Dedicated Server or Shared Hosting?

Hello there.
I am little bit of confused as to which hosting platform I should opt for my new website. My website has lots of data and I think dedicated server fits best in providing the smooth running of my website?

Hello.
A dedicated server will give you more power - after all, the resources are dedicated to you.
There's plenty of options for shared/reseller hosting, or even a VPS.

But do you need a dedicated server?

Things come in to play if you choose a VPS or dedicated server, such as management. Are you capable of managing the server yourself? Most of all - are you comfortable managing the server?

It might be wise to list your requirements such as disk space, bandwidth, and how many visits your website gets.

If you cannot decide, most probably Shared Hosting will be right for you. You will know when you will need to switch to a dedicated server.

As yourself these questions and I will tell you the hosting you need to be on. Most likely you do not need a dedicated server but a VPS or virtual private server would work fine if you feel you need more power and don't mind spending the extra cash on better hosting. Shared hosting works fine for low volume sites.

How many visitors does your web site get daily?
How much disk storage do you currently use?
What is your current monthly budget for hosting?

MackkJackk said:

Hello there.
I am little bit of confused as to which hosting platform I should opt for my new website. My website has lots of data and I think dedicated server fits best in providing the smooth running of my website?

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This depends on any number of factors as already pointed out by other members here. What type of website is this? Are you able to manage a server yourself, or would you need management support? An awful lot depends on your budget as well, and on your projected growth. Without knowing these things, we really can't advise you one way or the other. It's just too broad of a query.

MackkJackk said:

My website has lots of data and I think dedicated server fits best in providing the smooth running of my website?

Click to expand...

How much data?
How much traffic do you expect?
How much are you willing to spend on hosting?

Although many of the replies here are good, another question you need to ask yourself, in regards to dedicated is... is it managed?

When getting your own dedicated server, you need to know a lot about the technical aspects about servers as you will usually be completely responsible for anything that goes on (software wise). For example: You will be responsible for updating stuff such as php or mysql or perl, etc... If you're email is not being sent through or even received, YOU will be responsible for figuring out why AND then fixing it.

So, if you're seriously considering dedicated, you also need to know about the technical aspects as well...

If you know NOTHING about how servers run or operate, but you still want a dedicated server, I suggest you only consider those which offer MANAGED services.

In such cases, the company providing you with your server will usually be responsible for upgrades, updates, etc... And even then, you have to TALK to the company to find out how "limited" the "managed" aspect is...

• Do/will they provide ALL (minor and major) updates?
• Will THEY provide support when/if something breaks?
• Will THEY be there to handle the technical aspects?
• Etc...

Also, I'd like to point out... Of all of my sites, and I do have hundreds, MANY of them are HUGE in regards to space and MANY of theme receive millions of hits every day and a few of them even receive millions of hits every hour. ALL of my sites are run on shared hosting servers.

Unless your site is of Microsoft proportions, you honestly do not NEED a dedicated server. I have a client who runs a very very very popular membership website. He has hundreds of thousands of members and he doesn't even have a dedicated server. I also manage a local "government" entity based customers' website which receives millions of hits per hour, and I don't even have them on a dedicated server. I, myself, run a few membership sites, one is a digital reseller products website and I host almost 400,000 resale files (over 4TB of storage space) and even "I" do not have a dedicated server.

Why pay for something you don't necessarily NEED?

Many people think "Oh, my site is going to be huge (or My site IS huge)" and the honest to God truth of the matter is, like I said above, unless your site is proportionate to those of Microsoft, eBay, Amazon, etc... then you really don't NEED a dedicated server.

What you need is a proven and REPUTABLE shared hosting provider.

You will need to have and pay for a little more than just a dinky $5 Host Gator account, but still not as much as you would for a dedicated server.

How much traffic does your website currently see? You say that it contains a lot of data, unless you are achieving high traffic counts and resource usage on the system then maybe a Shared Hosting account with a high storage limit (don't choose an Unlimited host in this case) would better suit you.

Well, what about LoopByte. It provides you the flexibility in choosing both for Windows and Linux.

If you have enough budget and looking for dedicated resources then go for dedicated server at low price. you may find some dedicated server plans at very affordable price in dedicated server offers section.

MackkJackk said:

Well, what about LoopByte. It provides you the flexibility in choosing both for Windows and Linux.

Click to expand...

Never heard of them.

Cherin said:

If you have enough budget and looking for dedicated resources then go for dedicated server at low price. you may find some dedicated server plans at very affordable price in dedicated server offers section.

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Yes, a dedicated server does give dedicated resources, but that does not make it a good option for everyone.
A) Dedicated servers are more expensive
B) If you choose a low priced budget host, you will often sacrifice reliability, uptime, and or quality silupport
C) Managing a dedicated server takes a lot of work. You have to either have the know-how, or pay someone else to manage it for you

If you want to host less domain names with minimum data then you can go for Shared hosting plans. But if you own more domain names with lots of files and databases then you must go for Dedicated server.

Now a days managed dedicated servers are provided by many Hosting providers so you need not need to worry about server management.

This totally depends on the importance of your website and the business from it, as you can go with dedicated server or vps if you have huge business from your website.

If you have enough budget and knowledge about managing server then go with vps/dedicated. Or hire someone to manage server.

Here's what I think about shared vs dedicated plans.

If your site is relatively small and no traffic hardly then go with shared hosting. When you get really big then you can make the change to a dedicated hosting plan.

However, when you go with shared hosting, your site will be hosted on a server with possibly hundreds of other sites.

Some of those sites could be very "questionable" or be up to some sort of tricks that end up getting its IP and even IP host range penalized/blocked from the SERP's. It happens!

Then that will inevitably effect your site being on that shared server.

Therefore, many people choose to go with a dedicated hosting plan right from the start to avoid that possibility.

Also these days you can get dedicated hosting plans for very affordable prices so shared hosting is more used for those "back burner" sites you have, little things, experiments etc.

Not for a really big professional company website! ><

Thanks all of you members for your valuable suggestions. This has definitely give difference of Shared and Dedicated Web Hosting.

If you are new to this field then its better you would go with the shared as the provider itself will manage the things its easy one for you. If you can manage the servers & ve the full knowledge means you can go with the servers.

It will be more helpful to suggest you if you provide exact amount of data your site is currently have or how much bandwidth your site is currently receive. Dedicated servers are quite expensive and are for large enterprises and website who have GBs of data.

If you are looking for good server, I recommend to look at E3 12xxv3 server and SSD hard drives. E3 processors have best performance/price ratio and it should fit your requirements.

You have not mentioned how much data you require ? If you give us some more information so we suggest you which option is good for you. Dedicated servers are very expensive, for new website you can also go with a good shared host and then when your site's visitors increase you can switch to the big plan. If you have a big data consuming site you can also go with a VPS plan.