For those who have experience in the choice of web hosting solutions exactly understand the difference between various types of products that can sometimes be difficult, especially if these products have the same features but apparently they actually have subtle differences, which are important for the development of your website and online business. In this article we will see what is the difference between a shared hosting service and VPS service, or a virtual server, both of these products are very popular in the Indian and international market.
Shared Hosting and VPS, Features In Brief
A first hint of what it means to shared hosting : we speak of an account that is activated within a server of our provider giving us the opportunity to host one or more web sites, with access to services such as email, databases and generally a control panel that lets you manage your own domains and websites. These plans are activated in the tens or hundreds per server, resources are not guaranteed for the end user in terms of CPU, RAM, or bandwidth, but it is the responsibility of each hosting provider that provides the service to ensure that all customers benefit in a homogeneous way. This is the easiest product in the world of hosting services, and is usually the one you buy to host a single domain: there are solutions to shared hosting with dozens of GB of disk space, unlimited bandwidth or tens of GB and so on allocation on Linux or Windows server. This aspect allows you to have a huge variety on offer, but as far as the final parameters can change, you must always keep in mind that we are talking about a service with shared resources with other people who use this service and therefore not suitable for cases in which our online business has specific needs in terms of resources.
To recap, what are the characteristics of a service of shared hosting:
- Shared Resources
- Cost
- Managed service, the customer does not have to manage the server
- No ability to modify or install software on the server
- Control Panel to create and manage domains, email, databases
- Support for web languages, depending on the Linux or Windows platform
When we speak about VPS (Virtual Private Server) instead we talk about a real server reserved for us, with the only feature that it is virtual, and therefore is housed within a physical server that is usually quite fast. As the server is dedicated entirely to us, a VPS has a fixed amount of CPU, RAM, disk space and bandwidth and has its own operating system with no sharing with other clients, this allows you to manage a VPS as if it were a real server, with its dedicated IP, the ability to manage the installation of new software and the modification of an existing operating system.
Obviously also the VPS has as ultimate goal to provide a hosting service to the client, then as in the case of shared webhosting may have a control panel for managing domains, sites, and other mail. A VPS but has a noticeable difference with a common shared hosting plan: the fact that it has guaranteed resources means that it can accommodate a larger number of web sites (according to the resources, of course) and is usually designed to accommodate online projects that have a number of visits higher. The VPS is in all respects a server with its own operating system, service providers, therefore, with both managed and unmanaged service, this means that if we have no experience in managing a server we will inevitably rely to an “managed”, or allow our supplier to upgrade the VPS, the management of security and all the features of the server software, an aspect that is always in shared hosting managed by the provider. This is because the VPS has its own operating system managed by the end user, but in case of no or little knowledge, the management server is not recommended to the end customer, the server may suffer long downtime or worse easily be the victim of hackers.
To recap, what are the characteristics of a VPS service:
- Dedicated resources and expandable. There is talk of a dedicated amount of CPU, RAM, Disk and Bandwidth
- Cost varies depending on the resources used
- Need to manage the server in its entirety or entrust its management to the provider
- Optional control panel for managing domains and websites
- Ability to install software on your system and change if necessary
- Dedicated IP
- Optimal for websites and applications that require guaranteed resources
- Fully customizable