Should you go for an apartment or a beachfront house with a lawn? Heh heh. Do you have a choice? But here the decision is not based on whether you have the money but on requirement. Let’s look at when and why you would require dedicated server.Traffic Unless you have a huge amount of traffic coming to your site, you don’t need a dedicated server. As a thumb rule, I may say a few hundred thousand hits per day should get you thinking about getting your own dedicated server. There is a reason for this. When you are using a shared service there are maybe 500 additional websites hosted on the same server as yours. Your traffic gets added to the traffic coming to other sites. It’s like evening rush on the road. When there are several cars on the highway it causes a jam- traffic jam. It’s the same with your server. When there is simultaneous traffic going to the same server, it causes problems. Sometimes your server may simply keel down and need resuscitation. This can cause immense damage to you. Your potential customers would simply walk away because your site is inaccessible.

Browsing Speed

Browsing speed goes down when traffic to your server increases. This means user experience deteriorates. A time comes when your website starts crawling. This is the time when you must consider going for a dedicated server.

Unique IP address

If you have a dedicated server, you get a unique C Class IP address along with it. You don’t have to share your IP with others. This has many advantages. Shared hosting has this inherent problem though there are ways to avoid sharing IP even here. A unique IP is also good for search engine optimization.

Shared is not actually a poor man’s option

If you have a small site with limited traffic, there is no point going for a dedicated server. It’s like hiring a truck for going to picnic. You need not feel ashamed of shared hosting. There are some things you must be careful about when going for shared server. These points have been covered elsewhere. Look here for researching your Best Web Hosting provider.

Conclusion

Everything has a place. Shared hosting is meant for specific group of websites. On the other hand, dedicated servers are for heavy duty users who expect a surge of traffic to their site. To begin with you can go with shared hosting and as your traffic increase you can opt for dedicated server. Here, there are some other options where you can add additional power incrementally. You must remember that a dedicated server comes with its own set of headaches. You may have to pay for setting up the server and later for maintenance. Sometimes we don’t factor in these costs which can add up to a tidy amount. You must do careful study before opting for one or the other.

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Sarah Lamb has tried both shared hosting and dedicated server. In her opinion, both have a place in the scheme of things. She recommends an interesting site for finding a methodology for comparing Web Hosting providers.