When deciding on your Web Hosting solution, one thing you must consider early on is whether to obtain an account with a shared hosting provider, or to find a dedicated server. The three major things to take into account when making this decision are cost, available resources, and the level of control needed.

Shared accounts, when chosen, are usually selected primarily for their cost. Compared to most solutions, a shared hosting space can be provided at an exceedingly low cost. Dedicated servers, however, have an increased cost over shared host, as you are essentially renting the server and its associated infrastructure from the web hosting company. Often a company will start out on a shared hosting environment, then move to a dedicated server option as the company grows and it has the resources available to afford it.

The level of control available to a customer in a shared environment, though, is somewhat limited. As there are many users running web sites and applications off of the same physical computer, restrictions are put in to place to limit the actions and impact one customer can have on the others. This control can manifest itself as a limitation of the types of scripts and applications that can be run or in the amount of bandwidth that is available to a given account. If your website is going to be a simple brochure-type site or a limited message board, for instance, shared hosting is likely the route to go.

Dedicated servers are often chosen for the amount of resources, and the customizable options they offer. Often web hosting companies will let you configure your dedicated server, so if you know how resource intensive your site and applications are going to be, you can tailor your hosting to it. Even if you don’t, basic dedicated servers can allow for a lot of room to grow. Disk space, the amount of physical hard drive room your web site is taking up, is usually abundantly available in a dedicated environment. Memory and processor resources are reserved entirely for your applications, without having to worry about other sites or customers.

Things to ask yourself as you make this decision include: