When Should You Switch To VPS Hosting?

By Paul watson 4 years ago

When it comes to web hosting services, most site owners start with Shared Hosting, and as the site grows, they tend to look to upgrade to a VPS Hosting or Cloud Hosting service. A Linux Shared Hosting plan offers a great platform for new websites. However, since the server’s resources are shared, once the site grows beyond a certain point, it becomes important to migrate to a server with better resources and control.

Today, we are going to talk about Shared Hosting and when should you start considering VPS Server for your website.

Shared Hosting Vs VPS Hosting

In Shared Hosting, your website is stored on a server shared between multiple users. The resources and computing power are shared too. Hence, if one site experiences heavy traffic, then the resources of the server are strained, impacting the performance of other sites. In other words, on a Shared Hosting server, the performance of your site relies on how the other sites on the server perform. Shared Linux Hosting is more popular than Windows Hosting due to the affordability and features offered.

On the other hand, in VPS Hosting, your website is also stored on a shared server with multiple users. However, the host uses server virtualization techniques to create virtual servers that are independent of themselves. Each virtual server has dedicated resources, complete root access, and account isolation, making it function like a Dedicated Server with certain limitations. Therefore, for most site owners, once the traffic grows beyond a certain point, migrating to a VPS Hosting service makes sense.

When should you move to VPS Hosting from Shared Hosting?

Here are some indicators to help you decide when to move to VPS Hosting from a Shared Hosting service:

  • Your site has experienced a surge in traffic, and your current hosting plan is unable to cater to it. There are two possibilities here. One, you need a better Shared Hosting plan with more resources and fewer users on the server. Two, you need to upgrade to a VPS Hosting
  • There are regular security issues on your site. Again, there are various factors that can cause security issues on your site. However, after analyzing the reasons, if you find that the primary factor is another site on your server getting regularly hacked, causing your site to get infected too, then you might want to consider moving to a different host. Also, with a VPS Hosting service, these problems don’t arise since each VPS is isolated from the others.
  • You need a customized hosting environment. While you might launch a basic website, as your site grows, you might want to install custom software to create a unique site experience. Hence, you will need access to the root directory if you are using Linux web hosting, which is not possible in Shared Hosting. This is where migrating to a VPS service might make more sense too.
  • Resource scalability is another area where a VPS service scores over a Shared Hosting With shared resources, there is a limit to which the provider can accommodate the growth of your site. Beyond that, you need to move to a service that can grow with you. With VPS Hosting, since servers are isolated, and resources are dedicated, you can scale up as needed.

If you have decided to move to a VPS Hosting setup, check out the following video to improve the performance of your VPS:

Summing Up

Remember, every website is unique and needs specific features from the hosting service. Hence, if you are already using a Shared Hosting plan and facing performance issues as listed above, then assess what your site needs and choose a plan accordingly. While most site owners opt for a VPS Hosting plan, if your site demands a Dedicated Server, then you should opt for that too. Good Luck!