Potential Disadvantages of Dedicated Hosting

Before signing up for dedicated server hosting, there are some factors you should consider. There are some potential disadvantages to dedicated hosting. However, if you can afford the monthly fees associated with dedicated hosting, the benefits often outweigh the disadvantages. It is still important to consider any downsides to dedicated server hosting before making your final decision.

Dedicated hosting is more expensive than shared hosting services. The cost per month can be as high as $99 and up. While this may not be a problem for many business websites, it is often too expensive for an individual to pay each month to host their website. For some websites, such as a hobby website the cost for a dedicated server is often just too much. For larger websites especially those for businesses and organizations the price is often more acceptable.

It is essential that you select an excellent hosting provider. They will own and maintain your server. The server will be stored in their own data center so you must depend upon the host to maintain your server and all their hosting equipment well. If you select a host who is not very reliable, you can have serious problems with your hosting experience. You could find that your website is not line or not functioning as you need it to function. This can also happen with shared hosting of course. However, a hosting client is paying a great deal more for dedicated server hosting and should have a relatively worry free hosting experience.

If you have unmanaged dedicated hosting, your hosting services can take up a great deal of time and money to maintain. Administrating tasks on a server can be very difficult especially if you have very little technical training and knowledge. For this reason you will need one or more people on staff who have the technical knowledge necessary to manage your hosting services. If you do not have an IT staff, that means that whoever works on the hosting end of your business will not have as much time for other tasks.

When you do not have someone knowledgeable enough to manage your hosting experience, you will need to hire an IT person or outsource the work. This will cost your business money in excess to your dedicated server hosting fees. The costs can add up quickly when paying someone to deal with the technical end of your business. It may be more cost effective to consider managed dedicated hosting. In this instance the web-hosting provider will handle many of the technical and maintenance tasks.

Another potential disadvantage to dedicated hosting is that you do not have physical access to the server. Your web-hosting provider will be responsible for maintaining the actual server. They will provide security measures to protect your server and data. And they will be responsible for performing server back ups. If you have a good host this is not much of a problem. However, if you would select a host that is not so good you could lose data or have a service that does not perform as well as expected for the cost.