There are three types of hosting plans you can purchase – shared hosting, VPS hosting or a dedicated server. Each type has advantages and disadvantages, but VPS hosting is the best choice for most people, especially when building a business. There are many reasons for this but these are the main five benefits:
1. All the good things about shared hosting
Shared hosting is called that because many webmasters all will share the resources of one server. If one site starts using too much of those resources, it can affect how your site runs.
Most shared hosting accounts offer a webmaster the ability to add unlimited domains and subdomains, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited email accounts and some sort of account management such as cPanel or Plesk. VPS hosting gives you all that plus unlimited databases and other perks, depending on the company you go through.
2. Minus the bad points of shared hosting
Unfortunately, while many companies will tell you that you’re getting unlimited space or bandwidth, in reality this is not true. As long as your site isn’t using a lot of these resources, you’ll be fine. If you have a highly interactive site or a huge amount of traffic, your site starts using a lot more resources and soon you’ll find the company throttling back on what you’re allowed. You’ll know if this happens because your site will slow down.
If a shared server should get hit by a hacker or denial of service (DoS) attack all the sites on the server will be affected. Hacking the server could compromise every site on it – including yours – even if the hacker wasn’t after your site.
3. Flexible
On a shared server, your hosting company makes all the decisions on the backend. You will be limited as to what types of software can be installed, what types of permissions will be allowed and what sort of interface to use. This, in turn, limits the programs you can use on your site because some programs will need settings that the host will not allow.
With VPS hosting, you’re in charge. You can use whatever settings and permissions you want because they only affect your site. You can put whatever interface you want to use for management. You will be able to use any script or program you want to because your site will reside on its own virtual server.
4. Much less expensive than a dedicated server
At HostGator, you can get VPS hosting starting at under $16 a month while the dedicated server starts at $174 per month. This is one of the lower priced hosting companies, too. It’s not unheard of for people to spend $300 or more monthly for a dedicated server.
5. Independence
If you know how to manage a server yourself, you can do anything you want with your VPS hosting account. Install Linux or even Windows; use cPanel, Plesk or nothing at all. The choices are all yours. You will never be throttled back for consuming too many resources as you can use every bit right up to the limits you paid for. You also never have to worry about other sites affecting your own.
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