What Is Better - Shared or Dedicated Web Hosting?

When you finally decide to launch your website, it should have a place on a server so that it’s available on the Internet. For that reason, you should choose a web hosting provider of the many web hosting companies and options that are available nowadays. A web host company is one that lets you use a space on the server and allows you to enjoy certain features for a particular monthly or yearly compensation.

The difference between the various web hosting companies is in the price and the features they offer for that amount. So, it’s up to you to choose what service and price will fit your budget and meet your expectations. Check out these important features when choosing a suitable managed WordPress hosting.

However, even though web hosting providers are somehow all different, they can be divided into two groups: shared and dedicated web hosting companies. So, this is the first choice that you’ll have to make. Here are some high - quality free hosting service providers that you can consider.

What Is Shared and Dedicated Web Hosting?

Shared web hosting is the option of having your website share the server space with other websites. So, the place on the server that the web host lets you use isn’t exclusively yours, but it’s shared with other websites as well. This means that you don’t have control over the server, and don’t have the freedom to make any particular requests. However, the price of using shared web hosting is very low, which is a perk, especially for website owners on a tight budget.

On the other hand, a dedicated web hosting is a hosting option wherein your website has the whole server for itself, meaning that all the resources of the server are dedicated especially to your website. With a dedicated web hosting service, you have the opportunity to have the entire server under your command. You can manage and maintain it by yourself, and that’s why this type of hosting option is also called managed web hosting. So, the machine-level configuration and the control panel dashboard settings are going to be managed by you.

Now that you know what exactly shared and dedicated web hosting is, we’ll share with you the advantages and disadvantages of both. Go through the points and decide which option will suit your website better.

Which Type of Web Hosting Option Should You Choose?

The choice of your web hosting provider will affect the future of your website. Are you aware that web hosting will also affect your search engine optimization (SEO) ranking? So, for instance, with a shared hosting provider, where you share the space with other websites that might contain spam or malware, you are putting your SEO rankings in danger. This is because your site might be linked to one of those spam sites and receive a poor SEO ranking no matter how hard you try to make it otherwise.

There are also separate SEO hosting providers that actually help you obtain a good SEO ranking by optimizing every aspect of the features they provide your website with. These types of web hosts are also called PBN hosting providers because they’ll keep your Private Blog Network safe from search engines, as well as successful in the long run. For a list of these providers and a breakdown on which is the best, take a look at these reviews from Private Blog Network.

Nevertheless, no matter which type of web hosting option you might be interested in, you should check out the features they offer and the performance they guarantee you’ll get.

The Difference in Features Between Shared and Dedicated Web Hosts

The greatest difference between shared and dedicated web hosts lies not only in the cost, but also the options they offer if your company grows (scalability), the performance that your website will have, and how secure your website will be with each type of web hosting option. So, here’s what you should bear in mind before choosing:

1. Server Resources Management

The major difference between the two is the management of the server resources, which is why this is number one on our list. While dedicated web hosting can provide you with a lot of options, shared web hosting has the server managed by the web host and you can’t make any changes by yourself.

This also affects the performance of your site because dedicated web hosting allows you to choose an SSD or HDD storage, the operating system (Ubuntu, Windows, etc.), and the number of processors. On the other hand, with shared web hosting, you don’t have that option.

• Dedicated web hosting gives you the chance to get to the root of the server. So, you can adjust the storage and bandwidth level according to your needs, and adjusting the server resources and scaling them whenever necessary is very easy. Different dedicated web hosting providers have different hosting options—they can manage the server for you, you can manage it yourself, or even semi-manage it. This is a great option if you’re running applications that would need modification of the server features and environment.
• Shared web hosting, on the other hand, doesn’t offer you custom configuration options. This type of account will give you access to the cPanel for your website’s files, folders, and applications such as WordPress. This means you can manage some of your website needs, such as databases, server logs, and email accounts. The cost-effective alternative doesn’t offer you the opportunity to manage the server by yourself or adjust it to your apps’ needs.

2. Security

Dedicated web hosting servers are more secure because they have a DDoS protection option, IP address blocking, and RAID storage (also called disk mirroring) to help you retrieve any lost or hacked information.

If you choose shared web hosting, then you’re responsible for the security of your website, because the host can’t really guarantee anything when it comes to all the other users on the server. Sometimes, the issues can be caused by the other websites you’re sharing the server with.

3. Scalability

Scalability practically means opportunity for growth. This is closely connected to the type of web host company you choose and also to the quality of the web hosting provider. So, once you launch your website, you should think about how much space for growth the web hosting provider will offer you.

• Dedicated web hosting allows you to upgrade or downgrade at any time. There are even dedicated web hosts that offer automated scalability where the server adjusts its resources according to the needs of your site. This reduces the chance for any potential issues that can cause downtime.
• Shared web hosting providers offer you a limited chance for scalability. The disk storage space and database size are limited because you share the server with others. So, even though some web hosting providers may be offering you unlimited bandwidth or unlimited disk space, you should be aware that your website is only a small fraction of their server.

Shared and dedicated web hosting providers are different in many other aspects. However, these three are the most important ones. Therefore, if you think you can save money with a shared web hosting provider, you are wrong because it only offers you a fraction of the features that would otherwise be available with a dedicated web hosting provider.