How to Tell the Difference Between Shared, VPS and Dedicated Hosting
When it comes to the business side of things, you’re a pro. You know about your products and how to sell them. You know how to keep your customers happy so that your business can flourish. That part is not the problem. The problem is the website. You are not an IT professional. Other than email and web surfing, you don’t know much about computers at all, so the idea of choosing a site host is confusing and a bit scary. Luckily for you, help has arrived. You don’t have to be a glasses-wearing computer geek to know about hosting. All you need to know is the information explained below.
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is the type your friends probably already have. If they had a WordPress or Blogspot blog and upgraded it to a .com, they probably went with shared hosting. Most small websites go with this type. In website-speak, the word “small” means a low amount of traffic.
Since you are making your own website, it is safe to assume your site is pretty small and your traffic is on the lower side. That means shared hosting is a good choice for you. You will only pay about $10 per month, and you will have no (or few) problems with maintenance of your site. If you are thinking that there must be a catch, you’re right. The server that hosts your site will be hosting many others too.
Servers make your website work. They are big computers that have the right hardware to make everything run smoothly. You like the idea of only paying $10 per month? Well, you get that cheap price because tons of other people will be sharing that server with you and also paying that price. This means that the server won’t be completely yours. Just as the name implies, it is shared. It will host your website and many other sites you most likely wouldn’t know if you weren’t familiar with the concept. Think of it like as living space. Shared hosting is ideal for sites that are like small families (perhaps a newlywed couple with no kids.) If your site is huge family, shared hosting won’t have enough space for you.
VPS Hosting
VPS, which stands for Virtual Private Server, is a step up from shared hosting. Technically, it is still shared, but not in the same way. In the shared hosting description, we used the analogy of small apartment. Along that same line of thought, VPS would be like a townhome or a duplex. It is still shared, but you get more privacy and freedom. To be specific, VPS hosting acts like its own separate server, not a tiny piece of a server. If you go with this type of hosting, you may pay up to $150 a month, but you will have your own operating system, RAM, and root access (the ability to manipulate the server however you like). You get a control panel and your own IP address. It’s just like a mini server.
You may be wondering if VPS hosting is good enough to justify the price, which is more than ten times higher than that of shared hosting. The answer to that question depends on how much traffic your site gets. Most people will be fine with shared because their traffic isn’t that high, but if you have more than 300 unique visitors a day, you are not like most people. In that case, you (and other people) will notice that your site is slow and crashes often on a shared server. VPS would be the way to go to solve this problem.
Dedicated Hosting
To continue with the same analogy, dedicated hosting is like having your own spacious house. You don’t have to worry about sharing anything. The server is completely yours. As you can imagine, dedicated hosting is the most expensive. You could pay up to $750 per month. That’s no small sum. Most website owners would be foolish to get a dedicated server for their sites. It would be a waste of money and too much space. Would a single person need a mansion? Of course not, and chances are, you don’t need dedicated hosting. However, if your business is extremely popular and you have steady, high traffic that is too great for VPS, then you do need dedicated. And if you have that much traffic, you should be making a nice amount on advertising, so the cost should not be a deterrent.
If you remember nothing else from this article, remember that it all is a matter of space. The more space you need, the greater the chance you’ll need dedicated hosting. The less space you need, the greater the chance you’ll be just fine with a shared server.
Moonrise hosting is a managed pci hosting which offers website optimization, social media marketing, SEO, and more to its clients. They provide a wide range of hosting services for businesses as well as individuals at an affordable price.
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