It’s important to choose the right web hosting plan when you’re planning to launch a website. You can host your content on a website through various hosting plans, such as VPS, shared or cloud. So, let’s take a close look at the details of shared and VPS web hosting plans.
Shared Hosting
Shared web hosting is like living in any apartment where you have to share common space with neighbours. It’s not possible to customize anything, but you share the responsibility and maintenance the cost with your neighbours. Millions worldwide prefer shared hosting due to its cost effectiveness and easy configuration.
You can opt for shared hosting if you’re starting a new online venture on borrowed or your own capital. If you are expecting a low initial rate of visitors, want to set up a limited number of email accounts and have plans to maintain your website and couple of blogs, then this is a good option. Shared web hosting is the best option in the beginning before you commit yourself for something bigger.
Advantages
This is a great option if you have limited number of sites or blogs, as it is very easy to maintain and cost you much less than VPS. There is no technical requirement to maintain the server and you can also demand extra storage space. You can use all kind of software, including virtualised solutions.
Disadvantages
One of the main disadvantages is that you have access to a limited number of resources. Also, the performance of your website will be affected by other sites hosted on the shared server. There might be long-term issues with backup and scalability and there are some security issues in regards to sharing space on a common server. You’ll also have to configure firewall settings for some applications and you can initially only support limited customers.
VPS Hosting
VPS hosting is like living in a half-plex or simplex where you can customise everything according to your taste. However, you’ll still have to maintain your area. Companies that deal with secured data and heavy applications most often use VPS.
VPS hosting is best for you if you want to expand your business beyond shared hosting level and expect significant traffic over the next few months. It’s also ideal if you want to work with confidential and secured data and have plans to host multiple blogs, websites or different applications very soon.
Advantages
One of the main pros is that you get huge web space and bandwidth, which helps you to do whatever you like. You can easily downgrade or upgrade your subscription anytime and you can also configure anything you wish on your server. You can even run batch files for creating multiple services inside the server using shell access. You will also get 24/7 dedicated customer support, which will help boost security levels, and you have easy backup and scalability. User partitioning helps you customise firewall configurations.
Disadvantages
You’ll have to employ a dedicated system administrator to maintain your server. The plan is costly, so you will have to pay more for it and you might have some issues with certain applications running in virtualised environment.
When to move from Shared to VPS hosting?
It’s best to move from shared to VPS hosting when your site is consuming all your processors and is gobbling your RAM and CPU resources. If you plan to send more emails, feel the need to be in control, want to customise the settings and appearance, and / or expand the existing performance level, then it’s time for a switch.
All in all, shared web hosting is the best option for small scale or personal users. But for all those who have mega plans for their web presence, VPS is a long-term investment that will last a lifetime. The additional control, privacy and scalability it offers is worth ten times its cost.