Advantages of dedicated hosting over shared hosting

Properly selected hosting for a commercial website often becomes the main factor determining the success of a business. It is considered a cornerstone for online sales for a reason. After all, the work of the website directly depends on the efficiency and reliability of the server: the speed of response, the correctness of the display of information, as a result – ranking, traffic, and conversion. That is why it is very important to choose a good hoster. 

This is the case when it is better to spend time and effort searching for a provider than to pay money and not get the desired result on site performance and security. It is important not just to find a good service provider, but also to choose the best hosting option – one that will solve all the problems of efficient operation of a web resource and provide the required amount of capabilities without overpaying for unnecessary capacity. In simple words, you need to choose a hosting with an optimal combination of parameters such as price and volume of services provided. 

Hosters often offer site owners the following options: shared virtual hosting, hosting on a VPS (virtual private hosting), or dedicated server hosting (dedicated server). Let’s consider the possibilities and attractiveness of each of them for an e-commerce site. 

Which hosting should I choose for a commercial website?

The first option – shared virtual hosting – is not suitable at all for a promising trading platform with growing traffic. The site owner will have to share the server capacity with numerous neighbors. This is fraught with a drop in page loading speed, slowing down the web resource during peak hours. Sites on shared virtual servers are often perceived by search robots as unreliable sites. Accordingly, you cannot count on frequent appearances in search results and high traffic. In this case, your business is not very likely to prosper. 

Another thing is a virtual private server and dedicated hosting. Both of these options can be considered for hosting a commercial site. But the virtual private server has several significant drawbacks, which the site owner needs to know about before signing the contract with the hoster.            

Safety

Sharing space with other sites is risky enough. Even if the provider allocates you your own amount of dedicated memory and power, your web resource is still adjacent to the same physical server. If one of your forced neighbors is recognized by search robots as unreliable due to questionable content, excessive or, conversely, low activity, then your store also risks being on the “black list”. After all, in addition to power, memory, and physical hardware, you will share an IP address. 

Another thing is the dedicated IP address that you get when renting a dedicated server. It is not just “your own” power, the amount of operating memory, and other capabilities that are at your disposal. You are actually given a separate server to use. No neighbors whose bad reputation search engines can associate with you. No drops in the speed of the site in peaks. Hosting on dedicated servers is also famous for its effectiveness against advertising software, DDoS attacks. 

It’s like comparing a dorm and your own apartment. In the first case, you never know who will live with you in the room. Even if the neighborhood turns out to be good, you still have to share the space and its possibilities. On the other hand, the owners of entire apartments can do what they want, without regard for the environment.    

And, perhaps, most importantly: for an e-commerce site whose visitors make payments via credit cards (PCI DSS), SSL certificates will be required. Only dedicated hosting can ensure confidentiality and security, which is so important when working with users’ personal data.  

Optimal settings

Renting a virtual private host server, the site owner gets it with the server environment – certain configurations. Of course, most VPS provide Root access, allowing you to change the server settings. You can also install the desired software. However, the possibilities of ensuring the convenience of the site and its security are limited. 

Whereas the dedicated server is distinguished by the access to the kernel and file system. The site owner themself determines which operating system and which software is more convenient for them to work with. The hosting tenant downloads the necessary software and configures the hardware for their own needs. 

You can install, run and implement any applications yourself. You can activate special security measures and much more. As they say, “He who pays the piper calls the tune».

Performance

Listing the advantages of hosting on a dedicated server, it is impossible not to mention the reliability of work. This feature is due to the fact that server resources do not need to be shared with other sites. All the resources of the machine are fully allocated for the performance of one project. And these resources can be increased if necessary. 

Therefore, server failures and downtime are excluded. Due to this, the website works stably, is considered effective in terms of SEO, and becomes more visible on the web. This is very important for an e-commerce platform, as traffic is growing and the conversion of visitors is improving.

Technical assistance 

Many site owners are afraid that by renting a dedicated server, they get not only advanced features but also a serious load – the need to maintain the server. That’s not so. The provider reserves the responsibility for technical support of hardware. Moreover, the hoster’s technical assistance is available around the clock.   

Hosting price

This is the only parameter by which a dedicated host server is inferior to a virtual private counterpart. The highest VPS rate will be cheaper than renting a dedicated server. However, the difference in price is compensated by the preferences of a dedicated host server. Therefore, before making a choice, analyze all the factors again. 

Conclusion

As a rule, a dedicated server is chosen by large information projects and e-commerce sites. It will be an excellent choice for those who are focused on increasing traffic and do not intend to put up with the limitations of virtual private hosting. Don’t forget that modern users are impatient. When using the mobile Internet at an unstable speed, slow loading of the site may be observed. And this is a direct road to losing customers. With a dedicated server, such a problem will not arise.