When you are planning to launch a website to showcase your products or services, there are some important things you must consider before you sign up with a web host. You know that web hosting is necessary to ensure that your site can have a global reach. You must have a mental map of how you want the website to look like and how it can serve your target audience the best. Likewise, you must know what kind of content to include on the site to cater to the audience interests. However, in the midst of the efforts of looking into all these factors at the same time, you tend to overlook a rather crucial aspect of the web hosting process, and that is, choosing the right kind of hosting plan for your site. When it comes to choosing web hosting plans for the site, there are two primary options that you have, namely shared hosting and dedicated server hosting.
When is shared hosting good for you?
For those who are just starting out and for businesses that have to start off on tight budget, shared hosting plans are preferable as these are cheaper. In shared hosting, there are multiple users that collectively share resources like disk space, bandwidth, processing power and memory belonging to a single physical server. So, all the co-users sharing the server resources are housed on the same server. The chances of server resources getting used up by some users are therefore very high causing your website to suffer in the process. In shared hosting, you cannot enjoy unlimited power or server space or bandwidth; all resources have to be shared collectively and this is the reason why shared hosting may make it hard for your site to enjoy a high network uptime. Because resources are shared, your site may even slow down for the lack of enough bandwidth. So, when you have plans of growing your business or if your site receives a lot of web traffic, you can opt for dedicated hosting which is more reliable, scalable and secure.
Why is dedicated hosting a better alternative for some businesses?
Dedicated hosting is highly advantageous for websites that get a lot of traffic and which engage in online financial transactions. In dedicated hosting, a single physical server is rented by a business so that its resources can be used exclusively by that business. This explains why in dedicated hosting, you can be certain of getting a high network uptime as resources are never shared.
Dedicated servers are not only highly scalable; they are also very robust and secure. In shared hosting, there are chances of your website getting blacklisted when any of your neighbors is a spam site or a site containing malicious content. When your co-users are found to be malicious sites, your site rankings in search engines can be pushed down considerably.
When you choose dedicated hosting, you can also get root access to the server. This allows you to tweak the server settings to suit your interests and to install applications and software which may benefit your business requirements. When you choose fully managed hosting solutions, the task of buying, monitoring and securing the server is handled entirely by the web hosting service provider. You can be certain that all server-related problems will get resolved by their technically-proficient staff without any delays, so that your site does not face downtime issues.
Why should you upgrade to dedicated hosting plans?
With dedicated hosting, you can avail of additional resources like greater bandwidth or processing power whenever you need these to accommodate high web traffic. So, dedicated hosting is an ideal choice for businesses which are looking for higher reliability, higher scalability and flexibility, better customer supports and enhanced security. It is less prone to hacking attacks and malicious attacks because you are not sharing server space with hackers and spam sites. So, when you have started with a shared hosting plan but find that your site is slowing down frequently as other co-users are eating into the server resources, you should consider upgrading to a dedicated hosting plan. As you start to get complaints about slow loading speeds or poor site performance, you should not hesitate to explore dedicated hosting options.
When you are dealing with online financial transactions that demand a high degree or confidentiality, it is better to choose dedicated hosting. In dedicated hosting the host will typically guarantee enhanced security measures which ensure that data breaches do not occur. With a dedicated server, you will be able to enjoy the kind of flexibility that you need to configure the server settings or install new software and applications.
Dedicated servers are typically costlier than shared servers but the advantages they offer are worth the money you spend for them. You can take advantage of the free trial versions offered by reputed web hosting service providers from time to time. These help you ascertain whether the web host you have chosen is reliable or not.