Shared Hosting vs. Dedicated Hosting: Which is Right for Your Business?

Web hosting is an absolute necessity for all businesses with a website. It allows businesses to store all the data needed for their website to run smoothly while keeping it all secured. 

With so many options to choose from, it is hard to decide which type of hosting service to invest in. For this reason, we are featuring two of the most popular hosting services – Shared and Dedicated Hosting. Read further to help you make the best decision regarding where, and how, to host your site!

Shared Hosting

Shared Hosting is one of the most used hosting services. As the name suggests, it functions by hosting multiple websites on one server. This is fairly inexpensive to use and involves sharing resources with other users. However, hosting hundreds or even thousands of websites on a single server can create a lot of advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages of shared hosting

• Inexpensive- If you’re low on budget and looking for a quality hosting service, then Shared Hosting is perfect for you. A single server’s maintenance costs is distributed among its many users. In this way, it lowers individual costs to customers in the process. Moreover, you also have the option to pay more to upgrade your storage or resources to allow more website traffic, or bigger use of storage space.
• Easy to use- Another benefit of Shared Hosting is that it’s easy to use. New websites usually use this service since it requires little technical skill. Overall, Shared hosting comes with a control panel to manage the website, and pre-installed programs to accommodate most websites. Moreover, server setup is done by the hosting providers, so more or less the hosting is ready to use upon turnover to the client.

Disadvantages of shared hosting

• Joint server resources- Shared Hosting is a great option for new websites since it provides basic resources and is fairly easy to use. With that said, however, it does have its limitations. One of those disadvantages is the “bad neighbor effect.” Basically, this is where one website on a shared server takes over most of the resources. When this happens, it can cause other websites on the server to slow down. Luckily, the chances of this happening are low since professional hosting companies provide more than enough resources to accommodate their users.
• Security Risk- Another risk of using this hosting service is that your server’s IP address could be blacklisted if someone on the same server is sending out spam. To prevent this from happening, make sure you pick a web hosting provider with policies against this abuse.

Dedicated Hosting

Unlike Shared Hosting, Dedicated Server Hosting is a single server specifically for the use of your business website. This helps cut out the competition in the process and results in better overall website performance. In this hosting service, you have more control over your server, how fast it goes, and what to do. However, it does come with a price and requires more knowledge in order to maintain it. 

Advantages of dedicated hosting

• Full control of server resources- Since there is no server sharing involved, there are no bad neighbor effects. This means that all of your server’s processing power, memory, and disk space can be focused on your website. Moreover, there will be no other user who could expose your website to cyber threats and cause it to be blacklisted.
• Customizing capabilities- Another advantage of a Dedicated Server is its ability to use extensive customization, which helps you optimize your server settings. Not only that, but it also gives you root access so that you can modify software code.

Disadvantages of dedicated hosting

• Expensive- Although it offers a more secure hosting service, it does come with a price. Renting dedicated servers is expensive than a shared hosting. It can cost up to 10x more of the latter depending on the storage and resources your website needs.
• Requires technical knowledge- Dedicated servers require a high level of technical knowledge. This is especially true if you want to maximize your hosting server’s customizability. If you want to pursue this service, we recommend hiring a server admin or purchasing a plan that includes server management support.

Choose the perfect hosting service today!

Picking the right server is important especially if you want to maximize the performance of your website. For instance, shared hosting would be the best option if you don’t need immense bandwidth, memory, or control, then. On the contrary, if your website requires lots of server resources, and your team can efficiently manage a specialized hosting setup, go with dedicated web hosting. Whatever you decide to get, make sure to avail it from a reliable hosting provider and from one of the best hosting providers in the country, iManila!

With 27 years of experience in the industry and an IT company at its core, iManila, having been one of the first Internet Service Providers in the Philippines, a web development company and a top digital marketing company in the country, is committed to providing our clients with innovative information technology, web, and digital solutions.

As one of the best web hosting providers in the Philippines, iManila is also a full-service business web development company and digital marketing agency in the Philippines ready to help you with your web design and development, website update and maintenance, web hosting, email hosting, dedicated server, technical, desktop and remote support, and digital marketing services needs.  Talk to us!