Everyone who has a website has to have a host. These web hosts come in two available options: dedicated web hosting and shared web hosting. Dedicated web hosting refers to a website that has the server all to itself, while shared web hosting splits the server between multiple customers. This article will help you choose the one that will work best for your personal website.

Servers are computers that have been set up to respond to internet data requests. Websites are stored on these servers and each server has its own individual Internet Protocol (IP) address.

With a dedicated server, all the resources of the server, including the IP address, are completely unique solely to one website and can be used by the owner as he or she wishes. It can be used to host just one site or many more. Since you will have access to the entire bandwidth of the server, you will be able to use as much disk space as you need.

Companies with large complex websites oftentimes get a lot of traffic, so they really require a dedicated host. Plus, when on a dedicated server, they will also be able to run any kind of script they choose, which is incredibly essential for businesses that constantly develop new scripts that need to be tested without bothering neighboring websites.

Websites that share a single server end up sharing all the other resources of that computer, as well. Shared hosting bunches several websites together onto the same server, where they will share all the same bandwidth and disk space, as well as the IP address. Each site will be limited to a specific amount of bandwidth and disk space monthly, so that shared sites will receive sufficient services, as well. Sites that exceed their limit may be charged extra or might even be suspended for a span of time until the matter is fixed.

How many sites sharing the shared server does not really matter. What matters more is the amount of traffic that each server receives. A server that hosts hundreds of sites that receive minimum traffic will still respond much faster than a server that hosts fifty sites that receive maximum traffic.

Arriving requests are dealt with on a first-in-first-out sequence. If a large queue is waiting, there will naturally also be a long wait, since each server only receives a limited amount of bandwidth. The amount of traffic your neighboring sites receives greatly impacts how well your website is shown online.

Shared hosting is much cheaper compared to dedicated hosting since the cost of operating the server is divided amongst a number of customers. Shared hosting may cost as little as two dollars monthly, while dedicated hosting may costs hundreds monthly.

Shared hosting brings a number of risks with it, though. If one of the users you share the server with runs a bad programmed script; chances are, the entire server will go bad. In such situations, your website is sure to be shut down indefinitely. If one of the users you share the server with gets banned from search engines for spamming, the entire server could get banned, as well, since you share the same IP address. It would be smart to check the policies of a hosting company first, if this sounds like it would be a bother to you. This way, you will see what their policy is about third-party scripts and other various inappropriate activities.

Basically, it is ideal for large complicated websites that receive thousands of visitors daily to opt for dedicated hosting. This would also be the ideal choice for developers who expect to test and research the latest internet technologies.

For individuals and smaller companies, a shared web hosting package may be enough. Besides, the cost is much more reasonable. Just make sure that the host you choose has a good reputation of protecting your site from those that may put your site at risk.