When starting a website, you have to make one critical decision on what hosting service you will use. There are web hosting alternatives ranging from dedicated, shared, and VPS. A virtual private server, commonly known as VPS, is an increasingly popular hosting service. It provides exclusive and dedicated server resources to users by segmenting shared servers through virtualizing software.
Using VPS has a wide array of advantages, like hosting multiple websites at a time, being more affordable than dedicated hosting, and offering more privacy and safety of data than the shared option.
Why Use VPS?
To understand why you should consider VPS, take a look at some of its advantages compared to other hosting options.
Affordable
If you run a small or medium business, this is the best hosting option. While it’s a bit more expensive than shared hosting, it’s way better in performance and has reasonable prices than dedicated servers. Host providers such as BlueVPS.com offer very competitive packages that cater to all company sizes and needs.
More Than Web Hosting
Though most people use VPS for web hosting, there are other ways that VPS can come in handy. These include hosting a game or mail server, setting up a Virtual Private Network, and seeding torrents. Moreover, you can provide customers with cloud-based servers or offer your remote employees virtual workstations.
Greater Control
With VPS, you have root or superuser access. This is essential in customizing your site and making software changes without relying on what the hosting provider allows. Ideally, this will put your website a notch higher than those using shared servers.
Scalability
When your business is continually growing, so does your consumer traffic. With VPS, you can scale up easily by upgrading to a higher hosting plan, unlike the shared servers that would otherwise not allow you to expand. This neither interferes with how your site functions nor does it require additional maintenance. The performance of your website and usage of the memory and disk will determine the need for an upgrade.
Privacy and Safety of Data
With the increasing rate of cyber attacks, protecting your data should be your priority. VPS is a better option than shared hosting because its security features ensure that all your information is inaccessible to other server users. In addition, you can back up your data often such that if anything goes wrong, you can always recover all your files.
Reliability and Speed
With dedicated resources such as RAM and faster processing power, you’ll see better performance, contributing to customer retention. Equally, you don’t have to share storage space and bandwidth with other users, as in shared servers. Sharing resources may reduce speed and performance as malfunctions and increased traffic on other users’ sites affect your output.
What Should You Consider When Choosing a VPS Provider?
It’s crucial to survey several providers before settling on the one you will work with. Doing this will ensure a package that meets all your hosting needs and gives you value for money. Factors that you should prioritize include:
- Customer service
- Supported OS options
- Backup frequencies
- Pricing plans
- Scaling capabilities
- Uptime
- Response time of support team
- Migration cost
Final Thoughts
While there are shared and dedicated hosting options, they may not be the best for a growing business. Shared servers pose performance and security concerns, while dedicated ones may be too expensive.
If you’re looking for a hosting service, a virtual private server is what you should consider. The only challenge you may experience is that it requires more technical know-how to set up and configure. However, don’t stress because online tutorials can help with that. Alternatively, you can opt for a managed VPS from your provider.
