Shared Vs Dedicated Server: What Will You Prefer?

Every website which exists on the world-wide web has a digital standing. When we are talking of a digital standing, we are simply referring to the online reputation of an existing website in terms of its visitor-base. Your website can either be an illustrative, attractive and ‘everything done right’ online entity or plainly a new blog website which just took off. Irrespective of this factor, a website will always need a great web hosting service to stay secure, speedy and reliable.

There are over 1 billion websites on the web today, each of them employing a different kind of web hosting service. When it comes to choosing the right web hosting service for your website, you will have youroptions, too. Depending on the size of your website, you can either go for a Shared web hosting plan or a Dedicated one.

This decision will largely depend on your budget, your website traffic, and its requirement, in precision.So, let’s discuss the difference between Shared and Dedicated web hosting server. 

But first, let us begin with the basics.

What is Shared Hosting?

The most popular form of hosting, Shared hosting is all about sharing your web hosting service, it’s memory, disk space, CPU time and data resource with many other websites at the same time. It is the cheapest form of hosting service.

What is Dedicated Hosting?

Widely used by high-end business websites, Dedicated web hosting service is a costly affair. It is indeed a dedicated service aimed at providing the best kind of service to the clients. It offers a great performance and the clients pay to achieve a full control over the server and optimize their server.

Now that we are through with the concept of Shared and Dedicated web hosting, let’s navigate to the pointers which define how the two are different.

1.Pocket-friendliness

The cost for any service greatly assesses its popularity. However, for web servers, suitability as per the website’s requirement is more prominent.

In Shared hosting, the price factor is user-friendly because it is quite cheap and affordable. The explanation behind this cheap thrill is the fact that multiple websites are being hosted on the same server. Contrary to the popular belief, many existing Shared web hosting servers provide satisfactory service to its clients. So, if your website is a small one, shared web hosting is the thing for you.

In Dedicated Hosting service, individual websites pay a huge amount to be hosted on single servers. The substantial amount for subscription will include swift redressal to issues, solutions to minor glitches, and expert assistance. If you run a premium website which has a high traffic inflow, you must choose Dedicated web hosting server.

2.Speed Issues

As per a Forrester Research, users abandon a website if it takes any longer than 2.5 seconds to respond. Hence, if your website is speedy and manages to churn out information for visitors right at the click, your website is a clear winner.

Web hosting service largely affects the speed performance of your website. In a Shared hosting service, many websites are present on the same server which means that resources are divided over an expanse. This might mean occasional downtime for your website. On the other hand, a Dedicated web host keeps all the resources for a single client, ensuring a speedy turnaround time.

3.The Sharing

This can be a small element to the whole web hosting scenario but it plays a decisive role. Bandwidth and disk space are crucial to all the websites existing on a single server. In an event where another website on your Shared hosting network experiences a surge in traffic, chances will be a lag on your website’s end because of the major chunk of bandwidth and disk space consumed by that website. In a Dedicated host, you can have all the unlimited bandwidth and disk space to your website’s well-being; as per the provider plan.

4.The Security aspect

The most important feature of a good web hosting server is to provide a reliable and secure server service to the clients.

In Shared hosting service, the overall security element is less reliable in comparison to the Dedicated hosting service. The reason behind the lesser security here is the fact that many websites share the same server for hosting purpose. This means that a single corrupted website or script can pose a threat on a larger level.

Dedicated web hosts are more reliable and dependable. The provider monitors all the security activities in detail and this is also the reason as to why Dedicated web hosts cost you a fortune.

5.Backup and updates

A reliable website is dependent on regular backups and updates. In a Shared hosting, the backed-up files, as well as the original database files are kept on the same server. This is so because most of the shared hosting providers allow data backup through the cPanel. In case of a security threat or loss of data, things can take an ugly turn. Whereas with a Dedicated web hosting service, the provider tends to the daily backup and update requirements. Restoring any lost data is an easier process. Talking about the updates, Dedicated web hosting is a complete package of updates. It pretty much manages everything.

6.Support

Shared hosting clients are basically all by themselves when it comes to resolving issues. On the other hand, websites which employ dedicated web hosting service can very well rely on 24*7 professional help for raising and solving such issues in a jiffy.

Wrapping up:

If you have a new website or your existing website experiences a little amount of traffic, you can choose the Shared web hosting service with complete confidence. It will be an affordable pursuit for your website. Also, in case your website grows or you feel like moving to a new host, you will always have options.

However, websites which have a huge user base need to be careful while choosing the most suitable type of Dedicated web host. Different market players are offering several web hosting packages for such websites which are somewhat tailor-suited.  You must always be specific with web hosting requirements because the results will impact the audience as well as the revenue of your business website.

In a nutshell, Shared and Dedicated web servers have their own pros and cons. Suitable for one set of clients and unsuitable to others, the performance of both these web hosting services will mostly depend upon the requirement. So, it is better to streamline a requirement blueprint before shelling out dollars for a prospective web host.