When building a website, you will be faced with the choice of using shared hosting or dedicated hosting. Well, because it affects the performance of your website, you should first identify the difference between shared hosting and dedicated hosting.
Although you can use both types of hosting services according to the needs of your website, there are advantages and disadvantages to each. So, so you don’t make the wrong choice, let’s get to know each type of hosting and compare the two in this article!
What is Shared Hosting?
Shared hosting is a type of web hosting where you share a server with several other users. This means that you have to share hosting resources, such as storage and memory.
In general, resource sharing will not affect website performance with fair use. Because, the hosting party certainly has determined the optimal settings for the user.
Even so, there are some things to keep in mind when using a shared hosting service.
First, you can only use resources within the limits set by the hosting provider. Second, you cannot add special facilities or features on shared hosting other than those already specified.
If likened to, shared hosting is like a boarding house, where you share common facilities such as a kitchen, bathroom, and parking lot. Excessive use of one facility, such as parking, will have an impact on other users.
What is Dedicated Hosting?
Dedicated hosting is a type of web hosting where the server is only used by one user. That way, you are free to use the resources you have and add facilities according to the needs of the website.
This type of hosting can be likened to a private home because you are free to use its facilities. In fact, you can add other facilities, such as a swimming pool and garden.
With a special server for your own use, the quality of the website will certainly be better. In fact, you can use it for the types of websites that require high resources.
Even so, of course there are disadvantages of dedicated hosting that you need to consider before using it.
So, let’s take a closer look at the difference between shared hosting and dedicated hosting, not only from the use of the server.
Difference Between Shared Hosting and Dedicated Hosting
Here is a comparison between shared hosting and dedicated hosting in five criteria:
1. Performance
Both shared hosting and dedicated hosting can produce good performance or performance.
The difference is, if you use shared hosting, your hosting performance can be disrupted if other users use excessive resources. As a result, your website’s overall performance will be reduced if that happens.
Meanwhile, the performance of dedicated hosting is certainly more stable thanks to the use of its own server. So, there will be no decrease in website speed due to other parties such as shared hosting.
Even so, you need to determine the best settings to get more optimal performance if you use dedicated hosting.
2. Security
Shared hosting and dedicated hosting are both safe to use for various types of websites. In fact, it is not uncommon for hosting providers to provide additional protection to ensure the security of your website.
What distinguishes the two is the user’s freedom to change security settings according to the needs of the website.
On shared hosting, you can’t add custom apps or scripts for added security. This is because the hosting provider has determined the use of certain security features that are considered optimal.
Meanwhile, dedicated hosting allows you to freely manage your own hosting security. You can define configurations or add applications to build the desired security system.
3. Ease of Use
Shared hosting can be said to be more suitable for beginners because the server is already configured by the hosting provider. Even important components such as server operating system (OS) and control panel are already installed and ready to use.
In short, when you use shared hosting, you can immediately use it to create a website.
Not only that, to manage hosting and websites, you just need to click on various menus in the shared hosting control panel. So, ease of use for beginners is indeed an advantage of shared hosting.
Meanwhile, dedicated hosting offers the freedom to set up server configurations. You can install the server OS and control panel yourself as you wish.
That way, hosting settings can be adjusted to the needs of the website without any restrictions. Unfortunately, this freedom requires good technical skills. If there is a wrong setting, it will be bad for your website.
4. Scalability
If the number of website visitors is increasing, you need hosting with specifications that can handle spikes in access to the website.
Shared hosting offers website resources that are more suitable for a standard number of visitors. For example, blogs, company profiles, and small online shops.
For websites that are crowded with visitors, dedicated hosting can be a more appropriate choice. The reason is, this type of hosting has much more appropriate resources to handle high traffic.
5. Price
Shared hosting prices are very affordable. You can buy it starting from IDR 10,000 per month. This is certainly an option for users who are just starting to build websites.
Meanwhile, the price of dedicated hosting is more expensive because it provides higher specifications, starting from IDR 1.8 million per month. However, the price is reasonable for the huge resources and the freedom to set up hosting as needed.
