared hosting will limit what you can do, what you can tweak, and what you can install. With a dedicated server you can do anything you want!
I work for UK2 and over the last ten years have helped a lot of people choose between the dedicated servers we offer versus our shared web hosting. It really just boils down to the above issues.
Says dedicated hosting provider
June 25, 2008 @ 4005310:28 pm
This is a very interesting article. You bring up a very valid point here regarding the difference between various hosting services.
Keep up the good work!
Says web hosting blog
July 11, 2008 @ 400823:34 am
yeah..good point there. I think you should also consider people’s attitude towards it….its so many times that i have seen people get a glitter in their eyes when they see a hosting plan with say 600 TB space or unlimited bandwidth but the fact is they are probably never going to use that space. I think this thing also drives many people who are in a position to buy an expensive hosting to buy it although they dont need it!
Says Indian Hosting Company
July 16, 2008 @ 4011712:33 pm
A very useful article. You raised a very valid point. A lot of hosting companies go ahead and offer GBs or webspace or unlimited bandwidth but when the number of unique visitors gets out of hand - all that storage space doesn’t matter. We operate in a market which is very price sensitive so most companies opt for shared hosting. But things are changing.
Says webblosningar
July 18, 2008 @ 401256:00 pm
With dedicated solutions, the knowledge to run it is required….
Says Josh
July 24, 2008 @ 401394:16 pm
Actually, I disagree with webblosningar. I’ve used shared, reseller, and dedicated plans with my host (Eleven2), and I actually think the bigger plans have been every bit as easy to use. The guys at Eleven2 take care of everything for me.
If you’re interested, you can find out more at revieweleven2.com
Says Web Hosting
August 10, 2008 @ 401524:39 pm
Josh, it takes considerably more knowledge and skill to run a dedicated server, than to manage your shared hosting account. On shared and reseller hosting, your host takes care of all mods, software, and security. You don’t have to worry about anything that happens on the servers end.
Managing a successful dedicated server (for hosting) now requires you to keep your customers in mind. You have to get into good habits, and learn to properly secure EVERYTHING. Not only are you going to need to also run backups, but you need to know everything about your server, secure-wise. You’ll need this to recognize new threats, and/or attacks.
Thus resulting in considerably more knowledge, and time.
BLD Hosting
Says Synergy Informatics
August 25, 2008 @ 401542:30 am
Interesting Article… good differentiation between diff. hosting environments…
Says mark dorian
August 31, 2008 @ 4015710:29 pm
gogrid has dedicated virutual servers. just got a trial account for $100 credit. the code is ‘GGED’ i love the system. great for my wordpress
Says Jesus Guerrero
September 7, 2008 @ 4016112:42 pm
Could anyone tell me how many visitors does a typical share host like BlueHost can afford?
Says BNS Hosting
October 6, 2008 @ 4017010:41 am
We are also a web hosting service provider, our services ranges from shared hosting services, dedicated to colocated servers hosting. We are located here in the Philippines and personally, I have experienced a lot of inquiries from our onlines support system, inquiring about our services. They ask from shared to colocated services.
Yes, I very much agree with this article because there are a lot of things to consider when you want to purchase a service. Choosing from what you need and what you can get. You have to consider the space that you will need, do you need a 100MB of disk space? Or more? If you need higher disk space and higher bandwidth, you should consider having a dedicated server. But if you are conscious about your budget, try shared hosting.
There are still a lot of things to consider aside from what package to get and the budget that we have. As a customer, you should also consider the support system of the web hosting company. Because I hear a lot about hosting companies that does not offer phone support and also does not reply to email inquiries. So in short look at the background of the company before making that contract.
Thanks anyway for this article. It gives us ideas on what to consider before purchasing. We dont want to purchase a disk space that we will not use, and also purchase a bandwidth that is not enough.
Says Web Hosting Blog Guru
October 15, 2008 @ 401793:15 pm
I agree with your generalizations of when to go for dedicated over shared. I think another factor to consider is the DIGG Effect. Even a nice dedicated can get so slammed it can’t handle the traffic. In that case, a load balanced solution or a ‘grid’ hosting solution may be in order. I think the most important aspect should be ‘fast scalability’ or the ability to add resources quickly. A VPS or upgradeable dedicated should be looked at. I also think any serious person running a business should be on VPS at the very least and pay the additional $20-$30/mo for it (just for quick scalability).
Says Web Hosting in India
October 21, 2008 @ 4018412:49 am
Shared hosting is much cheaper than dedicated hosting but for medium or small scale companies i recommend VPS Hosting
Says Web Hosting Reviews
October 22, 2008 @ 4018712:22 pm
I’m a big fan of VPS solutions for growing a business online. The scalable upgrade options compared to a shared or dedicated are significant and make it extremely easy to upgrade.
Take our recent upgrade for an example. We required more hard drive space and RAM and all it took was a few clicks and a call to our host and wholla it was upgraded. We didn’t have to make any backups, migrate to another plan or server and/or migrate over to another piece of hardware. There was also zero downtime so that was a huge bonus!
Be sure to check with your provider beforehand to see how much they can scale your VPS plan. Our hosts can turn our regular VPS plan into a full blown hybrid that has specs better than most dedicated servers.
Says web hosting
November 18, 2008 @ 402142:04 am
Nice information as always… VPS is a perfect solution for most websites in my opinion.