Dedicated hosting is popular between both businesses and individuals that have a sizeable website or a load of ‘mini’ websites to manage. Dedicated hosting gives the individual more control over how they use their own dedicated space and bandwidth. The amount of space and bandwidth on offer is much more than other hosting packages, but what should you remember before buying a dedicated hosting package? In this guide, we will explore all the points you should consider before buying dedicated hosting.
Do you need it?
The most important question you should ask yourself before buying any form of hosting is whether you actually need the hosting package on offer? Dedicated hosting is probably the top hosting package (depending on what one you buy) that you can buy, so it is not needed by individuals or smaller businesses, because they do not require that amount of space and bandwidth that a dedicated hosting package offers.
The Cost
Due to the amount of resources at your disposal, the price is much higher than any shared hosting packages available on the market place. You will be paying somewhere in excess of $100 a month for a good dedicated hosting package. While $1200 a year is not a lot for large businesses, it is a lot for an individual or small businesses, therefore, you need to make sure (if you decide you need dedicated hosting) that you can afford the expense, and that it is viable.
Who are you relying on?
If you are buying a dedicated hosting plan then you need to be able to trust your provider more than if you just brought a shared hosting package. Due to this extra responsibility you need to make sure that you know the ins and outs of the provider. The main question you need to answer is; how much downtime will this package have? If you are worrying about dependability, then this is a question that needs to be answered with a 100% positive answer. Having a host that is not reliable will be stressful, therefore, not worthwhile. If you are buying a dedicated hosting package then it is more than advisable to pay slightly more for reliability. If you are already paying in excess of $100 a month for a hosting package, then paying $10-20 more for increased reliability is a no brainer.
Dedicated Hosting is Tough to Manage.
If you do not have any spare time or the necessary knowledge on managing a dedicated hosting package, then the administrating tasks involved can be both long and daunting. The likelihood is that you may need one or even two people to manage your dedicated hosting package, if you decide not to take it on yourself, and of course this can be costly. If you have a good technical knowledge then you can manage the package yourself, but it will be time consuming, so you need to make sure you take this into consideration before buying a dedicated hosting plan.
It May be Dedicated but You Have No Physical Control.
Once again falling into the reliability category is the fact you have no physical control over your server. This means that if the server fails, and you lose all your information, you have to be 100% sure that your information has been backed up on a regular basis by your web host provider. The likelihood is that you will always believe what the providers say, but are their promises upstanding? To find this out you need to find independent reviews that back up what the website is actually suggesting. It is easy to write a lot of information on your website, but it is another thing to back this up.
Support Levels
You should always look at what levels of support are offered with each individual website host. If a website host does not guarantee a quick turnaround time then you instantly leave yourself open to potential problems, for example, if your website becomes non operation for no logical reason then you need to speak to somebody that handles the server, but if you cannot get hold of anyone or they are busy, your website will be non operation for an indefinite amount of time. To stop this you need to make sure that your dedicated server is under 24 hour surveillance, and that you can get hold of somebody around the clock, otherwise you will be at risk.
Dedicated hosting plans are without a doubt one of the best hosting plans on offer but this does not particularly make it the correct hosting package for your needs. Understanding the points above will allow you to make sure you are buying the right plan and that you will not be let down once you buy a dedicated hosting plan.