In our now very digital world, every business needs a website, but it isn’t as simple as just opening your computer and designing one. Websites need to be hosted on servers and there are quite a few different types to choose from – here are 4 reasons why you may want to consider a Virtual Private Server, VPS, to host your business website.
What is VPS hosting?
VPS hosting essentially means hosting your website on a virtual server that is designed to mimic the environment of a dedicated or shared server environment. The concept of hosting can be difficult to get your head around, especially if you don’t speak IT language, so think of a server as a hotel for websites, and a web server as a virtual hotel, meaning that it doesn’t take up any real physical space.
What is the difference between VPS hosting and Shared or Dedicated hosting?
The other terms you may have come across are Shared and Dedicated hosting, these are just two other ways in which you can host your website. Dedicated hosting means renting an entire server to yourself which is great for very high traffic websites or those who need to set up their server in a very specific way, but because you essentially own the whole server, Dedicated hosting can be very expensive and isn’t the route that most new businesses want to go down. Shared hosting is often more accessible, and involves renting a small portion of a server, this may not give you as much control over the setup of the server but will help to keep down costs. Finally, VPS hosting is a virtual version of dedicated hosting, giving businesses the control they need at a fraction of the cost.
Reasons to consider VPS hosting
- Dedicated RAM
When using a shared server, you also share the resources of your server, including things such as RAM. Random Access Memory (RAM) is responsible for the speed at which your website loads, and if someone else is using it all, then this will slow down your site and potentially lose you, customers. With VPS hosting, you aren’t sharing your RAM, meaning that it’s always there when you need it. - Privacy
With a VPS server, you don’t share your Operating System with anyone else, which means that no other websites can potentially access your files – giving you greater privacy and security. - Cost
VPS hosting offers businesses the chance to experience the benefits of Dedicated hosting at the price of Shared hosting. You can find Cheap VPS easily online and there are a number of different VPS hosting companies to choose from depending on your needs. - Control
And finally, with VPS hosting you are in control of the server applications you use and the changes you make to your server – if you need to restart your server to re-install an application or to install an update, you can do so at any time without affecting anyone else.
Clearly, for those businesses that require the core benefits associated with a Dedicated server, VPS hosting is a more practical and economical alternative.
