Intro

The performance of the website is fully correlated with the used resources. It is obvious that sites with minimum traffic need fewer resources while those with high volumes need more resources and that’s why a dedicated server USA will be a better choice. However, it might be difficult to calculate this number if you are launching your first website. For this reason, we decided to give a couple of recommendations regarding major characteristics such as storage, CPU, bandwidth, and more.

How to choose the right web server for your needs?

Size of the hard drive

To start the calculation process of the needed resources, you should better include the following:

•    Email
  

•    OS
  

•    Control panel
  

•    Database
  

•    Apps
  

•    Security
  

•    Other required tools
  

Here we will take into consideration the most average numbers for getting a general understanding of the process. For instance, the page is approximately 50 kilobytes so 2 MB is needed for an average of 40 pages and 40 MB is needed for 800 pages.

Now, let’s proceed to calculations based on the users’ numbers by including the databases and email files. So, in case the file size is 90MB and includes 7000 users each one requires 1 MB in such a case the space required for hosting database files is 90 MB + (7000*1MB) = 7090 MB or 7,09 GB.

Let’s discuss a theoretical example of a server with a space of 2,000 GB. For proper functioning there should be a minimum of 15 percent of free space, this number will be 300 GB so the stored data should not be more than 1700 GB. So, you should regularly monitor that disk usage is below 85 percent in in this case no more than 1700 GB.

RAM on the server

RAM is a temporary storage of the files that are needed for the display of the page. If there is enough RAM available, the server can function quicker because of more storage for temporary data and no need to wait for slower hard drive resources.

This number depends on lots of factors including databases, apps, OS, security tools, control panels, and other features that might consume lots of memory. Check these mentioned parameters and you will understand how much RAM do you actually need.

The approximate number is 10 percent and servers usually include such numbers in the plans. RAM that is included in the standard packages ranegs from 1 GB to 64 GB on average.

Bandwidth characteristics

This parameter is measured according to the month’s statistics and includes the received/sent information from the site. Depending on the chosen hosting provider, you can get either a plan with unlimited bandwidth or those packages where you pay for the amount of the transferred data.

Let’s discuss an actual example, you have a site with 80,000 visitors per month and the size of the page is 40 KB. If taking into account the fact that standard users check 9 pages, the min bandwidth should be the following:

80,000 users * 40 KB * 9 pg. = 28,800 MB

Of course, it is recommended to have extra capacity in order to deal with unpredictable traffic. So, that your website will function perfectly fine even during huge traffic volumes during some periods.

How to choose a hosting plan?

Once you have made all the needed calculations regarding the required resources for your site, the next crucial step is the choice of the hosting plan. Here we will share a couple of the most used options on the market:

•    Shared hosting. If a perfect fit for small companies with minimum traffic activity. In this case, you will have a resource limitation and share the physical server with other users.
  

•    VPS. When compared with the previous variant, this option gives you more dedicated resources and better customization while still sharing a server with other users. VPS is a rather scalable solution so you can adjust the resources when and if needed.    
  

•    Dedicated hosting. Is the most expensive variant, because an entire server is used by one client. So, there is max possible control level over all the processes, dedicated resources, and way more.
  

Summing up

Determining the required resources for your website on the server is really important. This process should be careful and include such criteria as RAM, size of hard drive, and bandwidth. Also, it is crucial to plan future perspectives and potential growth of the business and increment in traffic activity. So, the scalability of the hosting solution is important in order to make an informed decision about the improved performance and best possible user experience when on your platform. Hope this information was useful and now you have an exact plan of what should be taken into consideration when purchasing a hosting solution for your website.