Of the many web hosting capabilities and features that almost all web hosting providers offer, dedicated IP is arguably the most controversial among web designers. Is it necessary? Is it useful? Do We Really Need a Dedicated Server? Do we really need a dedicated IP?
This challenging debate continues. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide whether or not to have a dedicated IP address, but knowing a few facts and theories can help you make a more informed decision. Now let’s start with some basic principles.
Table of Contents
What is a dedicated IP?
The IP address is completely separate from your domain name or website URL. An IP address (Internet Protocol) is actually a range of numbers assigned to any device that is connected to the Internet. Your domain is essentially the address of your website, the same address that can be found on the Internet. Your computer’s IP address is a unique tag that allows the Internet, websites, etc. to identify your particular device. In addition to computers and cell phones, servers also have their own unique IP address.
The difference between shared IP and dedicated IP
Most data centers and web hosting providers offer their services in two different types of hosting, shared hosting and dedicated hosting. In shared hosting, all server resources are at the disposal of a number of sites, regardless of who owns the sites or how much traffic each site receives.
Number of websites
In dedicated hosting, all the resources of a server are still at the disposal of a particular set of sites and applications, but how these resources are allocated to the people who rent the server space, not the web hosting provider. So when it comes to shared hosting, there are often hundreds and sometimes thousands of sites that are all on the same server, so they all have the same IP address. In the case of dedicated hosting, sites may have a shared hosting provider, but not all IP addresses are the same.
Shared IPs and dedicated IPs do the same. When each account on the shared hosting has the same IP, a dedicated IP is a unique address dedicated to your host server. Now that you have a unique IP address, you can choose to host different sites from that IP address, and ultimately, you will have control over who uses it.
Is it necessary to have a dedicated IP?
This is usually not a problem at all, whether you are looking for hosting or search engine optimization (SEO), but in some cases, using a dedicated IP can be helpful, and in some cases It is even necessary to have it.
What is the use of a dedicated IP?
To truly understand the subject of dedicated IPs, it is important to first understand how IP addresses work. IP addresses direct Internet traffic to its correct location and destination. Like a zip code, many people can have an IP.
If you have a shared hosting account, you probably share your site’s IP address with dozens of others. In some cases, you may share this IP with hundreds of other sites. Sharing this address is not a problem. Because hosts have special software to identify which requests are specific to which sites have a shared IP and manage to deliver relevant content from each site to visitors in a fraction of a second.
Dedicated IP address belongs exclusively to you. You may decide to use that IP address to serve multiple websites, but ultimately you have control over who uses it. Now let’s look at some of the benefits associated with it.
What are the benefits of a dedicated IP?
As far as hosting is concerned, there are four main reasons why a dedicated IP is useful or necessary for the success of your site and web design.
- You need SSL certificates to secure your site.
- Your site is popular and you need dedicated resources to maintain its performance.
- You need to access your website regularly through File Transfer Protocol (FTP).
- You must view your website through its IP address.
Many of these reasons also indicate that the time has come to upgrade your hosting platform from shared to dedicated. It should be noted, however, that dedicated IPs do not depend on dedicated hosting for proper operation. If you host multiple of your sites on a dedicated server, you can use shared IPs, and you can also use dedicated IPs for your sites hosted on a shared server. (If an online store uses shared hosting and an SSL certificate, it probably has a dedicated IP). Among the above reasons, the most common reason you need a dedicated IP is to intend to use an SSL certificate for your site.
You can read our aticles about the different types of web hosting.