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Shared vs. Dedicated Web Hosting |
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Your Web hosting company can be your site's best friend or worst enemy - depending on the level of service and responsiveness. A successful Web site depends on a good Web host, but it's just as important to select the right kind of hosting account.
Before purchasing any web hosting package ask yourself this question? Are you willing to share space on a server with other sites or do you need a server of your own? You should have some idea to this before purchasing web hosting because you must decide whether you need Shared or Dedicated hosting. Here are some descriptions of each so that you can choose which suits you best. |
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The basic difference between Web hosting accounts is whether a site has its own server or shares one with other Web sites. That arrangement determines whether the site has its own IP address or shares one with other sites.
Most small to medium-sized sites use a type of hosting called "virtual hosting" where a number of Web sites reside on the same server. Because the sites share a server, they also share an IP address. Large and/or busy sites usually can't share server space because the volume of Web traffic from many sites would quickly overwhelm the server. Those sites either operate their own servers or select a "dedicated hosting" option from their Web host. Dedicated hosting means that your site is the only site residing on the server and so you aren't sharing an IP address with any other site. |
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Shared Hosting
A Shared Hosting Plan is a website hosting plan in which your website shares server space with 200-500 other websites. While you do not share website files, pictures, or emails, you are essentially sharing the allotted disk space and bandwidth assigned to one specific server. In a typical shared hosting environment, you are only allowed to use a certain percentage of the central processing unit (CPU): i.e. the computer processor that handles all requests made to the server. If you own a small or personal website that does not receive heavy traffic, downloads, does not store a variety of pictures, video, or audio files, and/or which does not require SSH/Shell Access for installing applications or programs, you can get by with reliable shared website hosting. |
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Dedicated Hosting
A Dedicated Hosting Plan is a website hosting plan in which your website encompasses an entire web server. What you do with this server is completely up to you, so you can host your entire website without sharing hard drive resources, CPU, or bandwidth with any other website in the world. You can host unlimited domain names and customize the server to your specifications by choosing the amount of hard drive storage space, bandwidth, RAM, backup space, and by adding managed hosting services, choosing your own control panel, and even operating systems. Dedicated hosting costs more, but offers more features and benefits. With dedicated hosting, you're the only site on the server and have your own IP address. A dedicated IP address used to be a requirement for SSL (secure sockets layer) encryption, but some hosting companies now offer it as part of virtual hosting packages. |
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Because you have the server to yourself, dedicating hosting is more expensive. It's like owning a home instead of renting an apartment. Like any homeowner, your costs will be higher, but there are benefits to the arrangement:
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