For business owners choosing the right host for their business website would be a typical task to do. In general, common non-tech people who are about to pick hosting plan would get confused and overwhelmed a lot after knowing the features of each hosting type. In fact, for people with considerable experiences too find difficult to pick the appropriate host according to the site’s performance.
Of course, seeking reference or suggestions from the experts on selecting the right host can be an option but in real site owners needs to be aware of their site’s performance and what they are in need. To be frank, many people will simply suggest VPS (Virtual Private Server) would be the right and best option or for a business website. Some even may suggest VPS is far better than the shared hosting.
If you are a site owner, then this might be your million-dollar question. Does is true whether VPS is faster and much cost-effective than the shared hosting as is said by the several experts? Well, before concluding to a decision, let us get deeper into this issue. Here in this article, how differences determine in between shared hosting and VPS are discussed in brief.
A Brief Introduction on Shared and VPS Hosting
Both shared and VPS hosting will be beneficial to a small level or starting website and it really helps such sites towards the success path. However, the difference between the two hosting types will play a significant impact on the site’s performance, once the site starts to grow.
Shared Hosting:
With shared hosting, as the name suggests, your site would share the server resources with other sites hosted in it. Owing to that, site hosted in shared hosting will get most basic services and it helps site owners to reduce the hosting host significantly.
Site hosted in shared hosting will face a lack in terms of performance when it starts to experience a high amount of traffic. This performance lack occurs mainly because of sharing the server limits with other hosted sites.
Benefits of Shared Hosting
- It is better for the small level business websites and for personal websites.
- In shared hosting, the server maintenance carried at the host provider end. So, site owner or developer no need to be so technical.
- Under the shared hosting, sites management is too easy to handle. In addition, the interference of C-Panel will be user-friendly.
- Shared host offers multiple email account along with the option of utilizing more than a single database.
- Developers can avail MySQL and PHP support from the server site.
VPS Hosting
If you are a technically sound person, then VPS hosting would be the perfect solution. VPS hosting offers superior service in terms of the technical aspect. Even though, the working concept of VPS hosting is somewhat similar to shared hosting yet it differs significantly and delivers more benefits.
VPS hosting in which multiple sites share the physical server at a time; however, when it comes to website performance it acts like a dedicated server. The web host provider provides a virtual layer that separates the physical server into multiple compartments using the virtualization technology. In those compartments sites hosted. The virtual layer acts as virtual walls and separates the files and other documents of sites without collapsing.
Benefits of VPS Hosting
- VPS hosting is economical when compared with the dedicated server features offered.
- VPS hosting has the option of picking suitable features by the site owners or developers according to their site’s need. With that option, site owners can pay only for what they use in VPS hosting.
- When compared with another hosting, VPS is more flexible and scalable. You can expand your increase the server resource usage depending upon your site’s need once it starts growing.
- Finally, in VPS hosting you can get more control over your server including root access and ability to use scripts.
How Do We Measure the Quality of Shared and VPS Hosting?
Evaluating the services provided by the web host provider is not an easy thing to do; it requires many factors to consult before taking a final decision. Here, to measure the qualities of Shared and VPS hosting, we took the site performance as the key and based upon the supervision of experts we evaluate the difference of both hostings.
Our evaluation process carried based on the results of the site performance on the tools offered by Pingdom. Our testing results discussed in brief in the upcoming differences section.
Difference between Shared Hosting and VPS Hosting
- Resource Allocation
In a shared hosting plan, this refers to sharing of server resources as opposed to special hosting where users receive servers specifically for their site’s needs.
VPS hosting is not too limited. Because you hold the majority of server hardware, you have more resources. You will also get root access to the server environment that means you can install additional software and edit any file on the server.
- Customization
In a shared hosting plan, there are usually very few options for customizing your server settings. Set limits on the number of resources you have; very slight customization.
On the VPS Hosting plan, you will have exclusive access to the operating system. You can use all server programs such as PHP, Apache, and MySQL. You can make all the necessary changes according to your needs.
- Security
Shared hosting considered very safe, but the only problem is using a public server. If a user makes a mistake or has some technical difficulties, it can eventually affect other users; each site on that server is then vulnerable.
VPS hosting services can offer more security than shared hosting. Virtualization technology has a very high level of security, so other sites on the server will not affect your site in any way. You are free to configure your security parameters such as firewall, access, etc.
- Scalable Hosting
In shared hosting, or storage capabilities is hard to maximize and server space must not exceed user requests. This is because if that happens, you will start to get internal errors from the host.
On the other hand, VPS hosting is very flexible. If you experience traffic volumes that are higher than normal, you can increase your server resources. Because you are not limited to one physical server, it’s easy to add more server resources.
- Level of Server Control
In Shared hosting, you are limited by the primary server software and hardware configuration. You can modify by installing your own CMS or make small changes via the control panel, but those changes are limited to the administrative authority.
If you need to install a new server application and this might require you to restart the system. The VPS system allows you to do this easily. Although you will share a server with another server, you can restart the server without bothering other users.
- Server Performance
The level of Shared Hosting is good for low traffic and static websites. These plans generally include very limited resources because of that your site can experience problems with its performance. If you experience a high volume of traffic, your site may likely be offline or underperforming.
VPS hosting is more technical in nature it provides better overall performance because of the high bandwidth offered to users. With VPS hosting, you have direct access to a greater level of server resources. Therefore, if you have a large or developing site, you will be able to support higher user volumes without affecting the site’s performance. Additionally, the virtualized environment creates a dedicated server space to your site.
- Costs
When it comes to affordability, most users will switch to shared hosting because of the cost. You will have a hard time finding a cheaper form of hosting that still gives you all the features you need. So, if you want a cost-effective option with good features, shared hosting is your manner to go over VPS.
Because on VPS you pay more to personalize, it is like an individual data plan. In general, you only need to pay for the server resources you use, which makes it very cost-effective, even when paying higher monthly rates.
Conclusion
In simple wordings, VPS hosting outstands the shared hosting when it comes to hosting sites that require high server resources. However, for sites that do not require more resources from a server shared hosting would be the best choice since it can be availed for a cheaper cost. At the same time, the scalability and affordability in VPS hosting makes its cost-effective on considering the features availed.
Technically VPS hosting is far better than Shared hosting, also sites that require scalable server can opt for VPS server over shared hosting.
