A website that uses dedicated hosting has the server all to itself, while a shared host is split amongst multiple customers. This article will help you choose the 1 that will work best for your website.
Websites are stored on servers, which are simply computers that been set up to respond to data requests from the internet. Each server has an individual Internet Protocol (IP) address -- 4 numbers separated by dots such as 123.456.78.9.
Dedicated Hosting
With a dedicated server, all the resources of the server, as well as the IP address, are unique to that website and are yours to use as you want. It can be used to host just 1 site or many. You have access to the entire bandwidth of the server, and you can use as much disk space as needed.
Companies with large complex websites that receive a lot of traffic really need a dedicated host. Sites with a dedicated server are also able to run any kind of script they choose. This is especially important for businesses that are developing new scripts and need to test them without affecting other websites.
Shared Hosting
Websites sharing a single server are sharing all the resources of that computer. Shared hosting places several websites on the same server, all sharing the same disk space, bandwidth, and IP address. The host will limit each site to a specified amount of disk space and bandwidth to be used per month, in order to provide sufficient service to all the shared sites. Sites that exceed their limit may be charged a substantial penalty or even temporarily closed down.
The number of sites being shared by a particular server is not as important as the amount of traffic each is receiving. A server hosting 200 low traffic sites will respond much faster than 1 with 50 sites receiving lots of visitors.
Arriving requests are dealt with on a first-in-first-out sequence. If there is a large queue, there will be a long wait as each server has a limited amount of bandwidth. The amount of traffic your neighbors receive can quickly impact how well your web site is displayed.
Because the cost of operating the server is divided amongst many customers, shared hosting is a lot cheaper than dedicated. It's available for as little as $2 a month, while dedicated hosting can run over $100 each month.
There are risks associated with shared hosting. If 1 of the neighbors runs a programmed script that goes bad, the entire server could be affected. In extreme situations this could shut your site down for a while. If a neighbor is banned from search engines for spamming tactics, that could also affect everyone sharing that IP address. It's a good idea to check with hosting companies first, to see what their policy is about third-party scripts and inappropriate activities.
How To Decide Between The 2 Options
Large complicated websites that expect to receive 1,000 or more visitors a day should opt for dedicated hosting. It's also a good choice for developers who expect to research and test new internet technologies.
Small companies and individuals with small sites are probably better off with shared hosting. The cost is certainly more reasonable. Just be sure to choose a host with a good reputation who will protect your site from others that could put your site at risk.
Free Web Hosting Canada
It's embarrassing, time consuming and not to mention costly if you are missing out on sales.
On the other side of the scale, it can be very costly to be on a larger web hosting plan or dedicated server and hardly even use the services it offers.
Good quality web hosting is not cheap, but you need to balance your business needs with what you can really afford to pay.
So what web hosting service should you be using? Good question!
In this article I'm going to be talking about the pro's and con's of both shared web hosting and dedicated web hosting packages. By the end of the article you should have some idea what your online business needs now and what it will need when it expands.
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is what most small online businesses use. Shared hosting means that your site is on one server that also holds other peoples websites as well. Your website will not be the only one on that server. Very few small online businesses need the power of a dedicated server.
Most companies offer a few different types of shared web hosting services. The only difference usually being how much disk space you want or how much transfer allowance you need.
The best way to show you what the difference is between shared hosting services is to show you an example.
Go to http://www.marblehost.com/hosting-plans.php
This is an example web hosting companies shared hosting services. As you can see they offer two different types of shared hosting services. Basically they offer a small and large service.
The major differences between each package really is how many domain names you can host, how much transfer (how many megabytes that are downloading from your website) you can have and how much disk space (how many files you can store) you need.
If you're just starting out online and haven't got a website up yet and not sure what you are doing exactly, start off with the small plan. That's more then enough for a small site or blog for that matter.
Now if you run a larger website and you offer a lot of downloads, say for example you're selling a rather large ebook, you might need the large service. Let's say you have a 10mb ebook for sale, the large service this company offers would allow you to have roughly 2000 downloads of that package before you ran out of bandwidth (transfer).
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting is for the big boys. It's for medium to big business looking to do a lot of work online. A dedicated server is just that, you're own server. You get your own server just for your website which is unlike shared hosting as you have to share a server.
There are many different packages available with dedicated hosting depending on how much you want to spend. The more resources a server has, IE, RAM, Hard drive space, processor speed, the more it will cost.
You can see that a dedicated server allows you a lot more disk space and transfer allowance. It also allows you unlimited domain names. Dedicated servers are also known to be a lot more stable and allow you more control over your website and are perfect for a professional image.
There are two types of dedicated servers....
Managed hosting
Managed hosting offers you the support of a technical team looking after your server. They do all the updates and technical side of things for you. They will perform routine maintenance without you even asking. Managed hosting how ever does cost quite a lot more then un-managed usually.
Un-managed hosting
Un-managed hosting isn't as support less as it sounds. Most dedicated servers do come with technical assistance and routine maintenance, but any support questions will more then likely cost you extra. If you need something added to your server, it will cost you a in maintenance fee's. Rebooting your server should also come free with un-managed dedicated hosting.
Multiple Domain Name Hosting
Another thing you should look at is whether or not you want to host multiple domain names with your one hosting package. Both shared hosting and dedicated hosting can allow you to do this. A lot of share hosting services now allow this.
I recommend always using a web host that allows you to have multiple domain names with your one account. It really does solve the problem of having multiple hosting accounts for different domain names.
Other Things To Look For
Other things to think about when searching for a web hosting company is what you intend to do with your website.
Do you need a lot of technical assistance? If so, look for a hosting company with live 24/7 support. Do you want to create a blog, or lot's of blogs? Then you will need to see if your web hosting company allows you to setup multiple MYSQL databases.
Both Ron King & Bedrich Omacka are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Ron King has sinced written about articles on various topics from Acne Treatment, A Secured Loan and Aging. Visit to learn more. Ron King is a full-time researcher, writer, and web developer, visit his website at. Ron King's top article generates over 368000 views. to your Favourites.
Advantages Of Using A Database So they are automatically opted in to receive your offers.This is the best exposure that money cannot buy. It is totally free and waiting to be reaped!