VPS hosting has its own pros and cons. Shared hosting has its own pros and cons. If you are trying to find differences between these two hosting platforms, this post may help you as I will list all pros and cons of each of them separately. There’s no doubt that you’ll get big advantages when your site is on a VPS. If there’s a good, there must be a bad as well.
Advantages and Disadvantages of a Virtual Private Server
- Full control over the server
- Website loading speeds will improve
- Easy backups and restores
- Migrating between servers are very easy
- Root access makes managing websites easy
- Ability to install custom application as you need
- Maximum Securities
- Only your site(s) will be on your server and ip address
- Very Expensive
- Need technician or proper technical knowledge to manage server
VPS is essential for any website. You’ll get full control over it and can do whatever you need to do inside. With full SSH access, you can move your sites from server to server with few commands.
But you need to have proper knowledge about how to manage a VPS or budget to hire a technician. Almost all hosting providers offer managed VPS service for something like $150+ per month while unmanaged service can be found at $40+ per month. The biggest problem with VPS is that you’re on your own. You make a single mistake in you VPS and you could never recover your website.
However, if you want to learn to swim then you must jump into the water. Best way you can learn it is by doing it yourself.
Shared hosting in other hand has more disadvantages. But what makes it more popular is its price.
Advantages and Disadvantages of a Shared Hosting
- Very Cheap
- No server knowledge is needed
- Hosting company will manage the server
- Slow website loading
- Cannot make changes to the server
- Can cause unexpected downtimes
- Backup and restore can be a pain
- Migrating between host is time-consuming and little difficult
- Thousands of sites could be on your server and ip address
Websites on shared hosting is usually slow and it can be really slow time to time. And thousands of other websites will be hosted on your ip. This includes spam and scam sites as well. When you need to move your site to a new host, you’ll have to download all files to your computer and upload it again to new server through FTP. Backups and restores will also involve downloading and uploading.
But it beats VPS when it comes to cost. Shared hosting is very cheap and can be found under $10 per month. Shared hosting will be good start for your blog or medium size site. But if you’re planing to launch a business or offer products, it’s better to go with a VPS.
