When is it Time to Upgrade to VPS or Dedicated Hosting?

So, I have a shared hosting plan right now, but how do I know when it is time to upgrade to VPS or dedicated hosting?  Shared web hosting, as the name says, is about sharing an entire web server to different users; this means you are sharing the performance as well.

Well, you may be feeling the pinch with the file storage size or bandwidth performance of your shared hosting server. However, the best sign is if your site does not seem to be handling the traffic that your site is receiving.  It is hard to predict when exactly your will know this, but you will want to ensure that your visitors/customers are successful when trying to get to your site.  So, you may have to run some connectivity tests yourself, and monitor your customer feedback, if possible. If your site seems slow, or you are hearing grumbling from your customers on your site’s response time, then it’s time to start looking for an upgrade. There may also be some other development-based requirements, such as a need for a particular OS for your website.

What is the difference between VPS and Dedicated hosting?

Given that you are looking to upgrade from a shared hosting plan, your primary options are to upgrade to VPS or dedicated hosting. So, let’s take a look at both VPS hosting and dedicated server hosting.

• VPS Hosting

VPS is the acronym for Virtual Private Server. As the name implies, it is a private, secure server for your web hosting needs. A VPS server is a hybrid of a dedicated and shared hosting server.  It provides better performance at an affordable cost.  It also provides you with unique setup options that are not available on a shared hosting server. It’s runs a unique copy of an operating system, so you have the option to load and run any application that is compatible with the OS. Also, there are both managed and unmanaged variances of VPS hosting solutions available.

Despite the virtual label, you get all sorts of benefits of having an exclusive, individual server for your purpose. Your data is secure, and you can be confident that no one else on the server is disrupting your resources, unlike the shared web hosting scenario. When it is time to upgrade to VPS or dedicated hosting, your best option will probably be the VPS hosting option.

• Dedicated Hosting

When you purchase a dedicated hosting plan, you are literally leasing a fully-fledged web server that is stored in a remote data center, with all required utilities. Dedicated hosting should be the choice when you have big company that receives an extremely high amount of traffic. For instance, when you have a large online shopping site and are sure that you need more resources. As in different instances, different variants of dedicated hosting are available.

• Fully Managed Hosting, where your hosting provider manages every technical aspect of server.
• Semi-Managed hosting, where there is medium level of management and you may need support staff to move on.
• Managed Hosting, where you can control data and other basic stuff but the deeper technical sector of server will be taken care of by hosting provider.
• Self-managed Hosting, where you need support staff for managing the server.
• Unmanaged Hosting, where you have complete control over everything, letting you do everything it is required.

When you have decided to upgrade to VPS or dedicated hosting, you should be well-aware of the different categories and choose a web-hosting provider that offers such a plan. For instance, fully-managed hosting is for those who need complete care of the server taken by the firm itself.

Why Should You Upgrade to VPS or Dedicated Hosting

There are several advantages that await you when you upgrade from a shared hosting server to a Virtual Private Server or a dedicated server.

Advantages of Upgrading to VPS

• Better control over the server, and it is accompanied by flexibility too. So, you can perform lots of developer-friendly stuff with your virtual server.
• VPS Hosting is a more scalable, and provides you more control with your performance and capacity needs.
• Better security than a shared hosting environment.

Disadvantages of Upgrading to VPS

• Pricing – it will cost your more per month over your current shared hosting plan, but you get what you pay for.
• As we said earlier, you have to make sure that you have enough technical skills to manage the VPS. If not, you can hire someone to do the job, or utilize the support from your hosting provider.

Advantages of Upgrading to Dedicated Server

• Best-in-class performance when it comes to loading pages and running heavy, resource-consuming tools for eCommerce and related purposes. Since you lease an entire server, you can be confident about the speed.
• Dedicated Servers offer better security and storage space for confidential data. The more security-enhancement options you set, the more confidential your information becomes.
• As you own the server, for the time being, you have the complete control on technical aspect — it is possible to install almost ANY software or platform you want to run, regardless the heaviness of the tools.
• Flexibility also matters, as you have the freedom to move further, as situations need you to.

Disadvantages of Upgrading to Dedicated Server

• Pricing – having a dedicated server is going to costs your the most for your hosting options, but if you truly have the need for a dedicated server, you will find the cost well worth the money.
• Notably, you have to be aware of the category of dedicated server you choose, and make sure you have all the required technical insight to move on.

Well, the choice is yours and you need to assess your web hosting needs. Now, you just need to decide if it is time to upgrade to VPS or dedicated hosting for your website.

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However, apart from the three basic web hosting services commonly known to all (Shared, VPS and Dedicated hosting), there also exist few others that take the web hosting market to another level. Let us primarily look at the aforementioned fundamental web hosting provided by almost all the hosting companies.

Shared Hosting

Shared Hosting is the most preferred and commonly used hosting plan especially for the personal and small-scale websites. The main reason behind this is availability of necessary resources in affordable rates. Here, the administrative power and control minimizes since a single web server is shared by many users and so is the resources provided. All the features such as the RAM, disk space, Web mail servers, MySQL storage servers (database support) and so on are shared by the clients. Thus, this option may not be useful for the sites with high traffic and heavy data. Another downside is the security issues it falls short off!

Benefits of Shared Web Hosting:

• Cheap Hosting Plans
• Reliable Features
• Host looks after Technical Maintenance

Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting

By the name itself, one can get an idea of this hosting being private and more secured. Hence, it is somewhat expensive and definitely the cost is worth it since you have the power to control the system configuration and installations. Basically, it is a dedicated virtual machine allotted to the client in a shared hosting environment i.e. it shares the available resources without affecting other private servers. Briefly, it is combination of both dedicated and shared hosting in a more secured and accessible manner.

The benefits of VPS Web Hosting are:

• Dedicated Hosting Resources
• Controlled Configuration
• Privacy and Security

Dedicated Hosting

This one’s the most expensive yet trusted hosting service plan. The word ‘Dedicated’ here means the entire server is dedicated to the client’s website, and then be it a single website or number of such, all the resources available are completely allotted to a single developer. It is best suitable for commercial websites with regular heavy traffic. The Dedicated Hosting is a way more managed hosting and the client has control over both the Operating System and Hardware of the services provided.

Read: Virtual Private Servers (VPS) Vs Dedicated Servers Hosting

Benefits of Dedicated Web Hosting are:

• Flexibility and Customization Freedom
• Highly Secured
• Plenty of available resources
• Efficient Performance

Semi-Dedicated Hosting

Very few Web Masters are aware about this kind of hosting. It particularly serves those websites that have grown so extensive that they cannot be managed by the shared servers. You can better consider it the state of a site that is lying in between shared and dedicated hosting! There exists just a considerable amount of semi-dedicated host providers such as Bluehost, HostGator etc.

Interestingly, at some point it depends on the host company as to what kind of package they provide you under the name of Semi-dedicated plan. It can be either a VPS or Shared hosting with some additional amount of resources and facilities provided in order to let your site perform better. It is considered more reliable than the shared server as MySQL and E-Mail bases run on different servers thus deducting the load on the site. Note that neither too many customers share the server nor the server is completely allotted to a single customer.

Benefits of Semi-Dedicated Web Hosting are:

• Affordable
• Increased resources than Shared
• High Sustenance and Easy Upgradation

Reseller Hosting

This type of hosting is most probably handled and worked out as a business deal, especially by the newbie in Hosting Market. The reseller, one who holds the reseller hosting account, acts as a hosting provider. The account holder rents out part of his owned disk space and bandwidth to other customers thus providing them hosting services. This comes out to be a profitable deal to the reseller as he purchases wholesale hosting services and then sells some resource parts to other needy customers. The severe drawback of this service is the technical and customer care support. The reseller may not guarantee complete support to its clients in any manner.

Benefits of Reseller Web Hosting are:

• Cheap Packages and Less Expenses
• No Maintenance Burden
• Provision of Resources as per the requirement

Cloud Hosting

We all know that the Cloud computing technology is on high rise. With the hosting services being managed by the virtual servers on cloud networks of computers, it is claimed that in near future the entire hosting industry may turn into Cloud Hosting. The basic idea behind this hosting is that the resources are spread across separate servers so that hosting services are best offered in every aspect. The main concern is about the privacy of sites’ data. However, the fundamental theory of cloud hosting focuses on Pay for what you use i.e. you need not spend extra rentals for the resources you are no longer in need of!

Benefits of Cloud Web Hosting are:

• Least Downtime Risk
• Follows Divide and Rule Concept
• High Scalability and Reliability
• More Freedom and Power

Collocation Hosting

Paying for hosting services provided by some other web server rather than owning one is what we call collocated hosting. The server is connected to data center from where the data transfer takes place and the cost is estimated. The client has full authority to manage the entire working of the server along with the problem fixation.

Benefits of Cloud Web Hosting are:

• Complete Control over both Hardware and Software
• Cost Efficient
  

Free Web Hosting

Now this one’s an interesting stuff to go through, but on the other side it is less preferred by the web developers. The reason is straight forward: Low security, numerous apps and banner displays, no strong technical support and inclusion of host name in the domain name. Yes, it’s true that nothing is for free of cost in this world. For hosting your website under the category of free web hosting, you will have to pay the amount in some other term like by displaying the host banners and ads on your web pages. It is recommended that you should avoid free hosting if you really serious about your website. WordPress is the most popular among all.

Benefits of Free Web Hosting are:

• Free of Cost
• User-friendly Host
• Best for the Beginners

The hosting types are not only limited to these discussed above. File Hosting, Video Hosting, Internet Forum Hosting, Image Hosting, Internet Service Provider (ISP) Hosting, Email Hosting, Self-Service Hosting and many such fall under the different kinds of web hosting services. At the end of the day, it’s the decision of the Web Master that should be taken on the basis of site requirements, as to which web hosting to go for!

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Note: When you purchase a web server, you do actually lease it for specific period. Instead of having virtual account, with limitations in resource conception and performance, you can own a server that is situated in some part of world and you will be the only one to host websites in it. In a way, advantages we’re about to mention are due to exclusive ownership of web server. Now, we will move on to benefits of using dedicated web servers.

Real, Unlimited and Complete Use of Server Resources

You might have noticed that 90% of all web-hosting services offer unlimited server resources, including disk space as well as bandwidth, in their shared hosting plans. However, once you start using shared server and make your site an impressive one, with a lot of traffic, you will start facing insufficiency of resources. It is because of the fact that every bit of server resource is shared with other users.

For instance, even if you have used 99.99GB of your allotted 100GB, there will be no insufficiency of performance. When you are on shared hosting plan, however, you should always be afraid of the fact that overuse of resources by other users will cause problems. Therefore, complete use of resources is a noticeable advantage of dedicated servers when we prefer it to shared hosting and other lower plans.

Extended Security

Albeit the fact that your hosting provider will be trying its best to keep your website and account safe from a number of threats in World Wide Web, vulnerabilities are quite high in shared hosting category. Nevertheless, when it comes to dedicated server, you don’t have to worry about online threats that might affect your site. Despite having to set up a server administrator if you are purchasing an unmanaged server, security level of a dedicated server is very high, as there is no one else who uses the server.

Furthermore, as you are a ‘premium’ customer of that hosting provider, you’ll be given all sorts of security updates and patches. In addition to these, there will be a dedicated IP address with each dedicated web server. Although it might not be useful for basic users, dedicated IP address will be a necessity when you want to implement SSL to your website, particularly during sign-up or payout processes. It is unlikely that you will get dedicated IP address with shared hosting. Considering all these factors, your dedicated server will be finest, when it comes to the case of security.

Reliability (Not the Usual One)

Almost every web-hosting provider says it is the most reliable web host when it comes to shared hosting. However, if we take a look into dedicated web servers, we can understand that there is nothing much to be afraid of seeing your site facing downtime.

One of the main reasons for extra reliability is the non-sharing behavior of dedicated servers, unlike shared ones; your server resources are exclusively for you, let it be bandwidth or disk space. If you think that you would make some mistakes, it is advised to prefer a managed web server than unmanaged, because in former, your web host itself will manage your server and provide a number of services such as updates.

Recommended Reading:

• How Shared Hosting can Affect Website Ranking in Search Engines
• How to Choose Best Web Hosting Provider for Your Website

Customize It as You Wish

When compared to other forms of web servers, dedicated web servers are the most customizable and flexible ones. When it comes to dedicated server, you have access to every part of its features, and your host will be able to do as you wish, because you are the only one who uses the web server. In other words, you have full control over server and it is possible to make changes to the server to suit convenience and requirement of yours.

So, there are a number of advantages that await you when you purchase a dedicated web server. Dedicated servers, despite being an expensive choice, can do very well in improving quality and stability of your website in terms of its performance. Did we miss any of advantages? We are waiting for your comments.

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In this article, we will compare the differences of VPS vs Dedicated Servers hosting. Therefore, you will have a clear idea when it comes to upgrading server resources and capabilities for your website or blog. We will cover sections such as flexibility, price range, ease of use etc. Before doing so, however, we would like to give you an effective introduction to both VPS and dedicated servers.

VPS vs Dedicated Servers Hosting – An Overview

As some of you might know, a Virtual Private Server – commonly known as VPS – is a virtual web server. For most purposes, a VPS is compatible with a physical web server, but for some others it is not. Unlike dedicated server, VPSs are hosted on a computer concurrently with other websites. Thus, your server is yours in a virtual sense only. There are two kinds of VPSs available in market – managed VPS and unmanaged VPS. In the managed version, you can use the server as if you are managing a shared hosting account, but the unmanaged VPS requires you to have a bit of technical expertise.

Recommended Reading:

• What is Dedicated Hosting
• Difference between Shared and VPS with Bluehost as an Example

Nevertheless, the case with dedicated servers is quite different. When you own a dedicated server, you actually have ownership that is exclusively yours, and no other sites will be hosted on that server. Actually, what you are doing is leasing a server from web-hosting provider for a specific time period. You have entire control on this server when compared to the former.

Now, we will move on to different aspects of both these services. The first aspect we will consider is the costs involved with the VPS vs Dedicated Servers hosting, and which of these is better for you.

What You Have to Pay

We imagine the price of these services will be a significant factor in your consideration to purchase. In this aspect, however, VPSs are better, as you can grab a VPS by spending around $16 each month. If you are a webmaster or blogger looking to upgrade the web hosting plan for your website or blog, then the VPS option is quite affordable. Some good VPS options to consider come from Bluehost, HostGator, and DreamHost.

However, when it comes to a dedicated server, there is an amazing change in terms of price. For instance, it will costs around $200 to buy a basic dedicated server. This is significantly more expensive than compared to the similar VPS option. So, in terms of price, the VPS hosting option is much more affordable compared to that of a dedicated server.

Access to Server

Literally speaking, there is hardly a difference between a VPS and a dedicated server when we need to get access to the server. In both cases, you get complete access to the administrative-level control of server. However, the main diff is that in the case of a VPS, the operating system works on a virtual environment.  Whereas in dedicated server, it is in a physical server. Therefore, there is not much difference between the VPS vs Dedicated Servers hosting unless you consider the virtual-physical difference as a major factor.

Control Over Resources

When it comes to access to resources and control, a dedicated server is a better option.  This is because it lets you consume the maximum resources of the web server, as there are no other sites hosted on it. Nevertheless, in the case of a VPS, the resources are shared. This means you will have to compromise with server speed or other resources if someone uses more resources. However, most websites or blogs don’t require many resources to operate efficiently. Therefore, you can choose to go with the VPS over the dedicated server. Moreover, the transition from share hsoting to a VPS is a fairly straightforward process with your web hosting company.

Supported Services

When we consider the case of supported features, such as scripts to install a CMS, site-builder, etc., the differences between the VPS vs Dedicated Servers hosting are nominal. They will both be able to provide the similar capabilities for support services. With that being the case, wouldn’t you want to save some money and go with the more affordable option?

Decision

During our comparison of the VPS vs Dedicated Servers hosting, it should be clear that the VPS hosting is preferable to a dedicated server. However, your circumstance may dictate your need for a dedicated server. However, for the majority of webmasters looking to upgrade from a shared web hosting plan can should consider the VPS hosting option for their needs.

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Although a VPS is enough for the first upgrade, you will have to purchase a dedicated web server if you have so many blogs with very huge traffic and bandwidth requirement to manage. Therefore, you have to know something before you purchase a dedicated hosting service. In this article, we will tell you about dedicated web hosting, aspects to ponder over purchasing, advantages and disadvantages. First, we will give an introduction to dedicated servers, as it will be helpful for newbies.

What is exactly Dedicated Web Hosting?

To know what exactly is dedicated web hosting, you have to know how the basic web hosting – also known as shared web hosting – works. In shared web hosting service, hundreds / thousands of users use web server resources. Due to this sharing aspect of resources, you might have to confront limitations in server performance.

Nevertheless, when it comes to dedicated servers, everything is different. In a way, when you purchase a dedicated server, you lease the entire server from hosting providers for a specific time period. During that period, you can use that server for your purpose with its maximum power, and there will be no one to share your resources. In other words, for the particular time period, you are the sole owner of that server.

Also, you can customize both hardware and software of your server according to your requirement. Nowadays, web hosts also offer completely managed dedicated web servers, so that users do not have to worry about those technical stuff regarding your server. Now, as you have basic knowledge about dedicated web servers, we will check advantages of dedicated servers.

Advantages of Dedicated Web Hosting

• Full Control:When you purchase a dedicated server, you have full control over that server, as there is no resource sharing unlike shared hosting. According to your particular requirement, you can install WHATEVER you want and use it in your server.
• Security: When compared to shared web hosting, dedicated web servers offer more security. So, if you have some websites handling confidential information, such as an eCommerce website, it is highly preferable to get a dedicated web server.
• Reliability: Just like the above-mentioned case, dedicated web servers are much reliable as well! Once you’ve set up your website or blog in that server, you do not have to worry about confronting downtime. For this, you’ve to choose dedicated server from a popular name in industry, because when it has a name to keep, company will serve you better.
• Dedicated IP Address: Dedicated web server always come with dedicated IP addresses, which will be useful when you want to implement a SSL certificate in your site.
• Customizability: As we mentioned earlier, you can customize the web server to suite convenience & requirement. Aspects of customizability include both hardware and software.

Disadvantages of Dedicated Servers

• Expensive: Actually, this is not a disadvantage, because you will have to pay more when you want more! Yet, in a way, we can say dedicated server is expensive than shared web servers.
• Requires Deep Technical Skills: As we said, you should have expertise in managing servers to run a dedicated server successfully. Otherwise, you will have to purchase a fully managed dedicated server, in which web host will manage your server for you, including OS updates, firewall services, DNS hosting services, Load balancing, performance tuning etc.

Things to Check before You Purchase

Operating System & Updates

In a dedicated server, you have to install operating system according to your requirement. For instance, if you like to install a WordPress blog, its OS should be Linux-based. On the other hand, you can get dedicated servers running on Microsoft Windows Server if you are ready to pay more.

At the same time, you have to check whether your web host offers OS updates. Unlike your desktop, OS updates are inevitable in the case of dedicated servers, because these updates consist of security updates and bug fixes. So, you should purchase OS updates if your web host does not offer it for free.

Management

As we said, web hosts offer different kind of server management options, including full, medium & self-management along with unmanaged server. So, you have to select the particular form of management according to your expertise and time available to manage your server.

So, we hope you have an idea about dedicated web server. If you are about to purchase such a server, our advice is to go with prominent players of industry. Do you have any doubts on what we said? We are ready to help you.

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