Want to Host Multiple Website on One Server? Here’s How
Here’s How

As businesses expand their online presence, the need to manage multiple websites efficiently becomes critical. Whether you're a business owner, a web developer, or an IT administrator, hosting multiple websites on a single server can be both cost-effective and practical. This approach offers several benefits, including optimized resource utilization, ease of management, and scalability. Looking for the best platform to host your multiple website on one server, DigiRDP is the best option for you. We have various plans specified for every business type. 

In this blog, we will explore how hosting multiple websites on one server can be beneficial, what factors to consider, and how you can implement it effectively without delving into the technical setup process.

Why Host Multiple Websites on One Server?

Hosting multiple websites on a single server can be an efficient and economical solution, bringing advantages in cost, resource management, and operational efficiency. Here, we’ll dive into why this approach can be beneficial.

Cost-Effective

Purchasing separate servers for each website can be expensive. By hosting multiple websites on one server, you can significantly reduce infrastructure and operational costs. This is especially useful for small businesses, startups, and agencies managing various projects.

Centralized Management

Managing multiple websites from a single server allows you to streamline administrative tasks. With centralized control, updates, maintenance, and backups become much easier to handle. This simplifies your workflow, as you don't have to log into multiple servers for routine tasks.

Resource Optimization

Modern servers come with powerful processors, large amounts of RAM, and vast storage capabilities. Most websites, particularly those with moderate traffic, do not use all the resources of a dedicated server. By hosting multiple websites, you can better utilize these resources, maximizing server performance.

Flexibility & Scalability

Hosting multiple websites on one server gives you the flexibility to add new sites or scale existing ones as needed. As your websites grow in traffic and functionality, you can scale server resources to meet the demand. Whether you’re launching a new site or expanding an existing one, having multiple sites on a single server allows for easy scalability.

Key Factors to Consider to Choose Right Server Type

Choosing the right server type is a crucial step in ensuring that your website or application performs optimally. With a range of options like shared hosting, VPS, dedicated servers, and cloud hosting, it's essential to understand which server will best meet your specific needs. In this guide, we’ll break down the key factors to consider to help you make an informed decision.

Server Type

There are different server options for hosting multiple websites. Shared hosting, Virtual Private Servers (VPS), and Dedicated Servers are the three main choices. For hosting multiple websites on a single server, VPS or dedicated hosting is ideal due to better resource allocation and flexibility. Cloud hosting is another viable option for scalability

Performance

While hosting multiple websites on one server is cost-effective, you need to monitor performance closely. Each website consumes server resources, including CPU, RAM, and bandwidth. If not managed properly, this can result in slow load times, affecting user experience. To prevent this, you can allocate specific resources to each website or set resource limits to ensure they run smoothly.

Security

Security is critical when hosting multiple websites on one server. If one website on your server is compromised, it can affect the other websites as well. To mitigate risks, it's crucial to employ strong security measures such as firewalls, SSL certificates for each domain, and malware scanning. Keeping each website isolated, either by using virtual hosts or containerization, can prevent one site’s vulnerabilities from impacting others.

Domain Management

You will need to manage multiple domains effectively. Each website will have its own domain name, and you will need to configure your server to handle these. This process typically involves setting up virtual hosts or using a control panel like cPanel or Plesk. These tools help manage DNS settings and ensure that visitors reach the correct website.

Backups and Redundancy

Backups are crucial for data protection, especially when managing multiple websites. A failure on the server could affect all the hosted websites, so regular backups are essential. Many hosting providers offer automated backups, and you can also set up custom solutions to ensure data safety. Implementing redundancy measures, such as load balancing, can further protect your websites from potential downtime.

Traffic Management

If you are hosting websites with varying traffic levels, it's important to balance resource allocation carefully. High-traffic websites may consume a significant amount of server resources, potentially affecting the performance of others. You can mitigate this by prioritizing traffic-heavy sites or using content delivery networks (CDNs) to offload some of the traffic to external servers.

How to Host Multiple Website: Using Nginx

Well, there are numerous ways to host multiple websites on single server; in this guide we will understand how can you host multiple website with the help of Nginx. Before starting further, let’s first understand what exactly is Nginx. 

NGINX is an open-source web server software widely used for reverse proxying, load balancing, and caching. It supports HTTPS server functions and is primarily engineered for optimal performance and reliability. Let’s see how it can be utilized!

Step 1: Connecting with the server

Connect to the server via SSH

Step 2: Initial System Setup

In this step, we will do the initial server setup. You need to make sure that the system has latest security updates and bug fixes installed.

Step 3: Installing Nginx

To install Nginx, you need to run the following commands:

You can verify the installation by visiting your server’s IP in a web browser, there you’ll see the default Nginx Welcome Page.

Step 4: Create Website Directory Structure

To create multiple websites, we need to create different directories. For instance, we are hosting 2 websites on single server, website 1 & website 2. We will create two different directories for each website. 

Here, we are creating directories inside /vr/www. Don’t forget to give necessary permissions as shown:

Now, create a simple index.html page for website

Similarly create an index.html page for website 2.

Step 5: Configure Nginx Blocks

Here’s how you need to start with configuring

Now, add the following configuration:

Enable the configuration:

Repeat the same steps for website 2

Step 6: Add the SSL Certificate

To install SSL certificate, you need to install Certbot and obtain SSL certificate. Here’s how

Once done with SSL certificate, you are all set to operate your websites on single server.

What? Website isn’t loading? In such case, check your Nginx status by running:

If it shows inactive, restart Nginx with command:

That’s all! You are all set with your websites. 

Hosting multiple websites on one server is an excellent solution for businesses, developers, and web agencies looking to optimize resources, save costs, and centralize management. By carefully considering factors such as performance, security, traffic, and domain management, you can host several websites efficiently without sacrificing performance or security. 

With the right hosting plan and management tools, hosting multiple websites on a single server can be a smooth and rewarding experience. While the setup process can be complex, the long-term benefits of flexibility, scalability, and cost savings make it a worthwhile investment for growing businesses.