When business owners are presented with the decision of choosing between a dedicated or shared web hosting plan, it can start becoming very confusing. Especially when all the host providers claim unlimited everything, it is difficult to decide between all the options. The following is a list of differences, so that you can make a clear decision.
Sites Hosted on the Server: The key difference between a shared and dedicated hosting plan has to do with the number of sites hosted on the server. A shared hosting package consists multiple sites being hosted on the server in addition to your own website. The dedicated hosting plan, on the other hand, features an entire server completely dedicated to your site only.
Bandwidth or Disk Space: Bandwidth refers to the traffic used by services such as cloud hosting and dedicated server over the course of a month. With a shared hosting plan the bandwidth becomes very limited. The other sites that share your server occupy the same allotment of disk space as you, so you must be careful not to surpass your given amount. If you do accidentally surpass the bandwidth, big companies can charge you for that. Dedicated hosting distributes all of the bandwidth and disk space to you, so you are not subjected to limitations on space availability.
Security: When you host with big companies, the shared plan’s hosting company is responsible for installing firewalls and server security programs, which relieves that stress from you. For a dedicated server, it will be left to you to control the security programs and applications that you install. The benefit of being the one in charge of your own security is that you are less likely to acquire viruses, malware and spyware. There is a higher risk with shared hosting because of others using the same server. Unless you are hosting with LOJO, in which case, we secure hosting for all of our clients.
Blacklisting Of Website: Your chances of being blacklisted by search engines greatly increases with a shared server because you could be penalized for the actions of the other sites on your server. If they engage in unethical internet practices, they could potentially get your entire IP address blacklisted. A dedicated server provides you with more control over your methods, so unless you personally engage in spam or other unethical practices, you can keep your name clean and off any blacklists.
Server Performance and Response Time: The shared hosting plan can attract a lot of traffic to its various sites and takes up a lot of the shared resources such as bandwidth. As the resources become more occupied, the load time often becomes very slow. This can affect retention for your site for customers that do not want to put up with a slow response time. A dedicated server allots all resources to your site so that your load time is only affected by your content.
Hosting with a great company can make all the difference! LOJO does not function like the big hosting companies, so the way we do things around here are always with the customer in mind.
Your decision for a hosting type will depend on your needs and the amount of control that you are looking for. Make sure to do your research before making this decision that will affect your website experience. Give us a call if you’d like to learn more about LOJO Hosting!
Written by Nicole Richards
