There is no definite answer as to when you should switch to a VPS server or a dedicated server. But the easiest way to identify this need is when you find that your website has started making money and should expand. Most webmasters typically start off with shared hosting plans whereby they can enjoy resources like bandwidth and storage space with cohabitants on the same server. These shared plans are affordable and ideally suited for start-ups which do not have the financial power to buy dedicated servers or choose VPS plans. However, with time, as the traffic to the site grows, you find that you need additional resources to cope with these traffic spikes. It is at this juncture that shared hosting plans appear inadequate for your business needs and you begin to search for more viable options like dedicated or VPS hosting.
When should you move onto VPS hosting?
Before making a switch to either dedicated server hosting or VPS hosting, it is important to understand what these plans will offer you and decide whether these are indeed beneficial for your business or not. For instance, when a blog post for some reason goes viral, it may not be possible to sustain the traffic to the blog spot without upgrading the resources; else, the users may never return following a poor on-site experience. With shared hosting, you get access to only limited resources which may not be enough to handle large volumes of traffic. In VPS hosting, the server is divided into multiple virtual servers and each can be independently booted and configured. This helps start-ups enjoy features of dedicated server hosting without the hassle of monitoring and maintaining these servers on their own. So, VPS plans are ideal for businesses which are keen to expand but are not yet ready to take on the responsibility of dedicated servers.
When should you opt for dedicated server hosting?
When you own a large business or an e-commerce website, it makes sense to opt for a dedicated server because this option allows you to fully customize the server to suit your business needs. You can enjoy unlimited resources like disk space and bandwidth without worrying that these may be used up by other co-users. Dedicated hosting can be unmanaged, fully managed cloud or semi-managed (where you need to recruit experienced and qualified IT personnel to troubleshoot technical issues). When you do not have enough IT expertise, it is better to choose managed hosting where the client has its own dedicated server for its exclusive use but the hosting provider handles all server-related modifications.
This shows that both dedicated server hosting and VPS hosting are excellent options for businesses in search of reliable hosting plans for their websites. However, the right time to opt for either depends primarily on your budget and business requirements. If you find that your business is making enough money to afford dedicated or VPS hosting packages, it may be a good idea to make the transition to handle greater volumes of traffic. Most importantly, both these options will offer you greater reliability, higher uptime and better security. The last advantage is especially crucial, because in shared hosting, your site become very vulnerable to malware and hacking since you share the server space with other sites.