Everybody dreams of having a place of their own - be it an apartment in a bustling city or a cute little house somewhere close to nature. We make plans, work hard, and eventually - one day, we can achieve that coveted dream.
Luckily, having your own place in an online environment is much easier and takes a lot less time. You just find a suitable web host, choose an appropriate plan, pick a domain name, and start building your website. There are usually enough tools to help you along the journey, and the provider often pitches in with extra assistance when needed.
The focus of this guide is finding the right path that will lead you to success.
For many new clients, the first logical step would be shared hosting solutions.
The Current State of Shared Hosting
In most cases, new websites are not really resource-hungry- very few pages exceed 1-2 GB of disk space, and the monthly bandwidth is rarely an issue. Shared hosting accounts can easily deliver that and more. Depending on the host, there is a wide variety of free extras, and you can count on professional assistance to help you get started.
As this type of hosting offers a shared amount of system resources, the price for each client can be brought down to just a couple of dollars per month. This makes the service affordable for any type of client or project.
It's no surprise that shared hosting takes the largest chunk of the market. Here are some numbers that will give you an even better perspective:
Shared hosting is responsible for over 37.64% of the revenue share in the entire industry.
The shared hosting market has seen a steady growth from 2015 ($14.05 billion) to 2020 ($22 billion).
Prices for a standard shared plan mostly vary between $3 and $7 per month.
Even though the shared market is expanding by around 10.5%, the fastest-growing segment in recent years is Cloud Hosting (18.3%).
The future looks solid for shared hosting solutions, but that doesn't mean it's all smooth sailing for its users.
Shared Hosting Limitations
Starting a new project in a shared environment is often a logical choice and provides enough to get your project going. But as you experience growth or want to expand your presence, some underlying problems inevitably start popping up:
Resource Limitations
Hosting 100+ users on a single server is no easy task without a proper setup, and providers are well aware of that. To keep everything from failing regularly, hosts apply various limitations to ensure there is no heavy load on the server - number of inodes, file types, database size, maximum upload size, etc.
Performance Limitations
The main server resources are also shared between all clients. This means that if a certain user starts draining too much RAM or CPU power - the other inhabitants of the server will see their websites slowing down and even going offline. There is no way to plan for such occurrences as well - traffic spikes can hit at any moment.
Customization Limitations
Changes to any of the server presets will influence the performance of all residing websites. This is why hosts logically block all user access to those areas, ensuring the stability of the environment at all times. They can do some minor changes for you upon request, but any major modification is out of the question.
Security Limitations
You can build a fortress around your online project, but that doesn't mean you are fully protected against cyber attacks. If a hacker successfully breaches any of your neighboring accounts, they practically gain access to the entire server. You are never 100% secure on a shared server.
You can see how this type of web hosting might prove problematic for a serious business project in more than a few ways. Luckily, all those issues can be solved by simply switching to the next service tier.
How Does VPS Hosting Change the Game?
Virtual private server (VPS) solutions pack a lot more heat than standard shared hosting. Through a process called virtualization, hosts are able to divide a single physical server into several virtual copies, each acting as a separate dedicated machine. The client gets a significant portion of the server resources, and, this time, they are all dedicated to their project.
VPS hosting practically eliminates all problems related to "bad neighbors."
There is zero chance of a resource-hungry client on the same physical server draining all its resources because each user account is isolated, like in a cage. In case you hit any CPU or RAM limits - you can't just borrow more from someone else. This helps you adapt to your project growth and scale it as per your current needs.
The same applies to your security efforts. VPS hosting eliminates the risks from outside breaches through neighboring accounts and leaves you solely responsible for the protection of your online premises. Providers like ScalaHosting even go a step further and add unique security tools for malware and virus detection.
But probably the most significant improvement of VPS hosting when compared to shared hosting is in the Customizations department. Operating a virtual server gives you full control of the environment and the freedom to modify even the tiniest details of your website.
Many self-managed VPS solutions grant root access to the client, meaning they get full administrative rights. Still, if you're not really tech-savvy or confident enough to make server modifications - better leave it to the professionals.
Why Managed VPS?
Managed VPS services from providers like ScalaHosting encompass all those benefits that make virtual server hosting so great...with an added bonus. If you are a novice user with little to no idea about server management - you can hire your host's professional support to help you with the technicalities.
Managed services often include the initial server setup, hardware optimization, software installation, maintenance, updates, and issue resolution. Even experienced developers can hit a wall sometimes, so having the expert assistance of other professionals is always welcome.
To top it all off, managed VPS solutions add quite a lot of features compared to the bare-metal server that self-managed users secure for their price - dedicated IP, SSL certificates, CDN solutions, a control panel, etc.
The technological opportunities for web hosting keep expanding, so we can expect the price difference between shared and VPS hosting to diminish even more. And now that professional support is not an issue - there are more than a few reasons to consider this service for your future website!
