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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• Although virtual, purchasing a VPS and hosting your websites or blogs in it means you are hosting the sites or blogs in your OWN server.
• When compared to shared hosting, VPS provides extensive customizability and performance.
• Since you have your own server and no one else hosts his/her websites in your provision, you can have deep level of security and privacy.
• Scalability of Virtual Private Servers is a noteworthy factor; you can alter capacity of your server with respect to your requirement.
• After all, VPSs are less expensive than fully-fledged dedicated servers.

However, more often than not, newbies who are about to upgrade to Virtual Private Servers get confused between a couple of names — Managed VPS and Unmanaged VPS. It also seems that even some experienced professionals find difficulty in choosing between these variants of Virtual Private Servers. In this post, we will have an analysis of VPS in both categories so that you should know which one you should choose as to suit your requirement and convenience!

First of all, in order to clear a doubt that most of you might be having, we will have a comparison between Managed and Unmanaged Virtual Private Servers. And, I will start with an introduction to both, shall I?

Managed Virtual Private Server

Well, as you might know, managing a web server is no simple task! On the other hand, it involves a lot of subtasks as server configuration, maintenance, software updates, security patches etc. Unless you’re a technically expert user, it will be a tiresome task to take care of all these stuff along with consuming a huge amount of time. When it comes to the case of Managed VPSs, however, your web-hosting provider will take care of all these maintenance, leaving you nothing sort of ‘techy’ to be concerned about. In the practical level, you will be able to use your VPS as though it is a normal shared hosting server. Yet, it has to be noted that the label, ‘managed’ is not the same in case of every web-hosting provider. Some web hosts manage all sections of your VPS whereas some others give priority to some certain sections of the server. Thus, you should be a bit careful to notice the conditions and terms before you confirm a web host to be a provider of managed Virtual Private Server.

Unmanaged Virtual Private Server

Often referred to as self-managed VPS, Unmanaged Virtual Private Server is for those who have enough expertise in managing a virtual web server and do not require any kind of assistance from web host. So, as opposed to managed VPSs, unmanaged VPS has to be managed by the user itself and there won’t be a generous amount of support from your web host, in management of server. Thus, you will have to take care of management sectors of the server such as software updates, server configuration etc. It has to be noted however that web-hosting provider will take care of initial Operating System installation and the user has to do the rest. Simply put, purchasing an unmanaged VPS is like buying a PC with only the OS installed. In other words, you need enough expertise to manage an unmanaged VPS as though it is a physical, dedicated server.

We hope you now have an idea about both kinds of Virtual Private Servers! And, as you might have heard, both kinds of VPSs have their own advantages and disadvantages. Here, in order to understand them better, we will have a look on advantages of both managed and unmanaged Virtual Private Servers.

Advantages of Managed Virtual Private Servers

• As hardware part of your VPS is secured in hands of your web host itself, there is no need to be tensed about downtimes and technical errors. Or, at least, there is as less chance as possible.
• You rarely have to be tensed about security section of your server; management team of your web host will take care of vulnerability scans, required security patches and essential upgrades in such a way that you can secure your websites or blogs from potential attacks.
• Apart from managing your Virtual Private Server by means of the management team, your web host offers a truly impressive support team, and you can use the team to avail support and assistance at any time.
• Since you are not concerned about technical aspect of the server, you will be able to focus on your site/blog!

Advantages of Unmanaged Virtual Private Servers

• When compared to managed VPS, unmanaged VPS offers extensive level of control on various aspects of the VPS, including installation of different software, performance usage and storage space offered by host.
• Customizability is also an important factor, because changing performance and other aspects of your server is all up to your convenience.
• If you need server-level control for development and publishing of your content, let it be blogs, sites or high-resource-consuming apps, unmanaged VPS suits best.
• And, as a matter of respite, unmanaged VPSs are quite affordable than managed ones.

Well, nothing being perfect, both managed and unmanaged Virtual Private Servers have some sorts of disadvantages as well. Now, we will move on to those disadvantages.

Disadvantages of Managed Virtual Private Servers

• Comparatively, pricing plans of managed VPS hosting are quite expensive.
• Literally, you do not have control on the server you claim to own, as the whole part of controlling of server is attributed to the dedicated team from your web-hosting provider.
• If you think of changing some applications or OS in-between the process, it won’t be possible with managed VPSs.
• There MIGHT be some resource sharing or resource pooling system that is present in your server.

Disadvantages of Unmanaged Virtual Private Server

• You cannot move on with an unmanaged VPS unless you are an expert at web server management and steps do start from installing software to keeping the software up to date as to be safe from potential attacks.
• Often, if you have time insufficiency, you will have to appoint a server administrator, who definitely wants to be paid!
• There is no sort of support or assistance from web-hosting service and you will have to do everything of your own.
• Technical support of unmanaged VPS is limited to purely technical failures that occur in web host’s end, and you will have to take care of everything else that obstructs functioning of your server or website.

Managed VPS or Unmanaged VPS — Time to Decide

So, so far, we have analyzed different aspects of both managed and unmanaged Virtual Private Servers such as their advantages and disadvantages! However, we hope you might be having some doubts in choosing between both. So, we would like to put things in a simple way.

If we are to consider the case of managed VPS, it is a choice for those who do not want to spend that much time in administrator section of your server. Since it offers top-notch support from web-hosting service, you can completely forget about updates and patches. However, to get all these features, you will have to pay something more, which is quite obvious and reasonable.

On the other hand, unmanaged Virtual Private Servers are for those who seek optimum level of customizability and the ability to expand! Nevertheless, an unmanaged VPS needs to be an expert of server management, as you’ll have to take care of upgrading, security patches and all. However, when compared to managed hosting, pricing and plans for unmanaged VPS are quite low. So, if you have enough time to spend and have expertise in server management, unmanaged Virtual Private Server is a great solution to go for. So, which one do you prefer — we are eager to know.

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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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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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Indeed, we can’t purchase hosting from any service provider blindly. Of course, we have to check many things like reliability, resources, pricing, support, etc., and then only we can make a proper decision. Now, the challenging question is: Which company’s hosting one should go with and of which type? So, to flush your problem, here we have a came-up with only one company which has made a remarkable place in providing best hosting service around the world, i.e. Bluehost. Probably, might of you have heard the name of this company; if not, then today we will introduce you!

Bluehost Shared hosting

Mainly, there are three types of Web Hosting provided by most of the companies such as “Shared hosting”, “VPS hosting” and “Dedicated hosting”. Whereas, Bluehost offers ‘Shared Hosting’ and ‘VPS Hosting’. Of course, there is a vast difference in both the hosting as well as each of them has its own ‘Pros and Cons’. Going much deeper, in this article, we will make you aware about all the things. Let’s start then!

What is Shared Hosting?

As the name suggests, it’s the shared type of Hosting in which more than one websites are hosted on a single server. All the resources like bandwidth, space, email accounts, etc., are being shared simultaneously within all the web sites hosted on the server.

What is VPS Hosting?

VPS Hosting (Virtual Private Server Hosting) is a service that provides a separate virtual server to the user. It means, the user has the full control over its server and can able to share CPU usage, RAM, bandwidth, space, etc. In fact, VPS Hosting is same as Dedicated hosting.

Indeed, one can be in a dilemma while choosing “Shared Hosting” and “VPS Hosting”. So, to give a better idea about both the hosting, let’s see the ‘Pros and Cons’ of each!

Pros of Blusehost Shared Hosting:

• Available at an affordable rate.
• 24 x 7 Customer Support: Got any technical errors or any other problems, then just shoot your queries to the online customer support.
• Don’t need to worry about managing the server because servers are handled by Bluehost experts.
• Easy to manage all the Websites using cPanel.
• Unlimited space and email accounts – Different database and multiple email accounts can be created for each Websites.

Cons of Bluehost Shared Hosting:

• No security, which leads to hacker attack or any type of malicious activity on the server and there are chances of loosing data.
• Extra third-party software and utilities can’t be run on the server in Shared Hosting.
• Sometimes, the server may stop responding due to overload or high usage of resources.

Pros of Bluehost VPS Hosting:

• High security because the server is not shared with other users.
• Third-party applications can be easily deployed and customize on the server.
• Efficient use of all the resources.
• Dynamic resources are available. So, now, no need to worry about running out of resources.
• Enhanced cPanel to keep an eye on the server, and comes with special tools for VPS management and WHM control.
• Based on the latest Cloud Technology, which avails latest features and extreme performance.
• Blazing server speed.
• Less expensive than the dedicated server having almost similar features.

Cons of Bluehost VPS Hosting:

• Compare to Bluehost Shared hosting, Bluehost VPS Hosting is quite expensive.
• The user must possess technical skills to handle the unmanaged server.

Here, I conclude Pros and Cons of Bluehost Shared Hosting vs Bluehost VPS Hosting. Definitely, it will really helpful in buying the right Bluehost hosting for your work. Nevertheless, if you need any help, then you can surely ask us using the below comments section.

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