10 Best Dedicated Hosting Providers Of 2024

Top Dedicated Hosting Services of 2024

• Hostwinds: Best overall
• DreamHost: Best for server uptime
• InMotion Hosting: Best for resources
• Bluehost: Best for beginners
• IONOS: Best for low introductory rate
• MochaHost: Best for eco-friendly features
• HostGator: Best for round-the-clock support
• TMDHosting: Best for fully managed servers
• GoDaddy: Best for storage options
• Interserver: Best for affordability

Among the many ways to host a website, dedicated servers provide resources specifically for your site, from storage to RAM to bandwidth, so you aren’t sharing with other customers. These allocated resources make it the most stable, secure, and expensive method.

Dedicated server hosting is meant more for established businesses that need extra resources to maintain high page load speed and for more media on their sites. It also means you don’t have to worry about other sites suddenly taking up more of the resources on the server, which could induce lag on your site (and for your site visitors). Some of the best web hosting for small businesses include dedicated hosting packages.

So, how do you know when you need to upgrade to a dedicated server? When you first create a website, you likely don’t have much of an internet footprint. Your site or brand probably doesn’t rank high on search engines, so you don’t get a ton of traffic. That’s why a lot of people start with shared hosting and then upgrade to a virtual private server (VPS), which simply gives you more resources (but it’s still shared). When a VPS still isn’t enough, that’s when it may be time for you to upgrade to a dedicated server.

Pros

• Reliability: No shared resources means faster performance for your site.
• Scalability: You can add multiple websites to your server or add more media to your site without noticeable effects. Plus, you can increase resources as needed. This is especially true of cloud hosting, which lets you increase storage or bandwidth yourself at any time.
• Security: No need to worry about other sites getting hacked or distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks launched against others, as you might on shared servers.
• Increased resources: Dedicated servers offer more storage and bandwidth, allowing you to add more media as needed.
• Dedicated support: Most web hosting services provide dedicated or priority support for dedicated server clients, so you can get your issues resolved quickly.
• Resell hosting: Some web hosts offer reseller hosting packages or allow you to sell hosting from your dedicated server, which could be a good stream of income (or at least offset the cost of your dedicated hosting).

Cons

• Expensive: The biggest downside of a dedicated server is that it’s far more expensive than shared and virtual hosting.
• More technical: A fully managed dedicated server won’t require much work on your end, as the hosting service should handle configuration, security and updates for you, but this is more expensive. Unmanaged dedicated servers require you to handle all the technical details, so you’ll need that know-how.

The cost of a dedicated server varies depending on the host you choose, whether you go with fully managed or unmanaged and whether you opt for cloud hosting. The best dedicated server hosting costs $115 (INR 9,500), on average, per month (billed annually). You can expect to pay about $20 to $50 (INR 1,500 to INR 4,000) more per month for a fully managed dedicated server.

Many dedicated server hosts offer discounts on the first month or if you sign a long-term agreement. Signing up for years in advance can be pricey and you’ll be locked into the same web host for a long time, but there’s also typically a longer money-back guarantee if you’re not happy at the start.

The benefits of a dedicated server may be worth the added cost, so you may not even need to read this section. If you’re on the fence and wondering whether it’s worth increasing your monthly cost tenfold, then you may want to keep reading to see what you’re getting with your own server.

Storage and Bandwidth

A dedicated server gives you 100% of the resources instead of just a slice. With more storage, you can add more products, if you’re running an e-commerce website, which also means more photos and videos. On a shared server, you’re much more limited, but some of the best e-commerce hosting providers make it doable.

You’ll also get more bandwidth, which means your site visitors shouldn’t see lag when your site pages load. It also means you can accept more visitors at once without any slowdowns or interruptions. Shared servers typically limit this resource so that all clients on the server aren’t affected by traffic spikes.

Server Uptime Guarantees

You’ve likely seen web hosts boast 99.9% server uptime. That’s nearly 100%, so it has to be good, right? No server is going to be up 24/7. Web hosts have to perform maintenance, and so occasionally servers will be down. Hosts will tell you when the server will be down, and that downtime doesn’t count toward the guarantee.

However, if your server is down at any time other than the scheduled maintenance, you’re likely entitled to a portion of your monthly fee back. It’s a good idea to keep an uptime monitor running to either claim the money-back guarantee, or see whether it’s worth moving to another host (if there’s too much downtime). After all, if your server isn’t up, no one can visit your site(s).

Server Location

Another benefit to choosing dedicated hosting is that you can usually choose your server location. This is helpful if you study your site visitor data. If most of your site traffic originates in India, you may be able to choose a server in, say, Dubai or any nearby location. Being able to choose your server location can help with site load speed for site visitors.

Alternatively, look for a web host that offers a content delivery network (CDN), which mirrors your site on multiple servers throughout the globe. This cuts down on the time it takes to load your website for visitors that originate in another part of the world.

Managed vs. Unmanaged Dedicated Hosting

Most web hosts offer two options for a dedicated server: unmanaged or managed dedicated server hosting. An unmanaged, or bare metal, server costs less because the host doesn’t maintain the server for you.

Choose an unmanaged server if you don’t mind doing the work. You’ll install a control panel, maintain security, apply patches and maintain updates yourself. Go with a managed server if you want the web host to handle security and maintenance for you—this is a better option if you’ve never performed server maintenance before.

You may also want to consider using a virtual private network (VPN) to enhance security when logging in to your server. It’s especially helpful to use a VPN when accessing the internet over Wi-Fi. The best VPNs are affordable and easy to use on your desktop or a mobile device.

HDD vs. SSD Storage

A classic hard disk drive (HDD) is a mechanical hard drive on which you store files. It’s a far cheaper option for personal computers and servers alike. However, a solid-state drive (SSD) is faster, offers better overall performance and uses less energy and power. So, it comes down to your needs. If you aren’t concerned about speed and want an affordable, large storage option, go with HDD. If price isn’t a concern and you don’t need as much storage, SSD is a better choice.

To choose the best dedicated hosting services, we surveyed the field of options and selected 13 companies to analyze. These competitors were scored on 17 criteria across five categories, which were weighted according to their value for small businesses.

Here are the criteria we considered for best dedicated server hosting:

Pricing

We looked at entry-level prices, add-on fees and whether a host offers lower pricing for annual payment. We also took into consideration whether the price goes up after an introductory period. In total, pricing accounted for 30% of the total score.

General Features

When upgrading from shared or virtual hosting servers, one should see an increase in storage, RAM and data transfer allowances. We also considered processors and the number of cores available. In addition, every web host should offer an uptime guarantee because having your site(s) online is imperative for any business—downtime equals potentially lost business. These features account for 20% of scoring.

Additional Features

In addition to the essential features every dedicated server should offer, we looked at those that go above and beyond. Companies received bonus points for offering a free business email address, a content delivery network (CDN), and automatic backups. These bonuses make up 10% of the final score.

Ratings & Reviews

Sometimes reviews can be telling, or you take them with a grain of salt. We considered each host’s ratings on several review sites such as G2, Trustpilot, BBB and others and also factored in the number of reviews on each platform. These reviews cover 20% of the ranking.

Expert Score

Lastly, we factored in our expert analysis. Although not part of the numerical scoring, server location is important. We ensured each host has multiple servers available, even if you can’t choose your preferred server location. Unlimited or unmetered bandwidth is nice, but on a dedicated server, there’s typically a limit. It should be generous—at least 5TB data transfer per month. These factors, in addition to each platform’s ease of use, account for the final 10% of the score.

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