In this article, we will discuss the difference and benefits of a Shared IP Address and a Dedicated IP Address so you can devise an ideal thought of what you should consider using for your website or domain.

What is a Dedicated IP Address?

Simply put, a dedicated IP address means that your domain has been issued an IP address not shared with or used by any other domains. It is the online home of your domain. This can be compared to a dedicated phone line. Usually, your hosting company will assign a dedicated IP address to your domain, or you can add one for a modest additional cost.

Typically, with shared hosting services, they are deployed on shared IP addresses by default and with VPS and dedicated server services, they are deployed with dedicated IP addresses.

What Is a Shared IP Address?

In contrast to a dedicated IP address, a shared IP address means that your domain is mapped to an address shared by several other domains. Nowadays, the majority of hosting providers rather frequently uses shared IPs. Because many configurations do not require a dedicated IP address, this is the case. 

Shared hosting often refers to sharing hardware and networking resources, which may include an IP address, with other users on a server. Even while they frequently go together, that is only sometimes the case.

Scenarios where their features are compared:

1.  Networking

You might now be wondering whether you ought to provide your WordPress website with a dedicated IP address. You may come across some of the following justifications for dedicated IPs if you conduct a web search:

When networking with a dedicated IP, you can access your website using its IP address (since it is the only domain mapped to that IP). For instance, because “64.233.185.96” is Google’s unique IP address, typing that value will take you exactly there. If, for any reason, your DNS was still propagating or had just changed, it also offers another simple option to reach your server via FTP.

We believe neither of the arguments mentioned earlier constitutes a true benefit. When did you last access a website using its IP address? Most likely never. Regarding the second justification, many users just change the host’s file. This strategy is far more trustworthy.

2.  Email

One area where we occasionally advise acquiring a dedicated IP is email. But things take a turn.

Typically, this is only advantageous for senders of high volumes of emails (we’re talking 100,000+ a year or more). Even still, we do not advise buying a dedicated IP through your hosting company. Getting a dedicated IP and sending a small number of emails might be detrimental to your business. Because IPs have a reputation, you would most want a dedicated IP for sending emails from your WordPress website or transactional emails (like e-commerce sales emails).  When it comes to ISPs and delivery rates, this is very crucial. Your delivery rate and your ability to get to your consumers’ inboxes may be impacted by an IP’s reputation.

It’s helpful to think of how email functions with common hosts as similar to shared hosting.

Your host’s configuration of your IP addresses for outgoing emails binds you to them. There is a possibility that the IP address could be blocked for spam if something goes wrong with that system, such as a client suddenly spamming. Then, as you wait for your host to work out the problem with the service provider or ISP, you are now at their mercy. This might lead to inconsistent email delivery and long wait times, which is never good.

RackNerd solves this problem with our Shared and Reseller hosting services because we provide a free MailChannels hybrid solution – which routes your outbound mails to the time-tested MailChannels platform if and as needed, ensuring excellent email deliverability rates, without the need to shell out extra money on a dedicated IP address. You can read more about how our MailChannels integration feature works by clicking here.

3.  SSL

Let’s now discuss the differences between a dedicated IP address and a shared IP address related to SSL. In fact, a lot has happened in this particular sector during the previous ten years. In the past, you had to buy a dedicated IP whenever you needed an SSL certificate (for instance, to encrypt your e-commerce site).

SNI, or Server Name Identification, was then created. Hosting companies can employ several SSL certificates on a single IP address thanks to SNI. In essence, it delivers the visitor the certificate that corresponds to the asked server name. The main problem when this was first created was browser support. However, such times are now in the past. Only older versions of the Android, Chrome, and iOS browsers and Internet Explorer running on Windows XP do not support SNI. SNI technology enabling our Let’s Encrypt integration lets you add paid and unpaid SSL certificates. HTTPS may be enabled on your website with a single click from your control panel. Shared IP addresses now function perfectly well with SSL. With the help of our isolated container technology, security is also no longer a worry.

Cloudflare uses its globally dispersed anycast network to transport traffic to your website and visitor requests. Attackers cannot directly target your server since requests return a Cloudflare IP address rather than your origin IP. When Cloudflare uses your domain as a proxy, your IP address is added to the group of IP addresses that share the Cloudflare network. The platform does not, therefore, support dedicated IP addresses.

4.  Pricing

The cost should also be taken into account while configuring IP addresses. The price of a shared and dedicated IP varies depending on your hosting company and the length of service. Shared web hosting providers will charge an additional monthly or yearly fee if you would like to avail for a dedicated IP address. Additionally, not every provider offers dedicated IPs.

RackNerd provides shared IP addresses by default on our Shared Web Hosting and Reseller Web Hosting product lines. Dedicated IPs can be purchased (subject to availability) for $18/Year per dedicated IP, however, because of the fact we include a free MailChannels hybrid solution across the entire shared hosting infrastructure platform, this negates any practical need to shell out extra money for a dedicated IP address.

Additionally, RackNerd by default provides dedicated IP addresses with our VPS and Dedicated Server product lines, at no additional charge.