When to move to dedicated?

[Kiren]

As your forum grows larger and larger, when is it necessary to move to a dedicated host to provide adequate speed to your users?

0-10 Users? Obviously not...

10-20?

20-40?

40-80?

100 On at a time?

200 on at a time?

[Curtis H.]

I've averaged 70 users online with no problems in a shared enviorment. As high as 100+. The real key here is concurrent MYSQL connections. Some hosts set this as low as 15. There are those who consider 65 or so to be acceptable. Others simply monitor sites.

A dedicated server normally is not needed unless a site is extremely popular. Many times if need be, a VPS (virtual private servers) hosting solution will do the job.

[patrick24601]

Personal Experience: I'd never go to a VPS for a busy site. It is poorer performing than a shared site a server.

A VPS is good if you need complete control of a linux system but you don't need high end performance. That VPS has to share and swap resources wth several other VPSs so when your demands is high and someon elses is high the two of you will be contending for all resources. At first this does not sound different than shared hosting. But with a VPS you have all of the overhead of the multiple OS images running contending for each other, and then in a high demand situation there is even more thrashing.

I use and recommend VPS for development and doing small hosting. I don't recommend them for a high demand situation.

[Joshs]

As your forum grows larger and larger, when is it necessary to move to a dedicated host to provide adequate speed to your users?

0-10 Users? Obviously not...

10-20?

20-40?

40-80?

100 On at a time?

200 on at a time?

Depends on numerous factors such as the specifications of the servers the host has. Other factors include what features you have enabled on your forum. Et cetera.