Although a Virtual Private Server Hosting provides a much more affordable alternative than its physical equivalent a “Dedicated Server” a VPS plan is more expensive than a standard shared hosting plan. So who should use a Cloud-based Virtual Private Servers?

Growing businesses that are expanding beyond the capabilities that shared hosting can offer.

Businesses that have expected or planned future growth. When entering a new market or presenting a new opportunity where rapid growth is a possibility, ensuring your website has the dedicated resources it requires to maintain performance under heavy site traffic.

Websites that require a better level of privacy and performance compared to what shared hosting plans offer.

A business that requires full control over their server. Ability to custom configure, allow root access and installations that are unavailable with standard shared hosting.

Company’s that house multiple brands and websites. Keeping all your branded websites under one roof, or one VPS, rather than multiple shared hosting will ensure consistent performance and provide a better way to maintain various website hosting.

VPS hosting uses virtualisation technology to divide the resources of one single physical server into several virtual servers. Each of these virtual servers operates as if it is an independent dedicated server, but is contained within one physical machine.

If you’ve ever installed a virtual machine on your computer to run an instance of Windows on your Mac or run Linux on your Windows machine without having to restart your computer, you’ll already have experience with the type of technology that makes VPS hosting possible.

Or, to give a non-technical analogy, you can think of VPS hosting as renting an apartment in a larger building. While you may share the physical building with other occupants, you’re responsible for paying your own utility bills and choosing how fast your internet connection is. Nobody else has keys to your apartment, as it’s a completely private space.

VPS hosting offers several benefits over shared hosting:

• It’s more secure – as each VPS is running its own independent server environment, you won’t be at risk from viruses or cyber-attacks targeted at other virtual servers. This is particularly important if you’re running an e-commerce site, or taking data from people who visit your websites and may actually be a regulatory requirement in many cases.

• It’s faster– you’ll have dedicated resources for running your own sites, so you won’t need to worry about the load on other websites slowing yours down.

• You have more control– with shared hosting you’ll have limited control over your server settings, as you’re sharing the setup with several other customers. VPS hosting gives you total control over your virtual private server, so you can set it up as you wish. You can run your own instances of applications such as Apache and PHP, and customise them to your own requirements.

• You get better customer service – VPS hosting is a premium service so you can expect a higher level of support than you would get with shared hosting. This means, if you need help with setup, backups, recovery, or anything else, you won’t be left on your own.

• You’re isolated from other VPS environments– upgrading software or installing new software on a server usually requires rebooting the machine. This means if you’re on shared hosting, you’ll need to wait before having access to certain applications or upgrades, or you may experience downtime while the server is rebooted. With a VPS, you can restart the system at any time you choose, without affecting other clients hosted on the same server.

The main advantage of VPS hosting over a dedicated hosting is that it’s much more affordable. You get the advantages of a dedicated server at a lower cost.

If you’re concerned about your impact on the environment, you’ll be happy to know that VPS hosting is a more eco-friendly option too. Each additional physical server run by a hosting provider has an impact on the environment in terms of its production and maintenance. Sharing a server with other people is more efficient as it means that resources are used in an optimal way, and the environmental impact is reduced.

Once your purchase is complete, one of our web hosting experts will provision your server and perform the initial setup before giving you a call to walk you through all the finer details of your product.

We encourage you to ask any questions you may have and take the time to discuss what you hope to do with the server so that we may provide advice on how to proceed.