Web hosting vs managed cloud servers - which should you choose?

With traditional web hosting - also known as shared hosting - several customers share the resources of a single server. They are provided with storage, databases and mailboxes without having to worry about the technical administration of the server.

Typical features of web hosting packages

Modern web hosting offers much more than just storage. With professional providers, the following services are included as standard:

The hosting is based on fast NVMe storage, which achieves significantly higher read and write speeds than traditional SSDs. PHP 8.x support with configurable parameters such as `memory_limit` and `upload_max_filesize` enables the execution of modern web applications. In addition, there are SSL certificates via Let’s Encrypt, automatic backups and a control panel for management.

Security is ensured by various protective mechanisms: a ModSecurity web application firewall protects against common attack patterns such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting. Rootkit and malware scans continuously monitor the hosted files. Premium spam filters and virus protection safeguard email traffic, whilst DKIM, SPF and DMARC ensure email authenticity.

Who is web hosting suitable for?

Shared hosting is the most cost-effective solution for small to medium-sized websites, blogs, portfolios and smaller online shops. If your project attracts a few thousand to ten thousand visitors per month and does not require any special server configurations, web hosting is usually perfectly adequate.

A managed cloud server is a virtualised server environment in which all hardware resources are made available exclusively to you. Unlike with shared hosting, you do not share the CPU, RAM or storage with other customers.

The word ‘managed’ in the name means that the hosting provider takes care of all server administration: operating system updates, security patches, monitoring and backup management are all handled by professionals.

The benefits in detail

Exclusive use of resources guarantees consistent performance. Whilst with shared hosting a resource-hungry neighbouring customer could, in theory, affect the performance of other websites, with a managed cloud server all allocated capacity belongs to you alone.

Professional managed cloud servers rely on hardware system redundancy to ensure maximum availability. Should a component fail, redundant systems automatically take over - your applications remain accessible.

Scalability is another key advantage: resources can be flexibly adjusted. Do you have a marketing campaign, a newsletter mailing or a TV appearance coming up? The hardware can be temporarily scaled up and then scaled back down again.

Typical configurations

An entry-level server for medium-sized projects, for example, features 4 CPU cores, 16 GB of DDR5 RAM and 200 GB of NVMe storage. For larger web applications, configurations with 8 or 16 CPU cores and up to 64 GB of RAM are available. Hardware can be upgraded at any time - additional CPU cores, more RAM or increased storage can be added as required.

Corporate websites and business sites with moderate traffic benefit from the cost-effectiveness of shared hosting. Blogs and content sites that primarily deliver static content do not require dedicated server resources. Portfolios run by freelancers and agencies, as well as small online shops with a manageable product catalogue and order volume, are also well catered for.

Growing e-commerce projects with increasing traffic and complex shop systems such as Shopware or Magento benefit from dedicated resources. Enterprise applications with high availability requirements need the redundancy and isolation offered by a cloud server. Web agencies that host multiple client projects on a single infrastructure value the flexibility. SaaS applications and APIs with fluctuating resource requirements can be scaled as needed.

For particularly demanding projects, managed cloud servers can be networked into clusters. Separating the web server and database into distinct instances, or using dedicated Elasticsearch clusters, optimises performance and enhances reliability.