Dedicated server vs shared server, which is better for your website hosting > eWebGuru Blog

In both shared and dedicated web hosting, website data is held on a single bare metal server. When visitors access your website on the internet, the server makes your data available to them.

The difference is in the type of server your website is hosted on. In shared hosting, your website is placed with other websites – in other words, you have neighbouring websites using the same server as you.

On the other hand, in dedicated hosting, you have a server all to yourself – your site is the only one hosted there. Although dedicated hosting sounds like it’s more advantageous, both come with pros and cons and both are important in the web hosting world.

What is Shared Hosting?

Shared hosting involves multiple websites with different owners hosted on a single server, Since it’s cheaper than dedicated hosting and involves sharing space on the internet with other websites, some have compared shared hosting with a public bus system.

While shared hosting works just fine for many live websites out, it does have certain advantages and disadvantages. 

Advantages of Shared Hosting

There are tons of benefits to shared hosting, but we’ll talk about the factors that stand out the most. 

Low Cost

One of the most influencing aspects of shared hosting is its low cost. Since many websites are hosted on a single server, the website owners bear the distributed amount of the server’s maintenance cost.   

No Need for Technical Expertise 

Many people launch their website through a shared hosting server because it doesn’t require complete technical knowledge of the servers. They can just sign up for a plan and get their website hosted without any in-depth know-how.

With shared hosting, you get a control panel to manage your website and facilitate website management through pre-installed applications and programs that come with general websites.

Shared hosting providers take care of server maintenance, updating, fixing patches, and more. As a result, website owners don’t have to

Disadvantages of Shared Hosting

Shared Use of Server Resources

Although shared hosting is excellent for new businesses with lower traffic only conducting basic operations, it does have limitations that might make it hard for you to expand your website.

The most prominent one is the shared use of resources. The quality of the server, including processing power, disk space, memory, and other resources, are shared by thousands of websites on the same server. As a result, you can get the “bad neighbour effect,” which happens when one website hogs most of the resources, leaving other neighbours with slowed operations and high downtime.

The chances of something like this occurring are pretty low. Most hosting companies are focused on ensuring they have enough resources to accommodate everyone before taking new clients. 

High Security Risks

Because shared hosting has thousands of sites on the same server, the security risks are higher. If someone on the same server is carrying out spam activities, your server’s IP address can be blacklisted, making your website vanish in seconds, leaving you clueless and at a loss. 

To prevent this from happening, make sure you choose a hosting provider with strict policies against such users. 

Who Uses Shared Hosting?

Shared hosting might be your best option if you want to start a website for your small or medium-sized business in a way that is simple to use, even for beginners. For people on a tight budget, it’s a great option.

If your website traffic isn’t heavy, the disadvantages of shared hosting will likely not affect your website. 

In future, if your website outgrows the resources allotted to you, you can quickly go for better hosting plans. Your website will be easily migrated to a different hosting environment, which wouldn’t negatively affect your website’s quality and environment. 

What is Dedicated Hosting?

When a server is dedicated to you alone, it means that your website is hosted on it.. You won’t have any neighbours with this type of hosting, which keeps all the competition away and only has your resources. It increases your website performance and eliminates security risks. 

If shared hosting is like a public bus, dedicated hosting is like renting your own car – you have all the space to yourself. 

Since you get so many benefits with dedicated hosting that you don’t get with shared, it comes at a much higher cost. It also requires more technical knowledge. You can go from one place to another on a public bus, but you need to know how to drive to rent a car to go by yourself.

Similar to shared hosting, dedicated hosting has its own set of pros and cons.

Advantages of Dedicated Hosting

Ability to Utilize Full Server Resources

Dedicated hosting comes with the full ability to use all the server’s resources. There’s no one to hog the resources, which means there’s no “bad neighbour effect.” The processing power, memory, and storage are under your control. 

Higher Security

Since you’re not sharing the resources, you’re the only one to exist in the environment, which means there is no one to threaten your server’s security. While there aren’t many cases of cyberattacks in shared hosting, your website is, environment-wise, much more secure in dedicated hosting.

Full Customization

Dedicated hosting comes with the ability to customize. Since you can modify the root software code, you can optimize your website by changing the server settings and code. If your website requires a particular application, the server’s configuration will be a big help.

Disadvantages of Dedicated Hosting

High Cost

Greater resources come at a greater price. However, the websites that opt for dedicated hosting are usually profitable enough to afford it. It’s not for newly-founded businesses.

Technical Expertise Required 

Dedicated hosting requires a high level of technical knowledge, especially if you want to customize. If you’re not technically aware, you could hire a server admin or purchase a plan with additional support, but this will just add to your already high cost. 

More Maintenance

Since dedicated hosting gives you full authority to control and maintain the server at your convenience and preference, it adds to your burden. You need to either be an expert and have the free time to maintain the server, upgrade it, install patches, and carry out other maintenance tasks, or you need to hire someone to do that for you. 

One way to escape these technicalities is to get managed WordPress hosting. The host takes care of all the tech-savvy maintenance and controlling tasks, while the website owner focuses on growing the business. 

eWebGuru for dedicated server hosting

The dedicated server hosting is quite different from normal shared hosting and as it comes with several benefits like hosting efficiently to a large number of websites with overall performance to get satisfactory. eWebGuru host server offers the best-dedicated server India plans in the market and it has thousands of loyal clients that offer competitive price tags and are completely reliable.

Conclusion

It is always a good idea to trust a good web hosting company such as eWebGuru for getting excellent third-party support, technical assistance and debugging. All these things are crucial for a website. However, not all hosting companies are guaranteed to be consistent at this level. This inconsistency can lead to loss of business because the occasional web server downtime is tough to predict.