Shared Hosting and Dedicated Hosting are both hosting services that are provided by web hosting companies and are availed for the purpose of rendering websites seamlessly accessible over the Internet. Both of these distinct types of web hosting solutions serve the same purpose but differ from each other significantly.
If Shared Hosting and Dedicated Hosting serve the same purpose, which is to make websites accessible to site visitors, then what is the need for offering two separate hosting solutions? The answer to it lies in knowing and understanding the key differences between Shared and Dedicated Hosting services, which makes each of these services suitable for certain specific and totally different web hosting requirements. There is a reason that web hosting is offered through web hosting plans for different types of web hosting solutions, such as Shared Hosting and Dedicated Hosting. That, along with relevant information on the service of website hosting shall be provided here, for the convenience of the readers of this blog.
Shared Hosting and Dedicated Hosting as Part of Web Hosting Services
Web hosting services need to be purchased from professional web hosting service providers, such as HTS Hosting, which is globally recognized as the best web hosting company, for ensuring the uninterrupted online availability of websites. These hosting services for Linux and Windows are availed by website owners, through various web hosting plans. Each web hosting plan provides server space on a web server of a certain website hosting company, for storing and processing the files of the hosted website, along with the necessary technologies and services that are essential for ensuring the hosted site’s online accessibility. Various web browsers retrieve this content, which is stored on a web server, to render the hosted site accessible to the site visitorswho are using those browsers.
Web hosting can be availed as either Shared Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, VPS Hosting, Reseller Hostingor as WordPress Hosting.Every web hosting service, regardless of its type, is offered to ensure that the sites which avail it, remain seamlessly available over the Internet.
What is the need for all these different types of web hosting services, when all of these serve the same purpose? The reason that web hosting companies provide various hosting services is that there are different types of websites, which have different types of hosting requirements that need to be catered to. A single web hosting solution won’t be able to fulfil the specific web hosting requirements of different types of websites. For example, the hosting requirements of a resource-intensive site of an online store will be totally different from that of a blogging site which is simple. In order to effectively fulfil the hosting requirements of different types of websites, different types of hosting services are designed and provided by web hosting service providers. In this context, let us discuss in detail the hosting services of Shared Hosting and Dedicated Hosting.
Shared Hosting is a web hosting solution that is usually regarded as the most economical web hosting solution, due to the shared server hosting environment that it provides to the sites availing this type of service. In Shared Hosting, the service provider uses a single physical web server to host the files of multiple websites. This results in sharing of server resources and server space among the hosted sites, which limits the server’s resources’ availability to the individual sites. What are the consequences of this? Slow site speed and inefficient performance, along with security concerns due to the shared server environment, are commonplace in Shared Hosting.
On the one hand, availing the service of Shared Hosting does not impact substantially the performance of sites which are not resource-intensive, such as blogging sites, simple sites, sites that get less traffic, sites of small businesses, etc., but on the other hand, it proves to be an ineffective web hosting solution for resource-intensive sites. Resource-intensive websites, such as e-commerce sites and sites of big businesses as well as sites that get a lot of web traffic, need dedicated server resources for their effective functioning. These types of sites won’t be able to function properly on shared server resources. That is why the service of Dedicated Hosting is offered by all professional web hosting service providers, so that this can be availed by sites which have strict requirements for site speed, security, performance and server customization.
In Dedicated Hosting, a single web server is utilized for hosting a single website. This ensures that dedicated server resources are available for full utilization by the hosted site, which results in enhanced site speed, performance and security of the hosted site. Since server space is not shared in Dedicated Hosting, it offers the flexibility to customize the server. The availability of dedicated server resources, goes a long way in boosting site performance of the sites that have availed Dedicated Hosting. Moreover, the option to customize the web server is also an added advantage. The numerous benefits that Dedicated Hosting services offer over Shared Hosting services, result in the former’s plans being priced more than that of Shared Hosting.
It is evident that as web hosting solutions, Shared Hosting and Dedicated Hosting are designed to meet the hosting requirements of different types of websites. Apart from that, while considering budget as a factor for availing web hosting services, these two types of services cater to different budget segments. Next, let us elaborate on the main differences between these two popular types of web hosting solutions.
Shared Hosting Vs. Dedicated Hosting
If you are planning to avail an appropriate web hosting solution for your site’s efficient functioning, then you need to consider your hosting requirements first, along with your budget. The appropriateness of any web hosting solution, be it Shared Hosting or Dedicated hosting, depends entirely on the type of website that you are planning to host.
Shared Hosting proves to be an effective hosting solution for the following –
Sites that are not resource-intensive
Sites that do not need dedicated server resources for their effective performance
Websites that do not have strict and specific need for site speed, security and server customization
Simple sites and blogging sites
Sites of small businesses
Websites that do not get heavy traffic
On the other hand, Dedicated Hosting proves to be an effective hosting solution for the following –
Sites that are resource-intensive
Sites that need dedicated server resources for their effective performance
Websites that have strict and specific need for site speed, security and server customization
E-commerce sites and mission critical applications
Sites of big businesses
Websites that get heavy traffic
Shared hosting differs from Dedicated Hosting by hosting multiple sites on a single web server, whereas in Dedicated Hosting a single website is hosted on a single server. Dedicated server resources are not available in Shared Hosting but these are available in Dedicated Hosting. Server customization isn’t possible in Shared Hosting, whereas it is possible in Dedicated Hosting. The commonly-faced issues of slow site speed, inadequate performance and security concerns of Shared Hosting, do not exist in Dedicated Hosting, which excels in delivering enhanced site speed, security and performance by utilizing dedicated server resources. Last but not least, Shared Hosting is one of the most economical web hosting solutions and is an ideal hosting option for those with less budget, but Dedicated Hosting is one of the most expensive hosting services.
With so many differences that Shared Hosting and Dedicated Hosting services have between them, it goes without saying that these are on the extreme ends of the spectrum of web hosting solutions.
HTS Hosting, which is one of the most popular web hosting service providers and is regarded as the best Cloud Hosting Company, offers a wide range of Shared Hosting and Dedicated Hosting plans that are full of features and priced affordably. These hosting solutions include 24*7 technical support and are designed to offer high uptime, fast speed, fully-secure service along with top-notch site performance for the uninterrupted online availability of the hosted sites.
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