Today’s high-tech world requires businesses to be constantly present on the Internet. Obviously, this translates into every growing business having its own website aimed at attracting customers to the products and services that the business offers. But simply creating a website is not enough to make it successful.
There are many factors to consider when creating a website, including its accessibility to potential customers, speed of page loading, content, functionality and so on. But all of this will be useless if the server best suited for all its needs and with a performance reserve for the future is not chosen for the website.
For this reason, any future website owner must be aware of the purposes for which it is created, what tasks it will perform, what functionality he needs and in what direction it will evolve. And then, based on this data, it will be necessary to properly determine what type of server is best suited for the task.
Server types best suited for small business
Many novice website owners, when choosing a server, are striving for one of two things – to get the most features right away or to save as much money as possible. Both of these aspirations are quite understandable, and they are both fundamentally wrong. Because when choosing a server, as mentioned above, you need to start purely from the current need and consider the possibilities for the future.
With this approach, you’ll be able to choose a server for your website that meets your current needs, and still be able to expand its performance if needed. It will also prevent you from overpaying for unnecessary functionality and excessive performance redundancy. Even though a server’s power reserve will come in handy for high loads, it is better not to make it too big if the website has just been created.
Today, the owner of a small business, depending on the focus and complexity of the website, as well as the need for future expansion, can choose one of the following types of server:
- Shared server.
- VPS/VDS server.
- Dedicated server.
Each of the above types of servers has its own advantages and disadvantages, which should be taken into account when choosing. And, depending on the website, some types are better for the job, and others are worse.
Shared server
Basically, speaking in very simple terms, it’s a dorm for websites that share everything. Every web host has servers of this type, and they literally distribute all the resources among the many websites that are based on them. On the one hand – it is the cheapest option, suitable for simple websites. On the other hand, shared hosting has many pitfalls to consider.
The first thing you should pay attention to is the very essence of shared hosting. Due to the fact that one such server hosts an undetermined number of websites, if the load increases on one of them, the load on the rest also increases. Which can cause unnecessary problems in the form of reduced performance of your website at completely unexpected moments.
It is also important to consider the security problems that the use of such hosting entails. Because if one of the websites gets into the DNSBL, then all websites that are based on it are immediately at risk. The same is true of cyberattacks, which usually affect all websites on shared servers.
VPS/VDS server
This type of server is a much more reliable version of a split server. Speaking in the already-used language of living quarters, it is no longer a dormitory for websites, but a full-fledged and quite comfortable condominium with separate apartments isolated from each other.
Despite the fact that the basis is exactly the same structure, each website is allocated a certain amount of resources. Therefore, even if the load on a particular website grows, the neighboring websites will not be affected. The same goes for security problems – a website will not be affected if a neighboring website is caught in a DNSBL or under cyberattack.
At the same time, there are limitations in terms of how many resources the website located on a VPS server can receive. Because the resource equipment of the server itself is limited and the hosting can allocate to each individual website only a certain amount of resources. Therefore, this is not the best option if you plan to constantly expand the functionality and capabilities of the website.
Dedicated server
Again, using residential lingo, this type of server is a separate private home that can be completed according to the current need. Literally, when using such a server, hosting for a fairly high fee will provide you with a separate server instance, on which there will be no other websites. Thanks to this you can, if necessary, increase the number of resources provided almost without limitation.
But even this type of server has certain disadvantages, although not so critical as security vulnerabilities and the possibility of getting into the DNSBL through no fault of your own. The first of these is the high cost, which is quite obvious. The second disadvantage is the need to solve many critical situations yourself. Since the hosting in most cases provides full access to the software and server management, excluding the physical maintenance.
Accordingly, you have to provide full-fledged monitoring of the server and all of its indicators. For example, you can manage uptime monitor on host-tracker.com/en and check everything in real-time. But still, you will also need to notify support service hosting in the case of problems, which for one reason or another can not fix yourself. And, in most cases, it’s not really a drawback, as it gives the website owner a greater degree of control over the situation and optimizes the performance of the website.
How to choose the proper hosting and server for your business website
As has been repeatedly mentioned earlier, choosing the type of server on which the website will be located, is necessary on the basis of how many resources it needs now and how intensively it will develop in the future. It should also take into account the cost, so as not to overpay. It is also necessary to take into account how much freedom of control over the server you need for the website to work as it should.
But most of all you need to pay attention to the performance of the server – the data stated hosting, should be as close to reality. Although, in order to make sure of this you will have to monitor the server for a certain period of time. Therefore, it is worth first of all to look at hosting companies that offer a test capacity of their servers before making the first payment for the rental server.
Therefore, if you take the latter into account, you will be able to easily use the ping site monitor on hosttracker to check on hosting reliability, and a lot of other useful tools to test server performance in real-time. And with this, you will be able to determine whether you want to use this particular hosting and its servers or not. But before that, it will be vital to check on all available migration options of the chosen provider just in case you will not be satisfied and will want to pick another provider for your website.
Pros of using a dedicated server for your business website
For simple one-page websites, split servers are best. Such websites simply don’t need much power, security problems won’t lead to leaks of user data, and if blocked, you can easily switch to another hosting service or take the time to solve the problem by contacting your DNSBL writer or provider.
For more complex multi-page info sites, you can also use shared hosting, but it’s still better to resort to a VPS/VDS server to avoid performance issues. This is especially important for small websites, while filled with content and designed for serious business promotion. It has an acceptable degree of security, stability and reliability to suit such a website’s needs.
However, if your website is full of content, has many pages and is designed for constant user visits and full interaction with them, especially if it is an online store, it is best to put such a website on a dedicated server. This will help to get the most out of the website, to ensure its stable performance, as well as great potential for future development.
At the same time, you will be able to manage and maintain the server software yourself and monitor its availability, performance and content using server http status checker on host-tracker and other tools available on this platform. Accordingly, if there are problems in the website work, performance or stability, you will be able to find and eliminate the source of those problems yourself, without the need of resorting to the support of the provider.
Considering all the above, it is a must to rent a dedicated server if you are seriously thinking of the business website as the vital part of the business development and considering its future prospects and client audience expansion possibilities it will bring. Especially if the hosting of your choice can provide a low-performance server for the website that is currently small but will be growing later. And you will have no need to overpay from the start just to get it for your website.
This way, you won’t even need to migrate in case the website is in need of more resources. Such a provider will be able to easily give it to you by simply changing your service plan for a better one.
