If your website is growing busier and busier and demanding more resources than shared hosting can supply, you may be ready for an upgrade. You may be considering a move to a dedicated server, but today there’s actually another alternative to consider. VPS or virtual private servers could suit your needs as well as a dedicated server but at a significantly cheaper price.
VPS servers provide you with your own private space on a server that’s been partitioned. Each partition acts or functions like a regular dedicated server. Your website has a separate operating system, so your site isn’t affected by other sites on the server as it could be with shared hosting. You’re also guaranteed a share of your server’s essential hardware resources such as RAM, CPU and disk space. Customers have their own spam filter and mail server, and the mail system is more powerful and stable than what’s provided with shared hosting.
VPS servers offer customers significantly more control than shared hosting. With VPS, you have root server access for your own partition, and you can make configurations, choose the programs you want to install and even install them yourself if you prefer. Customers can also reboot, back up and restore VPS servers themselves.
VPS also allows customers to host multiple websites on their partition and add domains themselves. You can host clients’ sites or offer private label reseller accounts, too with VPS servers. This makes VPS an excellent option for webmasters, website design firms and freelance website designers.
VPS offers many of the benefits of dedicated server hosting at a lower price, but there are some potential disadvantages to consider. VPS servers must be maintained by the customer, and that includes updates as well as security. Managing you own VPS server can take a significant amount of time and demands a good deal of technical expertise.
If you’re not willing or able to invest the time in maintaining your own VPS server, managed VPS hosting offers a solution. You’ll pay more for the service, but maintenance will be fully handled for you. Compared to managed dedicated server hosting, managed VPS servers are less expensive.
VPS servers are a great solution for businesses that have outgrown shared hosting, but aren’t quite in need of a dedicated server. They’re designed to provide greater security, increased bandwidth and more control and privacy than shared hosting at an affordable price.
