Difference Between Shared And Dedicated Web Hosting Services

What is Shared Web Hosting?

In a shared web hosting environment, many websites (or web applications) reside on a single web server. The server used for shared web hosting is called as a shared web server. In a shared environment, both the web server and the database used for storing data will be shared. This means a single database will support multiple websites running within the shared web server. Further, each site within the shared environment will be allocated a certain amount of web server and database resources—memory (RAM), CPU, hard disk and database schema—to run on. Each website in a shared environment will run within its own space or partition and will never be able to use resources allocated for other websites.

What is Dedicated Web Hosting?

In a dedicated web hosting environment, unlike shared web hosting, each website (or web application) will have its own web server and database systems. It means an entire web or database server will be dedicated to running a single website.

Clearly, a dedicated web hosting system is very flexible. The website hosting team will have complete control over the environment, i.e., the team can choose from among the various web servers, databases and other software available in the market for running their website. Websites within the shared environment will not have this choice. All the shared websites will use the same web server and database systems.

The main difference between the two hosting services lies in the amount of system resources available to each website running in the environment. In a dedicated web hosting environment, a vast amount of system resources will be available to a single web site or application. In the case of shared web hosting, each website will have a limited amount of system resources.

Advantages of Dedicated Web Hosting

- With abundant system resources, the web sites or applications running in the environment perform better.
- Security in a dedicated hosting environment is more secure than in a shared hosting environment.
- There is a choice in the software that can be used in the environment. For example, if the website running in the environment needs more security, special security software, meant specifically for this site, can be installed on the system.
- There is a higher bandwidth or data transfer speed.
- There is high availability or uptime of the websites. Unlike dedicated hosting, in a shared hosting environment, a serious problem with any one of the websites could affect the availability of the other websites.

So, When to Choose Shared Hosting Over Dedicated Hosting?

The main reason for the choice of shared hosting is the cost factor; it is economical. Since many websites share the same environment, the website hosting parties will share the cost of operating and maintaining the shared resources. It is important to note that shared hosting is suitable for lightweight websites or applications only, i.e., the ones that require relatively fewer system resources. Running a resource intensive or high traffic website on a shared server can severely degrade the website performance.

Conclusion

Given the limitations of the shared hosting environment, one has to be careful before choosing it as a hosting solution. Generally, dedicated hosting is preferred for all mission critical and high traffic websites. It is also preferred for hosting those sites that access sensitive information from the database. On the other hand, shared hosting is more suited for low traffic websites and those sites that do not need access to sensitive information.

source: http://www.cheaphostingdirectory.com/difference-between-shared-and-dedicated-web-hosting-services/