Semi Dedicated

Today we discover what Semi-Dedicated Hosting is, how it works, and when to choose it for your site.

Renting space on a physical server is a mandatory step to keep a website online: semi-dedicated hosting, from this point of view, is able to ensure a large number of server-side resources at a lower cost than dedicated hosting. 

In other words, it is a halfway solution between a hosting dedicated only to your site, and a server that is shared by many (too many) websites. In a nutshell, it's a service that sits halfway between a dedicated server and traditional shared hosting. So let's try to deepen our knowledge by discovering what semi-dedicated hosting is, how it works, and when it will be convenient for you to choose it.

Several branches emerge today from the Web hosting service, or web hosting, among the most common we can find: dedicated hosting, semi-dedicated hosting, shared hosting, and Cloud or VPS.

Next, we will mention the particularities about semi-dedicated hosting, the perfect option for medium-sized projects that need more than what a shared plan can offer, in terms of resources we speak, but without the need to invest in a dedicated server. 

The semi-dedicated server concept appears when you need more than a simple virtual hosting plan, due to a greater need for disk space, transfer and server resources; but, in turn, the needs are not so many as to fill a full dedicated server. In other words, a semi-dedicated server is physically the same hardware (the same machine), which houses 2, 3, or 4 clients depending on the division that is made of said hardware.

What is semi-dedicated hosting?

As its name indicates a semi-dedicated server, it is a dedicated server shared between few users, unlike shared ones, these servers are shared between a limited number of clients. 

As this number of clients is limited, the resources are greater for each of them, this is usually a great advantage. This means that each of these users will have more transfer, more disk space, the server configurations are usually somewhat more customizable, etc. in this way a more optimal performance is achieved.

This type of hosting, as we have already mentioned in the introduction, is a form of sharing the server that will host your website. You could choose to rent a space on a physical server intended only for your site, but in this way, you would find yourself paying huge amounts and facing more complex management of this service. The semi-dedicated, on the other hand, is an excellent middle-ground for acquiring a space for your website shared with other portals, but without having to fear problems of crowding and, therefore, any slowdowns or downs of your site.

Is a semi-dedicated server a form of virtual hosting? 

Indeed it is. Administration of the server itself, root access (server master passwords), maintenance, and everything related to software updates is the responsibility of the hosting company. The server is divided between 2, 3, or 4 clients, depending on their needs. The advantage of the semi-dedicated server system is that customers can acquire larger machines, paying less, and having better performance.

As an example, a P3 dedicated server, with 512 RAM and cPanel, it would hold a little more than 10,000 visitors a day, and then it would begin to give stability problems or at least slowness. However, it is a very cheap dedicated server, about $119 per month. On the contrary, a Xeon server with 4 2.4 GHz processors, with 2 GB of RAM and double SATA or SCSI hard drives, could perfectly accommodate 4 clients, who, paying the US $130 each, would have a superior quality service, in more powerful hardware, thus allowing the accommodation of more visitors, greater speed and stability. 

But of course, acquiring that machine and having it as a dedicated server has a cost of almost US $300 per month without administration! So, the semi-dedicated server is the perfect tool for clients with high consumption, demanding in terms of the processing capacity by the server.

Why hire a dedicated semi? 

The reasons for hiring a semi-dedicated server are several, but without a doubt, if your project has a high traffic demand, or the resources you need are not those that you can find in a shared plan, you must hire a semi-dedicated plan. 

In shared servers there is an unlimited number of accounts that depending on the correct administration of your Web hosting company, it may be overloaded. In the case of dedicated servers, they provide a single user with resources and control, but this requires that the user have knowledge about advanced server administration, unless they hire this service independently. 

In the case of the Semi-Dedicated, it is a middle point between the two, since it grants a greater number of resources compared to a shared web server, but without depending on this vast knowledge in administration and at an affordable cost. 

The guarantees of having a Semi-Dedicated Server

By hiring a semi-fingerprint server, we have greater isolation and therefore greater security. Today several hosting companies cage users of semi-dedicated servers, in such a way that if some were to suffer an attack due to a vulnerability on their site, it would not affect the rest. 

These servers are managed by the hosting providers so we will not depend on a third party or our knowledge in server administration for its maintenance, not in a dedicated one.

The user will be able to continue maintaining a vast control of his account through the traditional hosting administration panels such as WHM for example.

How does semi-dedicated hosting work?

The operation of semi-dedicated servers is practically identical to that of shared hosting. There is a physical server within which multiple websites are hosted, including yours, so that you can stay online 24 hours a day and be reachable by your visitors at any time. In this way, the management costs of the server are reduced, and you can get this service at a much cheaper price than dedicated hosting.

The differences between a semi-dedicated and a shared hosting

But there is a fundamental difference between the two: in shared hosting, those who offer this service often tend to crowd the server to make more profits, obviously at the expense of the functionality of your website, forced to fight with others to defend their own. vital space. On the contrary, in semi-dedicated hosting, there is a very small number of "roommates", in order to always guarantee you a certain connection and traffic bandwidth. Obviously, the smaller the number of websites it contains, the more a semi-dedicated server will cost you the more money.

When choosing a semi-dedicated plan?

Choosing a semi-dedicated server isn't for everyone. If you have a website that generates low traffic, and that has no particular ambitions, then the semi-dedicated server is probably an excessive and useless expense for your wallet. If, on the other hand, you have an online business whose purpose is to generate a profit, thanks to traffic or the sale of products or services, then the semi-dedicated server is the solution for you: it does not have an excessive cost, but it is still able to guarantee you. a number of hardware resources perfect for having a site quickly accessible and safe from server-side problems.

Main advantages of Semi-Dedicated Hosting

As we mentioned before, semi-dedicated servers pose an alternative with greater resources compared to a shared plan, but at an affordable cost. Ideal to start testing a platform that requires a wide level of resources, but without the need to recharge in dedicated and administration. 

Depending on the provider, scalable plans are offered on the market, within a dedicated one, that is, if your server has free resources you can have to expand the resources that you initially hired. 

As they are shared servers with fewer users, you can have a little more freedom to integrate modules or installations since it is known whether or not this will affect the other users hosted there. 

They offer a friendly interface as in shared plans, normally these servers have Cpanel installed, which allows you to manage your information and others, or a similar panel for administration without incurring additional expenses, since for dedicated ones you will have to buy the license of any of these panels to integrate it. 

Disadvantages of Semi-Dedicated Hosting

One of the main limitations, as in almost all hosting plans, space is limited, meaning that scalability is only feasible to a certain extent. 

In these plans, although the risk is lower, the same is assumed since it is shared with other users and if any of these incurs, for example, spam and you do not have a dedicated IP, this will also affect your accounts. 

In case of attacks if the users are not encapsulated the attack can affect other accounts. 

Usually, these hosting plans hosted on semi-dedicated servers, are usually used both for applications or sites that require a large consumption of resources but which have not yet determined to incur the expense of a dedicated server, as in clients who wish to resell hosting and use these servers to distribute their own resources to a specific number of clients to host. 

Conclusions

In conclusion, in this article, we took a closer look at what semi-dedicated hosting is, how it works, and when to buy it for your website. A very professional service,  with more resources than a shared hosting solution but less powerful than a dedicated server, all at an acceptable cost.

The advantage of having a semi-dedicated hosting, for small companies, allows more daring resources with server to be more agile and more stable, semi-dedicated hosting servers, as the name says, is almost entirely dedicated to you. It means having a supercomputer totally dedicated to your website, not sharing it with thousands of others that are hosted and that take away the performance and speed of access, thus facilitating the best flow of information for user access, Only your website and a few more will be hosted in him.

The great advantage of semi-dedicated hosting is the cost-benefit of having an account with sufficient resources to run large websites, blogs, virtual stores, and other projects for a cost that is up to 500% lower than the cost of a dedicated server. In addition, of course, it has a guarantee of very high uptime and differentiated technical support.