To understand what virtual (shared) and VPS hosting are, you need to understand how technologies are organized. Regular hosting provides for the distribution of a given number of blogs, portals, shops on one server. Co-location makes it possible to reduce the cost of use for the site owner. In addition to the affordable price, webmasters in this option are attracted by the following advantages:
- Support for MySQL and PHP;
- A wide range of tariff plans depending on the possibilities;
- The server is managed by the provider;
- There is access to multiple email accounts with their own domain.
However, there are also disadvantages. Disk space, bandwidth, databases and other parameters will have to be shared with “neighbors”. And if suddenly the load on someone increases (for example, attendance increases sharply), he will “pull” the missing resources from the rest. As a result, there may be interruptions in the functioning of sites that receive insufficient resources. Also, virtual hosting does not allow you to implement your own software products that are not supported by the provider. In addition, security issues are not uncommon. Hacker attacks or malware – all this “hit” all projects located on the same web host at once. DDoS attacks are most dangerous when hosting a web page on a regular host. Even if more requests are sent to one of the sites than throughput, all co-located projects will suffer, and at the same time.
Benefits of VPS/VDS
VPS/VDS hosting provides the webmaster with more independence, as it is a virtual analogue of a separate physical machine. Resources already belong exclusively to the site / sites that are hosted on a dedicated server, the space is completely “own”. The possibilities are wide:
- There is root access and an individual IP address;
- It is allowed to install software at the discretion of the webmaster (except for that which may disrupt the performance of a physical machine);
- You can place any number of projects (from several dozen and more).
In order to prevent hacker attacks, data leakage and the introduction of viruses, numerous measures are provided – traffic filters, regular backups, secure channels, SSL certificates, etc. Tariff plans are also offered differently, depending on the required potential. So renting a server for demanding projects will not become overly burdensome in terms of financial costs.
A question of administration
In the case of regular hosting, management is carried out by the hosting provider, and the payment for this is included in the tariff. Managing the site itself is easy, using an intuitive panel. A virtual dedicated server, on the other hand, requires administration skills from the site owner, but you can hire a specialist who will deal with this. In addition, providers often offer these services for a fee. The staff employs engineers who are entrusted with administrative maintenance tasks.
What decision to make?
If the site is not demanding in terms of resources, does not need increased security and the flow of visitors is stable (a sharp increase in them), it would be appropriate to stop at a web host. Over time, when the project requires an increase in volume and the need for advanced functionality appears, you can easily transfer it to the vps server. And when a large-scale project is immediately launched, a virtual dedicated server with the necessary capabilities is selected.
As for launching online stores, it is recommended to immediately rent a VPS / VDS, even if the site itself is extremely simple and does not need large amounts of resources. In this case, the security of payment data will be guaranteed, as well as proper functionality will be maintained in the event of a sharp increase in the number of visits, for example, during promotions or advertising campaigns.