So, you want to start a website or an online business. You already have a secured domain name and it’s now time for you to decide on a hosting provider to get your server space. But what should you opt for? Is it ok if you choose a shared hosting? Or is it better to spend a bit more on a VPS hosting service? Sometimes it could be a tough decision to make. To help you decide which web hosting will better serve your project and goals, the hosting experts at BGOcloud prepared this quick Shared Hosting vs VPS Hosting Guide. It will cover the basics, the pros and cons, the best use cases, and key factors to consider before you make up your mind.
Here are the chapters of the guide:
- What is shared hosting
- Pros and cons
- When to choose shared hosting
- What is VPS hosting
- Pros and cons
- When to choose VPS
- Shared hosting vs VPS hosting: the main difference disclosed
- BGOcloud VPS
What Is Shared Hosting?
A shared web hosting is a web hosting service that distributes one and the same physical Web server to many websites. Residing on it, they share the same resources – disk space, network bandwidth, memory, CPU. Usually, this is considered one of the most cost-effective solutions that users can afford for their websites. But it comes with its own perks.
Bringing Us To The Question – What Are the Shared Hosting Advantages and Disadvantages?
Key Advantages:
- The least expensive option available on the market
- Requires little to no technical maintenance on your side
- Sometimes hosting providers do all the necessary installs and setups
- Or you get a standardized server setup that is beginner-friendly
Major Disadvantages:
- Your site might have limited bandwidth
- Causes slowdowns when there’s a lot of traffic deriving from the rest of the websites using the same server
- Often delivers less storage
- You have limited access to the back-end and less customization options
- No root access
- You own a small number of resources
- Your site also may suffer when another site experiences an issue
- Other websites consume too much of the shared bandwidth
When To Choose and Use Shared Hosting?
Here the BGOcloud experts provided a list with several common use cases. If you tick most of them, then shared hosting is the one you should opt for.
- You’re starting a new blog, a personal site, or any other small online website.
- If you want to work on a short-term plan without scaling.
- Want to make a small to average-sized company website.
- Have dedicated a small and strict budget for it.
- In case you lack the technical expertise and cannot handle web development on your own.
What Is VPS hosting
VPS hosting (Virtual Private Server) is a hosting service using a virtualization technology to give you a private server with its resources just to yourself. The trick here is that a VPS only imitates a physical server but in reality, it functions within a shared hosting environment. Still though, despite the fact that the machine is shared among other users, it has similar benefits as when having a much more expensive dedicated server.
Key Advantages:
- Grants you root access to your server
- There is much more memory and bandwidth
- You can easily apply customizations and tailor the backend
- It is easily scalable and can handle more intensive site traffic
- Doesn’t suffer due to other site’s traffic
- Offers significantly more stability and speed
- Limited users share the same server
- More control to configure your server
Major Disadvantages:
- Costs more
- Requires technical know-how to configure and manage it well
When To Choose And Use VPS
- In case you wonder when exactly a VPS turns out to be better than a shared hosting, here’s a list of the most common use cases.
- When your website expects medium-level to relatively high traffic
- If you want root access to the server
- When having more advanced control options for your website is mandatory for you.
- If you’re going to expand your business/website and therefore need a more scalable hosting plan at hand.
- Money isn’t an issue and you have a larger budget
Shared Hosting vs VPS Hosting: The Main Difference
Choosing between Shared Hosting vs VPS Hosting for your website and all of its files and data may be a bit challenging. But this seems so only when you fail to see the strengths and the flows of these two options. To sum it up, the main difference between a shared hosting and VPS is that the first one comes with a preconfigured package, shared and easy-to-compromise space, and limited options for customization and control. Whereas the second hosting service option may require a bit of a technical knowledge to get you started but it delivers more bandwidth, more customizations, more control for you.
What About BGOcloud VPS Hosting?
One of our missions is to provide professional class virtual servers with a KVM virtualization plus a super flexible and easy-to-use management console. Thanks to these two things, your VPS will work almost like a dedicated server, only cheaper.
What else is in it for you?
