Differences between dedicated and semi-dedicated hosting: which one to choose?

Although it may seem like a simple task, choosing good dedicated or semi-dedicated website hosting with enough responsibility and knowledge to make the best decisions can be challenging.

There are many types of hosting, such as dedicated and semi-dedicated hosting. Therefore, we will leave some important considerations to help you choose the smartest alternative, which will avoid future problems.

So, it's a mistake to think that a good website depends solely on good development. In reality, building the best user experience is a mandatory combination of a development that utilized the best technologies e a hosting that offers the best features.

With this merger, it will not just be a collection of pages aiming to grow, but a respectable website that has real conditions to do so.

Understand your demand

It's no wonder the popular saying "anything goes for those who don't know what they want" is so common. When we talk about business, investment, and work, any decision should be guided by research. After all, no one wants to waste their time or their colleagues' time, do they?

Therefore, to choose a good web hosting service, the first step is to have, readily available, some information that will guide you on the best path, which is: the expected number of pageviews, the disk space that will be used, and the number of domains that will be present.

Then, you need to train your eyes, in the face of the market hosts, to see what is indispensable and what is just there to give the impression of having many resources when, truly, such functionalities are not useful. Always remember this!

Read this article with the certainty that a development based on performance and security, with a good data center and good dedicated hosting, can be definitive for your success. Without a doubt, this choice will put you ahead of many and will even interfere with SEO from the website.

Data center

It's common to browse dedicated hosting websites and not find information indicating which data center your sites will be allocated to. At first, this might seem like irrelevant information, but I'll raise a few questions that should serve as a warning.

If you don't know, a data center is a physical facility where servers are located. With this in mind, many factors can interfere with its quality, whether related to technologies or the structure of the location itself, such as the presence of security guards, temperature, and others.

For it to be considered of quality, it needs to have the following points very well defined:

– Availability and Reliability to ensure that dedicated hosting servers and other network equipment are constantly operational and to minimize website downtime and interruptions;

– Security, with multiple layers of protection, such as physical security systems, firewalls, antivirus, and other advanced technologies to protect stored data from cyberattacks and other threats;

– Reliable and high-speed connectivity in order for websites to be accessible and faster for users around the world (which depends on other factors, of course);

– Scalability so that server resources can be adjusted as needed to meet the site's requirements and handle increasing traffic and resource demands;

– Backup and Recovery to make it possible to recover website data in case of a dedicated hosting server failure or other disruptions.

Beyond the factors mentioned, there is the classification of data centers by Tier, based on its availability and reliability levels with a focus on redundancy.

In this sense, Tier I and II data centers should be avoided at all costs in favor of Tier III and IV, which should be the focus.

As such, the higher the Tier, the greater the investment required to build and operate the data center or website hosting provider. Consequently, security and reliability will also be higher. Quality always has a price, and in this aspect, it would be no different.

Types of hosting

Just as with data centers, it is possible to identify the quality of hosting by discovering which modality will be used to host your website.

Until recently, there were only 3 types of hosting:

• Shared It's like a republic. In it, websites are hosted all on a single operating system and share all the same computing resources, databases, emails, etc. Any problem with one of the websites, whether a hacker attack or a large influx of traffic, will be enough to take down the rest as well.
• VPS (Virtual Private Server): It's like a studio apartment. Your website will be on its own operating system, without sharing a database or file system. This way, you'll have pre-defined computing resources for your virtual private server. However, problems will occur if you have noisy neighbors, meaning other people's VPS running on the same machine as yours and using 100% of their allocated resources can compromise your application's stability;
• Dedicated Server It's like a house. Unlike a studio apartment, where you share resources. Everything in your house is yours and you can use it however you wish. In other words, your website will be on a private, physical server, like a plot of land without neighbors, with all computational resources dedicated to your application.

The big problem with these modalities is that even if you have 100% of the resources dedicated to your site, physical problems could occur. That is, a disk could fail, a short circuit could damage some electronic component of the server (like a motherboard or RAM), and various other types of common computer problems. After all, a server is a computer connected to the internet 24/7.

With this, was born the cloud computingIn this modality, several servers are “combined” in order to run virtual machines, generally called instances or nodes. Thus, if a physical machine has a problem, your application is moved to another server without downtime.

Many providers often call VPS “cloud” to deceive customers, as it is difficult to differentiate a normal VPS from a cloud VPS, since both are virtual machines. The difference is that a traditional VPS runs only on a physical machine and it can go offline at any moment, as soon as the physical machine it runs on stops working for any reason.

One of the advantages of this modality is scalability, which allows you to change servers at any time according to your website's needs.

Are cloud computing instances able to migrated from server to server without any downtime, a process that usually happens automatically and completely transparently. Quality cloud providers are world-renowned, such as AWS, Google, Azure, DigitalOcean, Akamai, among others.

Besides the modalities explained above, it has become common to see a new type of hosting called “semi-dedicated”. It's a hybrid between shared hosting and VPS. Here, your site will still share the same operating system and database with other sites, but there's logical isolation at the operating system level to prevent one from causing problems for the others. It's like everyone lives in separate compartments within the same box, without disturbing the others.

Combined with cloud technology, the Cloud semi-dedicated hosting They are an excellent hosting option for small and medium websites, generally under 320,000 pageviews per month. In this case, always opt for hosting that offers cloud computing instances dedicated to your website, which will guarantee you the possibility of growth without worries.

If your site grows to the point where it no longer fits within a single cloud computing instance, it's time to move to a multi-availability zone cloud environment, in other words, a cloud made of other clouds. This is where technologies like Kubernetes and other orchestrators are used. Chances are, if you've reached this point, your company already has an internal technical team or has hired a specialized DevOps consultancy capable of handling the complexities of this type of hosting.

Support

When you research, you'll see that most of the hosts The market offers support. This is intrinsic to the product since not all entrepreneurs are technical.

However, it's not enough to signal that you'll be attended to at some point, especially considering the urgency of some demands. It is necessary for you to receive timely care..

In light of this information, seek to know the Service Level Agreement the company. Being aware of the waiting period for any given problem is a very important point to consider in the final choice. Preferably, hire hosting services that have 24/7/365 support with an acceptable average response time.

Also, a Managed support it will make all the difference. That is, find a provider that thoroughly investigates the cause and points to a resolution, even if it's not their responsibility. They will be able to analyze the application and logs to understand the problem, check plugins and themes for you, and things like that... Consequently, managed support will not abandon you if they identify that the problem is with the site and not the server. 

Choosing good dedicated or semi-dedicated website hosting is, inseparably, knowing When and how will you get a response to your questions. Once again, I need to emphasize that most clients in this industry do not have sufficient technical training to manage on their own. Having support in this regard is essential, even if it's just guidance on the next step.

In addition to anytime support, invest in hosting that offer managed support. Having a company that monitors your hosting in real-time by your side will make all the difference. 

In case of problems, you will be notified and a dedicated support team will assist in identifying and resolving issues, even if the problem is outside your scope.

A team specialized in the subject will be able to perform a true scan of your site, ranging from error log analysis to themes and plugins. 

Therefore, a company that offers managed support will not abandon you if they identify that the problem is with your website and not your server.

Web Application Firewall

O Web Application Firewall it is, by far, one of the most essential features to pay attention to when choosing good website hosting, as it acts as a “guardian” and is responsible for blocking several threats, such as IP addresses with suspicious activities, HTTP headers with strange patterns, among other activities. 

It functions as a filter, inspecting your website's incoming and outgoing traffic, blocking a range of potential attacks that could affect its operation and security, such as SQL Injections SQL injection, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and Arbitrary File Upload After a failure. 

That said, we must emphasize that security plugins and basic hardware cannot handle several types of attacks, such as cross-infections and the dreaded DDoS. In this regard, a small attack would already exhaust all the connection and CPU/memory of your server. 

When I say to run away from plugins and software like ModSecurity, it's because it's just one cloud Web Application Firewall (emphasis on cloud) is capable of truly protecting your website. This is because cloud WAF is not just software you install on your server: it has hundreds of filters and a very high network and processing capacity because it has several servers spread across data centers (points of presence) around the world. Thus, it becomes capable of mitigating attacks in a fragmented, localized, and professional manner.

However, the only problem is that it has a cost per site, which is a common practice to limit how much bandwidth you can consume or even the number of HTTP/HTTPS requests processed. After all, they need to afford a very robust infrastructure.

Today, the best cloud WAFs are already prepared to protect you against this type of attack with extremely specialized hardware. By this, we mean that investing in security plugins never compares to or equates to hosting that offers you cloud WAF and commits to your security.

No effort will make up for the loss of being invaded when it could have been avoided, wouldn't you agree? With the LGPD, the data leak has become even more damaging, and the fines could total up to 50 million reais. Here, we focus on the premise that “There's no such thing as too much security.”, because it really isn't.

Overall, a professional cloud WAF costs an average of $10, so it's rare to find it included for free., although it is not impossible.

In addition to all this guaranteed protection, implementing a cloud WAF can also help improve the website's reputation and demonstrate to users and customers that security is a priority for the website owner and that effective security measures have been taken to protect it.

CDN and Cache

A content delivery network, known as Content Delivery Network, is composed of a network of servers distributed geographically in different locations around the world. 

So, when a user requests access to the site, she will serve them through the server closest to the request, which has a cached version. This way, content is delivered faster, which helps reduce latency and improve website loading speed.

On this subject, to have premium cache it's essential. It is responsible for storing frequently accessed pages statically. Therefore, when accessing a page, the browser will display a static version and will not make a new request, which saves resources and provides faster navigation.

Given this, when choosing good website hosting, opt for one that offers a CDN included in its hosting plan and whose CDN has a point of presence in your country, thus ensuring very low network latency for accessing your sites.

Optimization services

The platform optimization service aims to improve your website's performance by adjusting configuration parameters, installing and uninstalling plugins, and conducting numerous analyses and tests to make it even faster. Its objectives are:

• improve website loading speed, which decreases bounce rate and improves user experience; 
• reduce the load on the hosting server by optimizing website code and reducing file sizes;

• helps with SEO, improving the site's ranking in search results.

As a result, your site will be faster and consume fewer resources if it is optimized. However, hiring this quality service on its own costs around 500 dollars per site. So it would be very interesting to find a hosting company that offers it for free.

It's worth remembering that this service goes beyond installing a plugin cache because it requires a specialized professional who will follow a series of procedures to make the necessary adjustments and tests without breaking the entire site.

Finally, optimize your website's images it is also important And, in fact, it will be rare to find this service included in hosting plans, although it's worth looking for. Typically, plugins that perform this function, when contracted externally, cost at least $5 per month per site. Therefore, also keep this aspect in mind when choosing your hosting. It will be great if you have this feature included!

Give the value a good dedicated hosting deserves

As I pointed out above, The best experience is composed of a combination of factors. Therefore, be shrewd when choosing a good web hosting provider and a development agency. Good companies already have a culture of using the best resources and maintaining a good relationship with their clients.

When we talk about investing time, money, knowledge, and energy, the entire journey leading to the final destination is important. Don't waste your effort choosing one bad aspect and one good one.. In technology, it is important for all resources to work together. Therefore, everything needs to be the best it can be! Never forget to understand What is essential and what is only exposed to mislead youAnd after you've walked the path, be sure to share here with us if this article helped you!

Lucas Pelisari

Lucas Pelisari has been an SEO and content specialist at UpSites for over 6 years, working on the creation and optimization of digital strategies focused on lead generation and organic growth.With experience in website development projects, on-page SEO and link building, he works directly on structuring content and pages aimed at positioning on Google and acquiring qualified traffic.Throughout his career, he has worked on projects for companies such as Kommo, Aldanth, Physical Care, In4, Design.com, Adaptive, Clipto and YeSim, as well as several other clients served by UpSites.He works on projects in different niches, including technology, SaaS, services and local businesses, with a focus on performance, conversion and scalability.Her work is directly linked to lead growth and increased organic visibility, with projects that have seen consistent traffic gains after implementing SEO and content strategies.His content covers topics such as professional website creation, SEO, page structure, performance, user experience and digital growth strategies, always with a practical approach based on real market scenarios.Professional networks:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucas-widmar-pelisari-78920033/Instagram: https://instagram.com/lucaswidmar

See all posts