Technology is accelerating at a hyper level, and it seems everyone and their sister either has a website presence or are looking for a suitable web hosting company. Web hosting can be a confusing topic when searching online, we aim to break this down into simple terms and language where the average Joe can understand what VPS Hosting is all about.

First off the common way most people a get a website live is by using a shared hosting plan which is cheap, easy but has its limitations on the resources available.

Next, we have Dedicated servers which are powerful and customisable, you will need a certain level of technical knowledge and experience to run them, and dependent on the hosting company you select.

If your website starts to grow and gains a lot of website traffic on a shared hosting plan, but still does not require the added cost or additional resources of a dedicated server.

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When to transfer or upgrade VPS Plan?

How to know when to move to VPS hosting, not an easy one to pinpoint as it’s based on many factors such as:

Who’s your current hosting company?
How crowded is their shared hosting?
What type of website do you have?
Where is the current website traffic coming from?

A simpler way to know is if your website visitors are complaining that your site is slow or crashing–that’s the point in which you should move to VPS Hosting.

Virtual private server (VPS) hosting is a powerful, feature-rich and scalable, meaning you can adjust the resources to match the need of your website, without any disruption in service. Suitable for all types of websites, a solution for those who have outgrown their shared hosting plans

We would like to add that features can vary between host to host, so always be prepared with questions on their features and how they will fit in with your website and business needs

So what exactly is VPS Hosting?

Simply put the “VPS” in VPS hosting stands for virtual private server. In a VPS hosting environment, a single server is partitioned as multiple servers, each of which can be independently rebooted and will have their own dedicated IP address. VPS Hosting servers are essentially a middle option between shared hosting and dedicated server, so in shared hosting all the of resources like RAM, CPU and disk space are shared amongst typically 100 other websites, if your blog or business website starts to gain web traffic this can cause user experience issues for your website visitors, as shared hosting has limited resources, so it’s a good idea to have a flexible approach to growing your blog or business website

Benefits of VPS Hosting

So why choose VPS hosting plan? A few benefits of VPS hosting:

VPS hosting gives more control over your server, allowing you the flexibility and customisations you require.

Having full control over your VPS account, allows you install any software and applications that your website requires for optimised performance and improved functionality (not possible on a shared plan hosting).

Depending on your website hosting provider, you can pick from a range of website service plans to find the one that suits your needs best. Having the ability to install your own choice of anti-virus and malware detection software on your hosting account to avert hackers and malicious attacks.

Managing VPS Hosting

Having a VPS hosting server means either having a good technical knowledge or hiring someone who does have the technical background, as this can be costly, it’s best to speak with your hosting provider and see what their maintenance package offers.

VPS Resources Available

As mentioned earlier a Virtual Private Server (VPS) is a compromise between shared hosting and a dedicated server, it has added benefits of being like a dedicated server where you have your own RAM and disk space, the only shared part is the CPU with other VPS’s on the same server, the cost of VPS is far less than a dedicated but more than a shared hosting plan, this is dependent on the plan you choose.

Hopefully, our simple guide to VPS hosting has given you some pointers to make a decision on upgrading to VPS Server from your shared hosting.

Comparison by Hosting Plan

Comparison of Features	Shared	VPS	Dedicated
No. of Websites Allowed to Hos	According to shared plan purchased	Unlimited websites with cPanel Access	Unlimited websites with cPanel Access
Server Resources Available	Shared RAM, Disk Space, and CPU	Dedicated RAM and Disk Space, Shared CPU	Dedicated RAM, Disk Space and CPU
Server Access Control	NO Server Level Customisation	Server Level Customisation Allowed	Server level Customisation Allowed
IP Addresses Available	IP address shared with 100’s of sites	IP address shared with websites on same VPS	IP address shared with websites on dedicated server
Customer Software Installs	All Server level Software Pre-Installed	Server Level Software (Linux OS Including: CentOS, Fedora & Debian, cPanel, LAMP) pre-installation varies by provider	Server Level Software (Linux OS Including: CentOS, Fedora & Debian, cPanel, LAMP) pre-installation varies by provide
Customer Support Level	Full Customer Support Typically Provided	Support Levels Vary By Provider	Support Levels Vary By Provider
Technical Skills Necessary to Manage	Basic level hosting skills	Basic server administration and troubleshooting skills are necessary.	Basic server administration and troubleshooting skills are necessary
Monthly Cost	£2.00 basic plan	£9.95 basic plan	£40.00 starter plan

Conclusion

Some of the issues your website may have experienced if your site has been running on a shared host, to help grow your business website or blog, it just may be time to consider upgrading to a VPS Hosting and give your website visitors a super fast web experience.