What is The Meaning of Virtual Private Server?

Every hosting service has a threshold or limit to which it could smoothly sustain a website/websites. A website can attract more traffic overtime meaning there is an ever-changing requirement for broader bandwidth and memory storage. It is even more complicated for business sites as with time, not only do they get heavy traffics, but they also require comprehensive software applications to sustain the operations.

Conventional web hosting or shared hosting can barely provide the necessary resources to support high-functioning websites that see a lot of action daily.

Why?

In shared hosting, a website shares a single server machine with many other websites. These websites compete with each other for the limited server resources and end up stealing away resources meant for some websites. It causes dysfunctions like downtimes, slow loading speeds and such, to occur more often in all the websites on the server.

For such websites having substantially high traffic, which makes it unreal for shared hosting to handle, VPS hosting is an ideal hosting choice.

VPS hosting

Modern hosting practices have evolved to maximize performance while cutting costs wherever possible. VPS hosting answers this trend more precisely than most other hosting services.

A Virtual Private Server or cheap VPS server is a web server that is actually one of the many sections of a large server machine. It is virtually isolated from other server sections and optimized to act as an independent server. It has its own processing power, data transfer rate and storage dedicated to a single user’s hosting.

The question that many ask is- How come a server divided into sections has superior hosting potential?

The answer is simple.

The VPS may have lesser everything compared to a whole server machine; however, it doesn’t share the processing power, bandwidth, storage resources or any other resources with anyone. These resources are solely for the use of a single user. In short, it’s like having a small dedicated server for your hosting.

VPS and Shared Hosting

VPS hosting is considered an upgrade for sites that have outgrown the shared hosting. Not only does VPS provides incomparable performance compared to its shared counterparts, but it is also a cost-effective alternative to dedicated hosting.

Some of the most noticeable differences between VPS and shared hosting are:

Hosting environment

Shared hosting: The websites in a shared hosting share not only space on the server but also the server resources. It is a hosting arrangement where you can get a platform to host your website at a low price as it is cost-effective for the provider. Shared hosting is like living in a hostel. You have to adjust and put up with your roommate and vice versa. Not to mention your privacy is almost null.

VPS hosting: In VPS hosting, you get a private server section that is totally isolated from other server partitions. Each server partition is virtually optimized and detached from the server while keeping its allocated resources intact. The VPS or “Virtual Private Server” acts as an independent server machine at a virtual-level while, in reality, it shares a single server machine with many other users.

Resources

Shared hosting: In shared hosting, the websites share the resources of a single server between them. The processing power, memory storage, bandwidth, etc. of a single server machine though enormous, is still limited. There are only so many sites a single server can sustain with them continuously in a struggle with each other for resources.

VPS hosting: A VPS divides the server into sections and allocates a specific amount of resources for each virtual division. These sections get ample processing power and other resources which are solely for a single user. The other users may share the space on the server with you but, they have no access to the resources of your VPS section.

Costs

Shared hosting: It should come as no surprise that shared hosting is the cheapest hosting service you can get. It is very cost-effective for the provider as a single server machine is used to distribute hosting for many users. Thus, the prices providers charge for shared hosting are a lot lower than other hosting services.

VPS hosting: VPS requires considerable maintenance and technical tweaking to create partitions in the server and isolate these sections from each other. Hence, VPS hosting is costlier than shared hosting. It is still a lot more cost-effective than maintaining an entire server for a single user, as the provider distributes hosting to many users on one server of types managed and unmanaged VPS server.

Advantages

The VPS has incredible features that make it a better choice for hosting.

  • Performance: A VPS is essentially a small-scale dedicated server. It has ample processing power and storage to accommodate and run heavy software applications and handle huge traffics.
  • Better Control: As a user, you get an administrator level clearance with VPS hosting. You can freely configure and manage your hosting with authorized access to all of its settings.
  • Scalability: You can choose a VPS hosting plan that gives sufficient resources for your website. You can gradually scale the hosting as your site grows and opt for a better plan. Most hosting providers offer a range of VPS hosting plans that justifies its scalability.

Disadvantages

The only disadvantage that VPS has to shared hosting is its cost. However, even though it is costlier than shared hosting, it is still an economical upgrade for sites that cannot be sustained by shared hosting. Note that VPS gives features similar to dedicated hosting and yet costs a lot lesser than the latter.

Conclusion

Not only does VPS provides dedicated-like features for its hosting, but it is also affordable. It makes VPS hosting a worthy choice for hosting business or eCommerce websites with huge traffics and daily operations.

By WebEditor

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