SSD vs HDD in hosting

by Katarina Curik on October 26, 2020

HDDs and SDDs have been in the market for a considerable time now. Over the past decade, HDDs were the sole popular disk space platform but with the introduction of SDDs, the trend is now changing.  SDDs are taking over the hosting market faster, and with an increase in technology, they will soon be dominant in the market.

What is SSD hosting?

SSD stands for Solid State Drive. SSDs are renowned for the ‘speed’ and ‘reliability’ in the market. The reason for their higher speeds is because they have faster data access time. Servers using these drives, therefore, have faster speeds- as SSDs have faster data access time than other drives.

SSDs use a memory called “flash memory”. Flash memory is similar to RAM- but unlike RAM, the memory stores data even in an event where the computer powers off.  SSDs have a grid of electrical cells for sending and receiving data. The grids on SSDs are separated from each other to form “pages”. These pages clump together to form a cluster called “blocks”.

Unlike HDDs, which rely on moving parts, SSDs rely on electronics only that makes them faster and reliable. The way an SSD function is similar to a USB drive. SSDs also store their data in microchips- this explains their faster write/read speeds since microchips have no moving parts. The absence of moving parts in SSDs also makes them resistant to shaking which can cause data corruption or loss.

SSDs write data to empty pages within a block only. The data in SSDs cannot be overwritten and the disk only chooses the empty pages when writing new data.

In web hosting, a site’s visitors love pages that faster. Most modern websites have many resources that also need faster resource access. The medium on which you store your website’s files will determine the speed of your website-But the obvious point is SSDs are faster.  

SSDs speed measurement is different from that of HDD speed- since SSDs are manufactured for different uses. There are read-intensive and write-intensive HDDs whose performance is measured in IOPS.

Benefits of SDDs

• Faster access speeds – SSD drives are typically many times faster than hard disk drives. If you want a faster website, you should consider them. For instance, SSD drives are three times faster than HDD drives- choosing them, therefore, guarantees you of faster speeds for your hosted website. Besides every visitor wants pages that load faster; so if you can’t deliver speed expect fewer visitors to your site.
• High-speed performance – SSDs perform faster than HDDs in data read/write. You can easily load large amounts of data into these drives- and they will still perform faster. This is in comparison to HDDs that have lower performance.
• Reliable – SSDs have no moving parts- implying better performance than HDDs. Moving parts could easily wear out or tear hence affecting the performance of a hard drive- But for SSDs, their non-moving parts are more reliable.
• Low power requirements – SSDs uses low power than standard HDDs- you will have to part with lower electricity bills, therefore- And for your laptop, you will get extended battery life.
• Makes no noise – SSDs have no moving parts-, which consequently means no noise. This is in comparison to HDDs, which makes noise when reading/writing data from/to them.
• Heat- SSDs generate less heat due to the nature of the flash memory. The absence of moving parts also infers less heat-, which helps to increase its lifespan.
• Not affected by magnetism – SSDs are not affected by magnetism- their data cannot be erased by a strong magnet. This ensures that your data is safe at all times.

Cons

• Expensive – Though SSDs have many benefits; they are more expensive than most hard disks. For instance, a 500 GB SSD drive could cost you an excess of $200while a similar HDD drive will cost you $80.
• They become slower over time – SSDs performance slows down as you continuously use them. This is because these drives save data to empty blocks only. As you continually use these spaces, it will reach a time when you must delete information on some blocks to create space for others. The process of deletion makes these disks slower.
• Limited storage capacity – unlike HDDs, SSDs have limited higher capacities. Most laptops with SSDs have a limited space of only hundreds of SSD storage space. Although there are SSDs with higher storage spaces of up to 4TB, they are rare to find in the market- And expensive too.
• Limited in the market – one major challenge with SSDs in the market is that they are considerably fewer- this is in comparison with HDDs- from laptop drives to external media storage, HDDs are always available. However, with the electronics market shifting to portable laptops and tablets- SSDs will soon dominate the drives market.

What is HDD?

HDD stands for Hard Disk Drive. HDD consists of metallic plates. A magnetic head writes data to these plates- And they are all inside an air-sealed casing.  There are read/write head flats found above the spinning platter whose function is to read or write data. The faster the spinning rate of the platter- the faster a hard disk performs.  Most server-based HDDs can spin at the rate of up to 15000 RPM.

One major benefit of HDD used in web hosting is that you can hold many data cheaply. The storage density also continues to grow for HDDs and are becoming cheaper as time goes by. Besides, you will enjoy using the free space.

In terms of size, the HDDs are slightly bigger. For laptop drives, you will find them having a 2.5” size while computer drives have a 3.5” size. A larger size hard disk can accommodate a large number of platters-, which translates to more storage space.

Summary of differences between SSD’s vs HDDs

HDD in web hosting

Over the last few years, HDD’s use in the hosting industry has been tremendous due to two reasons: they are affordable and have large scalability.  However, the trend is slowly changing as the popularity of SSDs keeps surging every day especially in dedicated hosting. After choosing a hosting service, your next task should understand the SSD and HDD storage and what each has to offer.

Bottom line

The bottom line is that both drives are beneficial to hosting- but it all depends on a site’s needs.

HDD hosting may be the right choice if you need:

SDD hosting is the best choice if you need:

HDDs are still more popular in hosting- especially in shared hosting due to their cheaper price and large space. However, SSDs use in hosting –especially dedicated hosting is rising, as larger companies prefer them for handling their numerous data requests. That said both drives still have a say in the hosting market.