Dedicated or Shared Web Hosting? Which is Best for Your Needs

To have a online presence, you must have a host. The two normal options available for web site hosting are shared and dedicated packages.

A website that uses dedicated hosting has the server all to itself, while a shared host is split amongst a lot of customers. This article will aid you select the package that will suit best for your online presence.

Web sites are stored on servers that are just computers that have been set up to respond to data requests from the internet. Each server has an separate Internet Protocol (IP) address made up of four sets of digits separated by dots such as 123.456.78.9.

Dedicated Hosting

With a dedicated server, all the power of the server, as well as the IP address, are unique to that website and are yours to utilize as you require. It can be used to store just one web site or many. You have access to the entire bandwidth of the server, and you can utilize as much disk space as needed.

Individuals with large complex websites that receive a lot of traffic really should have a dedicated server. Sites with a dedicated server are also able to run any type of script they need. This is especially important for those that are creating new scripts and need to test them without affecting other websites.

Shared Hosting

Web sites sharing a single server are sharing all the resources of that server. Shared hosting puts several websites on the same server, all sharing the same disk space, bandwidth, and IP address. The host will cap each web site to a specified amount of disk space and bandwidth to be used per month, in order to ensure 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 that are shared by a particular server isn't as important as the amount of traffic each is receiving. A server hosting 200 low traffic sites will respond much quicker than one with 50 sites receiving lots of visitors.

Since the cost of running the server is divided between many customers, shared hosting is a lot cheaper than dedicated. It's available for as little as $1 a month, while dedicated hosting can run to more than $200 per month.

How to Decide Between Shared and Dedicated Hosting

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.

Resource box: Find more information on shared and dedicated web hosting at gr8webhosts. We strive to find the latest and best value deals in web hosting for personal and business web sites.