What is Dedicated IP Web Hosting?

You may have heard of dedicated IP web hosting as a favorable feature from a web hosting company.  What does this term mean?  Dedicated IP web hosting (also known as static web hosting) allows the website owner to have his own IP address that can be used exclusively for an individual server space or domain.  Therefore, a web user could access this web information by typing in the domain name or the IP address.  Of course, IP web hosting features between different companies are not standardized. 

What are the advantages of this type of hosting plan?  Dedicated IP hosting is an ideal feature for large businesses or companies involved in e-commerce.  This is because dedicated IP hosting offers enhanced security, and safety is of paramount concern in online sales.  Other benefits for dedicated IP hosting include the filtering out of SPAM (a common grievance among users who rely on shared IP addresses) and greater flexibility.  Dedicated IP hosting offers tools and extra options such as a private SSL certificate and anonymous FTP.

A secure IP address and dedicated IP web hosting helps to ensure that a user will have full control over the content, security and administration of their site.  In addition, this enhanced level of complexity can help improve search engine results, which is very important to the success of an online business.  Dedicated IP web hosting can be more expensive than other forms of web hosting, because of the advantages that it offers. 

This is not the same definition of a dedicated web server, which is a server that is exclusive to one user and company.  A low cost web hosting company may offer a server that shares a few different websites and IP addresses.  However, a dedicated web server only holds one website and IP address.  On the other hand, a company that offers a dedicated IP address gives the user an exclusive right to the address, meaning yours is the only site that will be affiliated with the IP or domain. 

If security isn’t a big issue with your company (for instance, if you have a promotional or informational site) then you may have no need for a dedicated IP or static address.  However, the more business you do online the more security features customers will expect from you.  Dedicated IP addresses are usually not unreasonably expensive, and could be as low as $2-5 dollars per month.