A VPS or a virtual private server is considered to be a step up from the shared hosting environment, but in effect, VPS is so much superior to shared hosting that they are not even comparable. If you are planning to launch a new business site and you don’t quite have the need or the budget to opt for dedicated hosting yet, go through the following points to understand why virtual private servers are significantly better than the traditional, shared hosting services, even though the latter is a lot cheaper.
Elimination of the “Bad Neighbor” Problem
Anyone who has spent time with a site that’s on shared hosting knows about the infamous “bad neighbor” problem, as it’s inherently embedded in the very structure of the shared hosting environment. As multiple websites compete for resources from a single server, a few websites that receive the most traffic will almost always take up a huge portion of the available resources. Consequently, the rest of the sites will slow down, crash or experience downtime because they may not have enough resources from the physical server available to them for facilitating a smooth operation.
A VPS is also a shared hosting environment in a sense, but each VPS acts as a separate digital server with pre-allocated resources from the physical server, which no other VPS on the server will be able to hog. This practically eliminates the “bad neighbor” issue because it’s not even a possibility due to the independent structure of each virtual private server. As a result, every website gets a dedicated VPS with all its resources, without ever having to share it with any other site.
A VPS Will Always Have More Resources Than a Shared Hosting Environment
Even though a VPS is only allocated a portion of the physical server’s hardware resources, it will still be a lot more stable and capable than shared hosting. Not only are the pre-allocated resources of a virtual private server exclusive to the virtual machine, but a quality hosting provider will make sure that the resources are not spread among more than twenty virtual machines, as that could spread the capabilities of the physical server too much and might make each virtual machine less efficient than they should be.
VPS is a More Cost-Effective Solution for Businesses
Even though it may not seem like it at first, virtual private servers are a more cost-effective solution for businesses, as compared to shared hosting, even though it is more expensive. To understand why that is so, consider that as an online business, you are losing money every minute you go offline, which is a common inconvenience with shared hosting. Although though it may seem cheaper initially, slowdowns and downtime is bad news for any business that’s trying to make it online and this will eventually make shared hosting a more costly choice, both in terms of sales numbers and reputation.
Perhaps the best part is that even though VPS services are more expensive than shared hosting, it is not actually expensive, to begin with! At less than $50 per month, renowned service providers such as HostGator offer high-capacity a virtual private server that can help small businesses run a faster, more secure and stable business online.
VPS is a Scalable Hosting Option
As a business grows in size, the server dedicated to it will also need to grow accordingly to remain capable of handling the increased load. Unfortunately, that is not an option in a shared environment, but a VPS, on the other hand, is one of the most scalable options that you have for hosting plans. More resources can be allocated to the website instantly if the site owner feels that is required. Similarly, if the resources of the current VPS plan feel more than what the site currently needs, you can also opt for a cheaper plan with less dedicated hardware resources. This scalability is what makes virtual private servers such a value for money hosting option; you always pay for only what you need.
This is not to say that shared hosting doesn’t have a place because it does, but when it comes to running a profitable business, VPS is just a better option in every way. More suited to personal sites, small blogs and brochure sites for companies, shared hosting is also more vulnerable to hacking attacks, which is another reason why they are not ideal for financial transactions expected on a business site. An independent VPS, on the other hand, is protected by multiple layers of network security.
