Shared Hosting vs Dedicated Hosting: So you should get your website up and running. You’ve picked a domain name, are starting to think about building your website, and have figured out how to get your products from the warehouse to your customer’s homes. But making an e-commerce website is a little more complicated than just building a website and clicking “live.” Your website needs to be hosted so that customers can always look at your information and buy from you.
Choosing the right hosting package is vital to the performance of your website. But there are a lot of options, and each package has different features and price points.
We look at the differences between shared hosting and dedicated server hosting in South Africa to help you decide which one might be best for your business.
WHAT IS SHARED HOSTING?
Shared hosting puts several websites from different businesses on the same server. The server’s resources are shared by all of the websites. Memory, disk space, and CPU usage are some of these shared resources. Shared web hosting is a very common option for business owners because it’s less expensive and has less features related to performance, security, and flexibility.
WHAT IS DEDICATED SERVER HOSTING?
With shared hosting, the server’s resources are shared among several websites. With a dedicated server, however, one website can have its server. This server and everything on it is used only by one website. The owner of a business can host as many domains as they want on one server and can add more if they need to.
So, to help you decide which one will work for you, we’ll compare their main features.
MANAGEMENT
A shared server has management features that are perfect for website owners who don’t have the time or technical skills to control more complicated tasks. The cPanel interface lets you set up email addresses, add domains, restore your website, and manage files and databases. Admin access is limited, and features can’t be changed.
On the other hand, with a dedicated server, you can run the server all by yourself. With admin access, also called “root access,” you can make changes and check how things are running without any limits. It’s important to remember that it’s up to you to keep your server running and add new features to it.
PERFORMANCE
When you use shared hosting, you have to share the resources of one server. This means that your website’s speed and storage space are limited. This option is great for websites that don’t get a lot of traffic or have a lot of products but still want to let thousands of customers check out and make at once. Shared hosting is a good choice for small, static websites.
On the other hand, a dedicated server gives website owners more bandwidth, storage space, and quick load times. This is a solution for websites that get a lot of traffic every day and have a lot of e-commerce processes.
SECURITY
Even though shared hosting offers basic security features like an SSL certificate and firewall, the fact that your IP address is shared with other website owners can put your website at risk if the other websites haven’t put in enough security.
With a dedicated server, the risk of a security breach is much lower because you’re not sharing space with other, less secure websites. In addition to your SSL certificate and firewalls, you can add more layers of security.
COST
Shared hosting is cheaper because the resources are limited and shared, while dedicated hosting is more expensive because the resources can be used in any option you want and there are no limits. But this doesn’t mean that one is better than the other. All of the options depend on what your business needs at the moment.
To help you decide between shared hosting and dedicated hosting, make about the following questions:
- How much do you want to have control over your server and how it works?
- Do you think that your website’s traffic and checkouts will stay the same or go up a lot in the near future?
- Do you need basic security features or multiple layers of security that work well?
- How much can you spend each month on a hosting package?
In short,
When hosting between shared and dedicated hosting, look at the following features to make sure you get the right one for your website:
- Server management
- Website performance
- Security for a website
- Costs of hosting
Choosing a hosting package can take some time upfront to figure out. But getting the right one for your website and, in the end, your business needs is vital to your success online.
