The Best WordPress Hosting

Shared Hosting vs Dedicated WordPress Hosting – which is best?

When it comes to hosting your WordPress website, there seem to be numerous options for you to take.

One of the most common dilemmas for WordPress hosting is whether to go for shared hosting or a dedicated host just for your website.

At the outset, they are pretty polar opposites, as you can imagine.

To get an understanding of both, let us start by looking at the mechanics of hosting.

To begin with, it starts with servers.

Both types of hosting start with your website being housed or hosted on a single server.

When a website visitor comes to your site from their browser, the server sends your website data to them.

The big difference between the two is the type of server your website is hosted on.

As the name implies, when your website is hosted on a shared server, your site lives alongside other websites.

These are like neighbours using a shared park to play in.

With dedicated WordPress hosting, your website has a server all to itself.

The Case For Shared Hosting Your Honour

So with shared hosting, several websites are being hosted on the same server.

It basically involves sharing the same resources to achieve the same result.

Hundreds of websites can be hosted on one server interface, and this brings advantages and disadvantages.

The first massive advantage for shared hosting is the cost.

The maintenance and upkeep of a shared server can be distributed amongst all the other website users keeping the costs down.

You also usually have an option to upgrade to allow more traffic and greater resource use.

Many new websites generally host on shared servers as it involves no technical skills and of course, a lower cost.

Even though it is shared, they usually come with access to the c panel allowing access to the back end of the website and other pre-installed programs.

So what of the downsides of shared WordPress hosting?

The first limitation is that of processing power. 

With other websites accessing the server, the available resource is going to less.

It can also happen that one website on the server ‘hogs’ many of the resources, which makes your site perform and load less well.

Another risk for shared hosting is security.

If one of the websites on the shared server gets blacklisted, it may impact the other sites on that server.

One of the significant differences with the shared server is the firewall.

A dedicated server will use an ‘End Point Firewall’ as opposed to a ‘Cloud Firewall’

A Cloud firewall is actually on the server companies server and is located in their data centre. 

So your traffic passes over the internet from your visit to the company data centre then back to your website.

This can leave you open to attacks and hacks from outside.

In consideration of all this, however, shared hosting is an excellent place to start for a website newbie. 

It is inexpensive and gives the ability to migrate to a larger server or dedicated hosting as your traffic grows.

The Case For Dedicated Servers Your Honour

If you opt for dedicated WordPress hosting, your website will have its very own server.

This dedicates all the resources of the server to that one website only.

All the server resources are given over to your website. Such things like processing power, memory, and total disk space, are all given to your one site.

As there are no other websites on your server, it minimizes the risk of cyber-attacks and blacklisting.

This gives you robust website performance. You have more control over your website, how it performs, and how to improve its performance.

Having a dedicated hosting service allows you to customize your server settings and code modification.

The apparent downside of dedicated hosting is cost.

Renting a dedicated server for your website can cost you monthly upwards of $80 to as much as $300 plus a month. This will be dependant on how involved you are, and the hosting company is in the server maintenance.

You will also need considerable technical knowledge to ensure you can take advantage of the customization of the server.

You will also be expected to maintain the server, which can be a burden.

You would probably only need dedicated WordPress hosting if you had a high bandwidth requirement and considerable amounts of traffic every day. 

It is usually the large corporations or larger e-commerce operators that would reap the benefits of a dedicated server situation.

The Main Points

The main points to consider then are the following:

Costs

When it comes to cost, shared hosting is the outright winner. You can secure shared hosting for as little as a £1 a month. 

Whereas you will need much deeper pockets for the luxury of a dedicated server.

Security

Your website vulnerability is more exposed to a shared hosting option. 

Because you are sharing your server, you are more open to other websites bringing internet nasties to infect or attack your website.

Having a stand-alone server means you can load it with as much security as you want and be safe in the knowledge that your site is secure.

Customization

With shared hosting, there is no chance of customization. 

In the shared scenario, any changes made would affect all your shared friends on the server.

If it is complete customization freedom you are after then, a dedicated server is what you want.

You can choose the operating system, change configurations, and run what applications you like on a dedicated server.

Reliability

Once again, the impact of others can impact the reliability of your website.

Some of your neighbours may attract large traffic numbers, which can impact the performance of your website.

You don’t have this problem with a dedicated server.

So What Is Best For Me?

I think we have highlighted the main factors that will help you choose your hosting options.

If you are a new website with little traffic and growing, then shared hosting looks right for you.

If you are a growing website with increasing traffic and have the technical requirements – then go dedicated.