Affordable Cloud Platforms

Virtual Private Servers are regarded as game changers in the hosting industry due to their unique features and ability to provide dedicated yet economical resources to small or medium businesses. The economy benefits offered by VPS hosting plans are helping small enterprises achieve significant savings in overall IT expenditure. 

Major features of VPS hosting

The most obvious reason for economy of VPS hosting can be attributed to the fact that a virtual private server eliminates need to procure a physical server. A Virtual Private Server is capable of providing all functionalities of a standalone server to boost hosting operations without impacting capital expenditure. 

Small or medium companies can hope to avail premium advantages offered by dedicated servers by availing virtual private server hosting. There is no dearth of reliable VPS hosting service providers that combine high network connectivity for uninterrupted availability of business critical web ventures. 

One must exercise great care and precaution while choosing a perfect VPS host because a wrong decision can land you in deep trouble and may even jeopardize your digital assets as well as online business activities. 

However, finding a right VPS host to fulfill one’s unique hosting needs can be an overwhelming task since there are so many VPS hosts out there. This underlines importance of evaluating a VPS host by considering five most vital parameters that are discussed in this article. 

Performance 

Virtual Private Server is designed to provide access to dedicated resources for boosting website performance. It is obvious that users of VPS hosting services should consider performance as the most significant criteria while hunting for the appropriate hosting provider. 

There is a possibility of compromised site performance in VPS hosting if the host is not capable of handling multiple VPS accounts on a single server. In short, performance is directly associated with availability of server volume in a VPS hosting environment. 

Online performance of your web application depends on the uptime and bandwidth availability offered by your VPS host. Therefore, these factors must be assessed while finalizing your future VPS provider. 

Server control

Virtual Private Server allows user to fix the level of control on various features of the server. One can achieve total control on VPS environment by availing total access to server administrative tasks. However, several users prefer to choose managed VPS hosting plans for freedom from server management tasks. 

In managed VPS hosting plans, the hosting provider assumes total responsibility of looking after the health and performance of your server. If you have the support of in-house technical workforce to look after server operations, then you should consider option of unmanaged VPS hosting to enjoy freedom of server configuration and root access. 

Secured hosting 

You must always attach greater significance to security of hosting in the backdrop of recent ransomware attacks that are sure to make their presence felt again in near future. However, if you are able to get associated with a well established and reputable hosting company, then most of your security concerns are over. 

These hosts are known to leave no stones unturned while maintaining seamless security of online services while ensuring that the servers are always updated. It is advised that while choosing a VPS host, one must pay attention to the hosting infrastructure provided by the service provider.

Ideally, the host must own and operate top tiered data centers that are backed by robust physical as well as networking security measures. 

Cost of hosting

Hosting expenses must be assessed along with performance because one should secure an organization’s bottom-line while aiming for a high performance VPS hosting solution. 

The best approach to find the most affordable VPS hosting plan that offers a fair level of security as well as performance would be to compare VPS hosting plans of different hosting providers.

One must be able to read between the lines while studying hosting plans and be particularly skeptical about hosts that promise unlimited space, bandwidth and other resources. 

Stable and reliable hosting

The most significant attribute of experienced hosting providers of VPS services is adoption of innovative technology without compromising stability of hosting solutions. These providers make sure that their clients are able to enjoy long term and stable hosting services for uninterrupted site availability.

It is therefore recommended to find the host that matches your needs rather than adjusting your needs to what is being thrust upon by the provider. The safest way to find a host that provides stable and reliable VPS hosting services is to get associated with an established hosting company. 

In conclusion

The ultimate aim of researching and surveying should be to find a VPS host that lives up to all your expectations and surpasses the benchmarks set by you in terms of customer-service, security, and stability of hosting. 

Virtual Private Server is one of the most feature-rich and advanced web hosting solutions. Your host must have ability of providing you with resources to explore amazing advantages of VPS hosting.

A VPS is considered the bridge between a dedicated web hosting server and a shared web hosting. There are several things which have been written about a VPS hosting. Each and every web hosting process has its advantages and dis-advantages. This blog discusses about the pros and cons of a virtual private server.  

Have a look on the benefits of a VPS Hosting!   

• A virtual private server account is affordable in compare to a dedicated hosting plan.  
• Several virtual private server plans are developed customized to meet different requirements of businesses. 
• The best part is that with a VPS hosting you pay for what you want. It means that you do not need to use any feature which you never need. 
• These days, virtual private hosting servers are easily scalable and customers can increase and decrease server resources.  
• Most of the virtual environment provider offer least amount of resources which serve b business requirements. 
• Users can avail complete control over the virtual server. Many web hosting provider avail the root access and also allowed to use scripts.  
• Web hosting providers offer great technical support for VPS hosting

These are the advantages of a Virtual Private Server hosting. If you think that these advantages will be helpful for your businesses as well, then you should contact one of the leading web hosting providers and have a look on the offered VPS plans.

It is suggested that before you opt for any hosting plan whether it is VPS hosting, dedicated server hosting or cloud hosting, you should compare the prices and then only purchase the plan.       

A virtual private server is actually a virtual machine that finds its habitat on a server along with other virtual machines. So when someone looks out for server options, there are so many factors pop up in their minds but sharing information tops the list. The very idea of sharing spaces and indulgence into our server gives chills to some of them out there. In a virtual private server, the same hardware is shared among multiple users. Therefore, there always exists a dilemma constantly doubting the security of the server.

The main fear is of stealing data through malicious acts that will be a threat to the whole server and to so many users altogether. We understand that such attacks can be catastrophic at times but believe it or not Virtual Private Server Management has taken care of it all.  Once you will get to know the working behind a virtual server it won’t be difficult to put your trust into it. So without wasting any further time let’s get you all acquainted with the fact that VPS is one of the best achievements of the web hosting world.

Virtual Private Server – one-stop solution

First of all kudos to you if starting with a new website of your own. We totally get that it’s very difficult to trust fully on a hosting plan for your baby project. There is no harm in clearing all the doubts before investing in any plan because it will be only you at the receiving end. So if the website is your idea, then VPS is that virtual machine that powers your website and consolidates all the files and databases, in short, it is like a guardian to your website.

It might appear different servers, in reality, it is a single server only. The virtualization technology is so next level that it divides a single server into multiple servers on the same system. Hence, the same resource has been utilized in such an effective way without even compromising with the security of any of the virtual machines. Does it sound impossible to you how so many servers are working in such harmony and using the maximum capacity of the same physical box? It will feel like taking the whole space of that server and sharing the resources simultaneously. Although the memory, processing power, and even the hard drive space are being shared it seems like you have the full authority on all these features of the server.

But the magic is still to unleash, even if any other chunk of the virtual private server is being used by any other website, you will not experience a single instance of memory or performance lag. Random surges on the website will not slow down any processing’s on your website. But how this miracle is happening? 

It’s no rocket science but not less intimidating too that how a single machine’s processing power is utilized in such a better way. It is all being possible just by a single layer that differentiates work on the basis of the software and the operating system. Working on a virtual server is not much different from a private server. As each virtual machine is separated by the different operating system, but other resources like CPU cores or memory space is delegated on a rationed basis.

It’s not handled on its own, a software named as hypervisor comes into action that takes care of the task of allocating resources as per the requirement and load handling. Apart from allocating resources, it is also responsible for taking care that how an individual VPS is running on the hardware server. There is a specific way in which each VPS communicates with the hardware. It is the job of the hypervisor software to decide that way. It creates an image that helps in allocating the disk space and memory accordingly. The onus lies on the hypervisor that the image has been assigned to that VPS does not use any space or memory over the limit. The space and memory of each VPS are kept secured and as separate as possible.

Then why not shared hosting?

Now this question might be striking your mind that why to opt for VPS when shared hosting also allows multiple servers to host on a single physical server. Now here comes the differentiating factor between a shared host and a VPS server. One can stay comfortable within a shared hosting environment until there is no planned upcoming expansion. But there will be a time in the future when you will think of expanding your resources. This situation will not be inevitable as the traffic can shoot on your website without any prior notice. When this will happen, you won’t get time to think, and shared hosting will then act to be of no help. VPS will be the most suitable option out of all the hosting plans.

This is because in a shared hosting might sound similar to VPS hosting in terms of sharing the resources yet very different. Let me explain you with an example. Let’s say there is a classroom that has a Mathematics teacher teaching 20 pupils in the class. But the same teacher also gives evening tuitions individually to other sets of 10 pupils. Now the pupils studying in the class is using the same resource in a shared manner. But the pupils studying through tuitions are studying from the same teacher but individually at their homes separately. Hence, we can say that the pupils studying in the class are on shared hosting while the pupils studying from the same teacher from tuitions are hosted on a VPS server.

I think the example mentioned before has cleared some doubts regarding the presumed commonness between shared and VPS hosting. Hence, VPS might seem to be similar to a shared hosting server but it’s quite different.

The way a VPS host imitates a dedicated server makes it even more unique and has been a favorite of all. Being cheaper than a dedicated server it serves almost the services and promises almost the same efficiency. Therefore, the websites or applications thinking of expanding their resources to entertain the constantly increasing traffic should go for a VPS host without even giving a second thought.

Once you have signed up your website for virtual private server management, just sit back and enjoy the advantages of a VPS host. These advantages cover cross-dimensional features like

• Customization on-demand
• Control over your assigned server more than you might have expected
• When it comes to cost, VPS hosting emerges out to a hero.
• Resources similar to a dedicated server
• Scalability at your door as and when asked

Do you even need more reasons to switch to a VPS host? 

Thanks to proliferation of internet and associated technologies, there has been an amazing transformation in communication and accessibility of information. Internet has changed the way people communicate with each other, purchase products online, share photos, watch video clips, listen music, book hotels or journey and play games, just to name a few.

Proliferation of business websites

In response to an exponential growth in number of internet users due to emergence of smart phones and other internet enabled devices, a plethora of entrepreneurs and organizations have shifted their businesses to internet for exploiting this powerful medium. The strategy has paid off great dividends in terms of finding new customer segments, reaching remote markets, and enhancing visibility of businesses across global markets.

The current landscape of online business is filled with millions of websites promoting their services and products by using wide spectrum of marketing strategies to engage customers by attracting them to their websites. These websites are usually having compelling appearances and have user friendly navigation that helps visitors stay on websites for longer time. The visitors are then showered with an array of offers, loyalty programs, and coupons just to name a few.

Importance of hosting plans

Although, website owners and online entrepreneurs spend considerably for improving appearance of their websites, it is unfortunate that the same attention and seriousness is not evident while choosing an appropriate hosting plan. It must be noted that success of online business largely depends on optimum support of the right hosting plan and a high performance server.

There are plenty of web hosting plans to choose from and the process of making the right choice can be extremely overwhelming. The most common problem is the lack of understanding in terms of hosting needs or resource requirements. Website owners must have a clear understanding about level of traffic and features of website that can impact its performance. This can seriously hamper website performance and lead to a poor browsing experience with loss of revenues.

In the light of this, it would be appropriate to improve knowledge of VPS hosting, which is one of the most promising, powerful yet affordable web hosting solution.

Key attributes of VPS server hosting

VPS hosting is considered as a unique type of hosting since it allocates dedicated server resources in a multi-tenant environment. If you consider types of hotel accommodation, then shared hosting is similar to a dormitory and dedicated hosting is comparable to a luxury suite with ample amount of amenities. Cheap VPS hosting is a similar to a decent room designed for few users with special amenities.

Virtual Private Server is created by compartmentalization of a single physical server into multiple virtual servers that have dedicated resource of RAM, disk space, and bandwidth, thanks to virtualization technology. VPS hosting allows users to add desired applications and define their individual security protocols. They are also able to control hosting environment with help of web based control panel such as Plesk or cPanel. Users who are planning to benefit from VPS hosting must choose between Windows or Linux operating system for managing server operations.

Linux OS for VPS hosting

Linux operating system is a budget friendly yet high performance solution for running Virtual Private Server. Uses need not pay for licenses to use Linux OS since it is an open source platform.

VPS hosting is regarded for remarkable dependability as well as flexibility. Since Linux is a lightweight platform it needs lesser resources than its Windows counterpart. Hence it enhances performance of websites to great extent and mitigates chances of downtime. Users can easily allocate resources to different applications by operating control panels.

Linux operating system improves website availability and reliability of server performance. It can help create user friendly and easy to navigate websites since it supports a broad spectrum of coding languages including Ruby on Rails, Python, PHP, and Perl.

In order to explore all advantages of Linux VPS hosting, users must be armed with a good technical proficiency. It offers text based commands that are supported by SSH. These are responsible for greater functionality and mess overloading.

Linux VPS environment offers ideal environment for development. Since it has an open source code, webmasters are allowed to alter server configurations, implement customization and perform updates. Users can install add-ons as desired to support their needs.

Key highlights of Windows VPS hosting

Virtual Private Servers that operate on Windows operating systems are termed as Windows VPS. Since Windows operating systems are commercially developed, these lack affordability of Linux operation systems that are open source solutions. Users of Windows operating systems are supposed to pay for licensing fees for using Windows applications.

The most striking attribute of Windows operating system is its user friendly user interface. With help of Remote Desktop Access functionality, users can manage and control functions of server easily from any location. These are routinely used for creating websites that need Microsoft software.

Choice of an operating system should depend on business objectives rather than multiple features offered by these alternatives.

When you choose VPS hosting you will be greeted with a combination of features from both shared hosting and dedicated hosting plans. Like shared hosting plans, a VPS hosting plan will house your website along with many other sites on the same physical server. However, each virtual server functions just like a dedicated server where users are provided with root access. So, you can configure the server settings to suit your interests, install custom software and apps to boost your business. Since all VPS clients will be using the same physical servers, costs of server maintenance are shared and this makes VPS hosting plans far cheaper in comparison to dedicated hosting plans. So, VPS hosting plans are low priced compared to dedicated server hosting but not as cheap as shared hosting. They will typically range from $20-$100 a month as compared to only $10 for shared hosting.

How to find a reliable VPS hosting service:

Finding a good web host for VPS solutions is easy when you know what to look for. To start with, you need to find out what kind of services the plans will offer and how much you have to pay for these services. You need to also inquire about server management provisions and compensation guarantee for uptime.

• Prices of VPS hosting are one of the first things businesses must consider to get a reliable and affordable VPS host. You must choose a hosting provider that charges you a flexible cost on a monthly basis or quarterly basis or yearly basis. All payments for uptime and maintenance must be declared upfront so that clients are fully aware of these at the outset. You need to be aware of uptime guarantees in case the provider fails to meet the promises of a high network uptime.
   
• Before signing up with juts an web hosting provider, you will need to review the provider website. You should check for its reputation and ensure that it values customer satisfaction. The content on their site should be clear and easy to understand so that you do not end up getting scammed. Most of the reputed and reliable hosting providers will not try to force you into signing up for services that you will not require.
   
• When you check out the site of these providers, it is recommended that you look into their client list. Most of the reputed hosts will showcase their high-profile customers to connive you that their services are par excellence. When you find that the company has been around for many years and enjoys a relatively large client base, you can trust it. There are however some hosting providers which have cleverly-designed sites to camouflage their flaws and shortcomings. So, you should look up reviews about their services on third party sites and get customer feedbacks before signing up. Participating in forums and online discussions about these companies can help you know the real truth behind these firms.
   
• Although many providers may claim to offer you a high network uptime, the truth may be otherwise. For instance, those offering free hosting solutions or incredibly low-priced hosting plans should be avoided. You must check for their uptime guarantees by carefully reviewing their Service Level Agreements.
   
• When choosing a VPS hosting provider, you must also decide whether to sign up for unmanaged or managed hosting solutions. Unmanaged solutions will make you responsible for managing and securing the servers. These are cheaper than managed hosting solutions in which the provider is responsible for troubleshooting server problems. When you have a capable IT staff to help you, unmanaged solutions is a cost-effective solution. But, if you lack expertise and skills, choosing managed plans is a wiser decision.
   
• Before you sign up with any provider, you need to be fully sure that you will benefit from VPS plans. Most companies upgrade to VPS hosting because their shared hosting plans are not enough to handle the traffic spikes. The new bloggers often end up buying very big virtual servers which turn out to be quite costly. But, more often than not, they do not have the need for the amount of resources these provide. So, you may end up paying much more if you do not know exactly how many resources your site needs.
   
• When you have signed up for managed VPS hosting, you need to review the control panel interface. A heavy and complex UI is likely to baffle the newbie blogger. So, you should be on the search for a web hosting provider which can give you an intuitive control panel. When the UI is sluggish, your site suffers no matter how good you are at server management tasks.
   
• Finally a reliable provider is one that can troubleshoot your technical glitches any time of the day and night. The company you sign up with should be able to offer you facilities like live chat, email supports and phone-call assistance besides tutorials and FAQs.

Website hosting is governed by need to take right decision at right time in terms of different factors that can have long term impact on performance of website. Website administrators and owners need to find the hosting provider and choose an appropriate hosting plan that can provide optimum support to the proposed web venture. 

Understanding options 

In order to know the right web hosting solution for a given website, one should understand the various options for website hosting offered by reputed hosts. There are three major types of hosting to choose from. 

Shared hosting – 

As the name implies, shared hosting is designed to be a multi tenant offering and can accommodate hundreds of websites on a single server. All tenant websites are supposed to share resources such as networking, compute power, and disk space. Since all resources and expenses related to maintenance of the server are shared among several users, it is the most economical choice of hosting. It can efficiently support small websites with nominal amount of traffic and relatively lesser security concerns. Shared hosting is the most popular choice of new websites which have limited resource requirements. 

Dedicated server hosting

– If you look forward to a dedicated access to all resources of a standalone server, then a dedicated server is the way to go. You are allowed root access to the web server that is not going to accommodate any other user. Dedicated server hosting allows implementation of individual security protocols and is therefore preferred by websites of large organizations with greater security concerns. 

VPS hosting

Virtual Private Server hosting is the intermediate hosting solution between shared and dedicated server hosting. It is created by partitioning of a single server into multiple virtual servers that can individually operate as mini dedicated servers with independent existence. Similar to shared hosting, VPS hosting can also prove to be an ideal choice for small or new websites. In fact there is growing trend of selecting VPS hosting by owners of new websites. VPS hosting is ideal for users that are not able to afford a dedicated server, yet need to access server level controls. 

Upgrading to VPS hosting

As mentioned earlier, majority of websites are initially hosted in shared hosting environment. The obvious reasons for this are affordability and need for limited resources. Shared hosting cannot continue to support growing websites after certain limits. If the website continues to require additional resources for handling large traffic or to support special applications, then administrators must think of upgrading the sites to the next level of hosting. 

VPS hosting is a highly cost effective option that allows ease of handling higher traffic and provides freedom to install custom applications and individual security measures. Users can also customize server configurations to match their hosting needs in addition to choose an operating system including Windows or Linux. 

If your website is currently hosted in a shared hosting environment, then you need to watch out for certain symptoms that underline need to shift to VPS hosting.  

Slow loading websites

If you are confident about bandwidth, uptime, and other hosting parameters, then the only factor that is causing your website to load slowly could be limited resource allocation in shared hosting environment. Reduced website performance due to higher traffic in shared hosting is the indication that your website has matured enough to be shifted to a larger hosting solution than shared hosting. 

Improved server access

If you need to exercise direct root access to server for executing advanced tasks including custom server configuration, software installs, or editing of files, to name a few. The only available choices that enable server root access are dedicated and VPS hosting. 

Greater security requirements

If a website is catering to business operations such as online stores, and ecommerce activities, then it is imperative to provide a secured environment for conducting financial transactions or maintaining user credentials. In shared hosting it is not possible to implement individual security arrangements in order to ensure protection from hackers. The most suitable option for enabling stricter security norms is that of switching to VPS hosting. Virtual Private Server enables several layers of security for protection of server and is not impacted by any type of activities in neighboring accounts. 

Frequent downtime events

Downtime is the biggest hurdle for performance of ecommerce websites. You can incur a huge loss of revenue, if a downtime occurs even for few minutes during peak business hours. Since webhosts try to cram as many websites as possible in shared hosting, the servers become prone to be overloaded and can eventually crash due to this. Increased frequency of downtime needs immediate action of switching to a VPS hosting that allows uninterrupted availability of business website. 

In conclusion

Choice of the right hosting solution such as VPS hosting is a vital factor to support your business website. It offers independence, flexibility, and reliability of hosting for guaranteed website performance. 

Evolving technology has lead to development of several models of web hosting. However, if you are to list the major types of hosting, then there are four important categories such as shared hosting, Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting, managed hosting, and dedicated hosting. 

Selecting right type of hosting

If one is interested in exploring alternatives mission critical hosting for running serious web projects, then shared hosting is not the ideal alternative although it is the cheapest option among all major versions of hosting.

Hence VPS hosting and dedicated hosting are to be considered as right options for carrying out serious hosting operations. In fact, the line between these two types of hosting is blurred to some extent. This needs deeper insights in terms of understanding their important attributes to be able to be able to choose between these two.

Power of dedicated hosting

If you want to experience the fastest and the most powerful hosting, then a dedicated server should be an obvious choice. However, certain high end Virtual Private Servers can offer equally good, if not better, performance at much more economical costs.

As the name suggests, a dedicated server is designed for dedicated purpose and the cost is also accordingly on a higher side than other types of servers. Certain advantages of dedicated servers are usually not found with Virtual Private Servers.

Absolute control is the most striking attribute of a dedicated server. It is for this very reason that a dedicated server belongs to the topmost strata of server hierarchy. It offers total autonomy to owner who is able to customize its configuration, software, and many more specifications.

If you are using a shared or VPS hosting account, then you would understand the importance of adding desired software applications. This is because, providers of shared and VPS hosting are reluctant to offer free rein to their clients when it comes to installing software of their choice.

There is always an upper limit in terms of resource availability for running specific software, since web hosts drastically limit resource allocation to shared hosting customers. This also true in case of VPS clients who may experience resource crunch and are not allowed extensive control of their hosting environment.

This brings us back to dedicated servers that are completely customizable and allow users to exploit all server resources and perform rebooting operations as per their needs. Users of Cheap dedicated server USA can exercise total control on vital resources of network access, processing power, memory, hard drive, and storage capacity. There is no other user to share these resources and cause resource starvation as experienced in shared or VPS environment.

Server performance is the most significant aspect of resource intensive websites including ecommerce websites or other websites that are used for generating revenues or for handling huge traffic such as large community forums.

Exclusive benefits of VPS hosting

Virtual Private Servers are virtualized entities and are therefore slightly difficult to fathom. These are not straightforward servers such as standalone dedicated servers that has only one account linked to it. Virtual Private Servers operate in a shared environment and user of a VPS hosting is actually sharing a common physical server.

Virtual Private Server is comparable to shared hosting in more than one ways. However, the distinct differences between the two types of hosting are important to understand superior aspects of VPS hosting.

One of the most important features of VPS hosting is the availability of CPU power. This helps users install software or modules that require CPU power or memory. This attribute is not available in shared hosting. Although hosting providers may offer enough bandwidth or storage facilities to users, they are not able to access memory or CPU power for running special instances of software. Such software is viewed as disruptive to the accounts that exist on same server and are sharing resources.

VPS hosting offers several advantages over shared hosting. Users of VPS hosting are allowed to exercise better control and can reboot VPS servers as per their requirement in addition to greater flexibility of hosting plans than shared hosting.

However, it should be noted that the amount of freedom or control in VPS environment depends on the VPS plans. Cheaper VPS plans may not offer desired control and flexibility of installing desired software.

Understanding specific details of VPS hosting

If you are planning to run resource intensive software, then you need to understand the specifications provided in different VPS plans. Many times the details of resources that are provided in VPS packages may not be entirely available to individual accounts.

This may not be critical criteria for running simple blog sites. However, if you are planning to use Virtual Private Server hosting, then you need to dig deeper to know hardware specs that would be exclusively available to you. You should also enquire about provisions of upgrades and the impact of such upgrades on your website in terms of downtime. Ideally, a temporary upgrade should not cause a downtime issue.

VPS offers benefits of cloud computing because it runs on server virtualization technology. Therefore if you are planning to run additional programs rather than just Joomla or WordPress, VPS is a right option for you.

There are many advantages of managed WordPress hosting since it automatically updates files and provides powerful software options for running your websites such as Nginx.

Key deciding factors

You need to look at the price of hosting and compare availability of resource that is being offered in the particular price range. It is always a good strategy to strike a right balance between performance and cost of hosting package.

After analyzing costs and resource allocation of different packages the most important deciding factor is the choice of web host. You need to select the most reliable and reputed web host for managed WordPress hosting.

Websites need to be supported by optimum resources by selecting right type of web hosts as well as hosting plans. Although shared hosting can suffice hosting needs of websites during initial stages, growing resource needs may warrant upgrading of web hosting plans.

Various types of hosting

There are three major options for web hosting including shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated hosting. Let us briefly understand features o these hosting plans.

Shared hosting: This is the most sought after web hosting plan for websites of new businesses or individuals and is essentially a multi-tenant offering. There can be hundreds of websites sharing resources of a single physical server in shared hosting environment. The resources of memory, disk space, network, and computing power are shared by large number of websites that have limited resource needs. Obviously, this is the most affordable type of hosting plan and therefore an ideal option for non-ecommerce websites or small business websites that are in need of an affordable hosting solution. Websites that are hosted in shared environment are governed by negligible or no security concerns and are not expecting high traffic as well.

VPS hosting: VPS stands for Virtual Private Server and is created by portioning of a large server into multiple instances of virtual servers that have individual disk space, RAM, and operating systems. This option is ideal for websites that need root access and freedom to install different applications. VPS hosting can fulfill needs of websites that are experiencing moderate to high traffic with greater security concerns. Although, VPS hosting is offered in a multi-tenant environment, users are allocated dedicated resources for greater control, flexibility, and security. It is usually referred to as an intermediate hosting between shared and dedicated server hosting.

Dedicated server hosting: If you are seeking to host your website in a single tenant environment that is designed to cater only to your site without any resource sharing, then dedicated server hosting has no alternative. Dedicated hosting allows its user website a complete autonomy of a standalone server with all its resources being reserved only for that website. It is also the costliest among all types of web hosting and is generally preferred by websites of large organizations. Dedicated hosting guarantees complete control of a single server that can be exclusively configured according to needs of the website. The server is run by its own operating system and users can choose either Linux or Windows as per requirement. If the website has to deal with extremely high traffic that is characterized by frequent fluctuations and spikes, then dedicated server hosting can be the best option. Needless to mention, dedicated server hosting is the most secured option for websites that need to handle critical or sensitive user information such as payment processing, debit or credit cards, health records, or insurance related details just to name a few.

Upgrading to VPS

Even though shared hosting is the most ideal type of hosting for small or new websites, it is not ideal for websites that are experiencing faster growth in number of concurrent visitors. It is normally chosen for newly launched websites that have smaller needs of resources.

However, if your business website has huge potential for growth in terms of visitors and needs greater security measures to carry out sensitive transactions including online payments and use of debit or credit cards, then it is time to shift to VPS hosting plan. You need to always keep in mind that hosting needs keep on changing in response to growth of your business.

In shared hosting environment, every website needs to share allocated resources and as the website continues to get bigger in terms of applications and traffic, there may be issues of downtime and slow page loading. This is the indication to plan for shifting to VPS hosting environment.

One needs to understand that in spite of being more cost effective than dedicated server hosting, VPS also offers freedom to add larger resources and flexibility of server customization. In addition, a Virtual Private Server is also able to empower a plethora of security measures to keep your website protected from hackers and intruders.

Pointers that prompt migration to VPS hosting

Slow loading website: As mentioned earlier, you website’s speed significantly relies on resource availability in response to the traffic. If your website continues to consume more resources than the allocated, then your host will notify you about the exceeded resource limit. This will also impact your website’s performance.

Need to have root access to server: There are situations that will require direct server access such as executing server configuration, installation of applications, and editing of server files among others. VPS hosting provides root access for execution of these tasks.

Enhanced security requirement: Security of hosting environment is of great significance if you are running ecommerce site or any other web application that needs visitor to enter their login credentials. VPS offers multiple layers of security to secure your online business.