Best Dedicated Hosting Providers Feature Overview

Provider	CPU (Cores)	RAM (GB)	Storage (GB)	Bandwidth (TB)
	1-32	1-128	20-4,000	5	Visit Kamatera
	4-64	16-1000	480-8,000	Unlimited	Visit Ultahost
	4-8	16-128	1,000-4,000	Unmetered	Visit InMotion Hosting
	4-16	4-192	240-16,000	Unmetered	Visit SIM-Networks
	6-32	16-128	2,000	6-15	Visit A2 Hosting

Dedicated hosting is the most advanced web hosting solution on the market. It grants you, as the customer, exclusive access to resources, such as CPU, RAM, or bandwidth. You have no neighbouring sites in your server environment, and as the sole “resident,” you’ll benefit from unmatched levels of privacy, security, flexibility, and control.

Our experts with vast experience in the web hosting industry dedicate special attention and time to bringing you the best solutions in each category. And there’s even a higher emphasis on this when it comes to dedicated servers due to their nature, quality, and price. HostAdvice professionals have engaged in long-term real-time performance and customer service testing and gathered thousands of unbiased user reviews.

We bring you the leading dedicated hosting providers!

In this article, you can learn the basics of dedicated servers, the qualities of top dedicated server providers, assess our ranking criteria to decide – is dedicated hosting suitable for your business? If yes, which of the top dedicated server providers is the right fit?

Ranking comparison between the Top Providers

We perform independent and category-specific tests at HostAdvice to decide who ranks accordingly. Our professionals choose the best dedicated hosting providers based on an unbiased study across several aspects or factors contributing to ‘the perfect dedicated server.’ They have carried out real-life measurements of different servers’ speed, uptime, tested customer support, and other variables, such as security firewalls and functionality of backups.

The best part is, you don’t have to rely entirely on our in-house professionals. The following study also considers third-party opinions or customer reviews from around the globe. At HostAdvice, we give significant weight to user reviews since they are the most honest representation of a dedicated hosting company’s quality. In addition, we give extra points for the hardware components of the dedicated server or its performance.

Here are the factors that we’re looking at when we give rank for the dedicated web hosting category:

• Server Performance (30%): The hardware specifications, including the gigahertz, threads, and cores of the CPU, type and GBs of the RAM, storage space, type of storage device, its read/write speeds, and datacenter setup, are the main drivers of the dedicated server’s performance. Here, you need to consider how many users you expect to have; are you looking for a memory, CPU, or disk-intensive service? In general, an uptime of at least 99.95% is sufficient to minimise the chances of costly outages. However, you should also strive towards a dedicated hosting company with multiple data centres to boost connection speeds and reduce latency, SSDs if you prioritise fast loading speeds, or HDDs for higher storage capacity. Other things to analyse include bandwidth for significant transfers of data, a powerful processor, storage compliance, etc.
• Security Features (10%): Speed and uptime won’t “cut it” if not paired with robust security practices. The nature of the dedicated servers makes them a far safer solution than any other web hosting package in this regard. Still, it would be best to look for additional and effective security software that prevents most attacks, such as viruses, malware, spam DDoS, and other threats. Several examples include multi-factor authentication (MFA), intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS & IPS), data encryption protocols, enterprise-grade firewalls, and Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
• Customization Options (13%): The best dedicated server provider will grant you the ultimate flexibility – the opportunity to choose the right OS for your business, several CMSs, and the ability to easily upgrade/add resources at a minimum. It would help if you also got control panel options (Plesk, cPanel, and WHM) and administrative/root access.
• Customer Support (10%): Managing a dedicated server is far more complex than getting a basic shared hosting plan, so you should get all the help you can. The dedicated server host should be available to assist you 24/7/365 across several channels, including live chat, email, or phone. More importantly, the support agents should deliver prompt responses and resolve your server issue in no time. While you can expect such support for free in managed dedicated server hosting plans, you might need to pay an extra fee for unmanaged dedicated. Still, this charge shouldn’t be excessive.
• Pricing (7%): While dedicated hosting is the most expensive solution, value for money matters too. In most cases, you’ll encounter a trade-off between price and quality. So, you should ensure to get the best price to value ratio – consider entry-level prices, long-term contract discounts, add-on fees, and renewal rates. For our dedicated servers pricing page click here.
• User Reviews(30%): Our experts checked what customers are saying about the overall customer experience, and you should do so as well. People worldwide are your best benchmark to set your expectations straight.

The Dedicated Hosting Features You’ll Need

While the previous section might serve as an excellent guide and give you direction, you might still struggle with selecting the best dedicated server hosting if you are a beginner. Here’s precisely what to look for in a plan, i.e., the features that make up the top dedicated server providers.

• Managed Dedicated Hosting Plan: While managed dedicated servers are more expensive, they can save you a lot of time and even money in the long term. In this case, the web host is running your server, including maintenance, updates, and patches. Consequently, you can benefit from better uptime, speed, and security.
• Administrative/Root Access: As the user, you should get complete control over your server and the functions it is to provide, even with managed solutions.
• Powerful Processor (CPU): The rule of thumb is that the more processors, the better speeds, performance, and graphics quality. However, more processors also imply higher power consumption, making them more costly. So, it’s best to match your needs with each processor’s recommended use to get optimal performance without overspending.
• The Proper Amount Of RAM (Memory): You will need at least 5GB to start; add 1-2 GB of RAM to every five additional users if you have over 15 concurrent users and at least 16GB RAM for a database of under 50GB. Also, consider the RAM requirements of other components, such as your OS; some apps need more RAM than others.
• Generous Bandwidth Amount (Transfer): Dedicated servers offer limited bandwidth amounts. While you cannot expect unlimited data transfer, you should strive towards a generous offer of at least 5TB per month.
• Significant Amounts Of Disk Space (Storage): Usually, you can choose from SSDs and HDDs. You can expect better speed and reliability with solid-state drives but less storage capacity. In addition, HDD is less expensive, so it’s up to you to choose the storage type. Either way, you should preferably get at least 1TB of disk space for storing files.
• Operating System Compatibility: Are you using Linux or Windows? While you can choose from countless dedicated server options for Linux, the Windows offering is much more narrow. So, remember to weigh the two and choose the right one for your website.
• User-Friendly Control Panel: Your choice of control panel depends on your needs and preferences. The most popular control panels for Linux and Windows are cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin, and MSPControl.
• A Server Location Close To Your Visitors: Ideally, your dedicated server should be located close to your site visitors for maximum speed and performance. If you have a global audience, you should focus on speed-enhancing features instead.
• An Uptime Guarantee: The dedicated web hosting company should keep your server up and functional and compensate for any downtime. You shouldn’t accept anything below 99.95% – the closer to 100%, the better. Apart from the web host’s promise, check its uptime history and frequency of outages to date.
• Security Add-Ons: Top dedicated hosting providers combine primary and advanced security measures, such as encryption, regular updates, patches, daily backups, malware detection and removal, SSH, proxy or VPN, SSL certificates, etc.
• Speed Add-Ons: The most popular options include Cloudflare CDN and caching services.
• Scalability: If your business grows and you exceed your dedicated server’s resources, the dedicated host should provide 100% performance on demand.
• 24/7 Customer Service: Support agents should be fast and responsive, available around the clock on multiple channels. Self-help, such as a Knowledge base, FAQ, blog, or video tutorials, should also be available.
• Money-Back Guarantee: If you are unsatisfied with the service, you should be able to get a refund, preferably in a period of 30 days or more.

What Is A Dedicated Web Hosting Server, and Who Is It For?

A dedicated web hosting server is the most advanced web hosting service type. It offers you, as the customer, exclusive access to the hardware components/the physical server itself.

You get a server all to yourself, and since you can “consume” all CPU, RAM, and bandwidth power, you can expect unmatched security, speed, and performance levels for your websites. As the single-tenant, you will get complete freedom to customise your server as you see fit, including choosing the control panel, operating system, and all remaining configurations.

Dedicated servers have limitless use cases, including web hosting, email hosting, database operations, etc. But if a dedicated server is arguably the best form of web hosting, why doesn’t everyone get it? It’s because it has the price to match – dedicated hosting is the priciest web hosting solution of all!

Dedicated web hosting is best for larger businesses and high-traffic websites requiring greater resource allocation and total control over their servers. It’s also an excellent fit for clients looking for a reliable service with stable bandwidth, video streaming sites, medium to large eCommerce websites, agencies with high profile clients, reseller hosting service businesses, dynamic websites with applications, websites with large databases and analytics, revenue-generating websites and big data.

However, the cost isn’t worth the benefits if you are starting your first website or personal blog.

Pros & Cons Of Dedicated Servers

What Else Should You Know Before Choosing Your Dedicated Server?

You’ve decided; shared and VPS hosting won’t cut it, so you’re to buy dedicated web hosting. But don’t rush into the purchase. Here are several considerations you must understand to make the best decision for your business.

Managed vs. Semi-Managed vs. Unmanaged Dedicated Hosting

Managed and unmanaged dedicated servers fall on different sides of the spectrum, while semi-managed dedicated hosting combines the two. The first and most apparent difference between managed and unmanaged dedicated hosting is the gap in pricing. But that’s only the start of it.

The provider assumes full responsibility for server management, maintenance, and monitoring with managed dedicated hosting. The company will continually monitor and configure your server, handle security, updates, malware detection, data backups, and operating system hardening. In turn, you can expect the highest performance and uptime levels. But naturally, all these benefits account for a higher price.

Unmanaged or self-managed dedicated hosting is the cheaper alternative. With this solution, the web host offers storage and hardware security. At the same time, you are left with managing the server, including installing scripts, performing updates, handling compatibility issues, security risk mitigation, and attack containment. So, if you go for this solution, you must have enough human resources and expertise in-house.

And finally, semi-managed dedicated hosting implies the web hosting company will handle any hardware, operating system, or basic configuration issues which may arise with your servers, such as load issues or sluggishness. But that’s about it – as a client, you are left with all remaining tasks.

The Difference Between HDD and SSD

Top dedicated server providers offer you the option to choose between HDD and SSD storage. So, the question is, what’s the difference? More importantly, which one is better for you?

Solid State Drives are newer, faster, more energy- and power-efficient. An SSD stores data on instantly accessible memory chips, delivering 50-250 MB/s in 4K read/write speeds. However, this incredible speed advantage comes at a higher price of $60-$150 for a 500 GB SSD.

On the other hand, Hard Disk Drives use mechanical platters and a moving read/writes head to access data, delivering much slower, 0.1 to 1.7 MB/s speeds. However, they are much cheaper, around $25-$50 for a 500 GB HDD.

Essentially, it comes down to your needs; either way, you’ll face a trade-off. If you want a large storage option at an affordable price, HDD is the way to go. If, however, you prioritise performance, you should select SSD instead.

Server Uptime Guarantee (SLA)

There are many features to consider when buying a dedicated server plan. However, none can match the importance of uptime. Downtime translates to the loss of revenues. Why? If people cannot access your website, content, and products, how would they buy from you?

The best dedicated web hosting providers do an excellent job of keeping your website up and running. It’s the only way to get a high score in our system. Furthermore, if an issue is outside the web host’s control, they should address it adequately.

Is a 99.9% uptime sufficient? While it might seem reasonable because it’s close to 100%, “three nines” translates to 8.77 hours of downtime per year, or 43.83 minutes per month, which is a lot. Keep in mind, downtime caused by scheduled maintenance doesn’t count towards the guarantee.

It would be best to strive towards an uptime guarantee of at least 99.95% of the time. Also, if your dedicated server is down at any time other than the scheduled maintenance, the web host should grant you a portion of your monthly fee back.

Potential Use Cases of Dedicated Servers

Up to now, we have talked about web servers. However, dedicated servers find various uses, meaning you can find several types of dedicated servers based on their application and functionality.

Here are the most common uses of dedicated servers worldwide:

• Web Server: you can use a dedicated server to host your website, software, and data
• File Server: exclusively using dedicated servers for storing and distributing files
• Email Server: dedicated email servers are beneficial if you handle confidential information
• Gaming Server: players can benefit from a smooth operation, minimal latency, and ultimate control
• Application Server: excellent for resource-hungry apps and in-house solutions, such as a custom-built CRM
• Database Server: facilitates data management, allowing hundreds of people to access the server simultaneously, without harming speeds
• Trading Server: for foreign exchange (FOREX) trading on the global market

In addition, you might use the dedicated server for whatever other purpose you see fit, such as a print server. You’ll be granted the ultimate versatility, so it’s up to you to decide where to direct these resources.

The Right Time To Consider Dedicated Hosting

Say you have started your web hosting journey on a shared hosting plan. With time, you have transferred to a VPS, and now, it’s time for another upgrade. Should you get a dedicated server? The main question you should answer at this point is how much traffic do you expect?

A dedicated server is the best choice when your website gradually grows and needs to handle increased traffic daily. Upgrading to dedicated hosting will help you reduce bounce rates, improve uptime, and boost the overall user experience, especially if you anticipate growth soon or highly depend on your website or web application.

VDS, or Virtual Dedicated Servers, is the middle ground, but more on those later.

Here are several indicators that you need to upgrade to a dedicated server:

• Your website or application is slowing down during periods of high-volume traffic
• You are facing lots of security threats (DDoS attacks or other malicious activities)
• You want to differ from your neighbour sites (get a dedicated IP and boost SEO rankings)
• Your resource needs are continually growing (as opposed to sudden spikes in traffic)
• You would like better control and flexibility over your operations

Before you purchase one of the best dedicated server hosting plans, you must decide your reason for doing so; develop a cost-benefit analysis to check whether the value is worth your money!

Are These Dedicated Server Hosting Solutions Really Worth My Time and Money?

If you want to have complete control over your server or strive for the highest possible privacy protection, dedicated web hosting is the way to go.

In shared web hosting, you share resources with other users on the same server, so you will run out of resources if another maximises the usage. VPS hosting is pretty similar; once again, you share the same environment; however, you have a more significant say over your website’s limits. At the same time, dedicated servers imply not sharing the hardware with anyone else, meaning you get raw performance for yourself.

Furthermore, top dedicated hosting grants you full access to each aspect of your site, meaning you can configure your server to match your specific needs or wants. A dedicated server is not vulnerable if another site gets attacked, which is the case in shared and VPS environments. You also get a dedicated IP, further decreasing the risks of security breaches, along with faster and more reliable service.

Due to all this, we would recommend the best dedicated web hosting if you want to have a lot more customizability and root access to build your websites. In fact, you will also get a lot of scalability options, which means that the server can be upgraded over time, depending on the specific needs and use-cases you have for it. Since no one else is hosting files on it, your data is entirely safe and secure, so if privacy and security are your primary concern, this is the ultimate solution for you!

What About the Security of Your Dedicated Server?

As explained, you can go for managed and unmanaged dedicated servers. If you select a managed dedicated hosting plan, the web host will take over the responsibility for securing your server. Essentially, this is the easiest way to protect your server – the managed hosting provider will take care of everything related to security, including updates, backups, and regular monitoring for suspicious activity.

If, however, you select unmanaged dedicated hosting, you will be fully responsible for your server security.

Cyberattacks have been increasing in recent years, so setting up your dedicated server security system is a must. You need to protect your server from malware, avoid password breaches, protect against software vulnerabilities, and avoid DDoS attacks. Fortunately, there are many different ways to protect your server, depending on the type of security breach.

Here are the top 10 practices for securing your dedicated server:

1. Install security updates and patches
2. Perform regular malware scans
3. Use DDoS protection
4. Use only secure networks
5. Change your SSH port
6. Create separate accounts for all users
7. Change passwords regularly
8. Protect your databases
9. Backup your data
10. Remove unused software

Even with security measures in place, it is vital to analyse the server regularly to understand the kind of attack and vulnerabilities to address. It would help if you used appropriate vulnerability or penetration test tools, such as Netsparker, OpenVAS, Xenotix XSS Exploit Framework, or ScanMyServer.

Virtual Dedicated Servers Explained

A VDS or a Virtual Dedicated Server is a form of multi-tenant cloud hosting. Virtualized server resources are made available to the end-user over the internet through a cloud or hosting provider. Each VDS is installed on a physical machine and operated by the cloud or hosting provider, which runs on multiple Virtual Dedicated Servers.

While they share a hypervisor and underlying hardware, each of them runs its own operating system and applications and reserves its own portion of the machine’s resources, such as memory, computational power, and so on.

Best Dedicated Web Hosting: Final Recommendations

The cost of getting a dedicated server is higher than any other solution, but it’s for a good reason. You won’t have to buy the hardware. Still, you’ll benefit from reserved resources, complete privacy, and full control over the components.

The most important decision you’ll have to make is to go for a managed dedicated server, an unmanaged one, or something in between. A managed dedicated server almost always proves the best choice – delivering better ease of use, speeds, and security or overall performance. Well, that’s unless you are a developer with lots of free time or you have one such team available in-house. In this case, you can save some money by getting a self-managed dedicated hosting solution.

Next, you should determine the resources you need and choose a plan that perfectly suits them. Here’s where scalability kicks in; if your business grows, you’ll exceed these resources, and you’ll need to upgrade. You should be able to upgrade quickly, without downtime. In addition, the web host should offer you many customization options – you should be able to configure your dedicated server to your liking and add different add-ons at reasonable prices. Free goods are always welcomed as well.

But nothing’s worth it without quality, technical assistance available at all times. Dedicated servers are more challenging to manage and navigate than any other solution. And if you don’t have much experience in the industry, skilled, helpful, and responsive professionals might as well “save your day!”