When we start out with our blog we have no clue what a VPS or dedicated server is, we get a hosting account and that is it, well, for most of us anyway. Most people learn after a while when their traffic goes up that they are on a shared hosting which has a limitation, little freedom and no power of customization. Of course, this all varies from hosting to hosting. Some hosting providers offer more freedom than the others. But in the end, once we start receiving some high traffic the question comes up, should we upgrade to VPS or dedicate server?
Let’s first lay down the basics of what our basic shared hosting has, compared to VPS servers or better yet, dedicated server.
Shared Hosting
This is the bottom, the very basic of your own hosting you can get. You have some freedom but what is it exactly and why is to so cheap that we can get it for as low as $3 per month? Well, the name speaks for itself; you share one server with a number of other people. So basically your site A, and sites, B, C, D and all up to H, for example, are on the same server, the only thing that separates you is that each of your websites uses different partitions. But that means you are on the same IP address, also, if the hosting company goes overboard with placing a website on one server you will start fighting for memory, bandwidth and CPU.
Most companies know their limit pretty well, and this will rarely happen, but for blogs it is very easy to get surges of traffic and what happens in those moments is that your website can crash, and that is a thing none of us wants. At one point this SEO blog reached a certain peak point where shared hosting wasn’t enough, and every third visitor had to see an apology page because we couldn’t handle that sort of load. Well, the natural solution was to move up, so we did, we moved to a VPS server.
VPS Server
VPS server or in other words, Virtual Private Server is also as the name says, a Virtual server. So basically you still have a shared hosting, you and someone else can have a website on the same server, but each of you has his own virtual server that is private only for you and you are accessing it as the root user. It’s just like a virtual machine you can install on your computer, the concept is the same.
The benefits of a VPS server are that it’s customizable, has greater functions and still a very approachable price compared to a full dedicated server. You also have a limited RAM and disk space, but that can be scaled to your needs. Of course, the more you go up the higher the price. But it’s great as you can fit it to your needs. Also, you can have your own unique IP.
Dedicated Server
Dedicated server is obviously the top of the line; it is a private server which you can customize to your liking starting from an operating system of your choice to hardware and performances. This is usually expensive and is only for company websites that require specific customizations.
So back to the question, VPS or Dedicated Server? Well if you are a blogger the answer is simple, if you are reaching the traffic levels where your shared hosting can’t help you anymore it is obvious that you should go to a VPS server. Start with the lowest level and scale it to your needs, so you wouldn’t have to pay more than you need to. I hope that one day you will have so much traffic that you will need a dedicated server, but until that day comes you can have great customization privileges and all the space and bandwidth you need on a VPS server, and you won’t have to pay much.
If you want to learn more about web hosting and how it actually works I suggest reading through The Beginner’s Guide to Small Business Website Hosting.
Each has its advantages and is tailored to one’s needs. I started my first blog in 2003 on Blogger before moving to small shared hostings. Now I have a custom made Green Hosting plan. At work I’m running with a VPS which is very efficient and very easy to use when you need multitude of small corporate websites. For our online shop, we’re going dedicated.
As you said, scalability is what directs the choice.
Hi Sachin,
I brought this subject up because I know from experience and I see too many blogs that are already going over the top with their memory usage and high traffic and are still reluctant to switch to a VPS, maybe it’s not knowing, but I find that hard to believe as a simple Google query will get anyone plenty of knowledge on the subject!
And yeah, scalability is the essence of it 🙂
Hey Zarko,
I wrote a bit about this subject some months back but you made it look so simple and easy to understand. My wish is that I get my blog on a dedicated server, maybe someday.
I hope you get to a dedicated server too Dorothy 🙂
Who doesn’t want a dedicated server or a VPS?! But most bloggers manage with a shared hosting, and it’s not really about the price but more of the needs they have.
At one point in time you’ll be forced to make a change if the blog starts to grow, but depending of the webhost, most blogs manage with the small and cheap packages.
Great information, I was thinking about a dedicated server at one time, but my blog is quite happy sitting on a shared hosting for now until I am required to upgrade from that.
I think Virtual Server is good according to me. Because in dedicated server resource might be unused and can’t be used in sharing. So Virtual Private Server is good.
Well one of my blog started in one free hosting account. After having 400 daily i have to buy and shared server, because of high sql request. After having more than 4,000 visits a day i had to buy an dedicated server.
I hate it when people sweat it over things which should actually be a non-issue. I have a couple of friends who talk about dedicated hosting even when they are just describing the CONCEPT of their new site. So much for simplicity!
I like the straight forward way you explain things. I would just add that for most folks shared hosting should be more than enough.
Hi Amanda, you are right, I mean why go for dedicated hosting unless you are planning something really big. Start with a shared hosting, in a month or two you will see if it suits you or not, then if you need more move to a VPS, it will surely be more than enough for your needs, and like I said, I hope everyone has so much traffic that they need a dedicated hosting, but that takes work.
When I initially started with websites, I did not even know what these things meant. I started with a shared hosting. Those were good for really basic websites and sites that don’t get a lot of traffic. I started facing issues when installed a forum and got many active members. Without proper knowledge, I got a unmanaged dedicated server. I could not do anything much with it as I was not technically good. I then picked a VPS with a reasonable RAM, monthly bandwidth. That served by purpose. I would personally recommend going for VPS when the website is launched and later take it to a dedicated server when the traffic load increases drastically.
Thanks for such a good post, according to me Virtual Private Server (VPS) it is a great idea to split any server. In the future VPS Hosting will going to the most popular web hosting. In this type of hosting each virtual server can reboot isolated and can run different type of operating system.
That is rally amazing. VPS is comparatively good. Its something like cloud computing. Isn’t?
Bringing your business online can be very expensive. Hooking up your site to a virtual server from a remote web hosting hosting service provider eliminates these problems.
Thinking about choosing between dedicated server or VPS server?
It is simple decision.
Dedicated servers priced similarly to VPS packages are slower, less flexible, less reliable and simply wrong choice.
When you buy VPS you get dedicated server grade ECC RAM, Raid 10 HDD space, ability to revert to snapshot, make backup of whole system image, latest Quad Core Xeon Nehalem 56xx processor speed, RAID controller with its own memory, and lot more. However, be aware that this is not the case with all Windows VPS providers. VpsWebServer.com is completely different, and you can even run benchmarks and see that dedicated servers with similar speed are 3-6 times more expensive, and you also lose all the flexibility VPS hosting offers.
i thought of dedicated server is better for me accordingly. i kinda have access through private. ill be away and free of scam.