When hiring a hosting to host our website we can come across different options. We have dedicated, shared, VPS or Cloud servers . Each of them has its differentiating points and can be more useful for certain users. Therefore, it is convenient to know the differences and know how to choose which one best suits the needs of each one.
Differences between dedicated server, shared, VPS and Cloud
As we say, when we are going to hire a web server we can find different options. We can have a dedicated server, VPS or Cloud. They are different and each one has its positive points, so we must choose an option that suits us best.
When we have a website, a domain in our possession, we must link it to a server. That is, the files that will allow us to enter that site will be hosted on external storage. This is where we will find different options.
In that hosting , that web server, is where we are going to host all the images and videos of a site, the files that allow configuring certain visual aspects of that website and, ultimately, all the necessary content so that visitors can enter and navigate normally.
What is a dedicated server
First of all we are going to explain what a dedicated server is . This is the best if we want something of our own, something that we do not share with anyone else. As its name suggests, it is dedicated to each user. All resources will be available to the user who hires it.
Basically we can say that it is as if we bought a physical memory, a hard disk for example, and we used the capacity available only for us, without sharing it with anyone else.
A clear advantage of having a dedicated server is that we will be able to configure it as we want . Ultimately it is ours, we don’t have to share it with anyone else. We can take full advantage of the resources ourselves and have different options at our disposal.
We can say that what we do is rent a team , a dedicated service, for us. It is also known as a dedicated hosting server. This also gives us greater control over the applications that we are going to use on that computer.
Although we have seen the logical advantages of having a dedicated server, we must also bear in mind that the cost is higher. At the end of the day we are hiring something exclusive for us.
VPS server
A very popular alternative is VPS servers . The acronym means, in Spanish, Virtual Private Server. Here we must indicate that it is different from the previous one since it does not correspond to each user. In this case we are facing a physical server divided into different parts and each of them has its own virtual environment. Each of these parts that we mention is what is known as VPS.
In this case the cost is much lower than that of a dedicated server. We are sharing a physical server with multiple users. The functionality may be similar, but we lose total control and therefore some features. Of course, we have more freedom than with shared hosting.
However, we can customize a VPS server, since each one acts independently. We can install our own software , tools and operating systems that we want.
Ultimately we can say that a VPS server is a virtual partition of a physical server. It is interesting for users who have a web page with a medium level traffic, who do not need as much as to acquire a dedicated server.
What is shared hosting
A different case is that of shared hosting . In this case, they are more suitable for initial users who are going to try creating a blog or website. It consists of having a physical server divided for different clients. Here we lose all control, since we depend on something together.
For example, we must take into account that we will be able to use the operating system that has that physical server divided among the clients. Unlike a VPS we will not be able to install our own system.
This option is cheaper than the previous ones. At the end of the day we will also have fewer possibilities. All users will use the same settings.
Cloud server
A last option that we also have available is to use a Cloud server. It is also known as Cloud hosting . In this case we do not use a single server, but we use a cluster in the cloud.
Each of the servers in the cluster stores a copy of our website in an up-to-date manner. The purpose of the cluster is to redirect traffic from one server to another when they are busy.
We can say that a Cloud server is created using virtualization software to divide a physical server into different virtual servers. It is, therefore, one more option to host our website.
In short, these are the four main options we have to store a web page. As we can see there are differences and it is interesting that we choose which one we are going to use.
