Difference between shared hosting and server colocation

[Suzane]

I would like to sign up with a shared hosting plan; however I wanted to know the difference between dedicated hosting server and shared server co-location.

[Jazlyn]

As we all know that selecting webhosting is the first step which needs to be considered before signing up for any hosting plan.

A dedicated web server consists of all the resources dedicated to a particular client who owns it whereas shared server as the name suggest is shared by many a clients at once.

A dedicated hosting gives us the liberty to have full control over the server which we can use any how. Where as a shared server can basically involve different users on one server as well as it also dont provide much freedom on the server as the resources are being shared.

In dedicated server a user tends to get more security as compared to shared server. Where as Shared servers, which are the most common type of hosting available, hold many different Websites. These Websites are competing for server resources.

When it comes to IP a user gets dedicated IPs for their website in case of dedicated server but whereas with the shared server one needs to even share the same IP with the other users on the same server.

To put it the other way round we can say that the dedicated hosting is quite costlier and shared hosting is quite cheaper in comparison.

In short can say that both the web servers has its advantages and disadvantages. It all depends upon the user’s requirements. But in a way a dedicated server hosting is always a better choice then a shared server.

[Catherine]

Co-location service is basically renting rack space in a datacenter for hosting your own Dedicated server. It involves your own hardware but the power supply and internet connection is taken from the datacenter. As you need to purchase the hardware for co-locating it, you need to spend a lot of money on this solution initially. Therefore, it's always recommended that you choose a fully managed dedicated server from a hosting provider instead of a Co-location service.

[jakson0100]

Dedicated server and colocation are technically the same, but dedicated server is equipment that belongs to a company and you rent it for your information and colocation is when you have your own server in data center of some company where you rent a physical space for it. All management and repair has to be done by yourself, so it is only reasonable if you live close to the data center.

[MattBarthorp]

Inaddition to the points stated above, Colocation services are a usually chosen by large enterprise companies who can afford the costly servers and its maintenance. I wouldn't personally recommend it to an SME as the over-head cost of the server is high and when its time to upgrade the server hardware you are restricted to fit it in the budget. Unlikely, choosing a managed dedicated hosting server from a service provider, you can cut down the cost of purchasing the dedicated hardware and still run your operations smoothly. Moreover since it would be a managed hosting service, you are not required to bother about its maintenance as it is taken care by the hosting provider.