Shared or Dedicated Web Hosting - Which Should You Choose?
Should I rent a dedicated or shared Web server?
Do I Need a Shared or Dedicated Server?
The overwhelming majority of web sites that you find online are hosted on shared servers. There are indeed benefits to hosting your web site on a dedicated server, as will be explained below, but for most people the significant jump in cost does not justify such a decision.
What’s the Difference Between a Shared Server and a Dedicated Server?
The difference between a shared server and a dedicated server is that in the case of a dedicated web server, your web site has its own server where all of your web files and databases are stored. With a shared server on the other hand, you share server space with other web sites; sometimes it can be a few hundred web sites or even a few thousand, depending on the hosting company you choose. More reliable web hosts will keep the number of web sites on each shared server to a reasonable minimum, so that your site’s load time isn’t adversely affected. Before choosing a web host, it is a good idea to find out from the host exactly how many sites you will be sharing a server with.
In the diagrams below, look at the dedicated server setup (right) verse the shared server structure (left), where multiple sites are hosted on the same device:
To better understand the difference between shared and dedicated servers, think of the computer you’re using right now. Are only your files stored on it, or do you share the computer’s space with other members of your family or co-workers? It would be less economical for your family to have a different computer dedicated to each family member, unless a certain member of your family was using a very large portion of the computer’s resources. In that case, the family member in question may need his or her own computer that is dedicated entirely to them. This is also true in the case of web servers. A web site that demands a large portion of the server’s resources is less disruptive on its own dedicated web server, while a less demanding web site will function fine on a shared web server setup.
Which Should I Choose, a Shared or a Dedicated Server?
Unless cost is not (and will never be) a factor in your decision, when starting a web site it is usually best to store your site on a shared server at a reliable hosting company. We host this web site on a shared server at HostRocket.com, who has provided reliable hosting for several of CTF Media’s web sites for more than five years. Paying five to fifteen dollars a month for a shared server (instead of $90+ for a dedicated setup) will give you time to affordably design and optimize your web site. Keep in mind that you can always upgrade later if you outgrow your memory space and bandwidth, which are usually quite considerable. When signing up for shared hosting, be sure to sign up for a dedicated IP address, as explained below.
Do I need a Dedicated IP Address on a Shared Server?
An IP address is a unique address given to each computer, including web servers. Dedicated servers usually have a single dedicated IP address unique to the server device (unless you’re a reseller). Shared servers however, often share a single IP address across multiple web sites on the server. This can lead to many problems since search engines often identify web sites by each site’s IP address. For example, let’s say that you share server space with JoesCrackHaven.com and Google decides to ban JoesCrackHaven.com from its search engine (Joe could have been spamming the engine or doing something else that Google prohibits). Google will ban JoesCrackHaven by the web site’s IP address, not by the site’s URL (domain name). Unfortunately, since you share the same server IP address with Joe’s site, your web site will be banned from Google as well, because the search engines ban by IP address, not by URL. In that case, when signing up for a shared server, be sure to choose a hosting company that allows you to have a dedicated IP address, which can cost an additional few bucks but is highly advised.
Before you begin your search for a web host you should first determine whether you need shared web hosting or dedicated web hosting.
A shared web hosting account is an account on a web server that hosts other shared accounts. The number of accounts on one shared server can vary widely; some servers host a few hundred, while others have thousands of sites hosted on one server. Hosting your website on a shared server is a workable solution for many small businesses, as shared hosting accounts are priced much lower than dedicated servers. Shared web hosting accounts have limited access to the core administrative functions of the server. Most web hosting companies offer comprehensive technical support for users of shared hosting plans. Complete technical support is usually included in the price of your account plan.
A dedicated server is usually dedicated to one, or just a few websites, usually for the sole use by one company. The cost of a dedicated server is higher than that of a shared hosting account. With a dedicated server, you have access to the core administrative functions of the server. With most dedicated server plans offered by hosting companies, you’re pretty much on your own where technical support is concerned. If you don’t have an IT staff or a server administrator to provide support, you may want to find a person to help you manage your dedicated server. Many hosting companies that offer dedicated server plans also offer “per issue” support, meaning that you’ll pay a certain amount, usually an hourly fee, for technical support issues. Some dedicated server plans have optional “support tickets” that you can purchase in advance.
Another option is what’s called a “managed dedicated” hosting plan. With a managed dedicated plan, you get a dedicated server and the hosting company also provides comprehensive support like you usually find in a shared hosting plan. This is a good alternative for companies that don’t have an IT staff or a server administrator and don’t want to get involved at all in the technical aspects of running a server. The price for a managed dedicated server is usually higher than for an unmanaged dedicated server plan as you’re getting technical support included.
Whatever type of web hosting plan you choose, make sure that the plan you’ve chosen fits your needs.
Shared web hosting is just that – several websites are located on a single server. Since it is split up among several website owners, the price is cheaper than dedicated hosting. The down side is that storage and bandwidth are limited in a shared hosting situation. However, most small to medium size businesses operate their websites on a shared host effectively and efficiently. If you anticipate a few thousand visitors per day or less, shared hosting can be a good choice for your website.
Dedicated web hosting is exactly what it sounds like. One server is used solely for the purpose of hosting one website. If you plan to have an extremely popular website, this option will allow you to host many more visitors than shared web hosting. A dedicated web host is recommended for websites that need high bandwidth requirements or need high storage capacity. Since you are not sharing it with other websites, it all belongs to you on a dedicated server.
While you are researching potential web hosts, there are a few clues you can look for to determine whether the host is shared or dedicated. Many times the web host will actually say whether it is shared or dedicated. If it does not say, it is generally shared. Just to make sure, look at the price. If it’s cheaper than $80 per month, it is generally a shared web hosting plan.
A. Shared, or virtual, servers are usually more than adequate for low volume or entry-level sites. Sites with highly sensitive information, high volume, or special software requirements will probably need a dedicated server. The items below detail the major characteristics of shared and dedicated Web servers.
DEDICATED
Able to install customized e-commerce or database applications
Access to server operating system
More expensive
Increased security; ability to manage firewalls and all password access
Managing and estimating traffic levels is up to you
Requires technical skill to administer
SHARED
Restricted to software and operating systems offered by the host
Limited access to OS
Less expensive
Less secure; a breach of security on another site on the server could affect your site
No control over total traffic on server
Needs little technical ability to administer
Having a dedicated server gives you high flexibility and a lot of options for your site. Usually you have root/admin access to the server and you can manage and modify each aspect of the server behavior - software running, configuration, etc. So if your site needs more than any shared hosting plan can offer or if you have some special requirements - the dedicated server is the right choice for you. When you are on a dedicated server - your site is the only one that uses the server resources. Also when on a dedicated server you have no restrictions on the number of websites that you can host, on the number of mailboxes. The whole CPU and memory is on your disposal. You can install whatever programs and software that you wish.
Most companies rent dedicated servers for a monthly fee. The fee includes certain amount of bandwidth and one or more dedicated IP addresses. Additional bandwidth usually costs less compared to a sharing hosting plan.
The greatest disadvantage of a dedicated server is its price. It is significantly higher compared to shared hosting plans. Another thing is that while on a shared hosting plan, the webhost staff takes care of the server upgrades, security, hacker attacks, etc. On a dedicated server these tasks in most of the cases are your own responsibility. So you need to be familiar with system administration before going for a dedicated or at least hire a sysadmin to take care of your server.
There are a lot of companies that offer the so called “Managed dedicated” servers. With these packages most of the regular maintenance and system administration tasks are carried on by the company itself. You need to check the company offerings for full list of features and specs included in their dedicated server deal.
Some dedicated servers come along with a lot of software installed. This includes regular features as email, database server, web server, etc as well as some management software(Control panel - Cpanel, Plesk, Exim) with web interface for managing different aspects of the server - configuring websites, creating mailboxes, ftp user, etc.
When do I need a dedicated server? There is no simple answer to that. In general you may need a dedicated server in any of the following cases:
Security - Being on a dedicated server, you are on your own. You do not share the server with anybody else. Nobody has access to the server. So you can be sure that you data is safe. For example on a shared host in case of mis-configured server some other users on the server might be able to read your data. When on VPS, there is always a sysadmin that can read your data. When on dedicated - nobody is granted access to the server except you.
CPU power - When on a shared hosting plan or a VPS you share the CPU, RAM and I/O resources with other users on the same server. As any other shared resources, there might be occasions in which a given user will take all the CPU and/or RAM and the server performance can suffer greatly, even a server can go down. The bad thing is that you cannot do anything about it. When on a dedicated, the CPU works only for your site. Yeah, your site can bring the server down too, but at least you have more control over the situation.
Performance
As explained in the previous paragraph, when you are alone on the server all resources are allocated to your site. So a dedicated server performance cannot be compared to the performance of any other type of hosting plan.
The Downsides
The Greatest downsides are that now, when you have a dedicated server you will need to manage it - configure software, apply security patches, monitor uptime, perform backups - all the regular sysadmin tasks that are being performed by the web host when you are on a shared or a VPS plan. So to be able to run a dedicated server, you must either have the necessary sysadmin skills or have the necessary money to hire a sysadmin to manage the server for you.
Conclusion
Dedicated servers are great. However you need to make up your choice and balance between your budget, skills and your website requirements.
Some of the companies offering dedicated and managed servers include:
3FN
One of the questions that I am often asked is in regards to geographic hosting and how that affects rankings in the search engines. For example, let’s say your website is hosted in Canada, yet you want to target the United States. Does the fact that your site is hosted in a different country affect your rankings?
The answer is yes. At least right now this is how it works with the engines.
The question about server location and how it may impact SEO rankings of sites is an interesting question. We have actually asked the search engines this exact question and unfortunately they have not really provided us with a distinct, concrete answer as to the impact this will have on websites. However, here is what we do know:
At this time, it is always better to be hosted in the country that you wish to rank for (if you want to rank well in the UK, then ideally your site should be hosted in the UK). That’s not to say that you won’t do well in rankings, it just means that the search engines tend to equate relevance (to some degree) to sites hosted in that specific country.
Let’s use the UK as an example. If you are looking to rank in the UK, the fact that you have a UK domain works in your favor (even if the site is hosted in the United States or Canada for example). The reason for this is that the search engines place a higher relevancy on the native country domain (ie. .ca sites may rank better in the Canadian version of the search engine than .coms providing that they are more relevant).
The location of the website host provides the search engine with information about the location of the business and as a result enables it to provide more relevant results based on location of searchers. The idea that a website hosted in London is more likely to be relevant to a person searching for a service in London than a website hosted in New York.
Google has stated that sites that are hosted in a location other than their primary country can run into problems. To what extent we’re not exactly sure.
If we look at Google for example, there are ways to tell Google know the location of your site. The easiest way is setting the geographic target via Google Webmaster Tools. You can use this tool to let Google know the location of your site. If your domain is a location-specific TLD (such as .uk), Google will show you the country that your site is associated with but won’t let you specify something different. However, if your domain is not country specific (such as a .com or .net), you can indicate the location of the site.
http://groups.google.com/group/Google_Webmaster_Help-Indexing/browse_thread/thread/31f09536fb8462f/c97d7cf02c37d80d?lnk=gst&q=
The fact of the matter is, is that it is best to have your website hosted in the country that you want to rank in. The engines have a relevancy factor they use to accommodate users from countries so that they are served up the most relevant results. Ideally the engines should serve up the most relevant results regardless of where the most relevant site is for that search term.
Thanks,
john
If you have done everything to optimise your site and after a few weeks you have not been visited by the search engines, then the cause could be the seo hosting.
How can the hosting influence the ranking?
First of all, if your server has not a 99% uptime there are possibilities that your site cannot be reached by the spiders or the editors of the directories you signed up onto.
A normal visitor could be so patient to come back few minutes later, a spider only few weeks later, an editor probably never.
If your site is not always online, the ranking of your pages can be severely compromised.
The services of free hosting are often down and usually very slow. Maybe on these servers there are sites the search engines already discarded for some reason, like spamming or other abusive activities, so the IP address assigned to your site has a “bad name”.
Search engines know about your server more than you can imagine. They know when you change provider and when the server did the last reboot.
Being on a server that has been online for a long while is a positive sign. Verify how often your provider reboots. A reboot too far away could mean that no upgrades have been done for a long time.
A too high frequency of reboot indicates that maybe there is something wrong with that server.
You need a hosting service that is reliable for the search engine optimisation.
Here is what you need:
- A server with 99.9% upload guaranteed. You can monitor it using ServiceUptime, a free service of site monitoring.
- A server with not many reboots. You can check using the free Netcraft’s service “What’s that site running”. Remember, a Linux server reboot less, a Windows server a bit more.
- Many reboots=there is something wrong
- Few reboots=no upgrades, risk of being hacked
- A server that is located in your geographical area. Avoid an American or European server if your site is Australian and viceversa.
- Server web compatible http 1.1 with support for “modified since”
- Support for redirect301 and 302
- Static IP address
- Possibility to access your files 24 hours a day via FTP
- Protection firewall, IDS and free antivirus
- Customer support
Thanks,
John
A 100% USA business
Our business, network, servers and staff are all based in our West USA headquarters.
That means we have 24 hour access to our own equipment. And you have access to our senior technicians when you need them most - during USA business hours.
We keep great company
You can judge a business by the company it keeps. We’ve built unique relationships with Google and Urchin and strategic partnerships with GeoTrust and Microsoft.
We know small business
We host websites and email for 18,000 USA businesses. We’ve grown by listening to them and building our company around their needs. We understand how to help you run a website that will make or save your business money.
We understand developers
More often than not, businesses will put us in touch with their developers and we’ve built relationships with literally thousands. That means when you call, our staff will speak your language.
We’re carbon neutral
We use more than 200,000 KWh of electricity each year, providing services to 18,000 USA businesses. By using GreenPower renewable energy and by planting trees, we eliminate our greenhouse gas emissions. By choosing Ilisys, you are contributing to a healthier environment.
First-class technology
More often than not, our customers are USA small business. But our technology is decidedly big business. We use Network Appliance storage, Cisco routers and firewalls, Foundry load-balancers and Veritas backup systems.
Optus provides 100 Mb of pure, dedicated bandwidth to our private, on-site data centre which is equipped with raised floors, environmental monitoring and UPS. A serviced, on-site diesel generator provides backup power.
We guarantee uptime
We operate a fully redundant internal network, from our switching and routing equipment right down to clustered web, email and ftp servers. It really means something when we guarantee our service. That’s why we publish and honour a Service Level Agreement (SLA) for all our Linux-hosted customers.
A culture of innovation
We have a great team of developers and every day they’re working on features and systems to improve our service to you. Innovation is part of our culture and we welcome input from staff and customers alike.
For more information about 3fn , visit 3FN
