Virtual server hosting and shared hosting are solutions designed by the hosting industry to meet the different needs of businesses that are looking to move their software to the cloud. Here, we have done a comparison of VPS vs Shared Hosting.

Small Business to the Cloud

Most businesses, even the smallest ones, have purchased VPS or shared hosting plans without knowing that they are making that choice.  Business owners and managers are just looking for solutions that meet their obvious business needs such as  email, website, or domain hosting.  And for most, that combination is sufficient.  They are looking for outsourced solutions that are low cost, easy to manage, and need no in-house IT resources. But as the small businesses become bigger, or the Web becomes critical to their operations or marketing, they seek more power, security, and control over their hosting environment.  Such needs are better fulfilled by dedicated servers – physical or virtual.

Large Business Servers Get Outsourced

Medium to large businesses have traditionally used dedicated physical servers for applications in LAN/WAN environments to serve their employees.  Over the last decade, due to the preference of web-based interface and anywhere/anytime access requirement of customers and employees, many dedicated servers have moved to the cloud. In parallel, virtualization technologies have improved so that any physical machine can hold multiple virtual servers that can be used for the same tasks as dedicated servers. And some popular applications such as email and SharePoint have been adopted successfully by even large businesses as shared hosting.  These trends have helped IT managers lower costs and meet reduced IT budgets.

So, small businesses are moving up to virtual servers as their hosting needs get more sophisticated. And the larger businesses are moving to VPS or shared hosting for lower costs, outsourced responsibilities, and demand for web-based access of their  business applications and infrastructure.

  • Hyper-V Developer

    • 1 GB RAM
    • 35 GB Disk Space
    • Free SQL Server
    • Full Root/Remote Access
    • Learn More
    $24.95 per month

    HYPER-V BRONZE

    • 4 GB RAM
    • 40 GB Disk Space
    • Free SQL Server
    • Full Root/Remote Access
    • Learn More
    $49 per month

    HYPER-V SILVER

    • 12 GB RAM
    • 80 GB Disk Space
    • Free SQL Server
    • Full Root/Remote Access
    • Learn More
    $89 per month

    HYPER-V GOLD

    • 16 GB RAM
    • 120 GB Disk Space
    • Free SQL Server
    • Full Root/Remote Access
    • Learn More
    $135 per month

Shared Hosting vs VPS

Security: Shared hosting, as the name suggests, offers shared services, where many websites reside on one web server which increases the risk of intrusion and other security threats. A virtual private server guarantees better security as there is no need to share your processes, IP/TCP stacks, and disk space with other shared users. In Virtual Private Server environment, your virtual servers are isolated from other virtual machines, thus minimizing the risk of unauthorized access from other customers and hackers.

Performance – In a VPS environment, all resources can be regulated. If other user’s machine gets overloaded with heavy traffic or severely hacked, it will not affect your website’s performance.  With shared server hosting, if there are any faults or errors within the server it affects every website hosted on that same server. In VPS server hosting each customer gets a unique IP address. The customers also get administrator or root access which enables him to reboot, install and manage their software applications on Virtual Private Server account.

Customization:  If you do comparison of VPS vs shared hosting, you will find that VPS hosting offers you with a self-managed control panel and root access. With this, you get to install applications that you need. Many of the hosting companies such as Apps4Rent offers support for customer installed applications.

Flexibility: Customizing your firewall configurations in a shared environment is not advisable for it can lead to security breach. However, VPS hosting environment offers you this flexibility. You can open and close the required ports or protocols in the firewall that some applications call for. VPS hosting also offers you the flexibility to adjust your resources with your needs. You can align your server size and online needs as per your business requirement, which is not possible in a shared hosting environment.

Features: In a VPS environment, you can manage your VPS as a snapshot. This means that your complete environment can be reinstated from backup to any physical server with no variations made to your configuration.

Who Should Opt for VPS Hosting Services?

  • Users who are looking for highly scalable web, email and application hosting solutions.
  • Users who are looking for dedicated environment at fractional cost.
  • Users who seeks power and control over resources in terms of RAM, storage space, processors, and cores.
  • Users who neither trust the security of shared hosting nor want to spent too much on the extra computing power of dedicated servers.
  • Users who wish to manage their VPS themselves with administrator or root access so that they can reboot, install and manage applications that they need.
  • Users who wish to align their server resources as per their business requirements.
  • Users who want to enjoy the flexibility to migrate a running machine from one server to another without any downtime.
  • Users who do not want their data to be lost and who wish to have the data restored in case of loss.

Who Should Pick Shared Hosting Services?

  • Individual website owners and start up businesses whose website needs are basic.
  • Business owners who do not require more resources in terms of cores, RAM, processors, and storage space.
  • Users who don’t seek high-end control and power over their online presence.
  • Users creating small or medium sized websites.
  • Users creating websites and web applications such as Joomla, WordPress, and eCommerce applications such as Zencart, Cubecart, and Magento.
  • Users who are price conscious and are looking for cost-effective hosting solutions.
  • Users who are keen on building template-based websites.

If you compare shared hosting vs VPS, you will find that both are beneficial in their own rights. VPS or shared hosting—the choice is yours. However, if VPS hosting is what you choose, then you know whom to choose as your VPS hosting provider. Apps4Rent is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner offering VPS hosting services powered by Microsoft’s Hyper-V technology. Some of the features we offer include remote access, regular data backups, SAS 70 certified data center, tightened security, Windows and Linux OS support, Firewall installation, patch management, server trouble shooting and optimization, software installation and maintenance, web-based control panel administration, month-to-month billing, 24/7/365 days technical support via chat, e-mail, and phone.