How do you know when you should upgrade your web hosts? This is a concern that many people have. But before going into the details let’s take a minute to understand the different web hosting options available to you. The three main web hosting services to choose from include:
Shared Web Hosting – This is one of the most popular and commonly used web hosting services. Shared web hosting is a type of web hosting where multiple websites share one physical server and its available resources. Every website in the server shares disk space, computing power, network and other resources. This is the most economical option because the overall server maintenance cost is shared among many users. Shared web hosting is recommended if you have a small website that don’t have large amount of traffic, require a cost effective solution and don’t have high security concerns.
Dedicated Web Hosting – With dedicated web hosting, your website gets access to an entire web server that is not shared among other users. It provides faster performance and is costly when compared to shared hosting. Dedicated web hosting is recommended for larger websites with large amount of traffic or websites that need a higher level of security.
Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting – Virtual private hosting is actually a hybrid of shared and dedicated web hosting. In this type of hosting, a server is divided into virtual servers, where each website gets its own space in the dedicated server, but the resources are shared among other websites. It is recommended for users who need greater control at the server level, but don’t wish to invest in a dedicated server.
When To Upgrade To VPS
Most people choose shared web hosting for their first website. While this is the ideal choice for smaller websites and blogs, it is not enough for larger websites that have a growing potential. So if you are serious about your online business but are using shared web hosting, you should probably start thinking about upgrading your hosting plan to the next level – the VPS web hosting plan. Certainly, shared hosting offers you many great features at a low cost. But as your business grows, your hosting needs may change as well.
As your website grows, the resources offered by the shared hosting plan will not be enough. At this stage you need to switch to a plan that can handle the larger amount of traffic, provide the necessary security and above all, be cost effective. When compared to a dedicated server, a VPS will be the right choice because apart from being cost-effective, it gives you the flexibility to customize the server according to your requirements like adding more resources or installing new software. It also provides a higher level of security and many other functions.
Here are a few indications that it’s time to upgrade to a VPS from a shared web hosting plan:
Your website is way too slow
If your website has a large amount of incoming traffic, it becomes difficult for your shared server to keep up with the demand. As a result, performance starts deteriorating and probably your website takes a long time to load. If you are using up too many resources from the shared server, sometimes the hosting provider may send you notification saying that you’ve exceeded the resource limit. Heavy traffic and poor performance are therefore reasons for you to upgrade to a virtual private server.
You need direct access to the server
Another important reason for upgrading to a VPS is when you need direct control over your web host or server root access, in order to carry out more advanced tasks such as installing new software, editing files on the server or performing a custom server configuration. Root access is only available on VPS and dedicated web hosting.
You need higher level of security
If your business heavily depends on your website, the last thing you want is to have to deal with security problems and hackers. On a shared host, where numerous websites are being hosted, the risk of hackers getting into your website is always high. The best way to ensure a secure environment and better performance is to upgrade to virtual private server hosting. VPS offers you a higher level of security by giving you your own dedicated space, which is password protected. Compared to shared hosting, VPS does not offer visibility of your server space to the rest of the users on the server. Additionally, with VPS you get multiple layers of server protection, not only at the server level but also the protection, including firewall that you provide to your own server segment.
Your website experiences a lot of downtime
If a large percentage of your business revenue is generated online, surely you cannot afford to have even five minutes of server downtime. With shared hosting services, the providers tend to squeeze in more accounts on the same server, in order to cover up for the server cost, as well as to make a profit. As the number of accounts increase, the server becomes overloaded and eventually stops working. If you are experiencing downtime over and over again with a shared hosting service, its high time you upgraded to a VPS. A fully managed and high performing virtual private server typically offers you 99.9% uptime, which is exactly what your website and business needs.
You want to expand your business
Another important reason you may want to upgrade to a VPS web host is that it allows you to expand your business. If you own an e-commerce site or a website for business purposes, you will realize that over time you would have to add more and more to your website. As a result, your website would be getting more and more traffic. This is going to cause big problems if you are using shared hosting. Gradually you will come to a point where it is no longer possible to expand your site. At this point you will have to go through the trouble of upgrading to a new server. All these hassles can be avoided if you plan ahead from the start, keeping the possibility for expansion in mind and upgrading to a VPS when the right time comes.
Your business relies on your website
The past few years have witnessed the usage of internet on a huge scale for supporting a large percentage of businesses. If you are running a business such as an online store that generates revenue from the website, it must be live 24/7 and must be functioning with maximum efficiency to attract customers. In such a scenario, using a shared web hosting service is not a wise idea, as it may not deliver the desired results. Investing on a virtual private server is the best thing to do because in addition to offering numerous benefits such as security, maximum uptime, scalability and reliability,it also guarantee flawless performance.
You need a cost-effective solution to web hosting
When it comes to web hosting, you get what you pay for. You will definitely get shared web hosting services at a lower price, but you will have to compromise on quality as well as security. By paying a bit more money, you can get more reliable, faster and secure virtual private server hosting. Even though shared hosting is inexpensive, you may not get the services that are worth the money you pay for. However, when you upgrade to VPS hosting, you will always get the value for your money. For business websites, it is always wise to start with a VPS hosting package rather than shared hosting. VPS used to be very costly before, but with the advancements in technology,it has become affordable. Whether your website is small, medium and large, you will definitely be able to find an appropriate VPS package that offers all the services and resources you need at an affordable rate.
So if you notice any of the indications mentioned above, it means that you should upgrade your shared hosting plan to a virtual private server. Shared hosting is perfect for small websites with a few visitors per day. But when you are dealing with a big website with larger amount of traffic, you need maximum uptime and better security. That’s when you should move to a virtual private server. Like all aspects of your business, it is important to plan ahead and choose the right web hosting package so as to ensure that it delivers the desired outcome and leads your business to success.
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