Home Servers vs. Web Hosting: Which One Is the Better Choice?

For small- and medium-size business owners setting up their website, one of the key concerns is choosing between home server windows (hosting their server internally) or outsourcing their hosting needs to a web hosting service provider. 

Both approaches have their positive and negative aspects. To help you make a decision, you need to weigh out both options carefully to ensure you choose the right fit for your business. 

And in this blog, we compare both approaches to help you make an informed decision. 

In-house Hosting or Home Servers 

Home servers or in-house hosting, in general, is a great choice for large businesses that aim to have complete control and flawless operation of the hosting system. Apart from a web server, you also need a high-speed internet connection and be directly responsible for your server's day-to-day operation for 24 hours. 

Pros of Running a Home Server 

Quick response times 

Working with your team in running a home server allows you to easily make upgrades anytime. This also means that if you have enough resources, you can take advantage of cutting-edge technology as soon as it becomes available. 

Pricing advantage 

Another benefit of hosting your servers in-house is you get to eliminate unwanted components to reduce overall costs. This gives you the benefit of consumption-based pricing, which means that you’re not billed unnecessarily for traffic or bandwidth you don’t use. 

Control over data and hosting 

Running a home server also gives you complete control over its functionality, software, and settings. Everything from the choice of hardware, expandability of upgrades to control over the operating environment (systems and software that run on the webserver) is yours. In this case, you can manage web storage space and performance more effectively and are not legally bound to use a specific provider. 

Cons of Running a Home Server 

Back-up

Irrespective of what redundancy you have on your server, you’ll still require a network hard drive to back up your critical data, essential files, or a replica server. 

Internet speed 

If your home server is hosting a large amount of data that also needs to be available outside of your home network, you’ll need fast internet. This is important as most home internet plans focus on downstream speed, but if you’re sharing data from your server to the internet, you’ll require a plan with high upstream speeds.  

Time commitment required 

Hosting your server at home requires a great deal of commitment. If you’re not in the business of web hosting, the job is best left to a professional and reliable hosting provider that is up to date and dedicated to optimise the power of your hosting. 

Hosting your website requires a significant amount of experience 

 Keeping up with all the updates and protecting your websites against security threats requires a significant amount of knowledge, experience, and expertise. An under-resourced or unprepared team can find it difficult to manage and soon get overwhelmed with the task. 

Web Hosting Service Provider 

A professional web hosting service provider offers several benefits, such as robust web security and 24/7 technical support that is typically lacking in in-house or home servers. Apart from this, you also get the advantage of backup and restoration features. 

READ: Eight Signs That You Need to Upgrade Your Hosting Service

Pros of Web Hosting Services 

Optimal security and reliability 

Leveraging a professional and dedicated hosting service provider ensures that your website maintains optimal performance through code updates and reliable internet connectivity despite sudden traffic spikes. 

Minimal outages and problems 

In case of issues, outages, and other emergencies, you enjoy the best chance of a fast and thorough response when working with a reliable web hosting service provider. Since they ensure seamless maintenance of your hosting and development infrastructure, your website is less likely to experience severe outages. 

Email and domain name 

A web hosting service provider typically offers at least one domain name to clients. You get the advantage of picking your emails, domain, and any amount of data space as per your requirements and also upgrade the same based on the level of scalability of your business. 

Saves time

Hiring a professional web hosting provider not only saves you time and resources, but also the effort of deploying code changes in the event of a traffic spike. 

Cons of Web Hosting Service Providers 

Lack of control 

In most cases, it's difficult to get control over the outsourced web hosting support team as compared to the in-house hosting staff.  

Confidentiality and security issues 

Web hosting service providers often require administrative access to your IT infrastructure for them to work effectively. This also means having access to sensitive data on your servers, which may contain important details about your business and clients— posing a great risk of your data being compromised.  

Choose a reliable web hosting provider

There can be multiple situations in which you might decide that self-hosting your website is a great idea to go with. You may be an entrepreneur, freelancer, or running a personal website and decide to host the site on a small server in your home. However, irrespective of the situation, in-house hosting may not be worth the effort in the long run.  

Professional web hosting service providers can run a hosting service way cheaper than you can at home, serve pages faster, and do it much more reliably. By allowing professionals to host your website, you can be assured of quality site management.  Plus, there is no risk of exposing your network to threatening security issues when you host your website with an offsite service.