Dedicated and Shared, two opposite words that are the most important in the Web Hosting industry. You might be familiar with these words. Many of us always look at Shared Hosting packages to host the websites. Has anyone of us ever tried to know the disadvantage of being hosted on Shared Hosting package? In other words, why is having a Dedicated Server better than a Shared Hosting plan? If not, let us discuss the differences. Beforehanf though, let me define these two words quickly. In layman’s term, shared hosting is type of hosting where the resources of the main or physical server are shared between all the websites hosted on it, whereas, the dedicated server is fully owned by you, i.e., there is no other user sharing the resources with you. You have full access to all the resources available on your server. Now, let’s get back to the topic. So, why is the Dedicated Server better than Shared Hosting? Here is the answer.
A question to readers: Have you ever experienced or seen anyone sharing a room with any other roommates? Yes, you have! What do you think about their comfort? The answer would be, they live an uncomfortable life. They have to adjust in every part of their life. Similarly, it is with shared hosting. There are many issues that a shared hosting user might face, such as reliability, uptime, performance, use of shared IP address, unavailability of root/remote access, no capability of installing applications etc.
So what exactly are you sharing?
Reliability, Uptime, Performance: Your website uses the resources of same server that other websites use. If the any website on main server uses more resources, then this might slow down your website. If the resource usage of other websites are too much, then the server might not respond to requests for your website in a timely manner, thus you potentially losing a visitor or increasing your bounce rate. You might not get the promised uptime for your website. This might take the reliability of the hosting services in question. The recommendation here is to search for a reliable hosting provider that can handle such issues.
Shared IP address Usage: Unlike VPS or Dedicated Server, your website shares the same IP address as the other users on the server. For example if any of the users sharing your hosting are blacklisted by some search engines due to spam or phishing or any unwanted activity, then your website might also get included in the blacklist as it was hosted on the same IP address.
Unavailability of root/remote access: It is one more disadvantage of shared hosting that you do not get the root or remote access to your hosting account. You have to be dependent on the hosting provider for any changes that you on the account like rebooting the server etc.
No capability of installing applications: You cannot install any third party applications on your shared hosting account. Even if you ask the support of your hosting provider to get an application installed for you, they won’t assist you. Hence, if the website needs an application to be run then shared hosting is not for you.
Regular Server Crash: You may find server getting crashed frequently if any loading script like CGI is run on the server from any of the shared hosting user’s account. So, even if your hosting account or website is running without any loads on the server, it might be affected due to the performance of any other user on the server.
So to conclude, if you want better uptime, performance, reliability and want to feel a dedicated environment on the server without any lack of service on the network, select a Dedicated Server.