Web Hosting

7 Major Differences Between Shared and Dedicated Servers

August 2, 2022

This article broadly explains the difference between shared hosting and dedicated hosting server.

Are you still confused about which web hosting package to buy?

Don’t worry, you are not the only one that has this confusion. Everyone intelligent person that has ever considered setting up a website had once been in this bracket.

We are all aware that hosting is a type of internet service that keeps websites available and accessible online via the World Wide Web.

All web hostings do the same purpose but are different in terms of resources, security, and controls.

The one to choose should be determined by the application you are hosting, the level of security needed for it, the minimum resource requirements, and the level of traffic.

Among other types of web hosting available out there, we will focus mainly on the most common type of hosting, which is the shared hosting and the highly secured dedicated server.

Shared Hosting

Just like the name states (shared), this kind of hosting keeps hundreds of websites under one umbrella called the “hosting box“. All of them share the same server at the same time.

In this hosting plan, an increase in traffic of one website can easily affect other websites that are within the same hosting box. This is the major challenge experienced in most shared hosting packages.

Although some hosting has built some kind of systems where resources are allocated within the hosting box, to prevent conflict among users.

This platform was originally designed for static websites that have just a little traffic or a simple company’s website that does not attract much traffic.

If you want to host a dynamic site with high traffic, I suggest you ignore shared hosting and go for a virtual private server (VPS) or the dedicated server if you can afford it.

Or you can as well start with the shared hosting package, and upgrade when the need arises.

This is one part you will have to be sure when choosing of your web hosting company, not all will give you a swift upgrade.

One can always start with shared hosting and upgrade when the host package resources can’t handle it any longer.

Among every other type of hosting, shared hosting remains the most affordable in terms of pricing.

Over 80% of active websites in the world today are hosted on shared hosting servers.

There is no difference between hosting a site on shared hosting and other hosting services in terms of its appearance on web browsers.

It only becomes necessary to use a stronger server when the site becomes resource-demanding, as long as you are using a good hosting company.

Dedicated Hosting

Unlike shared hosting, in dedicated hosting, only a host website will be in the hosting box, utilizing the IP and sharing the server with no other site.

Dedicated hosting is better and more preferred. Websites under the dedicated platform seem to load much faster.

Although it is pretty more expensive but more secure too, it may be up to 10 times the price of the shared hosting – or even more.

Difference Between Shared Hosting & Dedicated Hosting

1. The Hosting Box

In shared hosting, multiple accounts make use of a hosting box. Here the activities of users within the same hosting box can conflict, thereby not keeping each hosting account ultimately secured.

While dedicated hosting doesn’t share its hosting box with another, it has the root control of the server, and the activities of another will not affect it.

2. Pricing

The shared host is quite affordable, it ranges from $20 to $50 annually depending on the hosting company. The reason it’s affordable is that the maintenance cost is shared among multiple users.

While the dedicated server starts from about $450 yearly. It is super expensive because only a single user maintains the whole server.

3. Vulnerability

Shared hosting is known to be the most vulnerable web hosting package. This is because it allows multiple user accounts on one server.

You can only be sure of what you do on your hosting, but you can’t tell what other users are doing. Some users may be hosting viruses and malware.

This if not managed properly by the hosting company can affect other users.

While the dedicated hosting server has the necessary security protocols to protect it from threats. Here what others are doing on their server cant be linked to you, or affect you in any way.

4. IP Address

On the shared hosting, every user on the server shares the same IP address, this means that your activities can be easily tracked.

Although some hosting companies may provide you with a private IP address to prevent threats, but you will have to pay for it separately and keep renewing it.

It becomes a problem whenever you did not renew, your IP will change back automatically, and this can be very bad for search engine optimization.

On the dedicated server, it provides you a unique IP address, which you won’t have to share with another. Some dedicated even give multiple IPs for you to choose from.

5. Site Recommendation

The shared hosting is recommended for static sites and websites with little traffic less than 1k daily traffic, as well as sites that don’t require much security.

The dedicated server is preferred for sites with much resource demand, sites with super high traffic, sites that need high profile security, and sites that process online payments.

Examples of sites that fall within this category are eCommerce websites, payments gateway platforms, online exam platforms, websites that are housing APIs, bank websites, and so on.

6. Site Traffic

Your site traffic is also a determinant feature for choosing a web hosting company.

If you receive a little traffic less than 30k monthly traffic, you can settle with the shared hosting, all things being equal.

Go for dedicated hosting if your site traffic is as much as 300k monthly or more.

There is also another hosting package between the shared hosting and dedicated known as the VPS (virtual private server).

You can choose the VPS if your site traffic is between 50k and 250k monthly. The VPS is better than the shared hosting but not as expensive as the dedicated server.

7. Bandwidth and Disk Size

Most shared hosting has limited disk size and bandwidth. Even when the disk size is said to be unlimited, there will still be a limit to the inodes, which means that it is in a real sense not unlimited.

Most best shared hosting packages offer 50k megabyte disk size or less. Imagine if you are hosting a video on your server, the size will be too small for your needs.

For the dedicated server, it is unlimited. There is no allocation of disk size or bandwidth, you have to whole server resources to yourself. Your site(s) uses the whole server CPU cores, threads, and RAM with no limitation.

What’s the difference between shared & dedicated servers?

	Shared Hosting	Dedicated Hosting
1.	Contains many sites in the hosting box	Just a site in the hosting box
2.	It is less expensive	It is more costly
3.	It more vulnerable	It is less vulnerable
4.	It shares its IP address	It does not its share IP address
5.	Recommended for static sites	Recommended for dynamic websites
6.	Preferred for websites with low and average traffic	Preferable for sites with very high traffic
7.	Mostly with metered or small disk size and bandwidth	Un-metered disk size and bandwidth

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