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What do you do when you’ve created a successful web site, one that is so successful that your current hosting plan just is not up to the job and your hosting company are not too pleased with you?

It is a nice predicament to have, but a dilemma just the same!

When customers begin finding that they can not get access to your web site because it’s been taken offline because of high resource usage, or that the response time is glacially slow, they typically give up, visit your competitors web site and purchase from them instead.

When that happens it’s time to start exploring dedicated web hosting!

Before you dive straight into dedicated web hosting the first thing you must do is to take a practical study of your existing web business and do a thorough analysis of both your current needs and your projected future requirements. Obviously you may be anticipating growth over the approaching years, so make sure that you think about the expected increase in demand when working out your requirements.

You may be wondering why you mustn’t just go for a larger and better shared hosting plan? The problem is that with shared hosting your web site is sharing the identical hardware resources as numerous other sites, therefore if those sites are employing a lot of system resources then your web site is going to suffer. Do you actually want to be in competition with the other sites on your server for precious resources that you need to keep your website running smoothly? Or would you rather have them all to yourself, guaranteeing your customers the best experience and making certain that your site can keep up and running 24/7?

In fact with dedicated hosting there are other benefits, like having way more control over the environment that your web site runs in, the ability to install and run your own software, and not having to stress about what you utilize your disk space for.

But whereas a dedicated server might be the ideal solution for any business that is serious about it’s net presence it’s not without it’s drawbacks. As an example, there’s the cost issue. Historically a dedicated server has been an expensive choice that only big corporations or the successful and profitable businesses might afford. Thankfully that’s no longer the case, and while there are still a lot of pricey dedicated hosting packages on offer there is also a lot of firms providing cheap dedicated hosting as well.

Maybe the most important downside is that of support. A lot of dedicated server packages provide you with the server and leave you to run it as if the server was in your offices. This means that you’re responsible for just about every technical facet of running the server, and if you are not technical then this can be a problem. There are a number of solutions to this problem including recruiting somebody to assist you, or, choosing managed server hosting, where the hosting company can handle technical aspects for you, but usually at an increased price.

If you are looking to place info on-line then there plenty of free ways to do it. However, unless you wish to be at the mercy of someone else and risk your information being lost forever, then free hosting is unquestionably not the best way to go. Take a look at Geocities for example. Many years ago it was one of the biggest sites on the net and offered free hosting to just about everybody that needed it. Now it’s being closed down and anyone that doesn’t move their web site is likely to lose their data and years of painstaking work.

If you want to avoid losing everything you’ve got built up then you need to be master of your own destiny, which ultimately means owning your own domain and having your own hosting account. But how straightforward is it to seek out good hosting? Should you go for a shared hosting account? Or what about cheap dedicated hosting? Selecting low-cost reliable hosting can be minefield of difficulties. Lets have a look at a number of things that you need take into account when checking around…

One of the most important things to consider is whether the web hosting company you are considering offers a hosting package that really meets your needs. Nowadays most hosting firms are pretty generous when it comes to the disk allocation that they provide you with. The times of 5MB hosting accounts seem to be well behind us, but it’s still one thing that you need to check. Is the prospective hosting firm offering you enough disk space now, and enough to fulfill the longer term growth of your site? If your website was to grow beyond your expectations are you able to buy further disk space cheaply, or can you upgrade to their next hosting package up from yours at a low cost?

Bandwidth is another vital consideration. There are two camps that hosting companies seem to have split into. Those who supply a fixed amount of bandwidth for your money, and those who offer unlimited bandwidth. I said ‘seem to’ for the reason that in reality there’s no such thing as unlimited bandwidth. For people who have got the time, it is well worth reading the small print before signing up to any packages that are offering unlimited disk space or unlimited bandwidth. Both disk space and bandwidth cost the hosting firm and it is usually the most competitive and lowest price hosts that supply these ‘unlimited’ packages, sometimes for costs like $3.95 per month. That simply is not a sustainable business model, and customers that attempt to take advantage of either the unlimited disk space or bandwith can quickly discover that they will be required to either move to a higher cost hosting package, or move their hosting to a different company.

By far the most affordable way to get your website on the internet these days is to use what is called shared hosting. Shared hosting is where a net hosting company rents you a certain amount of disk space in which to store the files that comprise your website and permit you a certain amount of bandwidth (ie. the data transfered between your site and your guests browsers) in exchange for a monthly fee. Typically speaking, the more you pay the more web space and bandwidth you’ll be given.

There are even deals around where you are offered ‘unlimited’ disk space and bandwidth for a absurdly tiny sum of cash every month. A lot of individuals are pleased with what they get, however many others have discovered when actually trying to use large amounts of space or bandwidth that if it sounds too good to be true then it usually is!

One of the features of a shared hosting account is that, as it’s name implies, you are sharing the disk space and bandwidth with lots of other users. As I am certain many will appreciate, when an application is thrashing your hard disk on your own PC, or using up a lot of memory, then your PC slows down considerably and can seem to grind to a halt at times. Well, this situation is pretty much the same with shared hosting. You’ll find yourself on a server with other users who have memory or CPU intensive applications, or popular sites that have tons of guests, which means heaps of disk activity. The end result is that the responsiveness of your website suffers.

An additional downside with shared hosting is that you will be unaware of who exactly you are sharing with. If you discover that your web site drops suddenly in Google that might be for the reason that you have done something Google does not approve of. On the other hand it may be that the IP address you’re sharing with each and every one the other sites on your server has been identified as a source of spam or malware.

So what is the answer?

Well many folks are OK with taking the risks associated with shared hosting, but for others some kind of cheap dedicated hosting provides an occasional price solution to their problems. You will need to come to a decision if you would like Linux server hosting or Windows server hosting, but that decision should be driven by the applications that you need to run, as they can almost certainly be Windows only or Linux only.

A virtual dedicated server is the next step up from shared hosting and can cost you a touch more money. With a virtual shared server you still will not have a physical server all to yourself, but you will have far more control over your hosting environment and you’ll eliminate just about every one of the problems related to shared hosting, and you will have your own IP address. For the small amount extra (it will be typically around $twenty – $30 a month extra) that a virtual dedicated server costs this is a worthwhile investment.

Compared to a only some years back, there are now a few companies that are offering cheap dedicated hosting. But is choosing on price only the appropriate thing to do?

Even if all servers were the same the response would still be a categorical ‘NO’!

There are far too many other factors to weigh up, and cost is just one factor out of various. When selecting cheap dedicated hosting you should also think about other things, for example does the hardware meet your needs both now and over the next two or three years? What about software? Does it come preconfigured with the software that you require? Can you set up the software that you require to carry on your business? It’s no good acquiring a cheap dedicated server just to find it is running Linux when you need Windows.

What about support for your server? You should be able to remotely log on and set up software, but what you need help doing so? Will there be anybody there to assist you? How much will it cost?

With a dedicated server you are in the main on your own when it comes to the running of the server. After all, thats the whole purpose isn’t it? You are acquiring a dedicated server so that you can get the benefits of having a server to yourself, without outside meddling from someone else.

You could perhaps go for a managed server, where you pay a premium for the hosting company to handle the technical matters for you, and for many this is the better option, giving the benefits of owning your own server, and eliminating many of the technical difficulties that stop people opting for this in the first place.

Should you rent or buy your server? You can acquire your own hardware and have it installed in the hosts server room, or you can just rent a server from them directly. There are pros and cons with all of these and they are something that you need to deliberate when weighing up your options.

If you decide to rent a server from the hosting company then you will normally benefit from a service level agreement that guarantees your uptime and gives you a refund or some sort of recompense if that uptime agreement is not kept.

If you own your own hardware then you will normally be able to make changes to the specification and expand the hardware, such as adding more memory, as your needs dictate. And because you own the hardware you will be able to do this at as low a cost as you like. It’s under your power.

What about the location of the server?

If you are looking for the cheapest prices in quality cheap dedicated hosting then at some point you are going to have to think about hosting with an overseas company. This is usually a great way to reduce your outlay, but there are a few things to watch out for. Make sure that the company you are thinking about hasn’t just sprung up. If you are willing to be trusting them with your business then make sure that they have a good track record and aren’t just a fly-by-night operation. What about their network connections? Most hosting companies are happy to boast about who provides their connectivity, the speed and size of pipe that connect them to the internet backbone, as well as who they are peering with. Make sure that your overseas company does the same thing, and if you can, check that they actually do have what they claim to have. You don’t want to find out that their connection is little better than dial-up speeds, or they can’t handle the volume of traffic, after you have made the move to them!

So price is essential, but it isn’t everything. Make certain that the hardware and software meets your requirements, that the support is there if you require it, and that the speed and bandwidth are satisfactory for your needs now and for the future – then get all of that at the best price you can. That’s the secret to getting cheap dedicated hosting that you will be pleased with