When Should One Consider VPS Hosting?

Posted by Cloudminister Technologies on May 11th, 2021

What is Web Hosting?

Web Hosting is when space is allocated on a web server for a website to host its data, images, files, code. 

There are three types of Web Hosting -:

1. Shared Hosting:

   You share server space with several other websites; this saves cost and is preferred when negligible customization is required. You don’t have control over settings. This type of hosting is perfect for small businesses that don’t require much bandwidth and can share it with others.
   
   Consider it like living in a hostel; you share a common mess, laundry facility, etc. with others.
   
   

2. Dedicated Hosting:
   

   The server space is entirely dedicated to you. This is expensive but is preferable for large business houses. There is room for full customization and enough bandwidth to handle heavy traffic.
   
   Consider it like owning a plot of land and building your own independent house on it. It costs more but everything can be adjusted as per your requirement.
   
   

3. VPS Hosting: 

   VPS refers to Virtual Private Server. It’s a server with its copy of the Operating System & allocated server resources with a big server. A user has an own space in a server that is partitioned among several other users. There is a private space to customize as per requirement, yet it is cheaper than a server completely dedicated to a single user.
   
   Consider it as an apartment; your space is limited to probably 3 bedrooms but there is a degree of independence on how you want to live. This is lesser freedom than an independent home but way more than a hostel. 

Why have VPS Hosting?

• Guarantee of Resources:

You are guaranteed the resources you are paying for. There are dedicated RAM, CPU, Disk space for you in physical hardware. There is no sharing. So, high or low traffic on other websites doesn’t affect your performance.

Coming back to the apartment example, there is a dedicated water line in your apartment, with your water tank. You have your electricity, telephone, internet connection.

• Security:

In shared hosting, even a hacking attack on other websites can affect your website. A ‘Denial of Service attack on someone else’s site can bring down your platform too. This is avoided in VPS as your VPS is treated as an entirely separate computer.

You can lock the doors of your apartment and you have exclusive rights to the keys. You can install CCTV too which you can monitor.

• Scalability: 

You can easily go from 2 GB RAM to 4 GB RAM or vice versa. This is very easy as compared to both Shared and Dedicated hosting. 

You may rent another apartment too in your apartment building temporarily.

• Customization: 

You decide how many websites or emails you want, how many databases you want to manage. You decide on the type of structure of your website data you want.

You can paint your apartment walls as you like, but you cannot do it in a hostel.

Why not have VPS Hosting?

• Cost: 

As mentioned above, VPS is a little more expensive than Shared hosting, so you need to have at least some traffic on your website to get the return on investment.

No one would want to spend money on a 3-Bedroom Apartment for a single person unless one expects too many guests.

• Management:  

Since you have the power to manage everything yourself, you also have the responsibility to get in and do some code. To solve this, some services offer fully managed VPS hosting, where all the technology is handled by the service provider offering the server space themselves. Though this costs a little extra. 

In a hostel, the cooking is handled in the mess, you just have to go and eat. Now, in your apartment, you either have to cook yourself or have someone else do it for you.

Conclusion

 You could eventually consider VPS when you have the following -

•  If the traffic you receive is more than a personal blog but less than a brand that is a household name.
  
  
• If your business is somewhat bigger than a mom-and-pop store, but still smaller than a big corporate house.
  
  
• If you want better security, but can’t afford a high budget for that.
  
  
• If you can manage the technology yourself, or have enough budget to have someone else take care of it for you, but don’t want to spend too much of your resources beyond a limit. 

 In the end, there is no right or wrong choice; it comes down to cost-benefit analysis that varies from business to business. On the whole, VPS comes as somewhat of a middle path between Shared and Dedicated hosting.