Choosing the right web hosting plan can be confusing, especially with jargon like ‘VPS hosting’ and ‘shared hosting’ thrown around. Any small business owner who has had to rely on social media to maintain an online presence knows that there are more benefits to be had from having a website.
However, websites need a hosting plan. It is how you build, launch, maintain, and operate your store.
We spoke to experts from one.com who helped us break down the differences between the two popular hosting options and help you have an easier way of deciding which one is best for you.
Shared Hosting Explained
Shared hosting is a basic form of web hosting where many customer websites are hosted on the same server. As the name implies, the customers share resources such as bandwidth, RAM, storage, database, computing power, and more.
This approach reduces the costs for everyone, making it an approachable choice for people using hosting for the first time.
This offer is aimed at small businesses on a budget that need to run a website without the advanced features of dedicated hosting. It is a great way for users to have the services of a dedicated server without the associated costs.
To learn more about this type of hosting, let’s break down the pros and cons.
Pros
Shared hosting is cheaper than VPS hosting and may even come with a free domain name, perfect for people who want to do personal projects, start small businesses, write blogs, and more.
Shared hosting is easy to use because it is managed. Running your own server may require additional technical skills that you may not have.
Shared hosting is made to be user-friendly, as the host takes care of managing the server, including setup, software installation, server updates, and hardware upgrades.
Shared hosting provides security, including firewalls, malware monitoring, incident responses, and more, to keep you safe.
Cons
Resources are limited, and sudden spikes in traffic can affect others, which could slow down your site.
You typically do not get root access to the server, which means you have less control over server settings or configurations.
Sharing an IP address with other websites can lead to issues, especially when one of the sites is involved in malicious activities.
VPS Hosting Explained
On the other end of the hosting spectrum, we have virtual private server (VPS) hosting, which is a more flexible option compared to shared hosting. With VPS hosting, each customer has access to an independent space on the server, also known as a virtual machine.
While the websites may be hosted on the same physical server, the environments they are set in are unique to the customer’s needs. You get dedicated server resources, root access, and an operating system.
It is a lot like dedicated hosting but leverages virtual machines to mimic physical servers for each customer.
Pros
VPS hosting offers you most of the advantages of a full dedicated hosting plan that uses a physical server at a lesser cost.
Many VPS plans are customizable, allowing you to pay only for what you need.
The hosting plan offered also scales up easily. You can start your journey in a virtual environment with minimal resources and grow as your needs increase.
You have more control over our virtual server compared to shared hosting. For instance, you may get root access and permission to execute scripts that are not allowed in shared environments.
Cons
VPS hosting is more expensive than shared hosting, which may make it inaccessible to some users who may need its extra features.
Inappropriate resource allocation may cause issues down the line if many sites use resources at peak levels, but this is a host issue and calls for finding out how they allocate resources before you sign up.