SherWeb

Whether you’re a small business, a large corporation or simply someone interested in having a personal website, there are different hosting solutions suited for your particular needs. Today I will compare VPS versus shared hosting in order to help you figure out which service is best for you.

What’s the difference between Shared hosting and VPS?

Virtual Private Server technology (aka VPS) is essentially multiple isolated server environments on a single physical server. It uses its own disk space, RAM, CPU, IP addresses. A VPS account gives root access to the system, allowing for modifications of server configuration files and installation of applications.
Shared hosting (aka virtual hosting) is when you have multiple users residing on one server which share its resources and have the same operating system. Though you are sharing an environment each account does have its own “residence” which cannot be accessed by other users.

What are the advantages of VPS?

Control: A virtual private server will usually come with a control panel that will allow you to easily manage many aspects of your site. You have root access to the system and can modify server configurations.
Capabilities: You can host an unlimited number of Websites. You can host other services, such as a mail server, an FTP server, or any type of server you want.
Security: No one else will have access to your data, except you and the hosting company.VPS hosting is inherently more secure than shared hosting: its virtual environments have independent file systems and its administrators are empowered to implement secure configurations.
Performance: VPS platform is supports online business with heavy site traffic, which have more application needs, and more intense resource requirements.

What are the advantages of shared hosting?

Affordable: Shared hosting plans are cheaper than other types of web hosting plans because the cost is shared among many similar clients or end users.
Easy to use: You do not need to have a thorough understanding of hosting and server management if you choose shared hosting.
No maintenance required: Web hosts pre-install server software and updates and don’t need to worry about server maintenance
Great for hosting a basic website: Clients can pay for only what they need and upgrade their plans when their needs grow.

Which solution is best for you?

Though shared hosting is currently the most popular hosting solution, VPS offers an affordable, high performance alternative to dedicated hosting and acts as a steppingstone between shared and dedicated. For non technical users with a few normal-medium sites, a shared plan is the cheapest and easiest. Plus, if your needs change, you can always upgrade to VPS.
Note however that while a VPS hosting plan allows you to take control of the operating system you still share hardware resources (CPU, RAM, etc.) with other VPS’s on the same host server. Therefore, if performance is a key factor, or you’re running RAM-intensive programs, you may be better off with co-location or dedicated server hosting techniques.