What are Dedicated Servers and When Do You Need One?

The most common 2 types of hosting are Shared and Dedicated Servers, and we will help you distinguish between them and pick the best option.

06:49 30 November 2021

Most people opt for shared hosting when they launch their first website because it's one of the most affordable options available. Typically, a start-up business has a limited budget, making shared hosting an ideal option, especially for small businesses. However, when your business website is growing and expanding, you might want to consider moving to a dedicated server. 

 

Things like, website traffic, server load times and anticipated growth should drive your decision when it comes to switching from shared to dedicated. On the other hand, dedicated servers have stronger security, more versatility and the most flexibility. 

 

The most common 2 types of hosting include Shared Servers and Dedicated Servers, and we will help you distinguish between them and pick the best option based on your needs. 

 

Dedicated Server Hosting Vs. Shared Server Hosting

 

• Cost: When you use a shared server with others, you are also sharing the cost of the server amongst each other. This decreases the amount of cash you have to pay for shared hosting; however, when getting a dedicated server, you pay the full fee by yourself, which increases the price. You get more control with a dedicated server, but you pay a premium.

 

• Control: You have all the control when using a dedicated server. In fact, flexibility and superior performance are the most significant reasons companies shift to dedicated hosting. You can customize the selection of programs as such to optimally optimize the server for your website. 

 

• Bandwidth: Again, sharing a server means you are also sharing its resources. The processing, memory and bandwidth are all shared. When one of the websites hosted on the same server gets high traffic, it slows down the speed of all the other hosted websites of the shared server. This problem doesn't happen in a dedicated server as you are the sole owner of it.

 

• Security: When you are using a shared server, the hosting company will be responsible for all the security and firewalls. In the case of a dedicated server, everything, including the security frameworks, will depend upon your decision, and you will have to install them. This gives you much more choice regarding the software you want and usually provides a more secure experience. 

 

Do You Need a Dedicated Server?

Dedicated servers are more cost-effective in the long run and offer you a better value for money. When you opt for a dedicated hosting service, the provider like Hostkey most often than not, will handle most of the things that need handling. However, not all businesses should go for dedicated servers, and this mainly depends on how big your business is. 

 

Why go for Shared Server?

It's important to make informed decisions before choosing a dedicated server over a shared one. For small businesses, a shared server is more convenient. It's cheap, requires less knowledge, and meets many of the operational needs of most small businesses. 

 

You will have limited control over some aspects, but a shared server will keep the costs down, and you do not have to worry much about the technical side of things. 

 

Since the inconsistency in performance is a big concern with shared servers, people now tend to opt for Virtual Private Server or VPS. It shares commonality between both a shared server and a dedicated server. You will still be sharing a server, but you get your own space that is kept separate from other sites (works like a reserved space with reserved bandwidth, processing, and so on). The performance is more consistent than Shared servers; however, less consistent than dedicated ones. It’s a middle ground between dedicated servers and shared servers.

 

Why go for Dedicated Server?

Even though a dedicated server costs more, it gives you the most flexibility. You do need more technical knowledge to run a dedicated server and you will most likely need to hire a professional to operate the server for you. Bigger businesses profit more from dedicated servers than they do from shared ones. Dedicated servers are more consistent, reliant and efficient.

 

Whether you need a dedicated server or a shared one will depend on some key factors. The dedicated server, of course, remains the most powerful plan available for the money alongside cloud hosting. 

 

If your website is growing fast and you anticipate more growth soon, then considering a dedicated server might very well be worth it. One of the downsides of a shared server is that It's not consistent. There are fluctuations in its speed, processing power, and bandwidth as it is shared among multiple websites running on the same server. 

 

To account for various special sales and events, your website should be able to handle traffic spikes several times its original amount, or you run a risk of losing revenue. In addition, sudden traffic spikes in a shared server can decrease server performance and speed significantly. This gets your customers frustrated, and you lose potential clients. 

 

Conclusion

So, for smaller businesses, you would want to opt for shared hosting services. You might want to opt for VPS for smaller businesses that are doing well (businesses that fall between small to mid-size tend to opt for this one). As for companies that are doing well and constantly growing with a website that gets good traffic, opt for a dedicated hosting service.