What should your choice be when it comes to shared hosting vs dedicated hosting?
Choosing web hosting plans is a critical decision for the success of your website. Hence, you must give it adequate thought before investing. Shared and dedicated hosting are two different types of solutions offering distinctive features and benefits.
Understanding the difference between dedicated vs shared servers will help you select the right hosting solution for your business. In this blog, we will explore both hosting solutions to help you make an informed decision.
What is Shared Hosting vs. Dedicated Hosting: Definitions
Shared Hosting
In shared hosting, one physical server and hosting resources are shared among multiple websites and web applications. The operating system, control panels, hosting applications and security tools are also predetermined.
Dedicated Hosting
If you buy dedicated server hosting, you get a dedicated physical server and hosting resources exclusively for your website or web application. In addition, you have the freedom to choose and customize your server as per your equirements.
What is Shared Hosting Vs Dedicated Hosting: Key Differences
Features
Shared Hosting
Dedicated Hosting
Server
One physical server is shared among multiple websites or web applications.
One physical server houses one website or web application, offering exclusivity and privacy.
Resources
Hosting resources are shared among multiple websites. These resources include Random Access Memory (RAM), Central Processing Unit (CPU), storage space and bandwidth.
Dedicated hosting solutions offer adequate, exclusive and dedicated hosting resources for a single website.
Scalability
While you can scale your resources with shared hosting, it is not seamless. Here, you can upgrade your plan and get better and more resources.
With dedicated hosting, scalability is easy. However, upgrading the hardware to scale your resources will lead to temporary downtime or shutdown.
Customization
When it comes to a comparison between the customizability of shared and dedicated hosting, shared hosting lacks by a mile. Most server settings, configurations, applications, software, and tools are predetermined for shared hosting.
Between dedicated vs shared servers, a dedicated server offers easy optimizability, flexibility and customizability. You have root access and complete control over the server configurations and settings. Additionally, you can choose an operating system, a control panel, software, and applications that align with your needs.
Security
There is a lack of privacy since multiple users share the physical server. Along with that, if co-tenants indulge in malicious or spammy activities, your website will suffer equally due to the shared IP address.
Thanks to exclusivity and dedicated resources, dedicated hosting is one of the most secure hosting solutions. You can fortify the security by installing necessary security tools, including firewalls, DDoS protection, encryption tools, antivirus, anti-malware and more.
Performance
When you compare shared hosting vs. dedicated hosting, the shared server falls short on reliability and performance.
Dedicated hosting provides superior performance if you optimize the server to fit your hosting needs.
Costing
Shared hosting is cost-effective.
Dedicated hosting has upfront expenses and costs. However, it offers money’s worth in the long run.
Ending Note
Comparing dedicated servers vs. shared servers offers a resolution to most of your questions. When we answer the question objectively, dedicated server hosting might be an ideal choice. However, the answer may vary subjectively.
If you want stability, reliability, security and flexibility, dedicated hosting is the perfect choice. However, if you want a cost-efficient hosting solution for a simple and small website, shared hosting is appropriate.
