Tech

Shared Hosting vs. VPS Hosting: Which is the Best for Your Growing Website?

Selecting the best hosting plan which reaches your need is a little difficult. Find out the limitless cPanel/whm accounts for your best option vps hosting business, then I recommend this free cpanel migration company for you. To choose the right one you have to study your own business first. Like what you exactly need and then which hosting plan will be suited for it.

Every site has some characteristics like traffic volume, software requirements, data transfer, etc. It can help you determine the capped resources that your site needs. The rest is simple to research to find a suitable hosting service. It would be the one that would fulfill all the requirements of your site and be easy on your wallet.

If you are searching for shared hosting vs. VPS hosting, it tells me that your site is rapidly growing, and you need to upgrade your hosting. 

It is easy to get conflicted between spending more on a plan that ensures the best performance and spending less on a cheap hosting plan. How, you ask? If you choose the latter, you pray, or all hell breaks loose.

Worry not! By the time you finish this article, you would have a clear idea of: 

  • What is shared hosting and VPS hosting?
  • The differences between shared and VPS hosting.
  • Which one of them would be best for you?

Shared hosting

Shared hosting is where you share space on a single server with many other websites. The server resources like bandwidth, memory storage, processing power, etc. are open to all the websites that share the hosting. The sites tag and pull the resources among each other as they are limited to the server. Shred hosting can be of any type amongst Linux shared hosting or Windows shared hosting 

It is like sharing pizza with your buddies. You can divide the pizza fairly so that everyone gets to enjoy it. But, we know how it really goes down. There is always that one guy who tries to hog all the slices for himself, leaving very little pizza for others.

VPS hosting

Virtual Private Server or VPS hosting is the big brother of shared hosting. 

Your website would share a single server with other websites. However, you get an isolated space on the server that is dedicated solely to your site. It is done by dividing the server into sections and virtually enhancing each server section to act like an independent server machine. VPS can be managed or unmanaged. Various companies provide cheap managed VPS 

It’s like going to an all-you-can-eat buffet with your friends. You don’t need to share your food with them or worry that they would steal yours. 

Comparing shared hosting with VPS hosting

Let’s compare the two with the help of some parameters.

Performance

Shared hosting gives decent performance for sites with low traffic. However, as the site grows and starts getting more traffic, it cannot handle the bandwidth. The site has to integrate more software applications to manage the needs of a growing business. These applications need more processing power to operate, putting a load on the server. 

That’s not all.

Since you share the same server machine, other sites may have the same issues. So it doesn’t matter if it’s you or your “neighbor,” the load on the server causes problems for all.

VPS hosting provides a server section dedicated to hosting your site. This server section has dedicated processing power, bandwidth, memory storage and other server-like utilities. So, even though it is one of the many server sections of a single machine, you get dedicated resources. Your site doesn’t need to share these resources with any other websites on the same server. It guarantees that the issues with other sites don’t affect the performance of your site. You get optimum server performance for your site.

Control

The hosting provider is the one that handles the server for shared hosting. The user has no say in server configurations, settings and other aspects of hosting. You cannot even change the operating system for your site unless you change the server.

The VPS hosting gives you a section of the server which is exclusive to you. You get root access to the server that recognizes you as an admin. It provides a private environment where you hold the ultimate authority. It allows you to configure the server and make changes to the systems directly. 

Security

Many websites are using a single server machine as a hosting platform. Although the hosting providers take all necessary security measures, there are no guarantees of full-proof protection. For instance, if a hacker manages to breach a site that shares hosting with you, every site on the server would be vulnerable, including yours. 

VPS hosting provides an isolated space for your website on the server. You don’t have to worry if your neighbor gets messed up as there is absolutely nothing that connects your site with theirs. The virtual layer that isolates the server section itself provides an additional layer of firewalls. It offers robust protection to your site. You can even configure your hosting to enhance security.

Pricing

Shared hosting is the cheapest option for web hosting. It has all the essential features that are needed to host a website. Since you share the hosting resources and space with many others, it makes sense that you get it cheap.

It is like you share an apartment with a few friends and, they divide the overall rent among themselves. The individual rent amount would be substantially lower than the rent of the entire apartment. It makes sense to be cost-effective to live in such an arrangement.

VPS costs are understandably higher than shared hosting. The additional expenditure on vitalizingx` the sections is the reason for its high price.

It is like you get an apartment in a building and pay the rent by yourself. Thus, it makes sense if you keep the flat for your private use. And yes, it would cost you much more than the shared apartment.

Which hosting is more suited to a growing website- shared hosting OR VPS hosting?

It all comes down to how much growth you expect from your site. 

Shared hosting provides basic features for hosting a regular website- 

  • A server space.
  • Utilities like bandwidth, processing power and memory.
  • Site-server-client connection.

If your site is in its earlier growth stages and you just started to receive traffic, you should get a higher plan for shared hosting. By higher, I mean a shared hosting service that has greater bandwidth and other resources to offer. 

Similarly, if you have a blog or need to host portal websites, shared hosting services would be perfect for you. 

See how things play out and if your site outgrows your shared hosting service, switch to VPS hosting.

If your site shows signs like slow loading speeds and downtimes, it has reached its maximum growth for shared hosting. It is high time that you upgrade to VPS hosting.

VPS hosting offers-

  • High performance. 
  • Incredible scalability.
  • Dedicated resources.
  • Private server environment. 
  • Total administrative control.

Additionally, if you have a business with a big operation and its site requires heavy software applications, you should go with VPS hosting.

I hope I have helped you learn the difference between shared hosting and VPS hosting. Please review everything there is to know about a hosting plan before purchasing. 

Good luck!