Going for a VPS hosting plan from the existing shared hosting plan? The choice of VPS hosting providers is a difficult decision, especially because when you go through VPS offers businesses of all of them nearly the same kind of disk space, bandwidth, third-party software, is customer support and a money-back guarantee.

I started my website on a shared hosting plan, but later primarily on the bandwidth and the poor performance of the server, I had received the proposalgoing for VPS / dedicated plan for better control and improve server performance.

When searching using keywords best VPS hosting or top-10-VPS hosting, you get good number of sites with reviews and suppliers. But as a customer it is a wise decision, simply follow reviews and register with a VPS provider?

Before going for VPS providers from your existing shared hosting setup, think seriously about the following points. There are many things thatmust be considered before thinking about VPS plans. This assessment will help you make better decisions during the movement of the joint plan to VPS.

* Have you set up the available bandwidth and software meeting electricity demand in a resource-sharing.
* Are the existing storage space to save enough data.
* Do you have 24 / 7 support and more than 99% uptime guarantee?
* Make it really worth the transition from existing common set, the cost to you under $ 100/year VPS, the cost of plansYou $ 500/year.

Choosing VPS Server Plans

After a thorough evaluation, you can choose to continue with existing plans or move to VPS servers. Next, you can decide for VPS providers with Windows or Linux VPS hosting servers go offerings. Normally Linux VPS hosting servers are cheaper in comparison to Windows VPS hosting, because Windows hosting, you have to pay additional license fees. read more http://www.hosting.pannipa.com/2009/09/moving-from-shared-hosting-to-a-vps-hosting-plan/

Transferring of website to a new web host will become easy by following the below mentioned steps-

First Off:

User should always act carefully while opting new web host. One should not act manic after seeing any cheap hosting plan, rather should carefully check the plan and be aware of the terms and conditions for finding out the hidden tricks or hidden fees. One should define clearly his/her and must choose the plan which is very close to his/her requirement. Also one must look for 24/7 supports with phone support, as it is a must. Always one should try to find a host that uses the same operating system as his/her existing host. Last but not least one must chose a web host that has a fast Internet connection and has fast servers and good up time etc.

Scripts:

One must confirm that the new web host supports the same script that one is using like if one is using php, CGI, Perl or ASP that he/she must choose that host that supports it. For php one must check that the new hosts supports all the php functions required and also have all the Perl Modules that one need to use or plan on using. There are many scripts that require Mysql, so one must check to see if the new host supports that as well.

Backup:

Backup should be done on a regular basis .One must make sure to take backup of each and everything on his/her site as else at any time that data can be lost. Also one must take care to save all of his/her site’s files on a disc or one can choose to signup for a data storage service and they will save it for him/her.

Testing:

One should be very sure that his/her site is functioning before switching to new host. It is always beneficial that the new site should be tested by anyone else. One can also use more than one computer if they are available and can take the help of someone else to have a look on it. It is always advisable to test everything from links to images three or four times to make sure things are working properly.

After getting everything done its time to switch to a new host however one must be very careful for the next 48 hours to check his/her site as quite often any problem can occur in the site. If all the above things are kept in mind the site can go live soon with ease.

I have a drupal based site. The front page is about 200kb and I have 10 trimmed topics in front page. Currently the site is hosted on a shared server. My question is how many hits or page loads per hour/minute should I have before it would be necessary to switch to a dedicated server?
My host is hostgator.