Microsoft SharePoint is a best in class solution. Some might even propose it is in a class all its own. In either case, SharePoint is a robust and sophisticated business collaboration tool. Due to our SharePoint expertise and continuous investment in the development of SharePoint based solutions, Apps4Rent has been able to provide a complete range of SharePoint architectures which most providers are unable to provide.

We are the only company that provides all 3 versions of SharePoint – Foundation (or WSS), SharePoint Server 2010 Standard and Enterprise – in hosted (i.e., shared), as well as dedicated versions. This quickly raises the question, which flavor of SharePoint hosting is the right fit for your organization?

SharePoint Comparison: Hosted vs. Dedicated

Important: Read These 5 First, Please

Admittedly, every organization is unique and their expectations of benefiting from SharePoint are just as diverse. Before we continue, there are five key points we would like to mention in order to provide you with the proper context for this decision.

• We have SharePoint experts on staff that are available to discuss your specific needs. Their consultation for such decisions is free of charge. In fact, we welcome such inquiries. Please send an email to sales@apps4rent.com.
• If you start with shared/hosted SharePoint and later decide to upgrade to dedicated, we are available free of charge to support you with such a migration. In fact, if you wish to move from another SharePoint provider to us, we can help you do so. Again, this is free of charge.
• Migrating from shared/hosted to dedicated SharePoint is relatively straight forward. Migration to the higher version of SharePoint usually works well as well. However, each migration is unique and we will be glad to review your situation and discuss your options.
• Regardless of flavor, SharePoint is an enterprise grade product. Microsoft architected, designed, developed and secured it to excel in today’s hyper-competitive business environment. It’s not so much a question of one being better than the other. Both hosted and dedicated versions of SharePoint are exceptional products and champions in their own right. Either way you win. The question is: which is the best fit for your current and future business needs.
• Below there is a summary comparison chart. Scroll down or click here.

Benefits of Dedicated SharePoint Server

The one word that best sums up the difference between SharePoint hosted and SharePoint dedicated is: Added. This differentiators can be prefixed to a number of key comparison points:

• Customization—With a dedicated SharePoint Server you get the complete freedom of deploying custom web parts, templates and your own solutions at the web application level via the central administration of your SharePoint site. For example, many Web Parts from third party providers need changes on the server side.
• Adding such custom third party Web Parts is supported by hosted SharePoint as long as they don’t require access to the STSADM command/PowerShell or the server to install the Web parts or templates.

• Control—With a dedicated plan you get full administrator access rights to your server. Some of the benefits of this added level of control are ability to register DLLs, modify the web.config file and access to command line where you can run your PowerShell commands or STSADM commands.
• Single sign-on Integration—With our dedicated SharePoint Server plans, you can choose to integrate your local Active Directory Server in order to implement Microsoft single sign-on service. Your local Active Directory Services and the your Active Directory server located in our data center will be in sync.
• Security—Please note: Whether hosted or dedicated, Microsoft has built SharePoint to be bullet-proof, period. That being said, there are instances where a company might feel compelled to take added precautions and opt for dedicated. Perhaps this requirement is driven by certain regulatory or compliance requirements.
• All our dedicated SharePoint Server customers get SQL installed only for their use. The instance of SQL is not shared as it is in a hosted SharePoint environment. Hosted SharePoint is secure but dedicated offers an added layer of comfort.

Benefits of Hosted or Shared SharePoint

We offer hosted SharePoint in a true multi-tenant environment with all the features of respective SharePoint at a fraction of the cost when compared with dedicated or similar product as offered with other competitors. In addition to the price point, the other key benefits of Hosted SharePoint are clustered environment with100% redundancy, control panel for easy account administration and full-managed environment at no extra cost.

Hosted SharePoint and Dedicated SharePoint Compared

	Hosted SharePoint	Dedicated SharePoint
Standard Functionality
Core Sharepoint Features
Sandboxed Solutions (1)
Blogs, Wikis & KBs
Document Sharing
Workflows
Office 2010/2007 Integration
Outlook Integration
Easy upgrade to SharePoint Server 2010
Farm Environment		Optional
24/7 Support
Multiple Domains for SharePoint	Optional
HIPPA SOX Compliant
Access as Site Administrator
eMail Enabled Document Libraries
Upload File Limit (at once) (2)	74 MB	2 GB
Advanced Functionality
Full Server Access	No
Access to Central Admin	No
Dedicated Instance of SharePoint and SQL	No
Admin Access to SQL (SA Access)	No
Customized Environment	No
AD Integration Available	No
Access to Powershell and STSADM	No
Instant Scalability
Clustered Environment		Optional
Flexible User Licensing
SSL Certificate	Optional	1 SSL Free
eMail Enabled Site
Dedicated IP	No
Your Own Domain
Migration Assistance
Internet Facing Site
Access to Web Application	No
SQL Reporting Services	No
Terminal Services	No
FTP Access	No
Deploy Web Parts / Solutions at Web Application Level	No
Full Dedicated Environment with Dedicated RAM	No
Make Changes to Web Config File	No
Register DLLs	No
Deploy via Central Administration	No
(1) Hosted SharePoint sandboxed solutions can be implemented as a Site Collection administrator only. If the Sandboxed solution needs any server-side changes then the Dedicated SharePoint Server is the best option. (2) This dedicated Sharepoint maximum is set by Microsoft. If you have any questions, please contact our sales/support which are available 24 / 7 and we will be glad to help you choose the right plan for you.