One of the most common questions in your mind when you decide to go online with is that will you go with shared hosting or go with a dedicated hosting. There are plenty of choices online and you probably cannot decide instantly without much research on web hosting in general.  First you should consider the following points about your small business and websites as well as hosting platforms.

Many of us wonder which one is the better choice. Well, they both serves different purposes and it entirely depends on the individual hosting needs.

Are you planning to have multiple websites?

Will you plan to add many sites within the next one year?

Are you selling online or will you at some point within this year plan to sell online?

Are or selling physical goods or downloadable e-goods and ads?

Are you technology savvy?

Do you know programming (html, css, basic hosting concepts etc)

Is it critical to have 100% uptime for your websites?

Will you be using lot of bandwidth?

If you have answered yes to any or all of the above questions, then you need to lay out a strategy before proceeding with hosting solution. You are most likely going to need a dedicated hosting solution. Most of us make the mistake of trying to get just a simple hosting plan and try it out and then maybe if we need, move to a dedicated server. You are only wasting time and money. If you within few months add another website, you need to get another hosting account. Most web hosting companies charge for the full year upfront and there are cancellation charges.

If your website is on your own dedicated server, it has less chances of ever being down (Provided you are with a good webhosting company with reliable network infrastructure), as compared to sharing your site on the same server with 100's of other websites. These days you can get a dedicated server with plenty of bandwidth for well under 200 dollars. Also Linux servers are very reliable and you can get them with control panel like PLESK or HELM, which gives you the familiar windows like user interface.

On the other hand if most of your answers are NO, (or not really!), then you will be most likely better off with a shared hosting plan. If you are just entering the online world, has only one website or blog, simply stay with a shared hosting plan. Also, if you have another full-time job, just trying this out as a hobby, stay with a shared hosting plan from a reliable web host. Our recent rankings have FogHost shared hosting and Yahoo, at the top for this month's shared hosting providers.

You can try several shared hosting plans for just one month and if you like the control panel, you can continue with a long-term contract with the same web hosting company. A basic rule of thumb is never sign a long term contract unless you have your friends or someone recommending a specific webhost. This is especially true for Shared Web Hosting plans.  For Dedicated Hosting we recommend NEVER sign any long term deals. Even though it may appear like money saving idea, you will not save a lot. Its better to hold on to the cash and spend on advertising your products or services!