Depending on the desired outcome, one of these options may be better than another for your project. However, careful study should be implemented prior to applying any one of these as changeover down the line could be costly on both schedule and budget.
Subdomains:
subdomain.[url].com
- Separate Website: Subdomains are essentially separate websites; they’re standalones. What this means is that if something happens on your core site i.e., [url].com, it won’t impact your subdomain since it’s a unique website. This is especially helpful when making changes to the subdomain, or when you want to offer a unique service that requires full website layout changes but you don’t actually want to change the layout of the core site.
- Separate Website Files: While it is an option to couple website files under one FTP user, it isn’t encouraged since it creates an inverse relationship between file load and security. Anyone with access to your FTP credentials will have access to everything on that associated FTP user. It’s best to create unique FTP users for each domain/subdomain.
- Lighter Website Requirements: Since subdomains are unique websites, they don’t often require big upgrades to process speed allocation. Usually, but depending on traffic, shared servers can often get the job done just fine.
- Competing SEO: This is the biggest drawback of subdomains. Since they’re separate websites, they compete with each other for SEO scores. What this does is make tracking analytics somewhat more cumbersome since each subdomain requires a unique property.
Subdirectories:
[url].com/subdirectory
- Add on to Existing Website: Subdirectories are essentially unique pages on an existing website. What this means is that modifications can be done quickly without logging into a separate website. Everything is done right there in one place, which creates a process efficiency.
- Consolidated Website Files: Subdirectory files are stored in the same FTP user folder, which means that modifications to the files can be done in one place without the need for multiple FTP users. The drawback is files cannot easily be separated so the FTP user will have access to everything, which can pose security risks if granting FTP access to third party users.
- Heavier Website Requirements: More directories may require upgrades to process speed with things like VPSs, caching, and ram upgrades. Not all of these processes require funding but VPSs can get expensive really fast. Heavier websites can often require more resources for heavier lifting.
- Consolidated SEO: Since everything is being tracked from the same location, all SEO is consolidated under one property, which makes analytics tracking more efficient.
In Summary:
| Feature | Subdomains | Subdirectories |
|---|---|---|
| Website | Separate | Consolidated |
| FTP Users | Single or Multiple | Single |
| Security Risk | Low | High |
| Process Requirements | Lighter | Heavier |
| SEO | Competing | Consolidated |
