by Les Scammell

Created on: January 20, 2010

To have a online presence, you must have a host. The two principal options offered for website hosting are shared and dedicated packages. A web site that utilizes dedicated hosting has the server all to themselves, whilst a shared host is shared amongst many customers. This article will assist you in selecting the one that will work best for your blog or website.

Web sites are stored on servers which are just computers that have been organized to respond to data requests from the internet. Each server has an individual Internet Protocol (IP) address made up of four numbers separated by dots such as 123.456.78.9.  

Dedicated Hosting

With a dedicated server, all the resources of the server, as well as the IP address, are unique to that web site and are yours to utilize as you desire. It can be used to host just one web site, a blog or as many as you require. You have access to the entire bandwidth of the server, and you can utilize as much disk space as required.

Organizations with large complex web sites that receive a lot of traffic really need a dedicated server. Sites with a dedicated server are also able to run any kind of script they require. This is especially important for those that are creating new scripts and have to test them without affecting other web properties.

Shared Hosting

Web sites that share a single server are sharing all the resources of that server. Shared hosting puts several web sites on the same server, all sharing the same disk space, bandwidth, and IP address. The host will cap each web site to a specified amount of disk space and bandwidth to be used each month, in order to provide sufficient service to all the shared sites. Sites that go over their limit may be charged a substantial fee or even temporarily closed down - until the end of the billing cycle when usage is reset to zero.

The number of websites being shared by a particular server is not as important as the amount of traffic each is receiving. A server hosting 200 low traffic websites will respond much faster than one with 50 sites receiving lots of visitors.

Because the cost of running the server is divided amongst many customers, shared hosting is a lot cheaper than dedicated. Shared hosting can be purchased for as little as $1 a month, whilst dedicated hosting can run to over $200 per month.

How to Decide Between Shared and Dedicated Hosting

Large complicated web sites that expect to receive 1,000 or more visitors a day should opt for dedicated hosting. It's also a good choice for developers who expect to research and test new Internet technologies. Smaller web sites that are heavy users of graphics should also elect for dedicated servers. The final group that should seriously consider dedicated servers are those to whom search rankings are vitally important. Affiliate marketers are one group that rely on search rankings - a dedicated server is often the best option for them.

Small companies and individuals with small sites are probably better off with shared hosting. The cost is certainly more reasonable. Just be sure to choose a host with a good reputation who will protect your site from others that could put your site at risk.

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