Cheap Dedicated Server
Cheap Dedicated Server
Dedicated servers are getting much cheaper these days, mainly due to the fact that the overall cost of bandwidth has dropped over the past few years. Due to this drop this price, many individuals and businesses have started to see the benefits that dedicated servers can bring them in terms of reliable website hosting and having their own server on which they don’t have to share the allocated physical resources with any other users, as is the case with other types of web hosting. The drop in dedicated hosting server prices has also sprung up a new generation of dedicated server hosting providers, who have seen that they can easily make a profit out of selling if bought at wholesale prices. You can now get a reasonably high specification cheap dedicated server now for around $99; a few years ago, a dedicated server of the same specifications would most probably have cost in the region of $500.
Dedicated servers are able to offer you reliability that can’t be met through any other form of web hosting, mainly due to the fact that you are the only one who will be using the server meaning that you don’t have to share the resources of your dedicated server with anyone else unless you choose to. You can normally get a dedicated server that fits your need specifically with most dedicated server hosting providers since most now allow you to configure your dedicated server with specific specifications during the order process these days. With a VPS server, which is seen as the downgrade of a dedicated server, you are always going to be limited by the specifications that you can upgrade your VPS to since your web hosting provider will need to take into consideration the specifications of both the hosting node and the other VPS servers that are hosted on the same node as you. With dedicated server hosting, you are only limited by the high hardware limits if your server.
Although many may use the phrase ‘cheap and nasty’, that needn’t apply to a cheap dedicated server if you choose to go with a reputable web hosting provider. Most web hosting providers are now able to offer some sort of 24×7 support, whether it be in their own call centres or outsourced to a third company and dealt with via email or instant messaging. A ‘cheap and nasty’ web hosting provider would be the kind that setup your dedicated server for you in a ridiculously long amount of time and provided you with no support whatsoever, even when there were network problems that were preventing you from access to your dedicated server. However, when searching for a cheap dedicated server you should ensure that you check the type of support that is provided with each server; i.e. some web hosting providers may only provide unmanaged dedicated servers at a cheap price, meaning they you won’t receive any high level of support.
Cheap dedicated servers also tend not to come with any premium extras, such as a control panel which in the case of Linux dedicated server hosting would be cPanel, and Plesk in the case of a Windows dedicated server hosting. A control panel will allow you to manage your dedicated server with ease, and depending on your needs will also let you setup web hosting accounts so that you can sell off web hosting on your dedicated server. Some control panels may not work on your dedicated server whilst others do, since each control panel has different minimum specification for servers, and your server may not meet the minimum specifications for certain control panels. Control panels also have the ability to make it easier for you to troubleshoot any problems that you may have with your dedicated server, meaning that if you are a novice with dedicated server hosting, a control panel may be recommendable.
A cheap dedicated server can normally take care of most day to day server tasks, such as acting as a mail server that receives a medium amount of email each day or as a web server that serves dynamic web pages to a fair amount of visitors each day. For example, even a VPS could handle a basic PHP and MySQL based website, meaning that a cheaper dedicated server is more than likely to be able to cope with such an application. Windows VPS Hosting can also cope with very basic ASP.NET and MSSQL websites, although Microsoft SQL Server can have memory usage problems on VPS servers, meaning that a cheaper dedicated server is recommended for this task. Or if you don’t want to use your cheap dedicated server for a public service, you could always use it as a personal file server that only you will need access to – this means that the specifications of your cheap dedicated server don’t really matter.
In conclusion, a ‘cheap’ dedicated server may be cheap in price, but dependent on the web hosting provider you choose to purchase your dedicated server from, shouldn’t be ‘cheap’ in any other areas such as the level of support offered or the level of uptime you are provided with. However, you should ensure that you have the necessary skills to manage your server correctly since you won’t always have a knowledgable support team that you can turn to. You should also ensure that the dedicated server you purchase suits your needs, although you can normally have it upgraded it would come at a hefty fee in some cases.
Dedicated servers are perfect for both individuals and businesses who require a reliable web hosting service, and need a high level of guaranteed uptime. Shared web hosting packages can be notoriously unreliable, since shared hosting servers are popular targets for hackers and spammers due to the fact that most have very lax security. So if you have the budget of a high specification VPS but don’t need overly high specifications, then you may be able to consider a cheap dedicated server for your needs; not only will it be in the same region of price, but it will be able to provide you with a reliable service.
