
Once upon a time, web hosting was the main type of website hosting, and until a certain time, it completely satisfied the needs of sites and users of online services. However, the Internet has more and more users, and the content has become much larger, so the bandwidth of the Internet has had to change to meet the needs of today’s websites. Content delivery networks (CDNs) have now begun to take market share from traditional web hosting for various reasons. Let’s discuss the main differences between them.
Are traditional hosting and content delivery networks competitors?
Web hosting is needed to host your website on a server and allow users to access it online. On the other hand, the CDN global network speeds up the access and delivery of your website’s resources to users. So, for now, these guys are on the same side: both are needed, and both work so that you can watch a movie on a streaming service or launch an online game without long waits and delays.
How does it work?
- Traditional web hosting delivers 100% of content to users. However, if users are located worldwide, they will still have to wait for data from your web server location.
- CDN hosting takes a large portion of static and dynamic content and serves it from various locations around the world, which helps reduce download times. Usually, the closer the CDN server is to the web visitor, the faster the resources are loaded.
- Web hosting is usually limited to a single server, while a CDN is a global network of edge servers that distributes your content across many hosts.
CDN vs. Traditional Web Hosting
CDN servers can optimally serve large files, thereby speeding up websites for small and large businesses. However, in specific cases, the balance between traditional and enhanced content delivery methods depends on your company’s needs.
- Using a dedicated server means it is only dedicated to your website, but a CDN has more potential to scale traffic, improve search engine optimization, and protect against DDoS attacks.
- CDNs tend to require less maintenance than traditional hosting, especially for individuals and businesses that can handle everything themselves.
- The presence of redundancy between peripheral servers is a positive point. You can find a CDN that fits your needs with the right selection. However, regular hosting also offers a lot of customization options.
Therefore, it is not about competing technologies but solutions that you can successfully apply together. With this approach, maintenance costs and the load on the main server are reduced, and the user experience of interacting with your online platform is increased. So feel free to contact GCore and find a balanced solution according to your business type and specific list of needs and requirements. In this way, you will get double benefit with less cost.