Shared or dedicated?

There are basically two types of hosting service: shared and dedicated. They differ in terms of performance and price. Their characteristics are as follows:

Shared hosting. It's a configuration where several websites are put on on single server. This way the hosting company can reduce its cost, and their services can be much cheaper. However, there are usually much more limits on the storage and bandwidth, because one server must handle several websites at once. You should choose this kind of hosting if your website will not get really many visitors (less than few thousands a day).

Dedicated hosting. Your website is the only one hosted on the server. You can utilize full hard disk size for your website, you can run scripts which consume lots of CPU power, and you can have many more visitors on your website. You should choose this type of hosting if you plan to run a very popular website, or you have high storage or bandwidth requirements (for example, site with free downloads).

When you cannot find any information whether the offered hosting services are shared or dedicated, they are most likely shared ones. Dedicated hosting very rarely costs less than $80 a month, so if hosting plans you are interested in are significantly cheaper, they are most definitely shared ones.

Need more help? Ask your questions at our Hosting forum!

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