Today I’m going to explain the difference between shared web hosting Vs dedicated web hosting. Ill try and keep the technical jargon to the bare minimum. A web server is a computer that serves information to a network – in this case, the network is the internet. Commercial web servers are nowadays hosted in huge warehouse style data centres – they look like something from a computer geek version of the shining.
Here is a few differences between the cheap web hosting and having your own server:
Cost
Having your own web server is more expensive than the cheap web hosting options. We’ve all seen these web companies offering cheap web hosting and easy setup such as godaddy, wix and squarespace. Aye, these all do a job but getting your website online is like going car shopping. Buying cheap isn’t guaranteed to take a family of 5 to Butlin’s in Wales in the pouring rain is it? Yes you will have a budget but you will also want your website to perform the way you hope. Spending a bit extra will give you a whole world of benefits. You dont need to go for the Ferrari, there are a tonne of options. You can even increase the power of your server as you go (at extra cost) if you feel you need more power.
Control
Your server – your way. Using the cheaper web hosting options will put your website on a shared server with other websites. This is very restrictive to what you can and cannot do. You will often find that by using an easy website builder the hosting company will place their adverts on your site. The web builders are also very restrictive to what you can produce. If there’s something really specific you wanted your site to do then there’s a good chance these website builders wont give you enough options to achieve it. Having your own dedicated server takes away all these issues by giving you full control in every aspect of your website.
Performance
Web servers only have so much power – computer processors, bandwidth and memory. if you are on a shared server then your website will be sharing these resources with potentially thousands of other websites. What happens if you have a big sale on? Or another website gets a lot of people to load it at the same time? Will your customers start getting error messages and slow loading times on your website as the server gets overloaded? This can cause you to lose business. A dedicated web server will see your website get 100% of all the resources, maximizing your sites performance.
Security
What happens if one of the websites get hacked on the shared server? This probably wont be your fault but all it takes is one site to be exposed and the entire web server can be hacked – yes your site too. This is a pretty crap thing to happen. It can be days before your website is back up and running. If you have your own server and your website is regularly maintained then it will be more secure. Also if the worst should happen your website can be restored form a backup within minutes.
Blacklisting of website
Have you ever wondered how your custom email goes into peoples junk mail folders? This will be because your web server is blacklisted. All it takes is one website on your shared server to start sending out unethical email and everyone’s site will be tarred with the same brush. As you all use the same server you also share the same IP address. Companies like gmail and hotmail don’t care if you are on a different domain, their easy fix to stop spam email is to blacklist the IP address. However if you were the only website using a unique IP address then you wont have these issues.
I know everyone will have different budgets and goals with their sites but if you are going to be dependent on your website for income and being the face of your company then I cannot recommend dedicated hosting enough.
At DigiAye media all of our dedicated servers are based in a super secure UK data centre in Gloucester – get in touch with us to start your project today.
