First of all, Congratulations on starting or moving ahead on your journey for starting a new blog/website or thinking to upgrade your existing blog/website.
This post is for you if
- you are new to blogging and want to purchase web hosting for your new blog
- or you already have a blog and want to know if you shall upgrade web hosting
Today blogging is one of the best sources of earning money online and if managed effectively can replace a traditional job.
But over a period of time or if you are new – you have one question in mind which type of web hosting is best for you – Shared Hosting or VPS (Virtual Private Server) Hosting?
Here we will see many factors that go into the selection of Best Web Hosting for Your Blog or Website.
Shared Web hosting vs VPS Hosting – which one is better?
Let’s first see the difference between both types of Web Hosting – Shared and VPS (Virtual Private Server) and see which one is better among Shared Web hosting vs VPS Hosting.
What is Shared Web Hosting?
It is one of the most basic web hosting provided by web hosting companies. In this web hosting, multiple domains or user websites are hosted on a single server that means they share a single physical web server and all the resources available on that server and these include memory storage processing capabilities of the processor of this server. Red hosting is considered as the most basic and the easiest web hosting for new website builders or bloggers.
What is VPS Hosting (Virtual Private Server Hosting)?
In the VPS hosting the main physical server is configured into different multiple virtual servers and each virtual server is allocated to a single user. This means that there is no sharing of resources within that virtual server with another virtual server and the user is the owner of all the resources available in the Virtual Server. VPS hosting is considered as the advanced level of Hosting where the user is the manager of all the resources available in the VPS. From a user point of view, it looks like a dedicated server but it is a virtual server within a physical server and can store and host multiple websites for user or multiple sub-users.
Also VPS provides more control over the Server OS and other applications.
A virtual private server (VPS), also referred to a virtual dedicated server (VDS), is a virtual server that appears to the user as a dedicated server, but that is actually serving multiple websites.
Benefits of Shared Web Hosting
- Shared Web Hosting is one of the affordable web hosting, basic plan starts from $2 to $5 per month.
- Shared Web Hosting is easy to manage, most of the management is done by the web hosting provider.
- It does not require any technical skills to operate and maintain the website or blog on Shared web hosting.
- Almost every Shared web hosting has easy to use control panels like cPanel to manage different tasks like the creation of new email accounts, new FTP users creation of New database etc.
- Shared Web Hosting makes it easy to host a WordPress website, as WordPress can be installed with a single click from a Shared Web Hosting Control Panel.
- If you have a new blog or the number of users are very low (like 500 per day and) on your blog or website then you should go for shared web hosting.
Drawbacks of Shared Web Hosting
One of the major drawbacks of Shared web hosting is the performance of the server. As the server is shared among multiple users and each user having multiple websites the performance of those websites may suffer as one or more websites hosted on the dates and seven good utilise more resources than the others in that case other websites performance will degrade.
This may not be a problem for smaller websites where the number of daily users is very low but it becomes a problem for websites where the number of users is too high. The performance of such websites degrades when the load is high.
Benefits of VPS Hosting
There are multiple benefits of VPS hosting as compared to shared web hosting.
- Resources: One of the most important benefits of VPS hosting is in terms of the resources a VPS has more resources like more disc space and more bandwidth as compared to the shared web hosting.
- Configuration: VPS server configuration (like Processors, Disk Space, Memory, Bandwidth etc.) can be selected at the time of purchase or at the time of upgrade. It’s easy to upgrade or downgrade.
- Performance: Compared to Shared Hosting, VPS Hosting offers more processing power to users. This helps in maintaining reliability, stability and scalability. It also reduces the downtime of the server. Thus enhancing the confidence of your customers in your websites, services and products.
- Upgradation: Upgradation of VPS is quite easy and can be done with a single click in the control panel of the hosting provider and doesn’t require moving the website from the old server to the new server in case of the upgradation.
- Customisation: VPS are highly configurable systems if you are technical you can customise a VPS operating system for the applications on the VPS as per your needs. This kind of customisation is not possible with Shared web hosting.
- Support: VPS hosting service providers also provide support in case you encounter a problem and are unable to solve it on your own, you can contact their support team and they will help you resolve the issue.
- Security: VPS can be configured security as per your requirement using custom firewalls and custom firewall rules which is not possible on shared web hosting.
All these features make VPS hosting an important asset for most companies keeping in view the performance, resources, customisation, security of the server.
Drawbacks of VPS Hosting
Few drawbacks of the VPS hosting
- Cost of VPS Server: cost of the VPS hosting is a little higher than the shared web hosting but is reasonable when compared with the benefits of the VPS web hosting.
- Management of VPS: Management of a VPS requires technical knowledge to manage a VPS server. And in case of any miss-configuration, it could take days to resolve or you need to re-setup the VPS server from the fresh.
When to choose Shared Web Hosting or VPS Hosting
|
Shared Hosting |
VPS Hosting |
|
|
Experience Level / technical Knowledge |
Choose Shared hosting if you are new (or lack technical skills) to Hosting, Websites and Blogging |
Choose Shared hosting if you are experienced in Hosting, Websites and Blogging |
|
Just launched your startup |
Choose Shared Hosting for peace of mind |
Once you grow older, you can shift to VPS Hosting |
|
Business Growth |
If you don’t see any near-future growth in business and website users, choose Shared web hosting |
If you see any future growth in business and website users, choose VPS Hosting |
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Budget |
If budget is a constraint then shared hosting is better. |
If budget is not a constraint go for VPS or Dedicated Web Hosting. |
|
Volume of users |
For low volume of users, like 500 per day, select Shared Web Hosting |
For high volume of users, select VPS or Dedicated Web Hosting. |
Reputed Web Host for Shared Web Hosting and VPS Hosting
So now you know which Hosting to choose. We have few good web hosts (affiliated links) listed below, who have a good reputation in the Hosting Industry:
Bluehost
Having a rating of around 4 out of 5 stars on different web hosting review platforms. Click here to go to Bluehost.
Hostgator
Hostgator is also a reputed web host in the Hosting Industry with an average rating of 4. Click here to go to Hostgator.
In the comment box, please share your experience, issues you facing while hosting your website/blog or your recommendations for a web host.