VPS vs Dedicated Servers: Everything You Need to Know

If your website has outgrown the limited options of shared hosting, but you aren’t ready to commit to a dedicated servers plan, VPS might be the right choice. VPS, or Virtual Private Server, hosting has been called a “bridge” between shared hosting and dedicated servers – a way to reap the benefits of greater control and scalability than shared hosting offers without the expense and large-scale management of a dedicated servers environment. Here’s a look at how VPS hosting compares to dedicated servers in terms of scalability, accessibility, flexibility, and cost.

#1 VPS vs Dedicated Servers: Security

VPS is very secure, and hosting companies take all the measures to protect their clients. Still, your site is sharing a server with other sites. If any of the sites get hack or get involved in any malicious activities, your website would be at some (minimal) risk.

In one line: staying in your house is much more secure than sharing the room with strangers. When you host on dedicated servers, you don’t have to worry about the other sites, as you are not sharing space with them.

#2 Performance

Performance-wise, Dedicated Servers are much ahead of any other type of hosting. When we talk about performance, we mean how fast the website could load and how much concurrent traffic it can handle.

VPS uses a hypervisor that borrows the resources from the neighborhood sites if the traffic surges. It means that it also borrows the resources from your website if the traffic of the next site takes a hike.

If multiple sites get traffic hikes, they will borrow the resources from your site, and slow down your site. On the other hand, the dedicated server has all the bandwidth focus on one account. It provides the optimum speed and can manage large traffic without crashing.

#3 Dedicated Servers vs VPS: Control

In shared hosting environments, users have limited control over many of the features and functions of their sites, but both VPS and dedicated servers plans allow for multiple levels of customization and control of the site. In these environments, the host is responsible for the physical maintenance of servers, as well as upgrading server software and managing its resources.

Beyond those parameters, though, site owners have access to root functionality and are generally free to install the operating systems and applications they need for the purposes of managing the site. For that reason, both VPS and dedicated servers options are favored by users with experience in web development and site design, since most providers include self-managed options in their hosting plans.

For users who prefer to leave the management of the site to professionals, both VPS and dedicated servers providers generally offer a variety of managed plan options. Managed hosting plans are typically tiered, and can be customized in a variety of ways, allowing users to select from available features and functions as the site grows.

Hosting providers who offer VPS along with other hosting types may offer customer service and technical support tailored to the VPS environment so that users can access in-depth support for managing their sites that can be similar to the robust support offered by dedicated servers providers.

#4 Allocation of Resources

Dedicated Servers provide more resources than VPS. With VPS, you undoubtedly get the resources you paid for. The hypervisor will give it to someone else if someone needs it more than you.

With dedicated servers, you have an entire server to yourself. It is expensive, but you get each bit of bandwidth and every byte of RAM of it.

#5 VPS vs Dedicated Servers: Scalability

Scalability means to what extent your hosting would grow as the website grows. VPS has space to grow with the site. You can upgrade the plan that will add up the storage and bandwidth. As the traffic increase, you can increase the power of the VPS hosting.

Then there are dedicated servers that do not need anymore. Websites having a large volume of traffic go for dedicated servers as they are not looking for scalability, but they are looking for consistent performance. VPS works at the middle ground between shared hosting and dedicated servers.

• Shared Hosting – Trying, checking, small blogs
• VPS – Serious business, and trying to improve
• Dedicated Servers – Need powerful hosting that can handle the traffic

#6 Pricing for Affordability

As a middle ground between shared and dedicated servers, VPS is typically more expensive than shared hosting, but it can also be significantly more affordable than dedicated servers usually is. With a variety of tiered plans that combine services, features, and resources for different client needs, VPS offers options ranging from basic plans that approximate the higher tiers of shared hosting – around $20 to $30 per month – up to around $200 per month for more advanced packages that can be similar to the prices of lower-tier dedicated hosting services.

Conclusion

Now that we have covered the similarities and differences between VPS and dedicated servers, which option should you choose? Determining the best requirements for your hosting needs can be challenging. Establishing the requirements for your business can help save you time and money.