Website Hosting: 3 Alternatives
Shared vs VPS vs Dedicated hosting
You’ve designed the next great website — or developed a groundbreaking mobile app — and the world’s just gotta see it.
Now, you gotta decide: How ya best gonna share it?
While assessing your hosting options, you should have noticed distinct variations in each respective platform, from shared to virtual private (VPS) to dedicated servers — and everything in between. Although each type suffices in bringing the world to your website (or app), it’s advantageous to pick the underlying platform that will best suit your website/app’s long-term needs and performance.
You can make the shrewdest choice by understanding what distinguishes one platform from another, which we do for you below.
Shared hosting
With shared hosting, all websites reside on a common server and draw from a shared pool of system resources (data, CPU, memory, disk space) available on that server, akin to sharing a home PC with family members.
In such a situation, a large traffic spike from another user will seize more of the server’s resources, bottlenecking other website traffic and diminishing your website’s performance. You have little recourse to fix the issue when it arises.
Nevertheless, this inexpensive option remains well suited for websites running standard software and are also attracting low to moderate traffic volume. With only a rudimentary knowledge of hosting, you can easily configure and deploy a website as necessary. However, you have no control over system performance or resource allocation, so you can never be certain of your website’s consistent and constant performance.
Virtual hosting (VPS)
Virtual Private Server hosting mimics both shared and dedicated, up to a point. Multiple clients are on a single server that has been “virtualized” for each client. That is, it has been divvied up according to the amount of resources each needs and has paid for.
On the other hand, you do get full root access to configure the system, which is similar to the control you get with dedicated hosting.
More powerful than shared hosting, virtualization affords a website’s independent, secure operation and optimal performance despite its “communal” residency. Virtualization ensures each user gets a personal space that no other user on the host can see, interact with or disrupt.
Moreover, a VPS can usually be scaled on the fly because resources are assigned to it — not the physical server, and thus, are more readily available at an SLA level.
Such system flexibility exceeds the operational availability of shared hosting while permitting custom scalability, where the customer can select any amount of RAM, CPU capacity and bandwidth. For this reason, available resources are what you want, when you want. This a la carte menu of system resources is then invoiced — like a utility — , with costs commensurate with those resources selected/used.
Compared to shared hosting, VPS affords greater latitude with system configuration because it can be designed as if it were a distinct server with its own RAM, CPU, disk space, etc. The upshot? You get dedicated hosting-like uptime and network reliability, fault-tolerant resiliency with component failover, optimum performance, and cost efficiency with utility billing.
Consequently, virtual hosting performance rivals that of dedicated hosting, but for less cost. It also removes the burden of hardware maintenance that is intrinsic to dedicated. However, VPS’ full root access requires corresponding commensurate sysadmin knowledge and rigorous security precautions.
Dedicated hosting
With dedicated hosting, you are in full control of the host. You own all the resources, sharing none. You get outstanding server performance; that is, once you master the intricacies of properly configuring a dedicated host, getting it to run, and then maintaining it in perpetuity. The host is not the only thing dedicated; so are you.
Dedicated hosting costs the most in terms of money, personnel allocation, and IT knowledge equity. Capital intensive and operationally inefficient, dedicated hosting bears the most risk. That’s why large enterprise, institutions, or ventures with multiple sites subject to heavy traffic loads typically choose this platform.
The Kicker
With three legitimate choices for website hosting (or app development), you’re sure to have questions. However, the fundamental question you should answer first is:
What level of performance, scalability, and location does your website/application need most to run best?
Answer that question and your focus clears. Then, make the shrewdest choice.
