VPS hosting is an alternative hosting solution with numerous benefits to shared hosting offering more customisability, Privacy and server power to clients. This article aims to highlight how cost effective and reliable VPS hosting is and the potential benefits to your website’s growth.
Table of Contents
What Is VPS Hosting?
VPS stand for virtual private server. By using virtualisation technology one physical dedicated server hosts multiple virtual servers. Each virtual server operates independently of each other using its own resources and running its own operating systems. This allows hosting providers to offer customisable VPS hosting experiences at a fraction of the cost.
What Is Virtualisation?
Virtualisation is an IT technology which VPS hosting employs. In short, virtualisation is creating something that once was physical within a virtual environment. This can be anything from Network Resources to Storage devices up to virtual private servers. Using virtualisation, you can specify the required resources for various servers. This ensures that customers never pay more for a service they do not require. In order for your virtual server to run efficiently, it is important that you choose the right operating system and applications for your needs.
Dedicated servers are segregated into VPS’s using network isolation to ensure all traffic is always kept separate to eliminate the risk of packets being redirected to the wrong VPS. This ensures we keep in line with GDPR regulations when dealing with client’s personal data.
What Are Some of the Main Differences Between VPS and Shared Hosting?
1. Customisability
VPS Hosting with cPanel and WebHost manger offers more customisability than your average shared hosting service. With multiple operating systems to embrace (CentOS, Fedora and Debian) select from a wide range of services that suits your needs. VPS are fully customisable to adapt to your specific requirements. Take advantage of custom programs to expand your business. With over 200 custom programs to install using the one-click install function such as (WordPress, Joomla and many more).
2. Reserved Resources
Sharing the same resources as other websites can have potential negative effects on clients using your website. Although rare, we recommended considering the following. If another website on the same server has a sudden increase in traffic, that site will require a larger chunk of the shared resources. This may take some resources away from your website leading to slower responding web-pages. These unforeseen consequences could negatively affect your clients and your brand’s image.
With VPS hosting, you have access to resources that’s solely for you.
Consequently, other websites on the server will never influence your website’s performance as they can only use the resources assigned to their private server. Thanks to allocation of resources websites perform optimally and page transitions are smoother.
3. Unique IP Address
Domains hosted on shared web hosting use the same physical server thus, share the same IP (Internet Protocol) address and resources. Depending on other users’ activity on the server an IP address could risk being flagged as suspicious. This could be for many reasons, commonly if another user is running malicious websites. When flagged as suspicious security programs may block users from accessing the IP address. Unfortunately, for you if this occurs, client accessing your site using the same security program have a high potential of being blocked. Not only will a blocked IP reduce traffic significantly, but customers who are blocked will lose faith and trust built in your brand. Overtime this can damage a business’s or website’s image leading to irreversible damage to your client base.
VPS hosting completely eliminates this issue. The best Hosting providers offer up to four unique IP addresses to assign to your domains. Clean IP addresses ensures your domain has no past record which could be damaging to your reputation. Clean IP addresses also increase the chance of good search results, with no flagged or suspicious IP.
4. Security
Security is a key factor you must take into account when deciding between shared web hosting and VPS hosting. If your website does not handle personal data, then you do not need to worry. However, if your website requests sensitive data such as login information, bank details and any form of personal information you legally need to ensure the data is kept safe and secure.
On a shared hosting plan, the network is not isolated and other users on the service might be able to see packets of data being sent from your website. A private server takes advantage of network isolation to ensure high security by segregating all user traffic so that it is not intercepted by the wrong person. This increases security as it prevents highly sensitive data from reaching malicious hands.
Maintaining a VPS requires some level of technical knowledge to run programs correct and securely. To enhance your knowledge on VPS hosting, we recommend reading “The ultimate simple guide to VPS hosting”. For clients that lack technical knowledge to operate a VPS we recommend Managed VPS Hosting services. In Managed VPS solutions, the hosting provider takes care of server maintenance and necessary server configurations for you to gain access your server. For more in-depth reading checkout this article on manged vs unmanaged VPS hosting.
When to pick dedicated hosting?
When looking to purchase webhosting services, there are many options from shared web hosting to high-end dedicated servers. Dedicated hosting is generally for websites that receive large amounts of traffic. Unless you require a larger amount of processing power and bandwidth to cope with your traffic, dedicated hosting is not necessary. If your website gains massive amounts of traffic, then we recommend switching to a dedicated server to keep up with demands.
Dedicated hosting is a better fit for larger websites which require more resources. How so? A small business for example would consume around 10% of the processing power available to them on a dedicated server, this means a whopping 90% of resources remains untouched. Plus, a small business will still need to fork-up 100% of the bill to host on a dedicated server.
Double Lock Guarantee
Before selecting a hosting package, you should ensure that it comes with a Double Lock Guarantee. Securing the price you pay when you purchase your product, double lock guarantee means you pay the same price throughout your subscription. Too often we see web host providers increase their fees after signup leaving clients with unexpected bills. Price lock guarantee safeguards your purchase price. For instance, if the provider decides to increase their fees you will not be affected. You will continue to pay the same rate, that existed the day you made your first payment.
Summary
Hopefully this article has managed to answer questions you may have regarding vps hosting. Such as: What a VPS is, Virtualisation, and the main differences between shared and VPS hosting. If you are still in doubt about whether VPS hosting is for you we recommended reading the Answers to the most common vps hosting questions.
