Shared and Dedicated Web Hosting

While you may have heard the term web hosting before, you probably aren’t aware of the differences in shared server web hosting and dedicated server web hosting. Web hosting companies offer their clients storage space where websites can be digitally “held” and accessed by the public. These companies have a choice between providing shared servers or dedicated servers, or a combination of both. How do these differences affect the way users experience the internet? What are the advantages and disadvantages of these types of servers? Let’s talk about the answers to these questions and explore shared and dedicated web hosting in depth.

Shared hosting, also known as virtual hosting or mass hosting, allows multiple users to host web sites on the same server. This system is highly efficient, as it provides many users to work from the same server. This often makes shared hosting more accessible due to the lowered cost of providing these servers. When prospects look for a web hosting company, they want to know what service is available to them, and what shared hosting management applications are available.

As the name indicates, dedicated hosting allows a company, or a single person, to rent a server that no one else will be able to use. When companies choose to use a dedicated server, they will be able to host many different websites, and their connection speed will increase, since they are the only company accessing the bandwidth on their server. Dedicated hosting is more expensive, and the responsibility for maintenance often falls on the client if they are the owners of the equipment used, but the payoffs can be worth it in some circumstances. Businesses that experience or anticipate a high volume of users at one time may elect to use dedicated servers. A business may also choose dedicated servers if the applications they will store and access on the server would otherwise place a strain on computing power on a shared server.

When you are choosing whether to use dedicated servers or shared servers to host the website you want to build, ask a few questions. How exactly do you plan to use the bandwidth and storage capacity of the server? Will you be running any CPU-intensive applications on the server? Will the users accessing your site need fast downloading capabilities for any reason? Even if you prefer to own the server and maintain it yourself, dedicated servers may be the right type of service for you.
Most small business owners, first-time website builders and other small scale website designers will find that a shared server web hosting company more than meets their needs for the information storage and transfer that they want. For a better picture of which type of server is right for you, speak with other website owners to find out which method they choose and why the feel it is the best for their particular business situation. Use their experiences and opinions to form an idea about which type of server you should use.