maximillianos - 1:26 pm on Mar 8, 2009 (gmt 0)

For me, having my own server became a must once my traffic started growing. Plus I wanted to do all sorts of custom applications and programs that were not being offered on shared boxes... Not to mention the security problems you open yourself up to by sharing a box. If any one of the 100 sites on your shared server get a DDOS attack, or even a huge influx of traffic it can kill the performance of your site(s).

You can start small, there are plenty of dedicated server packages for under $100/month.

One big drawback though, most hosting companies will manage a shared server for upgrading and patching the software on the box, but when you have a dedicated server, most hosts will either charge you for such updates, or you have to do them yourself. So that is an added cost.