Once your business starts to flourish and the demand increases, it becomes necessary to look for upgrades.
If it’s an online business, upgrading your server should be one of the first things you should upgrade because you don’t want your website to slow down or even crash. This can result in losing potential customers, and that’s not good for your business.
If you’re currently on a shared server, upgrading to a dedicated server would be ideal. A dedicated server is a type of remote server that is meant only for you and nobody else. This means you’ll not be sharing your server resources with other business owners.
It has a lot of benefits, which is why we’ll look into the best dedicated UK servers you can utilize if your business resides in the UK. These server providers are carefully picked to give you only the best options.
If that sounds interesting, let’s find out more.
Features of Dedicated Servers
Irrespective of whether you have a website or an application, hosting it on a dedicated server has to be one of the safest bets.
Here are some of the many features that dedicated servers usually provide.
#1. Scalability
The area in which dedicated servers easily overtake shared servers is scalability. Since your business is looking to grow, it’s important to have room to scale things to fit in more customers and potentially more revenue.
Dedicated servers lay the perfect foundation for you as they give you the freedom to scale the resources for 100% performance on demand.
#2. Security
Since dedicated servers are fully “dedicated” to you, there are no other websites or applications getting a piece of your allotted resources. This eliminates any uncertainty of proper usage of resources.
Also, you’re allowed to install your preferred security software like firewalls, anti-malware programs, and more.
Also read: Security features your web hosting provider should have.
To further tighten things, it allows for security patches and convenient upgrades at regular intervals.
#3. Reliability
With dedicated servers, you get a good amount of assurance regarding performance and management. It uses resources seamlessly to ensure everything is utilized well in the process.
It also has enterprise-grade management to top it off.
#4. Flexibility
Since the resources aren’t shared in dedicated servers, you can enjoy great flexibility by using them as per your liking. In fact, you’d almost feel like there’s no cap on the things you can install and do on the dedicated server.
You can install applications of your choice and enjoy better website performance without latency.
#5. Availability
Dedicated servers are protected round the clock and ensure an uptime as high as 99.9%, so your website is free from crashes, “server down” messages, and other problems.
Since you get high availability with a dedicated server, you’d be able to retain more visitors and set a great first impression with the user experience.
Importance of Hosting Your Online Business Near to Customers
Picking a hosting server location that’s near your customers has a lot of benefits. The dedicated UK servers we’ll be going through in this post will help in many areas, some of which are:
#1. Faster Speed
Since the distance is shorter, the hosting speed will be faster for your visitors. The people browsing from the UK will experience faster loading times, as geographic location plays a very important role in your website loading faster.
However, it’s also important to mention that people browsing from outside the UK will experience slower loading times, as your site will need to cover a distance that could cause several jumps in the network.
#2. Great for SEO
Since it speeds up your website, it directly affects your SEO performance.
Search engines love sites that load fast, and geographic location-based hosting will keep your website loading fast for local visitors, which means your site will be pushed up in the rankings of local search results.
Your target audience can find your website on Google much easier.
#3. Better User Experience
Better loading time, smooth browsing, and minimal errors improve user experience. All of these factors can be achieved when you host your website or application in a geographic location near your visitors.
#4. No Additional Compliance
Hosting your website or application in a completely different country rather than your own would mean you’d have to be within the lines of that country’s compliance policies.
You’d have to abide by the regulations to store your data in those regions. Failing to comply with the rules could result in financial repercussions, and that’s not something you want.
If you host your website in a country, you’re familiar with and near your target audience, you don’t have to do additional research on the rules, as you might already know about them.
I am certain you’d be well-versed with the compliance policies of the UK since we’re going to uncover the best dedicated UK servers.
Dedicated Servers vs. Shared Hosting
Both dedicated servers and shared hosting have pros and cons, and choosing one boils down to your requirement.
We can see both as apartments in a block of flats and a cottage house. While both are good places for you to live in, they carry advantages and disadvantages of their own – but with one side slightly outweighing the other. ⚖️
To better illustrate the differences between them, here’s a table:
| Dedicated Server | Shared Hosting | |
| Cost | High cost | Pocket-friendly |
| Speed | High speed due to 100% processing power | Less speed due to shared resources |
| Setup | Setup may take some time, and you might need some technical knowledge for unmanaged packages | Quick setup |
| Performance | High performance, irrespective of the number of visitors | Average performance because it cannot handle a huge number of visitors |
| Scalability | Highly scalable, as you can upgrade your resources at any given time | Not scalable at all in most cases |
| Security | Very tight security for various reasons, including the fact that you’re the only single tenant of the server | It could have security breaches because it houses multiple users sharing resources |
| Customization | Complete customization of the server, including operating system, bandwidth, environment, and more | No customizations are allowed, as any changes performed on the backend would apply to all users of the shared server |
| Bandwidth | High bandwidth and can be further upgraded on demand to fit your requirements | Have to stick to the limited bandwidth that is shared between multiple users |
The above table clearly tells us that a dedicated server offers much more than shared hosting, which is fair because it costs more.
It’s powerful and flexible, but it all depends on your requirement. For someone starting their online business, shared hosting might be the way to go before upgrading to a dedicated server.
Once you switch to a dedicated server, things get much more convenient for you as you can sit back and realize that your website or application can handle the number of visitors it’s getting daily without mishaps.
Now that we’re aware of dedicated servers and how good they are, let’s jump into the list of dedicated UK servers you can sign up for and host your online business.
Fasthosts
This Intel dedicated server by Fasthosts packs a solid punch with the features it provides. It gives you full root access, unlimited bandwidth, and the latest operating systems that can be installed right away.
You can expect the following:
- Top level security
- Great hardware
- HDD/SSD storage
- 24/7 tech support
You don’t have to pay additional setup fees, as everything will be included in one of your chosen plans. The Fasthosts will be up and running within minutes, so you can get straight to work.
Servers
As the name suggests, Servers offer a robust dedicated server with cloud flexibility and scalability.
It takes 40 minutes or less for them to hand you full access to the server in any of the data centers in the world, including the UK and, more specifically, in London. The process begins as soon as you choose the model and configuration of a server.
Up to 40 Gbps/server, low latency, a free global private network, and 24/7 support are some of the many features you get with Servers.
Krystal
Krystal backs itself to be one of the most reliable and honest dedicated server providers in the UK, and it’s not very difficult to believe that.
You get fully managed and highly-specified dedicated servers that always guarantee 99.99% uptime. Here are some additional features of Krystal:
- 100% SSD Disks
- Free server setup with your purchase
- Dell Enterprise Grade servers
- 32 GB ram, expandable up to 96 GB
- 2x XEON E5 CPU
- 2x 960 GB SSD
You can reach out to their award-winning support team, that’s available whenever you have any problems or doubts. Krystal has multiple data centers across London.
OVHcloud
A renowned name in the hosting space, OVHcloud has a great dedicated UK server capable of handling high-volume traffic and providing you with all the resources you’d require in the process.
Here are some of the areas in which OVHcloud provider does not compromise at all:
- Scalability
- Performance
- Availability
- Durability
- Bandwidth
You get access to a variety of distributions that you can install. Also, it gives you FREE 500 GB of backup space to utilize however you want.
IONOS
Packed with leading security technologies, robust performance, and enterprise hardware, IONOS’s dedicated server is one to look out for.
It allows unlimited traffic for both incoming and outgoing data. You can configure the server with your choice of RAM, CPU, and storage options.
You can also share your access loads and connect your server with virtual machines to build customized infrastructure. This is possible with the help of their API and cloud integration.
There are so many features of this service provider that I haven’t mentioned, so I’d recommend checking this one out. IONOS has its UK data center in the heart of London.
Leaseweb
Leaseweb delivers uncompromised performance to grow your business without any boundaries. In fact, you get all that you’d need to ensure the smooth operation of your online business. Some of the features include:
- Fully customizable configuration options
- Global availability and scale
- Top-tier data center hardware
- Full command and control over resources
- 24/7 technical support
- Security at its peak
Leaseweb has flexible monthly contracts so that you can pay for only what you need and whenever you need. You can choose from a range of configurations of dedicated servers that are situated in London, UK.
RapidSwitch
You can choose from pre-built dedicated servers or create your own custom dedicated server as per your requirements with RapidSwitch.
They’re one of the longest-standing dedicated server providers in the UK with fully owned data centers and a private UK-wide network. This directly relates to reduced costs without compromising performance.
Public cloud connectivity, backup and disaster recovery, and cyber security portfolio are some of the many benefits of using RapidSwitch’s dedicated servers.
It has data centers in London, Manchester, Maidenhead, Nottingham, Gosport, St. Asaph, Glasgow, and Leicester.
ANS
With 24/7 support all year round, ANS provides dedicated servers in the UK that are built on enterprise-grade hardware.
In fact, their support team is proven to be super helpful, and they’d gladly perform critical maintenance, install updates and patches, and handle other tasks on your behalf.
The server is also ISO 27001 AND PCI-DSS compliant, besides having a strong grip on security.
Zare
Last but definitely not least, Zare’s dedicated servers are as good as the others on this list. It has a bunch of amazing features, such as:
- DDoS protection
- In-depth firewall settings
- In-depth server statistics
- Automated provisioning
- Blacklist monitoring
- DNS records
Zare lets you choose from various server options with different prices, storage, processor cores, etc. You can choose the one you need and get set up and running in a jiffy. London, Glasgow, and Edinburgh are the data center options in the UK.
Final Words
A dedicated Server is ideal for people who love better performance and safety without losing control over their resources.
If you’re managing a website or application that receives many visitors daily, these dedicated UK servers will make your task much easier. It’s one of the best and most reliable choices out there.
Next, check out these real user monitoring tools to improve user experience.
