Web hosting is a crucial part of every type of website. If your web hosting service stays unavailable most of the time it means your website will also not accessible to your customers which results in loss of sales.
There are different types of hosting services like Shared, VPS, Cloud, and Dedicated server to host your website. Here in this article, we are going to explore some key differences between shared and cloud hosting.
Both Shared and Cloud hosting offers you the same basic functionalities but run through totally different processes. Some may favor the shared hosting, while some stand in favor of cloud hosting. However, both types of hosting have their own pros and cons.
This article is about illustrating the difference between Shared and Cloud hosting hence helping you to choose the best fit for your project.
Shared Hosting Vs Cloud Hosting
What is Shared/Cloud Hosting?
The major point that makes both types of hosting different from each other is ‘Working’. In shared hosting, your website solely depends on a single server. So it means a server is shared among a huge number of users which makes it the most economical type of hosting solution.
However, As you are dependent on a single server it is always encouraged to regularly create backups so that your data stay secure in case of any disastrous situation. A good thing BloggingSilo already shares a helpful guide for creating backups regardless of what type of hosting you are using.
On the other hand, cloud hosting is a network of servers connected to each other thus able to provide you almost endless power. Unlike shared hosting, cloud hosting provides you a more isolated environment. Your project does not rely on a single machine instead backed by a network of servers.
Scalability
When you are hosting your project on traditional shared hosting and need more resources the only option is to upgrade your hosting plan. Accordingly, it means if you just need more storage you need to upgrade the whole plan.
While easy and instant scalability is the specialty of cloud hosting. If you need more storage simply you can avail more storage and usually without any kind of permissions from the hosting provider. Similarly, it allows you to add more RAM, CPU, and data transfer limits. The ability to add only what you need makes it a cost-effective solution.
Reliable Performance
Although shared hosting delivering reliable performance because now most hosting providers are utilizingthe latest technologies like solid-state storage and software solutions (caching tools & web server softwares). Also, some companies offer the choice of data center locations so that you can choose a location near your potential audience.
Cloud hosting has plenty of reasons to deliver you more reliable and optimal performance than shared hosting. First of all, unlike shared hosting,here in cloud hosting you are not single server dependent. Next, you will be given a total isolated environment withan allocated amount of resources where there is no risk of resource sharing with other websites.
Almost every cloud hosting provider provides fully SSD based storage solutions. With cloud hosting, you can take benefit from add-ons like Load Balancers which is great for large projects to divide the load and ensure smooth performance even at the time of high traffic spikes.
Friendly Billing Structure
The billing cycle is one thing that affects the web hosting bills. Almost every shared hosting provider requires you 2 to 3-years commitment if you want to avail their lowest prices. If you go for a shorter period like 1-year or 1-month you will see sky-high prices. However, if you buy a shared hosting plan on 3-year billing it will cost less than cloud hosting.
On the other side, Cloud hosting offers a very flexible billing structure. Most cloud providers allow you to go for either a monthly or hourly billing cycle. And if you compare both types of hosting on the monthly billing cycle you will see cloud hosting solutions are way much cheaper than shared hosting.
Furthermore, as you are not doing long term contract so you don’t have to pay any huge amounts. This allows you to cancel the services anytime and stop next month’s billing.
Resource Allocation
In the case of shared hosting, you will see most companies claiming to offer you an almost unlimited number of resources. Though, they offer more than enough resources to handle small to medium websites. But here note that ‘Unlimited’ does not mean you can use as many resources as you want.Instead, the companies offer high limits on resources however if your website starts eating more resources then you will be asked to upgrade the plan.
Cloud hosting gives youa specified amount of resources and you can track how many resources left and when to increase the bars. This gives you better chances to avoid unnecessary outages. Due to a ring-fenced environment, there is no risk the other websites on the same server will affect your resources.
Availability of More Data Center Locations
When it comes to shared hosting, there are few companies that come up with the choice of data center locations. The reason why the choice of a data center is important that it will affect the page loading speed. If your website hosting on a server that is located near your targeted customers the data take less time to travel between the servers to users which results in the fast loading time of your website.
Being backed by large infrastructureCloud hosting provides you more data center choices. For example, Kamatera, Vultr, Linode, and many other Cloud hosting providers offer you a substantial amount of data center locations to choose from.
Choice of Operating System – Control
For beginners who just want to set up a WordPress website,they may not get into the fuss of the operating system. However, if your project requires some features like MySQL or MSSQL or ASP.NET then you need to be careful about the choice of the operating system.
Most websites hosting on shared hosting using the Linux operating system. Linux is an open-source program and its shared hosting plans are way much cheaper than Windows. There are also some companieswhich hold Windows shared hosting plans.
But the limitation is if you choose the Windows shared hosting plan you cannot change the operating system.
While Cloud hosting provides you ultimate control by providing OS-level access to the server. You are allowed to choose and change the operating system anytime without requiring any permission.
Here note that there is also some cloud hosting providers that only support Linux distributions like Linode.
Linode It is a well-known hosting provider with huge scalable options but it officially supports only Linux and lacks company backed live chat support. The good thing there is a list of best Linode alternatives enabling you to explore other well-established cloud hosting names in the industry to let you enjoy the operating system of your choice.
Summary
Both shared and cloud hosting services comes with pros and cons. However, there are specific situations when each hosting type best fits the projects.
For example, if you are just a beginner and going to launch your first blog then starting with shared hosting is the best way to go for. With the use of the latest hardware and caching tools, your site will offer a smooth experience to the visitors.
Moreover, Shared hosting mostly comes with cPanel which is known to be the most powerful control panel. Even, if you are going to experience web hosting for the first time you won’t find it difficult in managing hosting features using cPanel.
While cloud hosting is the best fit for growing projects and where you need an open environment hosting with great control. Cloud hosting lets you take benefit from instant scalability, server administrative access,and a totally isolated environment.
Although cloud hosting is an excellent solution to host your professional projects but shared hosting has its own place. So consider your needs then go for what suits you perfectly.
