How Is It Different Than Other Types of Hosting?

VPS Hosting is essentially the hosting option that lies between shared web hosting and dedicated web hosting. It offers you the opportunity to share a server with many other customers, while at the same time offering additional flexibilities and privacies above shared hosting.

Imagine a dedicated server, or one that belongs only to you, and split it up into many, smaller virtual servers. In the end, what you will have is the freedom and flexibility of a dedicated server with the price tag of a shared server, but with much less power than a full dedicated server. 

If VPS Hosting Is Like Dedicated Hosting, Then Why Should I Even Bother With Dedicated Hosting?

The problem with virtual private servers is that hosting companies can still put too many websites (or VPS’s) on a physical server, and cause it to go slow or even fail sometimes.  In theory, the idea of having a semi-separate environment for your site is good.  In practice, it just doesn’t work like hosting companies would like you to believe. 

This is why some mission-critical sites prefer to use Dedicated Hosting, even if they are not high traffic.  If your site is making hundreds of thousands, or millions of dollars per year, then using a dedicated server may not be a bad investment; especially if you have been having problems with your VPS in the past.  Of course, switching to dedicated hosting is not a solution for all your VPS problems.

VPS Hosting has become more and more popular in recent years. When you are choosing the ideal server for your website or business you will encounter a wide range of VPS Hosting options that include various control panels in addition to various capabilities and levels of service.

What Kinds of VPA Hosting Are Available to Me?

There are generally three main categories of VPS Hosting:

• Unmanaged hosting,
• Managed hosting, and
• Unmetered hosting

In terms of affordability, managed hosting is the most expensive, whereas metered and unmetered hosting provide lower levels of customer service but greater affordability. You will have to decide which level of service best fits your organization. With managed VPS Hosting, you will receive 24 hour server monitoring by an experienced system administrator who is a certified professional when it comes to application installation and server maintenance.  They will often update or inform you of security issues, but often the line between managed and unmanaged VPS Hosting is faint.

What Should I Look for In a VPS Hosting Plan?

Shopping for VPS Hosting requires a bit more technical understanding, when compared to shared hosting. Of course, user and expert reviews make that process much easier.  There are a few things that you might want to look into when deciding on the best VPS option for you. Here are a few of the most popular factors in shopping for a VPS host. 

• Uptime – This is probably the most important factor, but the most difficult to measure.  Reviews from other users can show general trends here.  SLA (Service Level Agreements) don’t guarantee anything more than a refund, or partial refund, on your hosting bill.  This probably won’t mean much if you are losing thousands of dollars due to your website being down.
• Power – One of the largest differences in VPS pricing simply comes down to how much power, space, and bandwidth your site needs.  When in doubt, simply start with a small plan, and then work your way up as needed, unless you plan to get a ton of traffic from the start (e.g. via lots of advertising).  The hosting company you plan to go with can let you know if your expectations are realistic.
• Redundancy - You will also want to ensure that they have solid and proven redundancy systems built in, just in case the server or hard drives fails.  Other redundancy features should be checked out and compared.
• Accessibility - As an administrator of a VPS server, or programmers if you have them, you may have the ability to access your server at the root level. For optimal flexibility, you will want to make sure that your access to the root is kept to a minimum if you are going to run a heavy-duty site.
• Features – Most VPS Hosting is fairly plain vanilla.  There are certain aspects that can make them easier to manage, such as back up tools. If you plan to host several sites on the VPN, then you will also want to make sure that you can host unlimited domains from the same VPS server.
• Simple to Use - In terms of the control panel, make sure that there is flexibility in the options that are available to you, as you will probably be spending a good deal of time in this administrative area.

When in doubt, just check out what our other users have to say.  Generally speaking, VPS Hosting offers month-to-month plans, so don’t worry if you start with a certain host, and want to switch later.