Virtual Private Server: All You Should Know

Why Use a Virtual Private Server? How Does VPS hosting compare with other types of hosting?

Getting a website online implies that you must upload its files on a web server. These servers are typically purchased from a hosting provider. The provision of this service is regarded as web hosting.

VPS hosting is a specific type of hosting that is tailored to web owners that have outgrown the use of shared hosting. The use of a shared hosting plan implies that your website resides on a single web server with other websites. In this case, resources are not guaranteed.

On the other hand, with the use of VPS, fewer users can enjoy specific allocated statements of memory, hard drive space, and processor power. Users on a VPS server can enjoy access to a virtual machine that runs its own copy of the OS.

With this, users can enjoy similar capabilities, as well as high performance of a dedicated server for their websites. These top features can be enjoyed at a reduced cost.

Why Use a Virtual Private Server?

Owners of a new website make use of shared web hosting at first. As their websites grow, they demand more functions and resources. Then, they need a more effective hosting plan. In this case, a virtual private server lies between a shared hosting option and a dedicated hosting package. It allows websites to run on their own server.

The use of a shared hosting plan comes with reduced costs. However, users can never enjoy privacy. On the other hand, using a VPS comes with private resources, which can be customized for specific purposes just like a dedicated server. Yet, a VPS is less expensive than a dedicated server.

When your site keeps getting more traffic, the shared hosting package you must have started with would be insufficient to meet your needs. More resources will then be needed to handle this. A consequence of having high traffic in shared traffic is a high load time.

Yet, by upgrading to a virtual private server, you can rely on better features to manage this for you. Users can also rely on an improved customer support system to help them understand what to do when they run into difficulties.

Web owners with more robust demands might need to customize their websites based on their needs. Using VPS makes this process easy. More importantly, many web owners make use of a virtual private server due to the higher bandwidth that it supports.

How Does VPS hosting compare with other types of hosting?

To explain better, this section will provide insight into the different types of hosting servers. Then, a detailed comparison will be made to explain better.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting represents a kind of arrangement that involves multiple websites kept on a single server. The monthly payment you make to the hosting provider will be sufficient enough to help you gain access to a given amount of resources. These resources can be shared with other users sharing this same server.

These resources could be:

• Bandwidth
• RAM (Random Access Memory)
• Storage
• CPU (Central Processing Unit)

This type of hosting is the cheapest option to choose. Since the services are shared, you are simply enjoying the provided resources with others.

The low cost makes shared hosting a very popular hosting option, particularly for small businesses, affiliate websites, personal blogs, and more.

Many add-on services are associated with shared hosting plans, including:

• Free SSL certificate
• Free domain name
• Integrated website builder
• User-friendly control panel (cPanel)
• Security and anti-malware scans
• Auto-backups

Shared hosting comes with certain drawbacks. One of these includes the fact that the hosting infrastructure can be adopted by other users. For this reason, privacy is never an issue. Another implication of using shared hosting plans is that your website performance and speed can reduce.

You will find many web hosts that try to carefully rebalance their shared resources, especially when there is an abrupt fluctuation in traffic. This can be a serious issue that should never be ignored.

Shared hosting is easy to use for beginners, as well as content websites that gather less than 30,000 monthly visits.

Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting

Virtual private hosting plan for those with websites that have outgrown the use of a shared hosting plan. Even though the still need to share the same physical server space with many other website owners, you have your website hosted on an allocated virtual hosting platform.

Two words describe this type of hosting plan:

• Private: This implies that you can gain access to private hosting resources. You don’t need to share them with other users.
• Virtual: This implies that your server is not a physical machine. Rather, it is a virtual machine that works on top of a parent server that hosts other similar virtual machines.

When you choose a virtual private server, you can run different kinds of software while using any type of programming language you need. Besides this, you can enjoy higher caps for bandwidth and storage. This ensures that your website can accommodate higher website traffic.

However, there is still certain restricted elasticity associated with VPS host plans. There are certain VPS hosts that can offer a temporary increase in the disk space you can make use of, as well as the bandwidth to help you handle traffic fluctuations.

With VPS hosting, websites can enjoy more scalability and customization than shared hosting packages. Yet, it is worth noting that a virtual private server is often associated with proactive configurations and maintenance. This is particularly true if you choose an unmanaged solution.

However, if what you want is robust, but affordable hosting, then a VPS hosting plan is the right choice for you.

Dedicated Hosting Server

This type of server is dedicated to a website and it offers an exclusive right over a web server. As a result, you can enjoy total control over the resources, unlike shared hosting plans.

You have better resources to handle higher traffic. This is restricted only by the server capacity. However, if the renter server is not used to its complete capacity, you will still pay the full price for it.

Besides this, you remain responsible for maintaining the security, as well as any relevant cost. When you acquire an unmanaged dedicated server, you must:

• Install the operating system
• Add every important tool that can help you run your operations
• Build a certain security parameter that can help protect your infrastructure

You are also responsible for optimizing the performance of your website. If you have an IT team who can be good enough, this shouldn’t be an issue. Yet, this ensures that it is not easy to use for beginners.

VPS Hosting Vs Shared Hosting Vs Dedicated Hosting

This section will now explain the three types of hosting plans in detail, as they are explained better.

While virtual hosting offers you a virtual compartment that is allocated to you alone, a shared hosting plan is like a rented space on a physical server, which is shared with different other users.

The server is split among different users, yet there is a probability that other websites on that same server could influence activities on your website. On the other hand, a VPS hosting package ensures that you still share a physical server with other users. However, the underlying technology adopted is quite different.

The virtual technology employed takes into account a hypervisor, which makes it possible for you to be exposed to a certain level of server resources. This is determined in the hosting plan.

In addition, while shared hosting is a great place to start for beginners, VPS is the next step once you outgrow the limits of a shared hosting plan. VPS hosting also offers scalability to your website.

Moving next to a dedicated hosting plan. This hosting solution is quite simple to understand. You are acquiring an entire physical server, which you can customize however you want.

This represents an expensive option to explore. However, the high level of security and performance it offers make it a great option for top websites.

In terms of functionalities, a virtual private server represents the intermediate between shared hosting and dedicated hosting plans. While a dedicated server provides you with an entire physical server to use, a VPS cannot offer you a physical server, but a virtual one.

When there is a need for a higher level of security and performance, then having a dedicated server may be a better option for you than a virtual private server.

Yet, you must never forget that a larger budget is needed to run a dedicated server than what you need to run a virtual private server. If you are budget-conscious, then having a VPS hosting plan will suit your better than a dedicated host.

Conclusion

A web server is needed to get your website online. Hosting providers offer web owners these services. As discussed above, three major types of hosting plans exist. A shared hosting plan offers the right features to grow. However, as your website keeps growing, you need to upgrade your features. Then, you need a virtual private server hosting plan. As you gather a higher level of traffic, you need better features. In this case, a dedicated hosting plan is the right option to explore.

Press Release Distributed by The Express Wire

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