Shared Vs Cloud Vs Dedicated Hosting: Top 7 Differences

shared vs cloud vs dedicated

There are a lot of options available in the market, you need to dig deeper into Shared vs Cloud vs Dedicated hosting to decide which best suits your needs.

Since you have stumbled upon this article, there are chances you want to get your websites/apps up and running on the internet. Or you are facing issues with the current hosting service. 

When I started with my personal website, I was confused too. The pool of options was overwhelming and I saw my friends falling for shared hosting (obviously, because of the price).

Before taking a final call, ask yourself these Questions:

  • What’s my monthly budget?
  • Daily and monthly traffic I expect on my website
  • Any expected traffic spikes? If yes, how much?
  • Security requirements.
  • Do I need a dedicated IP for my website?
  • Is private SSL required?
  • Do I need server root access?

Shared Vs Cloud Vs Dedicated Hosting

The difference between Shared, Cloud and Dedicated Hosting is that cloud and dedicated hosting are expensive, secure and reliable than the shared hosting. Shared hosting is affordable but the website shared the resources with other websites, get downtime often, and load slowly.

Let’s explore the difference between shared, cloud and dedicated hosting on these terms:

  1. Pricing
  2. Uptime
  3. Security
  4. Scalability
  5. Support
  6. Speed
  7. SEO

#1 Pricing

In shared hosting, the prices are cheapest. This is because all the resources are shared and therefore, cuts the cost.

The payment is on a monthly or yearly basis. The longer time you opt for, the cheaper it gets.

With cloud hosting, costs depend on how your infrastructure is built. If rightly configured, cloud and dedicated hosting prove cost-effective.

Though expensive, cloud hosting and dedicated hosting comes with a ton of features.

Conclusion: Shared hosting is better if you are tight on budget or have a small blog. For portfolio site and personal blogs that do not get much traffic, shared hosting work great.

shared vs cloud hosting

#2 Uptime

If you are looking for higher uptime, shared hosting might disappoint you. Although shared hosting providers guarantee to provide 99.99% uptime, there are some obvious limitations.

One of the major reasons is the shared nature of the service. If you have an expected traffic spike, there will be downtime issues.

If another site that is sharing the resources with your blog gets lots of traffic, your site will load slowly, as that site would be consuming most of the bandwidth.

Whereas, with cloud and dedicated hosting, the uptime is top-notch as the entire server is yours and the quality is way better.

Conclusion: If you are not expecting much traffic, shared is okay. But if you have an international business site that needs to be running 24/7, having dedicated and cloud hosting is a much better option.

#3 Security

No matter which hosting it is, security majorly depends on configuration and tuning. However, there are a few ifs and buts.

In shared hosting, there are higher chances your website is vulnerable to hackers. This is because once a hacker has access to the shared hosting server, it is easier to access other websites.

Whereas, cloud and dedicated hosting providers offer access to control to the user so that they can protect their data and privacy. Other than that, if there’s any hardware problem, the hosting provider migrates your website to a stable server.

Conclusion: In the battle shared vs cloud and dedicated hosting, the latter is a clear winner since it provides full control to the user.

cloud vs dedicated hosting

#4 Scalability

Scalability is easier in a cloud or dedicated hosting as there are extra resources available at your disposal. Whereas, shared hosting limits you on resources. Therefore, you can’t scale if you see a traffic hike.

The result might be a slow site or suspension. With shared hosting, you cannot increase the bandwidth or space on the server, as it is not yours. The resources belong to several other sites. 

Conclusion: Cloud server hosting and dedicated server hosting are a suitable option if you are looking to scale. For starting, shared hosting works fine, but as the site grows, you get to choose better hosting services.

#5 Support

Cloud and dedicated hosting users enjoy more benefits compared to shared users. From bandwidth to storage, they have an upper hand.

Whereas, since the shared hosting is used by a lot of people, the support is limited.

Although your plan might promise unlimited resources, if the resource utilization is beyond a set level, your provider might suspend your account.

Conclusion: Cloud and dedicated hosting provider better support, as they cost more. Having a cloud hosting or dedicated hosting means the site owner is serious about the site. The hosting provider offers the best support as per the plans.

#6 Speed

Shared hosting often lacks speed. This is because if one website gets a sudden spike in traffic, all the other websites tend to slow down. You will have to wait until the issue is resolved.

With Cloud and Dedicated Hosting, the resources are all yours. Therefore, your website speed tends to be even under 3 seconds.

Conclusion: In Shared vs Cloud vs Dedicated hosting, cloud and dedicated are clear winners. Shared Hosting sites are always slow, does not matter how many plugins and caching you implement.

#7 SEO

Google has made clear that speed is a ranking factor. And with the mobile-first update, it is clear that Google wants web owners to cater to the needs of phone users.

Dedicated and Cloud hosting reduces the loading time significantly. When on the shared hosting, the loading time depends on the volume of traffic other sites are having.

The next thing is trust and security. You cannot control the quality of the sites you are sharing space with. But Google looks at it. The name is – bad neighbourhood.

Conclusion: For having better search rankings, cloud hosting and dedicated hosting is better than shared hosting.

Shared vs Dedicated vs Cloud Hosting

Differences/HostingShared HostingDedicated HostingCloud Hosting
PricingLow CostModerately CostHigh Cost
Uptime99.59%-99.97%99.98%-99.99%99.98%-99.99%
SecurityLowHighHigh
ScalabilityNoYesYes
SupportNot MuchDepend on the PlanDepend on the Plan
SpeedLowFastFast
SEONgeative to NeutralPositivePositive

Learn more: VPS vs Dedicated Hosting: Difference you Need to Know

Shared Vs Cloud Vs Dedicated Hosting: Final Words

Choosing the right web hosting entirely depends on your needs.

When to choose cloud & dedicated hosting

  • If you are a small-medium business receiving high traffic.
  • There could be unexpected spikes in traffic
  • Possibility to scale up
  • Uptime is crucial
  • If the business dependent on emails and websites.
  • Security is a concern.

When to choose Shared Hosting

  • Individual or small business simply looking to run a blog and have a little space on the internet.
  • If your needs are minimal and you don’t care about extra features.
  • If you are on a low budget.

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