Evaluating the Need for a Dedicated Server

While reviewing web hosting services, many website owners get confused whether to pay for a dedicated server or not. Providing an exclusive place for your website, which doesn’t get shared with other sites, a dedicated server also gives the freedom to put one or many of your sites, at one place. But considering factors such as affordability, the dedicated server option demands more cash outflow than the shared server. It thus, requires extensive assessment and evaluation of multiple factors, to come up with a decision.

For the majority of site owners, performance matters the most. Studies have shown that most of the visitors shift their attention elsewhere, if the site doesn’t get uploaded within 10 seconds. While the delay can be caused at any point between the server and the user, but it is usually seen that the problem arises from the server. Thus, it becomes important to eliminate the problems at the server, since it is one of the points where the site owner can exercise some control.

However, the need to have a control is more important than just performance of the site. The server behavior can either impress or frustrate the users. Security is another serious issue to be considered, while talking about control over the server. With the rising spam and viruses seriously damaging the servers, it makes more sense to have your site on a single server, as it is easier to deal with, as compared to shared servers.

If there are only a few sites on a server, it is less likely to get infected by spam and viruses. Even though a dedicated server means higher investment for server security, but by keeping the site clean, protected and fortified from dangers, it surely eases a lot many tensions. Having other sites on your server lessens the control you have on your site and thus, makes your efforts meaningless.

Sharing of the IP addresses is also one of the serious problems you can face. Some web hosting services assign a single IP address to multiple sites on a server. It means that your site shares IP addresses with other domains, which can leave you helpless when faced with a problem. If one of the sites you are sharing your IP address with, gets infected by a virus or spam, then it is most likely that your site will get affected too.

In some cases, an IP address range is assigned to the server and each site receives its address from that range. Though it is better than having a single IP server, but still it doesn’t reduce the tension, since many a times, a whole IP address range is attacked, thus chances for a virus or spam attack still remain. But it is worth noting that even legitimate sources can give trouble, when you share an IP address in a range. If for some reasons, the other site gets banned, then it can also put your site into trouble, if the address range gets banned. If you are sharing a server or IP address with a spammer which has got blacklisted, then it affects the authenticity of your site as well. Thus, using a dedicated server is much better than sharing a server with multiple sites.

A dedicated server is comfortable and easy-to-handle, since you get to know what was installed on the server and by whom. Though it means more responsibilities in terms of administration, but if you wish you can hire someone to manage it efficiently. All these factors need to be evaluated well, while considering a dedicated server plan.

Popular Dedicated Hosting Providers

• ThePlanet – from $69 / mo.
• SingleHop – from $99 / mo. – EDITOR’S PICK
  
• HostGator – from $174 / mo.
• InMotion Hosting - from $199.95 / mo.
• Downtown Host – from $240 / mo.