Shared Hosting vs Dedicated Server Hosting – What’s the Difference?

What is shared hosting?

Shared hosting is a hosting model where companies divide servers and resources into portions, much like slicing up a pizza, so multiple people can enjoy a piece. This allows various businesses to share in a ‘slice’ or ‘slices’ of a server. Today, this process is commonly referred to as web hosting. Shared hosting became popular after the dot com boom as more websites were created, and there was a need for more affordable hosting. Instead of investing in an entire server, smaller companies could rent the needed server resources.

When we talk about shared hosting, there are typically three options: shared hosting (the most straightforward option), virtual private cloud (VPC), and public cloud.

What is dedicated server hosting?

Dedicated server hosting means that a server in a data center is solely dedicated to a single user or business. In other words, dedicated servers host individual customers. Dedicated hosting providers spin up bare metal servers to individual customers, granting them complete administrative access to their machines. The server resources, such as RAM, disk space, CPU, and bandwidth, are solely for the use of the designated tenant.

Dedicated servers come in different standardized dimensions or ‘form factors’ measured in units (U). Smaller servers (1U servers) are less powerful and take up less space, while larger servers (2U+ servers) are more powerful and take up more space.

Difference between shared hosting and dedicated server hosting

Shared hosting and dedicated server hosting have different features in terms of functionality.

Shared hosting allocates resources among multiple users on a single physical machine or as virtual machines. Customization options are limited in this shared environment, and users rely on the practices of other tenants to ensuresecurity. Shared hosting is highly scalable, allowing for the instant addition of resources. However, performance degradation is risky if other tenants use server resources excessively.

On the other hand, dedicated server hosting provides a single-tenant environment where resources are exclusively dedicated to one user. This allows for extensive customization options to tailor the server to specific needs. Security is enhanced as a company’s server resources are isolated, reducing vulnerabilities associated with shared hosting. Dedicated servers are also scalable, allowing for the quick addition or removal of servers based on the user’s requirements.

Shared hosting is affordable, with users able to rent the exact amount of server resources they need. Dedicated server hosting is also cost-effective, offering month-to-month rental options and eliminating the need for high capital expenditures.

In terms of uptime and reliability, shared hosting may experience variability in performance due to resource sharing. If other tenants overuse server resources, it can result in slowdowns for a particular user. In contrast, dedicated server hosting offers high levels of server uptime and reliability as resources are not shared with other users, ensuring consistent performance for applications or websites hosted by the company.

Who needs dedicated server hosting?

If you’re wondering who could benefit from dedicated server hosting, businesses with resource requirements beyond what a typical small server can handle are unlikely to want to use shared hosting. With dedicated hosting, businesses get exclusive access to a server, allowing for more computing power, no shared bandwidth, and increased customization options. Dedicated servers offer added security since they are physically separate from other tenants.

Dedicated hosting, or infrastructure as a service, is a top-tier service that offers several notable benefits over shared hosting:

• More robust and customizable system architecture
• Higher server uptime
• Improved latency and round-trip times
• Faster response rates and loading speeds
• Increased application resiliency
• Greater scalability (up as well as down)
• Enhanced security and data privacy

Switching to dedicated server hosting can improve applications’ stability, reliability, and performance while helping businesses reduce infrastructure costs and scale quickly.

Conclusion

Understanding how hosting works and the advantages of dedicated hosting compared to other options is crucial for making informed infrastructure decisions. Dedicated hosting providers offer infrastructure solutions with increased application resiliency, enhanced performance, heightened security, and the freedom to customize your system architecture.

For resource-demanding applications, choosing dedicated server hosting is a no-brainer. It provides the ideal foundation for achieving the right balance of reliable performance, control, and scalability.