Over a period of time, the data storage techniques employed by web hosting providers went through a huge transformation. Previously, HDDs, also known as hard disk drives were used by the majority of web hosting companies as the main storage device. However, in order to boost performance, solid-state drives (SSDs) are the most popular choice. Web hosting providers give you a choice of both SSD and HDD, regardless of whether you choose dedicated servers, shared hosting, or VPS hosting. What is the difference between HDD and SSD, you might be wondering? Let’s understand SSD and HDD hosting a bit better before we find out their differences.
What is SSD hosting?
SSD is the short form of a Solid-state disk, a kind of disk without moving parts. They are not as affordable as the HDD, however, the benefits they offer are much better. They are more dependable and resilient due to their lack of moving parts. Their speed of searching and delivering files to you is quite fast as they have reduced latency. Like SSD drives are sold along with many computers, web servers can include them too. Similar to your files being stored on the hard drive of your computer, now you can simply store them on these drives.
What is Hard Disk Drive (HDD) hosting?
HDD, namely Hard disk drive, is the traditional way of hosting that a majority of hosting providers are still using. The affordable cost is one of the main reasons hosting services are still using HDDs. Additionally, they are incredibly easy to put to use. It also helps hosting providers put in a substantially small amount of money for a large amount of space, which they can then offer customers as unlimited space to accommodate all of their needs. HDD includes moving parts that make for reduced durability as compared to SSD. Plus, the risk of booting time, disk failure, disk fragmentation, and noise is much higher with HDDs.
Which is the better option between SSD and HDD? Let’s take a look.
1. SSDs vs HDDs: Which is Faster?
Speed is one of the most important factors while deciding which of SSD and HDD is a better choice. Compared to HDD hosting, SSD hosting provide 20 times more speed in storing data and accessing it while providing it to users. HDDs store your sensitive data in a metal disk that is covered with a magnetic coating. Data is withdrawn and stored by a reading task placed above the disk. The speed of storing and getting data from your disk is dependent on how fast it spins. However, to avoid the disk from failing its speed must be limited.
SSDs do not have any moving parts. They are much more efficient in reading and writing data while providing the same amount of base-level storage. Microchips are used to house data and information rather than moving parts. So it is quite similar to a memory stick or flash drive. Since there is no need to spin, there is no reason to reduce their speed. So they are much quicker in accessing and storing data than the traditional HDDs. A website hosted with an SSD will provide you with much faster loading times as it serves data quite fast. It can boost your search engine ranks along with conversion rates which could lead your website towards success.
2. Data Security & Reliability
Every business across the globe needs data security to keep it safe while still being accessible to users. The potential for failure is quite higher with HDDs as there are several moving parts involved that could have dire consequences such as data loss and corruption. The majority of hosting services get rid of these risks by employing backup systems. However, if a website encounters a high amount of traffic, the risk of data loss persists.
Fortunately, there are no moving parts in SSDs, so the potential for failure is quite low. While their performance can start tipping down after several years of use, its lifespan is still much longer.
3. Cost-effective
SSDs are rapidly becoming much more affordable. Since there was a high demand for faster performance in the market, the manufacturers of SSDs could drop the manufacturing costs. It has brought up the application of SSDs instead of HDDs in the market. Buying HDDs is still quite lower in price, especially on a gigabyte to gigabyte basis. However, SSDs are being applied on the majority of cloud-based hosting.
Budget hosts are predominantly the ones who offer hard disk drive-based hosting as they can provide their customers with more economical packages such as cheap VPS hosting plans in India. While most web hosting providers have contingency plans to avoid data loss, one more downfall of a hard drive is its rate of failure. Hard drives are cheaper than SSD hardware, but their quick erosion in the long term proves them to be rather costlier. Offsite storage benefits greatly with hard disk drives, along with backup duties and managing archives.
Conclusion
Based on the points we have discussed above, SSD is proven to be the best hosting for your website as it provides drives that are quicker, safer, and more reliable. They can provide your website with a lot faster performance than any other normal hosting will. A slow website is a good way of losing potential customers and increasing your bounce rate. If you want a website that gives you an edge in the market over the competitors, then SSD will always triumph over its traditional counterpart.