What Is VPS Hosting And Why You Need It

To get your website available online, your files need to be uploaded to a web server that you purchase from a hosting provider.

That said, there are a wide variety of options available out there to fit a wide range of needs. For many people with simple websites, a shared hosting account is all they consider because it is cheap and easy, but the resources are limited.

A dedicated server, on the other hand, is powerful and guarantees sole use, but requires a certain level of technical skills to run it.

Once your website starts to experience growing traffic, you may find that shared hosting struggles to deliver the performance you need.

This is where a VPS or a Virtual Private Server could help solve your problems, especially, at a time when the entry cost has never been lower.

In other words, you'll find two types of VPSs – managed and self-managed. If you're not sure which one to choose, you're best off going for a managed VPS hosting solution. With it, you can focus on building your project without worrying about complex tasks related to the server's configuration and security. These problems are handled by your host's experienced sysadmins.

VPS hosting can be a source of confusion for people, especially, beginner business owners searching for a web host for their internet ventures. Here's everything you need to know.


What Is a VPS, anyway?

A Virtual Private Server is a machine that resides on a server with other virtual machines.

It is the flexible solution that falls in between a shared server and a dedicated server, in both price and functions.

In layman's terms, the virtual aspect implies one powerful server that is split into multiple separate servers.

The private element means that the virtual server is reserved for your website. This means you won't have to share resources such as RAM, CPU, or storage with other users like you would have to with shared hosting packages.

Why You Need VPS Hosting?

VPS hosting emulates a dedicated hosting environment even though you are still sharing the physical server with other users.

The physical web server used by your hosting provider boot normally, and then uses software to boot each VPS server individually using virtualization technology.

This type of hosting can be compared to owning an apartment within a building occupied by other residents.

Every person gets a fraction of the building (in this case, disk space, memory, CPU, and bandwidth), but only you get full access to your apartment (full root access to your VPS).

This guarantees a certain percentage of resources to each individual user, which means what is inside your space (VPS) is yours alone, and no one else can use, access, or take it.

Why Use it?

VPS hosting provides several important advantages that combine the best features of shared and dedicated hosting. Here are a few key benefits:

Performance

VPS hosting means more resources are dedicated to your website, which, in return, guarantees an overall enhanced performance.

A dedicated RAM, bandwidth, and power capacity means your website will load faster on the users' end, which has been shown to improve user experience, financial gains, and search engine ranking.

Furthermore, you can easily scale up your allocated resources if you anticipate or experience increased website traffic.

Reliability

Shared hosting impacts the reliability of your business website, especially when another site experiences a sudden jump in user traffic.

The independence of VPS hosting makes it far more reliable since the environment and resources are specifically designated to your website.

This means the traffic and computing activities of other websites will no longer be your concern, and your site will safely handle traffic in its own space. Such factors play a huge role in guaranteeing reliable services to your users.

Great Value for Money

VPS hosting provides great value for money, seeing that it is much more affordable than dedicated hosting, which is pretty amazing considering they both use the same foundation of resource sharing.

A VPS plan provides the best option for a new website looking to upgrade from shared hosting, and anyone looking to downgrade from the expensive hardware of dedicated servers, while still retaining root access.

Optimum Security

Your VPS is securely isolated from other VPS users to guarantee that no one else can access the resources dedicated to you.

Such virtualization management solutions mean your server is protected from processes that may crash a neighbouring VPS user and that you can put up firewalls or other additional security tools without worrying about other users.

Root Access

VPS hosting allows you more control over your server compared to shared hosting. This means you have total root access, just like you would with a dedicated server and the ability to use scripts that suit your needs.

Hence, you can install the required software package without contacting your hosting provider.

Scalability

With a VPS, you can easily scale up or down, depending on your current needs. New website owners can start with limited hosting resources and gradually scale up as you grow.

You only have to buy the resources you need and scale your hosting resources during a spike in traffic without causing any technical glitches or downtime on your website.


Are There Any Downsides?

Truth is that there are a few downsides of VPS hosting in that it is more expensive than shared hosting, and has few features and resources in comparison to dedicated hosting.

Additionally, you’ll need to be proficient with the Linux Command Line Interface. There are Windows Server OS powered VPS but the Linux alternative is much more common and popular.

On the other hand, it’s worth mentioning that the CLI, once mastered, is preferred and more efficient for most webmasters. But the learning curve may be frustrating. Luckily, there are plenty of tutorials out there for almost every command you’ll ever need to use.

Final Takeaways

As discussed above, VPS hosting provides an excellent choice when looking to host a new website.

You are guaranteed a performance boost to handle peak traffic, more control over your server, and at an affordable price.
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