What is a Dedicated IP Address?

A dedicated IP address refers to the permanent assignment of a single and static IP address for a website or a network’s TCP/IP node. Dedicated IP addresses are provided by a network administrator (NA) or an Internet Service Provider (ISP). In order to reduce the number of IP addresses, most of the Internet sites and nodes share the IP address as these addresses are finite sources. Usually, a dedicated IP address is used by the websites that require an SSL verification.

Since the Domain Name System or DNS contains a list of website IP addresses, sharing the IP address can be an alternative that will reduce the need for dedicated IP addresses. As per need, the ISPs and hosting can assign the dedicated IP addresses to their customers and this can prove to be an expensive alternative than sharing the IP. A website may decide to use a dedicated IP address for various purposes.

Advantages of a Dedicated IP Address

• Using a dedicated IP address gives the website owners full control of their website and therefore the reputation of the website lies mainly with the owners. This can be a useful tool when the website owner is looking to send emails to others from their website, considering the fact that the reputation of the IP address can be a screening factor for most of the public email providers. In case the IP address is linked with spam, then the email shot by the website owners might be filtered out.

• With a dedicated IP address, the website owners are provided direct access to the services without a change to the DNS setting for the domain and it can be taken offline for 48 hours. This makes it easier for the website owners to check the website performance, improving the website speed in some instances or even resolve issues that may be used for preventing visitors to access any information.

• With the help of a dedicated IP address, it is possible to obtain an SSL certificate that can be used for enhancing the security of the website visitors. With the help of a secured site, the website owners can protect the user data more effectively which can be necessary for processing payments and personal information from any e-commerce platform. It not only improves the reputation of the owner’s website but can also be a requirement regarding jurisdictions for processing the payments online.

• For popular websites moving to a dedicated IP can prove to be helpful as the website owners can manage the high traffic volumes more effectively. Today, SEO is more based on value and user experiences, a faster loading site might be ranked better creating more opportunities for the website owner’s business to expand.

Disadvantages of a Dedicated IP Address

• Spikes in the email volume with a dedicated IP can often result in a negative outcome and it may dampen the reputation of a website owner. The owners need to manage the email volumes carefully and sending several emails with a new dedicated IP could often create issues with the email service provider.
  
• Most of the Internet service providers are looking to strangle those IP addresses which don’t have a volume history. The reputation of these IP addresses is often enforced when the website owners opt for a dedicated ID.  This reflects the website owner is forced to build his reputation over time and again.
  
• Most of the dedicated IP addresses are not available with the website owner’s preferred host. This results in the compulsory porting of the website to a new hosting provider in order to gain the benefits. With larger websites, the process of porting can prove to be a time-extensive and a costly option. The best-case scenario lies with finding a provider for the dedicated IP before going through the process of website building.
  
• In order to maintain a trustworthy reputation, a dedicated IP needs to send about 200,000 emails per month. If the number of emails that are sent is less, then it becomes difficult for maintaining the history for an ISP to consider the dedicated IP as a trustworthy content source. The smaller websites need to opt-out of this asset at the given moment.

What is a Shared IP Address?

A shared IP address is used for hosting several websites over a single server where a large number of websites are going to share a single IP address rather than having a unique IP address for each of the domains. The actions of a single website are going to affect all the other websites present on the server. In case an IP address over a server is blacklisted as a result of spamming, then the other websites present on the server will also have their mail services interrupted. Shared IP addresses are used for handling email delivery of multiple low-volume senders or irregular senders. The biggest pitfall of using a shared IP is that it can limit the ability to influence the IP reputation.

Advantages of a Shared IP Address

• A shared IP is any day cheaper than a dedicated IP. If several IPs are to be used at one go, then one should definitely select the shared IP. Shared IP can be a beneficial option if the website owner is not a very experienced user of Internet and looking for a basic protection mechanism only for his website.

• Despite the fact that it is shared with a lot of people over the Internet, a shared IP address holds a fair level of anonymity over the Internet.

Disadvantages of a Shared IP Address

• The biggest drawback that lies with a shared IP address is that if a website’s IP address hosted on the server is blacklisted or banned, then due to this banned IP address, it will create a hindering impact on the other websites performance.

• In case of a traffic surge on the server, the performance of the website may also get hampered. This would result in slower page loading and this could ultimately erode away the potential customers to the competitor’s website.