Shared Hosting Versus Dedicated Hosting

by: Georgina Clatworthy

Every business needs a web hosting solution to fit its particular needs. A business website owner has to consider both the elements involved in maintaining a basic website structure and those more complicated elements required for doing business online. Examples of elements include email newsletters and e-commerce stores. Additionally, business owners have to consider how much daily Internet traffic they are getting to their sites, assess security risks and how much processing power and memory are necessary for the site to function.



Why Is Business Web Hosting Necessary?



Business web hosting gives businesses a place to operate as they grow and work to better reach their target markets. Two types of web hosting that businesses tend to use are shared hosting and dedicated hosting. Shared hosting, more common than dedicated hosting, involves one server being split into multiple accounts. Each account has a user, and the user utilizes the portion of resources, such as processing power and memory, allotted to the site he or she maintains.



Shared Hosting and Dedicated Hosting Have Different Benefits



The most obvious difference between these two business web hosting options is cost. Shared hosting is cheaper, not only because one server’s costs are split among many accounts, but also because when maintenance or repair is needed, the costs of that are also split. Maintenance and repair can be costly, and the fact that the onus is not entirely on any one person can mean huge savings for those utilizing shared hosting. However, dedicated hosting can be preferable for larger business, because such an option provides more space for expansion, more memory and less interference when customers who are visiting the site.



Conclusion



Shared hosting is a good solution for smaller business with fewer resources, while dedicated hosting can be optimal for larger companies. However, once a small business grows enough, it can migrate its site from shared hosting to dedicated hosting in order to ensure that the server being used can accommodate a business with a larger number of web pages, emails and other data.