Shared Hosting VS VPS – Key Differences and Benefits (2024)

Shared Hosting - What Is It?

Shared hosting refers to a web hosting service where a single physical server hosts multiple websites. Since many users utilize the resources of a single server simultaneously, their monthly costs are low in comparison to all other hosting types. When a website is built using a Shared Hosting plan, its data will be present on a server that keeps the information of a few other websites. So, one and the same server will be responsible for serving up the information of all websites hosted on it. Shared servers can host hundreds of users at the same time. Every customer of the Shared web hosting server has access to features like large databases, disk space, more potential monthly traffic, FTP accounts, e-mail accounts, and more depending on the plan. System resources are allocated on-demand and each customer gets a percentage of the RAM and the CPU resources of the Shared server.

Benefits of Shared Hosting

Budget-friendly to New Users

Shared web hosting provides a less expensive hosting solution. The hosting company can afford to give a low price due to the fact that all maintenance costs are distributed between many people. Basic plans start at a value of $30 a year and can reach over $100 for premium packages with unlimited bandwidth, unlimited disk space, and other benefits. Simply put, you are certainly more likely to pay more for VPS hosting than for Shared Hosting, as the cost of the Shared service is split between all users of the server. Because of that, it is lower in price compared to the slightly more expensive VPS Hosting option.

Simple to Self-Manage

You can manage your website via a user-friendly control panel. The simplified user interface that is provided by the majority of hosting providers will make the management process simple. That includes the straightforward setup which in turn makes it easy to use for users. All administrative tasks and monitoring duties associated with the Shared hosting are readily available and could be handled with a few clicks and application installs.

Suitable for Dynamic Websites

Websites that look different depending on the user device are called dynamic websites. This website settlement is especially useful for the creation of mobile-friendly websites. Popular examples of dynamic websites are Facebook, Twitter, Quora. They all generate a different interface that matches the screen dimensions of the device of each visitor. Popular content management systems (CMS) including WordPress and Joomla support this configuration model. These platforms tend to use various programming languages such as Perl, Python, or PHP, all of which can run on a shared server.

VPS Hosting - What Is It?

Virtual Private Server or VPS for short is a type of hosting utilizing a virtualized environment that is also shared. VPS hosting gives you the power to host your website, its data and other files on a virtual machine that no one else has access to. Security and privacy settings are already included with VPS and you need less time configuring them when you are setting up a machine or building up a website in this environment. You can choose who can have access to your data and that adds to the privacy benefit. In addition, if you buy VPS from a hosting provider you will instantly get your own space on a virtual server. Uploading your website files is all you need to easily begin hosting with no extra time or money spent.

Benefits of VPS Hosting

Easily Scalable

Your new website can be scaled up quickly using different VPS hosting plan. One of the benefits of VPS Hosting is that it enables you to easily scale up your hosting plan to another that will match your website needs. A good example to know when to scale up and put more resources in your web business is the moment your site generates a significant growth in visitor count. The number of visitors, increasing from hundreds to thousands, can make your homepage to display an error message regarding online traffic. Then you will need a VPS plan that can handle any amount of traffic. VPS Hosting has features that allow you to scale faster and easier. For small businesses, paying a little higher sum right from the start helps to avoid unpleasant problems with the website as the business grows in the future. VPS is an excellent choice for ambitious companies that want to scale without worrying about crashing their website. Shared web hosting requires different setups and more time to switch plans compared to VPS.

More Resources

VPS hosting offers more resources from the get go. Even with the cheapest VPS plan, you have fewer limitations than Shared Hosting. If you choose a Shared hosting plan, as per the name suggests, you will need to share these resources. Naturally, that could lead to problems with the resources, traffic and security. If a website uses too much bandwidth, any other site on the server will be affected. A larger bandwidth is allocated within VPS plans, and VPS Hosting is overall better equipped to handle your site's growing traffic. In addition, your website will not be able to use resources beyond what is allowed. However, with VPS Hosting you will have access to more server hardware available to you and significantly more resources output. You will also be granted root access through the server environment. This access allows you to install additional software and freely edit files on the server. The other advantage is that with VPS hosting, you have more space for a private drive. Space will be necessary and quite useful if you aim to expand your business to a high level.

Greater Customization

There is also a difference between the two types of hosting in terms of customization. At some point, you may want to have more control over the software you can install to optimize the performance of your website. With a Virtual Private Server, you have fewer restrictions on this. Compared, Shared hosting has limitations that cannot be exceeded in any way. VPS hosting allows you to customize your plan and change limits even every month, if necessary. It is also more flexible as you can tweak the server more. The potential for configuring the software is limitless, but that doesn't mean you need all those tweaks. Overdoing things without backing up, can lead to accidental deletion of files or programs. Make only the changes deemed truly necessary for your site.

Do Both Shared and VPS Plans Include a Managed Service?

Both Shared Hosting and VPS Hosting have an optional but helpful Managed option. That is the biggest benefit - having a team of professionals tech experts handle the monitoring of your server and maintaining it. In case you choose a Hosting plan that is managed, the management team will take care of basic server administrative tasks which will definitely guarantee relatively low maintenance from you yourself. With Managed Hosting, you can have the technical assistance for hardware upgrades, maintenance, software updates, DDoS protection, and every intricate detail related to security and patching.

Managed Service - Shared Hosting VS VPS Hosting

In Managed VPS Hosting the hardware, network and the whole server configuration could be fully managed. With Shared Hosting you will have fewer options to be configured, meaning less money spent for management. Note that while some providers do not have a managed option, it is less common to see Unmanaged VPS, rather than Shared Hosting. This means that VPS hosting is more likely to have a Support Team working for you and monitoring your server. If your website deals with a lot of personal user data, VPS hosting is best. The variety of protection features is excellent. The bottom line is that security can be entirely customizable by you with VPS hosting compared to Shared Hosting. However, if you are a small business and do not need to tweak security enhancements that much, the Managed Shared Hosting option is the right one for you.

Conclusion on Shared Hosting VS VPS Hosting

To say that one hosting option is greater than the other will be a lie. Both VPS and Shared hosting have their benefits and specific uses to a different array of business clients. From small to large, from carefree to frantic, from budget to limitless, there are hosting plans for all online businesses and websites. We hope that this post from howtohosting.guide has been diligent enough to highlight the most crucial advantages and differences of both types of hosting. That should be plentiful in helping you choose the right hosting plan for you.

Shared Hosting vs VPS - FAQ