There is a wide range of offers when we talk about hosting services. For someone that is new to the hosting world, it can be hard to choose between multiple options. The options are as follows: shared hosting, VPS hosting, cloud hosting, dedicated hosting, managed hosting, WordPress hosting, and reseller hosting.
It is seriously difficult to make the right decision when you don’t know the pros and cons, for each of the options mentioned above.
Knowing them is quite crucial for a newbie, and it is worth taking a moment to look at them. In this article, we will be comparing shared hosting and VPS hosting.
Shared Hosting
Shared hostings are great for people that are less tech-savvy or are just starting off their website. No prior experience is needed since it is easy to manage and use.
Shared hosting refers to multiple users sharing the same server and its resources. These resources include drive space, speed, computing power, RAM, and others that are at their disposal.
This hosting solution becomes troublesome if one of the so-called “neighbor” websites has a sudden, drastic increase in traffic since it will use almost all the shared resources. Which can lead to availability problems, such as increased downtime and performance issues of your website.
Shared hosting – Scalability and Security
Scalability – Since shared hosting is a shared environment, customization is limited. Once you have chosen a package, it is more difficult to scale it later on. For example, if an application or a website is running slow, you are not given many options to increase performance since resources on that single server are shared. Keep in mind that shared hostings are mostly for beginners and smaller businesses since they require fewer resources.
Security – Although shared hosting is known for its shared resources, some things, such as sensitive information, are not. Each user has their own space within the server and their own special account with permissions that allow him or her to operate only within that designated directory. Users cannot see each other’s directories. In some cases, shared hosting providers have additional security measures that they provide to defend their users from a cyber security breach.
VPS Hosting
VPS is a private virtual server that requires more commitment and technical knowledge than shared hosting. Technical knowledge is required because you have root access and you are responsible for configuration.
The website setup and server configuration, in this case, are not as fast as in shared hosting. You need to set up a web server (such as Apache or Nginx ) that will direct browser requests to the appropriate directory on the server. For this, you need to configure the domain and SSL certificates, which in the case of shared hosting, are basically self-configuring.
When it comes to resources, you get your own, and you do not share them with any other user on the same physical server.
VPS – Scalability and Security
Scalability – In the case of increased traffic, server load, or an application requiring more resources, you can allocate more RAM to the server. Meaning if there is not enough memory on the server itself, you can change the plan, pay extra and buy additional resources, known as add-ons. They will be added automatically and will be at your disposal right away, which will help to combat performance problems.
Security – In terms of security, it can be a lot better compared to shared hosting. At the end of the day, how much the server will be secured depends mainly on its owner. This is why setting up and maintaining a VPS requires tech knowledge. Keep in that you can even hire an outside party to take care of security matters, but they can often be very costly.
Conclusion
When choosing between shared hosting and VPS, keep in mind each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Shared hosting is the cheaper option and more suitable for smaller businesses or start-ups. VPS, on the other hand, may be expensive, and it also requires tech knowledge.
You need to figure out if your website will do fine with shared hosting or if it will need VPS to operate properly.
