As a site owner, you'll have to choose the appropriate hosting environment is a decision that you will have to face many times as a site owner. Even after making an initial decision, your hosting needs can change and evolve.
What is Cloud Hosting?
The cloud is based on cloud computing technologies that allow an unlimited number of machines to act effectively as a single system. Drawing its resources from several different servers makes cloud hosting extremely reliable. If one fails, the other servers can take its place. Cloud hosting can evolve with your business, as you only need to add additional server resources if your site requires it.
However, most cloud hosting offers a lower level of performance than dedicated servers.
What is a dedicated server?
A dedicated server is a server where you use dedicated resources. You store website and all necessary files on a single physical server dedicated to your site only. This style of hosting is generally more expensive, but dedicated servers are very efficient, as they can be configured precisely according to your needs and offer a high level of security.
It can be an excellent choice for large companies or websites that receive a lot of traffic. It can also be interesting if you have a company that requires a very high level of security for storing user or customer data.
What to choose? Hosting in the cloud or a dedicated server
The price of each server option - cloud or dedicated - will depend on the hosting company you use. In general, dedicated servers are more expensive, and you will pay an initial monthly fee for the server space you use.
Cloud hosting is usually sold depending on the resources you use, and you will end up paying for the total amount of server resources you use. If you want to experiment with different hosting environments and have something more flexible to support your development, then cloud hosting may be the best option for your needs.
Performance
From a performance point of view, the two options are quite comparable. Dedicated servers are as fast as their counterparts in the cloud.
It is entirely reasonable to see a computer slow down over time due to too many unwanted program files and temporary files running on the server. It may actually be the same with cloud servers, but here you can move to a new instance by leaving an instance aside, cleaning this machine without interrupting things, and then returning to the same computer afterward.
Reliability
Since multiple machines store and retrieve your data in the cloud, even if one of the servers crashes unexpectedly, your website/web application will not crash, and you may merely experience performance problems and a slower execution rate.
However, for a dedicated server, there is no possibility of such a backup, and your website/web application continues directly in the event of a server crash, and there is no interim solution available until they repair the server, and it becomes operational again.