Dedicated Web Hosting - Do You Need it?

What's Dedicated Web Hosting

A dedicated web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting where the client leases an entire server not shared with anyone. This is more flexible than shared hosting, as organizations have full control over the server(s), including choice of operating system, hardware, etc. And typically, you would receive connectivity to the Internet, redundancy measures, and monitoring.

Dedicated hosting is in contrast to shared hosting, in which multiple customers share a single web server. Dedicated server solution are for large, professional web sites with either: a great deal of traffic, secure e-commerce applications, sensitive content, non-shared web or Internet software applications hosting, or value-added resellers (VARs) and developers providing shared hosting services to their customers.

Types of Dedicated Web Hosting

There are two types of Dedicated Servers: Managed and Unmanaged.

Managed Dedicated Servers are more expensive. However, the host will do all of the security updates, operating system updates and control panel updates for you. This is a big plus if you don’t know what you are doing when it comes to server administration. It is generally worth the extra cost.

With an Unmanaged Dedicated Server, you are responsible for all of the updates and software installs. This is a great option if you are experienced with server administration, as it is almost always cheaper than a Managed Dedicated Server. You are also able to install whatever software you want with Unmanaged Dedicated Servers. However, be aware that if you do happen to need host assistance with your server it will cost you extra money. Unmanaged Dedicated Servers can take a lot of time to administer as well, which could mean you will spend less time developing content and features for your site.

Benefits of Dedicated Web Hosting

So, what's the special benefits you can get from a dedicated hosting, below are some for you:

• Fast and Powerful - In dedicated web hosting, your web site will use all the resource of a server so that the response time will not impact by the other web site and the restriction of your account. In a shared web hosting, the vendor will limit your site usage on the hardware resource of the server such as CPU, memory, etc. Once your traffic has exceeded this limitation, your site will be slow down. And at the same time, since there are a lot of web sites hosted in the same server as yours,  when they get too much traffic, the response time of your site will be impacted consequently.
• Security - Information on a shared server is likely to be less secure than information on a dedicated server. A dedicated server can also be provided with its own firewall. If you are storing highly sensitive information on your server, this increased security will obviously be a high priority.
• Flexibility and Software - Since you have the full control on the server, you can decide the OS and the software you want to install on the server, this give you the control and the flexibility you need for your business.
• Service - Usually, a dedicated web hosting company can give better service to their customers than what of the shared hosting vendors, since they have no need to face huge list of customers and can put more focus on the each request they have received.

When You Need a Dedicated Web Hosting

Do I need a dedicated hosting? The answer is hard to make, especially considering a shared web hosting will cost you less than $10/month but a cheapest dedicate web hosting will take more than $30/month off your pocket. Even though, we still can find some guideline to help you make the decision.

• If your site is with secure e-commerce applications or sensitive content, then a dedicated web hosting will be a good choice.
• If you want to get the benefits of dedicated web hosting we listed in above, go for it.
• If your web sites become unstable because of too many traffics (in most case, when you get more than 500 unique traffic per day), you will need to consider upgrading your web hosting to dedicated server

How to Find an Affordable Dedicated Web Hosting

Dedicated hosting means Powerful, but it's much more expensive at the same time. Your site, just like anything else, need to budgeted. To find an affordable solution will take you some time, but it's worth all the effort eventually. Below are some useful tips to help you find out the most appropriate one for your site.

• There are many different level dedicated servers with different price available from the vendors, the monthly price can range from $30 to several hundred dollars. It would be good to figure out the required hardware (CPU, disk space, memory, etc) for your site, and only purchase for what you need.
• If you have your own IT support team, then you can consider an unmanaged dedicated server. The price of managed dedicated server is higher than an unmanaged one.
• Do some search on your hosting vendors. You should find a reliable one instead of a cheap one. Some basic research including reading the web hosting review online, calling them to ask the questions you have , and sending an email to them to see their response time. You also can consider the vendors who have won the award of the Best Dedicated Web Hosting, they are really very experienced and win a lot of honors for providing exceptional service to their customers.