Do I Need a Dedicated IP Address?

For this article, you should already know what is an IP address, and the difference between a shared and dedicated IP address.

Due to the high demand and limited supply of IPv4 addresses, we cannot provide a dedicated IP address to anyone willing to pay the $2 per month. Fortunately, with our latest technology, dedicated IP addresses are no longer required in most situations.

Here are some reasons people want a dedicated IP, most of which are invalid, as I will explain.

For SSL certificate installation!
Yes, this is a valid reason. However, a dedicated IP is no longer required to install SSL thanks to SNI. Arvixe can install SSL to secure your website connections while you remain on the shared IP address. This will cut down on SSL costs by $24 per year for each SSL, making the typical cost about 50% less.

For High Traffic and Faster pages!
Unfortunately, this is not a valid reason. Some people say that having a dedicated IP address will speed up your page load times. It's a nice theory, but whether your site traffic goes through a shared IP or dedicated IP, it still reaches the same server and waits the same time for a response.

If you need to handle more traffic or have faster page loads, you will need to either optimize your website for efficiency or upgrade your hosting plan to a more powerful solution.

To keep my site separate and stay accessible when other sites on the server are blocked!
Unfortunately, this is not a valid reason. Any firewall may block all traffic coming from a site's IP address and any IP address of the same subnet. When we grant a dedicated IP address, it will likely be of the same subnet and you will still be blocked.

Instead, we recommend a VPS Class or Dedicated Class plan and be very strict about what content goes on it.

For Website Reputation or SEO!
Unfortunately, this is not a valid reason. Having a dedicated IP address does not improve site ranking on search engines. Even major search engine companies admit that they do not check for this.

Certainly, page speed can be a factor in your page ranking, but having a dedicated IP address will not increase your page speed.

You may have also heard a separate IP address can be used for an SEO trick where you create your own inbound links. Although this is proven to work, search engines do not give trust to inbound links coming from your site's same IP address and any IP address of the same subnet. Unfortunately, when we grant a dedi IP address, it will likely be of the same subnet and your inbound links will not improve your ranking.

For Mail Reputation!
Unfortunately, this is not a valid reason. Though it should not hurt your mail reputation to share an IP with a spammer, it is possible to be blocked or blacklisted by a mail service for sharing an outbound IP with a spammer. Fortunately, this is not the case for shared servers at Arvixe; we use a special outbound mail IP provider called MailChannels, which supplies an ever-changing IP address. This way, your emails are never sent from the same IP, and will not be associated with the IP address other email senders are using, even if your websites do share an IP address.

A dedicated server does not share a mail IP, so this is not a concern for VPS Class and Dedicated Class: Cloud Class and Bare Metal Servers.

For PCI Compliance!
Unfortunately, this is not a valid reason if you have shared hosting. Any types of compliance have very strict requirements, most which cannot be met on an Arvixe shared server. Even PCI compliance, one of the most common, will require you to have a dedicated server, not just a dedicated IP. Arvixe can offer a VPS Class or Dedicated Class solution and make any adjustments requested by your scan report.

I want to type an IP and see my site!
Unfortunately, this is not a valid reason. Arvixe will offer you a temporary URL or an instant alias, which simply means we will provide you a link to see your site, other than your normal domain name. This can be helpful if you need to see your work but have not pointed your domain to the new design, yet.

I just want it!
Unfortunately, this is not a valid reason.
 

Here is a chart to summarize which situations are valid.

*Be prepared to provide us with your scanning vendor's report.