Usually, most site owners launch their websites by hosting them on a Shared Hosting plan. It is cheaper than the other hosting types, offers basic features, and allows them to test the waters before they invest more time and money in the website. As the business grows and the site starts attracting more traffic, many site owners start looking at other hosting types to ensure an uninterrupted site experience to their visitors. One such hosting type is the Virtual Private Server Hosting or VPS Hosting. In this article, we will seek to highlight the key differences between a Shared Hosting service and a VPS Hosting service.
What are Shared and VPS Hosting services?
In Shared Hosting services, as the name suggests, your website is hosted on a shared web server. These hosting plans are usually cheap and preferred by new websites, bloggers and those who do not receive a lot of traffic on their site.
On the other hand, VPS Hosting services blend the features of a Shared Hosting with that of a Dedicated Server hosting. In VPS Hosting, your website is hosted on a virtual server which is created by dividing a physical web server. While the physical server gets shared between different websites, you have dedicated resources allocated to you.
Key differences between VPS Hosting and Shared Hosting
| Feature | Shared Hosting | VPS Hosting |
| Costs | Shared Hosting plans are cheaper than most other hosting types because the resources are shared between all the websites hosted on one web server. | As compared to Shared Hosting plans, VPS Hosting plans are costlier. You pay the additional cost for having dedicated resources allocated to your website. |
| Security | While Shared Hosting plans are safe, there is always a possibility of a security threat or a malicious attack since the resources are shared between multiple site owners. Even if one site gets affects, it is likely to impact all other sites on the server. | As compared to Shared Hosting, VPS Hosting services are considered much safer since the virtual servers are isolated from each other. Therefore, if one website gets affected, then it does not create a problem for the others on the server unless the virus or threat reaches the hypervisor level. |
| Server Administration and Configuration | In Shared Hosting plans, basic-level server administration is offered by the service provider. Further, you are not required to perform any technical maintenance tasks at your end. It is ideal for new and small websites. | You can manage your resources and configure any software or application while improving the site’s security and/or performance. Moreover, with VPS Hosting, you get complete root access to customize the server environment. Usually, you will need a server administrator to maintain the server. |
| Scalability | If your website grows at a fast pace, then you might face problems scaling up your resources in a Shared Hosting plan. | Most VPS Hosting providers offer quick and easy scalability of resources to help you manage increased traffic with ease. |
Summing Up
In a nutshell, Shared and VPS Hosting are recommended for different types of websites. While new websites with fewer visitors and those requiring less bandwidth/space work well with Shared Hosting plans, large-scale business or those receiving heavy traffic and requiring configuration control on certain aspects of the server should opt for VPS Hosting plans. And remember, research the market well and find a plan that suits your website requirements to the tee.