What Is VPS Hosting?
Virtual private server (VPS) hosting is increasingly popular with website owners that need reliable performance and robust security measures. While shared hosting packages offer affordable entry-level hosting features, VPS hosting provides the edge you need to take your website to the next level. As a side note, most quality web hosts (Australia-specific article) such as Hostinger & A2 Hosting offers both to cover the market.
VPS hosting divides a traditional server into “virtual” segments. Each segment is occupied by a website and benefits from a pre-determined amount of bandwidth and storage. While users are still sharing a server with other websites, their segment is protected, ensuring other users don’t impact performance.
Benefits of VPS Hosting
Let’s explore VPS hosting’s unique advantages and why it can help you improve your website, blog, or online store:
- Designated Resources: The primary advantage of VPS hosting is that you have designated resources. This enables you to improve performance and protect the security of your website from external forces.
- Root Access: With VPS hosting plans, you’re often given root access to your server, which provides additional control over your hosting capabilities.
- Scalability: You can easily improve your current memory and bandwidth limits by upgrading your VPS hosting package. This provides scalability that you can’t find in shared hosting packages.
Other Types of Hosting
To understand VPS hosting and its advantages, it’s critical to understand the alternatives. Below, let’s explore the three most popular hosting options.
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is the most basic form of web hosting and provides users access to a shared server. While shared hosting packages often outline storage limits and bandwidth limits, overuse from other websites on the server can severely impact your website’s performance.
However, because of its low cost, most value-centric WordPress hosting providers (again, Australia-specific recommendations) you see in the market host in a shared environment.
Dedicated Server Hosting
Dedicated server hosting is a step above VPS hosting. In a similar fashion to VPS hosting, dedicated hosting provides you with guaranteed storage and performance – except no one else will be using the same server as your website.
If you’re running a large online store or website that experiences significant traffic, controlling an entire server can prove advantageous. The primary downside is that dedicated hosting costs much more than VPS hosting. Also, it’s hard to scale designated hosting without accessing additional servers.
In short, if you want to run a large-scale e-business, dedicated server hosting is an investment to make! Some of our favorite dedicated server plans come from A2 Hosting and a few others we’ve mentioned in our best web hosting in Australia and the best web hosting in Canada lists.
Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting is a relatively new form of hosting that uses cloud resources to host your website. Since website owners aren’t confined to a single physical server, scaling a website with cloud hosting is straightforward.
Another advantage of cloud hosting is that you can avoid uptime issues. As you’re not reliant on a single server, you don’t have to worry about hardware crashes impacting your website’s viability.
Again, like all other types of hosting, some of the best cloud packages are sold by our top recommended Australian web hosts such as SiteGround & Hostinger.
Is VPS Hosting Right for My Website?
The answer to this question will depend on your requirements. If you’re searching for an upgrade from a shared hosting package, a VPS hosting package is a clear choice; you won’t have to break the bank to access improved performance.
On the other hand, if your website will experience substantial traffic volume, it might be worth considering dedicated hosting or cloud hosting. Make sure to assess all your options before you make any decisions.