VPS vs. Dedicated Hosting

If your website has grown to such an extent that a shared server can no longer support it, then its time to choose between virtual private servers and dedicated servers. Dedicated hosting might look like the better choice, but it is always accompanied by a hefty monthly bill. Virtual or VPS hosting, on the contrary, offers services comparable to dedicated servers, all at a much lower cost.

A virtual private server is the best choice for websites which can not be supported by shared servers but do not generate enough revenue for a better option. It not only provides most of the services offered in a dedicated server, but also gives better security and flexibility than shared hosting. It is quite clearly the best deal you can get when in a dilemma between money and quality. Though dedicated servers are still the best, the processing and maintenance charges of a server with only one degree of freedom is a huge amount of dough. Contrarily, virtual private servers can be maintained only at around seventy to hundred dollars a month. This, just like shared servers, varies simply with the quantity of web space, bandwidth, and domain names.

VPS allows you to be at par with the services and features of the host. The mechanism is somewhat like this: dedicated server hosts are mammoth companies with thousands of dedicated server systems running continuously. Hence, when the resources of a server are not being fully used, they are leased to smaller websites in the form of virtual private servers. While your site is secondary to the dedicated server hosted websites, it still enjoys the same facilities, the same security, and the same stability.

Let's have a look at the features of dedicated hosting. In dedicated hosting, a whole server is used just by one client. They are used for websites which are complex in structure or get a lot of traffic. These sites usually experience click through rates of several thousands, if not millions, every single day. Thus, they need several GB of bandwidth to function properly. Exceptions to this rule involve websites which contain very important bits of information and require the high security of dedicated servers. These include e-commerce sites, social networking sites, online stores, sites for national institutions et al.

Dedicated hosting is of two types, managed and unmanaged. Unmanaged hosting can save you some money because it is considerably cheaper than managed hosting. However, you should select it only if you have a lot of knowledge related to server and website management. The alternative is going for managed dedicated servers, where you get the option of multiple degrees of management from the hosts. This leaves out room for errors on the part of host but is still more cost-effective.