Shared vs cloud vs dedicated

The difference between Shared Hosting, Cloud Hosting, and Dedicated Server

Shared Hosting, Cloud Hosting, and Dedicated Server are three common web hosting solutions, which have significant differences in resource allocation, performance, cost, and management methods. The following are their core differences:

1. Shared Hosting

Definition: A physical server is divided into multiple virtual spaces, and multiple users share the resources of the same server (CPU, memory, storage, etc.).

Features:

• Low cost: The lowest price, suitable for personal blogs and small websites.
• Shared resources: All users share server resources, which may be affected by the traffic of other users.
• Simple management: The provider is responsible for server maintenance, and users only need to manage their own websites (such as uploading files and configuring databases).
• Functional limitations: Custom environments (such as specific software or system permissions) are usually not supported.
• Applicable scenarios: Static websites with low traffic, personal blogs, and official websites of start-ups.

2. Cloud Hosting (Cloud Hosting / VPS)

Definition: A virtualized server based on cloud computing technology, with resources from cloud clusters (multiple physical servers) that can be elastically expanded on demand.

Features:

• Exclusive use of resources: users have independent CPU, memory and storage (such as ECS of cloud vendors, EC2 of AWS).
• Elastic scaling: configuration (such as bandwidth, CPU) can be adjusted dynamically according to traffic.
• Pay as you go: usually charged by usage (such as hours or traffic).
• Higher control: users have root permissions and can customize the operating system and software environment.
• Applicable scenarios: small and medium-sized enterprise websites, e-commerce platforms, applications that require flexible configuration.

3. Dedicated Server

Definition: users have exclusive use of the entire physical server and do not share resources with other users.

Features:

• High performance: completely exclusive hardware resources, suitable for high-load scenarios.
• Full control: hardware configuration, operating system and network environment can be customized.
• High cost: expensive, requires maintenance by a professional operation and maintenance team.
• Fixed configuration: upgrading hardware requires manual replacement of physical equipment.
• Applicable scenarios: large enterprises, game servers, high-frequency trading platforms, big data processing.