7 Pros and Cons of VPS Hosting

Using a virtual private server, or VPS, is something that has gained a great deal of popularity in the past few years. Businesses are starting to take notice of how VPS hosting can help their needs in a better way as compared to the other options. Unfortunately, many people are still confused about what VPS hosting offers, which results in them seeking other options. The reason why so many people get confused about VPS hosting is because it is a type of hybrid that is combining what you would get with dedicated and shared hosting services.

People have this notion that a VPS solution is not as good as a dedicated hosting solution, which is not the case. That is why it is important to go over some of the pros and cons associated with VPS hosting. Here are our seven pros and cons of VPS hosting and how they can impact businesses that use the service.

Pros

1. Affordable

The biggest reason why we would push someone in the direction of using a VPS solution for their business is because of the affordability. You are getting so much service and you are not paying very much per month. Yes, the price will be higher as compared to a basic shared hosting solution, but that is inevitable. You are paying less than dedicated hosting and you will soon find that you are not losing out on too many features.

There is a difference between cheap and affordable. With cloud VPS, even if you are going for a cheaper solution, you are getting great value. The services added for the money are incredible, which means you will never feel like you need to pay more for a dedicated hosting solution.

2. Customizable

Even if you go with cheap VPS hosting with high availability you will be amazed at how much you are being offered in terms of features. Let us say that you start out and you want the cheapest plan. There is nothing wrong with that. But even among the cheaper plans, you can customize your server and account in any way that you want. If you want to start using WordPress, you can have that set up within minutes. If you are using some other type of solution for your website, it should work with your host too.

All those apps, services and widgets that you may want to use to better monitor your site, assess SEO, identify your online marketing success, and assess your traffic will be easy to use when you are on a cloud VPS. That is why so many smaller businesses are beginning to realize that all their needs can be met with such a solution.

3. Scalable

The beauty of cloud VPS plans is how you are able to scale the resources that you need with ease. When you start out, you may even choose the lowest plan, because you are not sure if you will need any other resources. You set up your site on that server, and you start to find that it is running slower during certain times.

You have two choices. You can either request for the additional power during those hours when the site gets more traffic, or you can just get a higher plan for the entire month, and not have to worry about the issue. You can scale up and down on resources on the same server, without losing any time or any of your information. It is not like shared hosting where you have to set everything up again.

4. More Control

The problem with sharing hosting is that you are not given full control over the server. Most of the time, you do not have root access. If you need an application or service installed, you must ask them to do it for you. And since you are just sharing a portion of the same server, you are going to experience bandwidth and throttling issues during peak hours, when others are using the service a lot.

These issues are not present with a cloud VPS solution. Why? Because you get root access, which means you can install whatever OS, CMS, apps, widgets or services that you need on the server. You can do these installations yourself. In addition, there are no throttling or speed issues even though you are technically on a shared server. Why? Because a virtual private server is independent of the other bits of the server. Even in peak hours, when everyone is using the service a lot, you get the same speed and performance that you would get during off hours.

5. Support and Accessibility

Despite the full control that is available with a cloud VPS, you still get a lot of support. From the moment you open your account and buy a plan, you can get assistance from the provider’s customer service team. Whether you need help in connecting your website, setting up a CMS like WordPress, adding widgets and services, or in adding a data backup solution, you will get assistance when you require it. All you need to do is submit a ticket with customer support, and you are contacted very quickly. Such support ensures that cloud VPS solutions will always be accessible.

Cons

1. Pricier than Shared Hosting

If you are on a bare bones budget you may find the cheapest VPS is a bit too expensive for you. That is how it goes, but we encourage you to look at the services that you are getting for that money. Yes, you have to pay more than $10 or $20 a month, but you are also getting insane control and value over a server that you can use as you please.

2. Server Downtime

If you end up with a provider that is not the most reliable, you may have issues due to their server downtime. If they have a server failure, it will disrupt your site, even if the failure was only for a few minutes.

Published by Kidal Delonix (1198 Posts)

Kidal Delonix is a contributor to Mr. Hoffman's blog. The views and opinions are entirely his/her own and may not reflect Mr Hoffman's views.