IT infrastructure management presents numerous questions related to choosing between dedicated IP and shared IP addresses, with both having distinct advantages and disadvantages based on individual needs and priorities.
In order to assist you in choosing which is best for your purposes, we’ll compare dedicated and shared IP addresses in this post and go through their advantages and disadvantages.
What Is An IP Address?
Each domain on the internet is given an IP address, which stands for Internet Protocol (for instance: 216.58.217.206). The DNS can be compared to a phone book for the internet.
Your ISP performs a DNS query when you type Google into the address bar of your browser to retrieve nameservers for that domain.
The server then performs the mapping to the IP address invisibly, enabling you to visit it using the domain name. To access Google without DNS, you would need to write something like “216.58.217.206”.
Notable also is that there are two versions of IP addresses, IPv4 and IPv6. IPv4 is the older of these versions and uses a 32-bit format, providing up to 4.3 billion unique addresses. IPv6 uses 128 bits, providing far more combinations that may be used as future-proofing measures.
What Is Dedicated IP Address?
A dedicated IP is an IP address exclusively allocated for use by one entity rather than shared among multiple users or devices, typically at an additional fee from an ISP, VPN service provider, hosting provider, or similar.
They are ideal for situations when businesses must implement more stringent controls over the IP addresses used within their operations.
Pros and Cons of Dedicated IP Addresses
Pros:
- Better security and privacy: By isolating your account and avoiding problems caused by unreliable shared IP neighbors, dedicated IPs.
- Complete command and reliability: You don’t have to be concerned about what other people do on the address thanks to your dedicated IP. You are also aware that the IP will not change.
- Being able to scale: When your site expands, dedicated IPs enable practically limitless bandwidth use and port access.
- Increased email delivery: Major providers like Gmail will accept email as valid when it comes from a reliable, constant IP.
Cons:
- Reputational accountability: Since problems cannot be attributed to other people, you must actively protect the reputation of your IP.
- Increased cost: Dedicated IPs cost more than shared hosting packages that include shared IPs. Pricing should start at about $5 per month.
- Overspending on resources: Dedicated IPs require you to pay for more capacity than you still require.
What Is Shared IP Address?
A shared IP or dynamic IP is defined as any IP address shared among multiple users on a network. Externally, multiple users using an ISP-assigned shared IP to connect to the internet may share one single address for connecting.
An ISP handles the distribution of shared IP addresses among its user base, rotating them regularly as needed. No single user owns an IP address assigned.
Pros and Cons of Shared IP Addresses
Pros:
- The provider maintains reputation: With a shared IP, the hosting provider is mostly in charge of maintaining reputation and deliverability.
- Simple to obtain: Basic shared hosting accounts come with free shared IPs; nothing else needs to be bought.
- Very affordable: IPs are offered for little to no extra cost with shared hosting plans that allow for many websites per account.
Cons:
- Inconsistency in delivery: Emails sent from a shared IP address could be flagged as spam by spam filters.
- Performance problems: As traffic increases, shared hosting bandwidth and usage restrictions can seriously impair site performance. An update is required!
- Security dangers: If one website on a shared IP address is reported for spam or fraud, all the websites on that address are equally vulnerable to being blacklisted.
- Restricted control: With a shared IP, you cannot guarantee constant IP geolocation or customized ports.
How Do IP Addresses Function?
If you use your computer at home and then switch over to using Wi-Fi at a friend’s place, your IP address may change as they vary based on where each network resides on the internet.
Similar to your physical address, which you use for mail delivery, IP addresses provide your virtual location on the internet and display specific data for you to view.
Which IP Address Type Is Best For SSL?
Nowadays, SSL doesn’t distinguish between dedicated IP addresses and shared IP addresses. The majority of hosting companies in use today (including WP Engine) make use of a technology known as Server Name Indication (SNI), which enables the server to use several SSL certificates on a single IP address.
Regardless of the kind of IP address your site uses, you can add an SSL certificate to it thanks to this technology. For this reason, WP Engine provides a variety of choices for implementing this layer of protection, including a free SSL certification through Let’s Encrypt, a computerized, open certificate authority.
