Choosing the best web hosting plan is important when planning your website. You can host your website through various hosting options, but the two I’d like to discuss are shared hosting and dedicated VPS.
Shared Hosting
Is a hosting account where you share a common server with many websites, sometimes thousands. It is the most commonly used hosting plan and often at a much lower-cost than other hosting packages. Of course, you can’t customize the hardware but you can get a variety of packages with different bandwidth and storage.
Pro’s of Shared Hosting
- It’s a good option for blogs and smaller websites
- It fits the budget for a low-cost website
- No server hardware maintenance needed
- Since you’re sharing the hardware, you can spend the extra money you’re saving to upgrade your storage space or bandwidth.
- All kinds of software, including virtualized software can be installed easily.
Con’s of Shared Hosting
- Website performance may be effected by other websites hosted on the shared server.
- Back–up problems may occur in the long term as shared hosting clients increase
- Security issues can rise when sharing a common server (It’s hard to know what kind of sites you’re sharing with)
- Limited access to firewall settings
To put all of this into perspective. Shared hosting space is like renting a room or sharing a house with your college frat friends.
At WebHive, we take care to ensure server loads are well managed and will never put more than 100 sites on one physical server. Also, only legitimate sites with up to date software are housed on our servers.
Dedicated VPS Virtual Private Server (VPS)
is a software defined container that sits inside a physical server. This hosting plan enables you to customize everything to your own taste. Many companies give you full firewall control, root access and the ability to install any server tools your webmaster might need. This is great for E-commerce websites, companies with large applications, websites that generate a lot of traffic and users who need better data security.
Pro’s of Dedicated VPS
- More space and bandwidth
- You generally can configure anything you wish on the VPS, as if it were a physical server
- Run your own batch files and create multiple services inside the server with shell access
- Easy scalability and back up services
- The ability to create custom firewall configurations
- A dedicated IP address you can use for your SSL certificate (a dedicated IP also prevents you from suffering the fate of a banned IP address when someone else on a shared server sends spam)
Con’s of Dedicated VPS
- A system administrator is needed to take care of your server
- It’s more expensive
In a nutshell a Dedicated VPS is like owning your very own condo unit. You own the rights and have the freedom to customize your space to fit your lifestyle.
Which should I choose?
For the majority of websites, a shared hosting account is sufficient. However, if you have a high traffic website or are hosting an E-Commerce store, it is highly recommended to opt for a VPS hosting account. WebHive offers both shared and dedicated VPS hosting plans that are uniquely tailored to suit your needs. To learn more about our hosting packages, click here.