What is a virtual private server hosting (VPS)? Almost every one of us has heard the name VPS but very few people know what its about. If you are one of these people, reading this article will help you explore VPS from A to Z. So, let’s start by learning the meaning of a VPS first.
What is VPS?
A VPS, also known as virtual private server is a virtual and dedicated server used to host a website or multiple websites. It is designed to use virtualization to split a single machine into several virtual machines.
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How does a VPS work?
A VPS works with the help of a software called a hypervisor. The purpose of a hypervisor is to segment the virtual private server (physical server) that hosts other virtual servers. The hypervisor also ensures that each of the virtual private servers installed on a computer perform separately without interrupting each other. As each virtual private server is running its separate operating system, it is not wrong to say that a server is running within an independent server.
VPS Hosting
One of the most popular and the most widely used web hosting is the VPS hosting. Many website owners choose VPS hosting when going online to establish their business presence and showcase products and services. This is not only good for large companies, but it is also the best choice for small companies, individual website owners or bloggers, B2B portals and e-commerce platforms.
While chosen by so many around the world, what really is the meaning of VPS hosting? VPS hosting is a hosting service that is specially designed for websites whose requirements to function effectively are not appropriate with shared hosting. VPS hosting lies in between shared and dedicated hosting.
To better understand a virtual private server, let’s learn about the types of VPS hosting, as well as the pros and cons of each type.
Types of VPS Hosting
Just like other hosting types, VPS hosting also comes with the following types:
Managed
As its name suggests, a managed VPS hosting does not require you to perform server management. Rather, it is managed by your service provider for you. With this, you do not have to worry about anything regarding the server and you enjoy a smooth hosting experience.
Advantages of Managed VPS Hosting
(1) Optimized performance
One of the best and most impressive advantages of managed VPS hosting is that it assures of optimum performance. When you choose a virtual private server hosting, your website visitors won’t face slow load times on your website. Along with optimum load speed of your website, managed VPS hosting also assures optimum server performance.
(2) No downtime or technical errors
Another impressive advantage of using the managed VPS hosting is maximum uptime. With the managed virtual private server hosting, you and your website visitors will never have to worry about website downtime. With managed virtual private server hosting, you can enjoy 99.9% uptime. Isn’t it great to build an excellent user experience and keep your visitors for longer?
Along with the assurance of no downtime, a managed VPS hosting server would also keep you free of stress regarding technical errors. As its name says, it is a managed hosting where you don’t have to worry about technical errors.
(3) Improved security
In addition to optimized performance and no downtime or technical errors, managed VPS hosting also comes with improved security. One of the reasons why many businesses choose managed virtual private servers is the guaranteed security of their data. On a managed VPS, your confidential business data won’t be leaked due to a higher level of security protocols. Also, this hosting protects your website from cyber attacks because of strong security measures put in place on your server. An intruder gaining access to your website’s data is not going to be an easy task.
(4) Scalable resources
Along with other incredible benefits of a VPS hosting plan, its ability to scale your resources while operating online also wins the hearts of its users. With a managed virtual private server hosting, you can increase your server resources such as CPU, RAM and so on as you anticipate the growth and traffic of your website without disruptions to your online presence.
(5) Customer Support
Last but not the least, you can enjoy amazing customer support with managed virtual private server hosting. Whenever you face any issue or have to inquire from customer support for anything, you will always find the customer support ready to resolve your issues and concerns.
Several managed virtual private server hosting providers also offer 24/7 customer support which is a bonus. If you are ever stuck with any issue regarding your website hosting, approach the customer service and get it resolved.
Disadvantages of Managed VPS Hosting
Just like every good thing having not only its advantages, but also some of its disadvantages too. Managed virtual private server hosting also has a few drawbacks. While enjoying all of the above benefits with managed virtual private server hosting, you may have to bear the following disadvantages.
(1) More expensive
The most prominent disadvantage of choosing a managed virtual private server hosting is higher cost. When you compare the managed VPS hosting plans with the other hosting plans offered by any hosting service provider, you will see that there is a noticeable difference in the prices.
The main reason why a managed virtual private server hosting is more expensive than the others is that it offers you more advanced features which means you have to pay more. As almost all operations are managed for you seamlessly.
(2) Lack of full control
As a managed virtual private server is managed at the back end, you would have to compromise on getting full access or control. Many things such as software and hardware decisions are already managed by the VPS hosting provider and you won’t be able to change them in the way you want.
Unmanaged
In contrast to managed VPS hosting where everything is managed for you, unmanaged VPS hosting requires you to perform server management. In this type of hosting, there is great pressure on you because you have to perform tasks routinely to successfully manage the presence of your website and the server for your online presence.
Advantages of Unmanaged VPS Hosting
Here are the following advantages of unmanaged VPS hosting
(1) Minimized costs
One of the greatest advantages of using an unmanaged VPS hosting service is the minimized costs. In contrast to a managed virtual private server, an unmanaged virtual private server costs you almost five times less than the other. The main difference between such a large price difference between the managed and unmanaged VPS hosting is due to the features present.
In an unmanaged virtual private server hosting, you don’t enjoy maximum performance optimization, speed, uptime and other full website compliance with the server seamlessly. In addition, unmanaged VPS hosting also doesn’t enable you get free from issues with managing your website because you are the one who has to manage most things yourself. Therefore, the cost is less for unmanaged VPS hosting as you have to do most of the work yourself.
(2) Full/Autonomous control
Along with reduced cost, another benefit of an unmanaged VPS hosting is the full autonomous control of your website hosting. An unmanaged virtual private server allows you to take full responsibility for managing your dashboard and important operations by yourself. You are the main role player and it’s up to you how you manage your website on the server. Therefore, you can get complete control of your website by choosing an unmanaged virtual private server hosting.
(3) Improved reliability
Last but not the least, when you manage everything yourself in an unmanaged virtual private server hosting, you are the one who can assure greater reliability of your online services and business presence with your hosting server. When your website becomes more reliable for you and your visitors, the profitability of your business is sure to increase.
Disadvantages of unmanaged VPS Hosting
Just like managed virtual private server hosting, unmanaged virtual private server hosting also comes with a few disadvantages. These disadvantages of unmanaged VPS hosting are as follows:
(1) Data loss or theft
One of the main disadvantages of using an unmanaged virtual private server hosting is the higher chances of data loss or data theft. As in this type of hosting, you are the one who is managing most of the things yourself. A minor mismanagement may lead to suffering badly. Any single and minor mistake may cause you big troubles such as data loss or theft.
For example, suppose you fail to implement security measures that ensure confidentiality of your business data, any cyber criminal may gain access to your sensitive data and steal information from your server to his.
(2) Technical issues
There could be several technical issues in running a website smoothly. As mentioned before, this type of hosting puts all the burden on you to manage everything. If you are not an IT savvy person and do not have adequate knowledge on how to effectively and smoothly manage an unmanaged VPS hosting, you would certainly experience issues.
As a result, not only is the performance of your website affected, but it would also have an impact on the impression your website visitors will have. In addition, it can also cause you great stress and waste a lot of your time trying to resolve these technical issues.
(3) Low compliance
Another disadvantage of choosing an unmanaged virtual private server hosting is the issue of compliance. Whenever a website faces issues of low compliance in any way, the overall performance of the website is affected.
Issues with server and software functionality impacts on the speed and reliability of the website. As a result, the load time of the website increases, creating a negative visitor experience for website visitors.
(4) Time-consuming
Finally, unmanaged virtual private server hosting is time-consuming with regards to management. When you have to manage almost everything yourself, it will take time to do everything in the right way.
In addition, you would have to look into the several processes and maintain them every day which may take a lot of time. The schedule, routine maintenance and the audit of your website and its hosting are also time consuming tasks. In short, choosing an unmanaged virtual private server hosting is not an ideal option especially for non-technical persons.
Shared Hosting Versus VPS Hosting
You have already learned about the VPS hosting types above, now let’s learn about shared hosting. Shared hosting is the type of hosting where different websites from different people share the same server and resources. However, the main differences between both of these hosting services are as follows:
- Shared hosting has limited resources available, while VPS hosting is premium with resources such as higher CPU, RAM, disk space and much more.
- Website performance is higher with VPS hosting as compared to shared hosting.
- The cost of shared hosting is less than that of VPS hosting.
- Shared hosting is less secure than VPS hosting because multiple websites are sharing the same server.
- With shared hosting, you may face scalability issues, but this is not the case with VPS hosting.
Dedicated Hosting Versus VPS Hosting
A dedicated hosting is the type of hosting that presents you with a dedicated server and dedicated resources. Therefore, it is not wrong to say that VPS hosting is the middle point between shared hosting and dedicated hosting. To better understand dedicated versus VPS hosting, here are some key differences amongst both.
- The performance of dedicated hosting is much higher than that of VPS hosting.
- Although VPS hosting is an expensive option when compared to shared hosting, it is much cheaper when we compare it to dedicated hosting.
- A VPS hosting doesn’t require you to have detailed technical knowledge. With dedicated hosting, you must have deep technical knowledge required to effectively operate.
- Dedicated hosting is very much faster than VPS hosting, but VPS hosting is faster than shared hosting.
Final Verdict
Whenever it comes to starting a business online or developing a website, the first thing that comes to mind is the type of hosting you use. Amongst several hosting options, managed VPS hosting is the best choice for many people. This is because this type of hosting offers an easy-to-use and managed interface with many benefits for your website such as optimized performance and maximum uptime.
However, make sure to have a look at the disadvantages such as higher cost, while choosing a hosting service for your site. By choosing the right type of VPS hosting, you can successfully grow your website and business.
