When people search for a web hosting solution, they instinctively go to shared hosting plans. Indeed, for most websites on the internet, shared hosting is perfectly fine. It’s affordable, easy to set up, and requires minimal technical knowledge. This makes it a great starting point for personal blogs, small business websites, and portfolios. However, as a website grows in complexity and starts attracting more traffic, shared hosting begins to show its limitations.

For example, an online store can start as a small operation, driving no more than 200 visitors daily. A high-end cloud shared hosting plan can easily cover such website needs. However, such a business can outgrow the shared hosting capacities overnight with just one truly viral product.

On the other hand, jumping straight into a dedicated server hosting is not an option for most website owners. Dedicated servers provide exclusive access to all server resources but come at a high cost and require advanced technical expertise to maintain. So, what is the perfect middle-ground between affordability and performance? The answer lies in Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting. VPS hosting gives you the benefits of dedicated resources, enhanced security, and better scalability without the budget-wrecking costs of a dedicated server. It allows you to have much better control over your hosting environment, ensuring that your website remains stable, even under high traffic loads.

But what is VPS? How does it work? What is VPS used for? What is VPS hosting, and what should you look for when choosing VPS hosting? As usual, we are here to help, giving you answers to all those crucial questions and more. So, let’s start from the very top.

What Is VPS?

A Virtual Private Server (VPS) is a hosting environment that dedicates a specific portion of a physical server with dedicated resources. So, while a single physical server can host multiple VPS services, each one of them functions independently. Unlike shared hosting, VPS services have their own resources. They don’t dynamically share CPU, RAM, or storage space, allocating resources to the website that needs them. With shared hosting, it’s often first come, first serve. So, if other websites on your server have occupied most of the server’s resources, your website will experience lags if you encounter heavier than usual traffic.

The VPS service eliminates this problem. With a VPS, the host provides your own guaranteed space and resources within a shared server. You don’t have to worry about another website consuming too many resources and slowing yours down. In addition, you will have more control over your hosting environment, so you can install software, configure settings, and optimize your website as you see fit.

Essentially, VPS takes the best features of shared and dedicated hosting and leaves the downsides behind. Much like the shared hosting, it’s located on the same server as other VPS services. However, thanks to a powerful software known as hypervisor, hosts can allocate dedicated resources as if the users have a dedicated server. The best part is that the software isolates other VPS services from using your resources. Thus, you can install specific software which won’t affect other users. For example, you can have Linux while your neighbor VPS operates on Windows.

In short, you have full control over your portion of the host server. Still, unlike dedicated servers, you have far less responsibility, and the price is relatively lower.

So, now that we know what is VPS, let’s discuss what is VPS used for.

What Is VPS Used For?

VPS is a solution for various business needs. It’s generally considered the best solution for mid-sized companies, requiring guaranteed resources and better security. It’s also great for any business that expects rapid growth. Shared hosting is great for starting up but also limiting if you plan to scale your operation fast.

Some freelancers, like app developers and web developers, can benefit significantly from a VPS, allowing them to run their programs in a controlled environment. They can configure their VPS to test and run their websites, programs, and applications.

Furthermore, there are a few industries where using shared hosting is frowned upon, yet going straight to dedicated servers is not economically feasible.

Hosting High-Traffic Websites

Whether you’re running a news outlet, a niche blog, or simply a picture gallery, shared hosting won’t do. You’re one huge post away from exploding to fame. So, you need to be ready. In our experience, going straight to a dedicated server is a bit of an overkill. Sure, if you start having constant high traffic, investing in a dedicated server is actually a good idea.

However, if you are a one-man show or a small team that prefers to dedicate their time to running your media outlet, VPS is the right choice. This way, you can have the comfort of having dedicated resources and being certain your website won’t crash after some breaking news goes viral. At the same time, you won’t break the bank while you’re still struggling to find your way into the mainstream.

E-commerce and Online Stores

In our experience, this is what is VPS used for most often. These online establishments require more than outstanding speed and ultimate reliability. They need much better security as well. VPS hosting provides precisely this. It ensures stability in handling payment gateways, customer data, and traffic spikes during promotional events.

So, while other stores go dark during Black Friday or before Christmas, your store is sure to have the needed resources to stay open and sell, sell, sell.

Running Custom Applications

VPS doesn’t have the software limitations shared hosting has. Thus, it allows users to install and run custom applications. So, for businesses that rely on special software, VPS provides the needed flexibility. The user can configure the environment any way they need it.

For example, if a financial analytics company needs an Angular-based application to process heavy data sets and make data-driven decisions, shared hosting simply won’t do. It doesn’t have the power. However, a customized VPS set will allow you to install the necessary tools and optimize the performance.

Game Servers

These are the other significant groups of VPS users in our experience. Gamers often prefer to use private servers to host games. With VPS, they gain better control, a smoother gaming experience, and unlimited customization power. The dedicated resources allow gamers to have lag-free gaming sessions, regardless of how many participants there are.

Data Storage and Backups

Many businesses and individuals use VPS hosting as a secure storage solution. With automated backups and the ability to configure security settings, VPS hosting ensures that valuable data remains protected and accessible when needed.

For example, a photographer can store his high-resolution images in a secure environment. This allows quick and easy access from anywhere without the need to carry around a hard drive or other memory devices.

What Is VPS Hosting?

The textbook explanation of VPS hosting says it’s a type of web hosting that utilizes virtualization technology to provide users with dedicated resources on a shared physical server. In practice, this means that we, as a hosting server, separate one machine into several parts. Now, if you have specific needs, we can offer you precisely the resources you want. This means that not all servers are divided equally. This makes VPS hosting one of the most flexible methods for securing dedicated resources for your website or other server needs.

Moreover, This makes VPS hosting the most scale-friendly solution. It allows rapid growth without needing an initial “blind” investment for something you might never use. It’s ideal for start-ups that are often at risk of going under in the first few years. Research has shown that start-ups fail by over 90%. So, while it’s tempting to go straight to dedicated servers, it’s actually wiser to use VPS hosting. It will allow you to scale without limitations, but it will enable you to invest only if and when it is needed.

What Is Cloud VPS Hosting, And Why Is It Better Than Traditional VPS?

Cloud VPS hosting is like VPS hosting v.2.0. It’s faster, more secure, more reliable, and better in almost any aspect. Unlike traditional VPS hosting, cloud VPS hosting does not rely on a single physical server. Instead, what we, for example, do is get an entire network of interconnected servers and give our VPS hosting users dedicated resources in all of them. This allows for a much more stable environment and many other benefits.

This dynamic system ensures that resources are always available when needed. As a result, our users receive a much more resilient solution to their dedicated resource needs.

Compared to traditional VPS hosting, cloud VPS hosting has quite a few advantages:

• Easier scalability – Traditional VPS plans require manual upgrades if you need additional resources. This means someone will have to install new hardware into the server. As cloud hosting uses a network of servers, this problem is eliminated. It can automatically scale CP, RAM, and storage space without downtime or manual upgrades.
• Better Reliability – Cloud VPS hosting can spread workloads on multiple servers. This eliminates any potential for server overload. Thus, having downtime due to server failure is practically impossible.
• Performance optimization – Cloud VPS hosting uses load balancing to ensure that no single server is overwhelmed. This results in faster response times and a smoother user experience compared to a traditional VPS. The latter has several performance limitations based on the resources of a single machine. Thus, if you are looking for a fast VPS solution, the cloud is definitely the way to go.
• Cost-efficiency – Cloud hosting allows fast scalability. Thus, you don’t have to pay for a generous buffer zone, so your website won’t crash for some reason. You can steadily increase your resources, thus saving the initial budget strain.
• Unparalleled disaster mitigation and recovery – Cloud VPS environments typically include automated backups and data redundancy, meaning if a server goes down, your data is already replicated on other machines. Traditional VPS solutions may require manual backup configurations and restoration processes, leading to potential data loss. At the very least, restoring your operations will cost you between 24 and 72 hours.

Managed VPS vs. Unmanaged VPS

When choosing VPS servers, you need to consider whether you need managed or unmanaged VPS. The key difference lies in how much control you have over your resources. Naturally, with more control, you have more responsibilities. Typically managed VPS hosting requires little to no maintenance on your part. The hosting provider takes care of updates and upkeep. However, this means you have less control over the VPS configuration. For example, HostArmada’s managed cloud VPS hosting service uses a predetermined setup – cPanel control panel, NGINX web servers, Imunify 360 Security IP firewall, and Alma Linux operating system.

This will be ideal if you are a small business owner or freelancer with no budget for a dedicated IT team. You will get constant maintenance and support while enjoying all the benefits of VPS hosting.

The same goes for e-commerce websites and bloggers or content creators. They can’t allocate time or resources to take care of their hosting. All they need is guaranteed security and fast loading time. So, naturally, a managed VPS hosting solution is more than welcome.

On the other hand, unmanaged VPS hosting gives you complete control over your server. You can install any operating system you want, as well as use any software you need or desire. However, you also must take care of your VPS’s upkeep. No one will update your machine or software. And while most hosting providers will offer support (at least the good ones), you will still have to do the entire work on your own.

Of course, there are more than enough users interested in unmanaged VPS. Developers, tech-savvy business owners, companies relying on niche software, and others need complete control over their server space, so this solution is perfect.

What Are The VPS Hosting Benefits?

As you already saw, VPS hosting has a lot of benefits. It combines all the best features of shared and dedicated hosting while mostly downsizing the downsides. So, let’s dig a bit deeper into what the benefits of VPS hosting are.

Much better performance

Unlike shared hosting, VPS hosting provides dedicated CPU, RAM, and storage entirely to your needs. This ensures consistent speed and stability, regardless of the traffic load. This is most notable in e-commerce websites, where stores using shard hosting start lagging when Black Friday comes around. Those websites that invested in VPS hosting(especially those that went for cloud VPS hosting) outperformed the competition significantly. Naturally, users are much more prone to buy from a website with a smooth user experience. Moreover, it results in a better customer return rate and lifetime value.

So, in our experience, VPS hosting not only enhances your website’s performance in its most busy times but also significantly improves all marketing and sales stats.

Enhanced security and isolation

Since each VPS is isolated, other websites on the same server can’t affect your performance or security. Moreover, if you have unmanaged VPS hosting, you can implement custom security measures to protect highly sensitive information.

For example, if you run a small but high-profile law firm, you must have a full-proof space where you can handle your confidential client information. Naturally, even though your traffic is not high, your security needs insist on a VPS hosting environment.

Sure, you can go even further and get a dedicated server. However, this will inevitably lead to much higher costs, as you will pay for an entire IT department to take care of the server. Instead, you can get only one IT specialist to look after your server and make the necessary changes and updates.

Scalability for Growing Websites

In our expert opinion, the scalability opportunities of VPS hosting are its biggest benefit. This solution allows for an efficient and easy scaling process, regardless of whether you need to go up or down. Of course, when you sign up with a hosting company, reducing your resources won’t be that easy, as the hosting plan is fixed for a specific period. But if you want to scale down at the end of your contract and renew it for a smaller price, that’s not a problem. The best part is that if you need the extra resources later, you can always scale up. Hosting companies have no issue in earning more.

Regardless, whenever you use a cloud VPS hosting, you can instantly increase your resources. Thus, you can start small and scale your resources with your business growth. It’s the most cost-efficient way to do it.

Complete control and customization

This is a goldmine for developers, as they can do whatever they want with their server space. They can install any software, configure the entire machine as they see fit, and customize their hosting environment based on their specific needs. This is essential when building custom applications using specialized software.

Cost-effectiveness

VPS hosting is practically a dedicated server with a few missing features. Still, it comes at a fraction of the cost, making it ideal for businesses that need power without breaking the bank.

Managed VPS hosting, on the other hand, is an ideal solution for less tech-savvy businesses. They may need dedicated resources and security, but they don’t necessarily have to allocate a budget for an entire IT team. So, instead of relying on in-house professionals to update and maintain the server, they can entrust the hosting provider with this task. Indeed, this significantly reduces their control over the VPS, but it also makes it significantly more affordable.

What Are The VPS Hosting Downsides?

Of course, VPS is not forged by the Gods. Thus, it has its flaws. So, before you jump on the VPS hosting wagon, you must consider the downsides.

Higher Cost Compared To Shared Hosting

First and foremost, we must address the cost issue. We mentioned several times that VPS hosting is a cost-efficient solution. However, that’s only compared to a dedicated server hosting. If we compare it with shared hosting, the cost is noticeably higher.

Thus, you need to consider whether you need a private server carefully. While it won’t break the bank in any way, it can certainly put a strain on your financial situation, especially if VPS hosting is more of a luxury for you.

For example, if you are a local bakery, your website has a brand awareness goal. It’s highly unlikely your website will get too much traffic, as no matter how many fans you have, they will mostly come to your physical store. Thus, a VPS solution is not the most cost-efficient solution in your case. You don’t need dedicated resources or significantly enhanced security. In your case, shared hosting will do just fine.

Requires More Technical Knowledge

Unlike shared hosting, setting up a VPS hosting, especially unmanaged one, requires technical skills and knowledge. You must be able to handle your server management, updates, configuration, and any software installations.

Managed VPS hosting is a great solution, but it still requires a bit more understanding of what hosting is and how it is managed.

You Have More Responsibilities

Once again, this downside is mainly for those using unmanaged VPS hosting. Naturally, when you’re in charge of your own server, you have much more responsibilities. This includes security.

You must be on top of cybersecurity trends, updates, backups, and fixes.

Moreover, you must configure your own server. Misconfigurations can cause server crashes, data loss, or unexpected downtime.

You Still Have Limitations

While your private server does have some significant power, it’s not limitless. You have a fixed amount of bandwidth and processing power. So, if you exceed it, your website will start slowing down. Thus, you must stay on top of your consumption and scale on time. The good news is that scaling is practically an instant solution with cloud VPS hosting.

[Visualization Pros and Cons]

When Do You Need VPS Hosting?

While cloud VPS hosting sounds like a Godsend, it’s definitely not for everybody. There are many things to consider before you go for VPS. Is your traffic high enough? Does shared hosting support your needs? Are you ready to manage servers?

If you are wondering whether you need VPS hosting, this table will give you the answer:

How to Find a Managed Cloud VPS Hosting Provider?

By now, you should be convinced of a few things:

• VPS hosting is the perfect middle ground between Shared and Dedicated hosting.
• Managed VPS hosting is a great solution if you’re not tech-savvy yet need a dedicated hosting environment.
• Unmanaged VPS hosting is perfect if you don’t want to spend on a dedicated server yet still want full control over your hosting environment.
• Cloud VPS hosting has many advantages over traditional VPS hosting.
• What are the benefits of cloud hosting
• What are its downsides?
• Do you really need cloud VPS hosting?

Now that you know that you need managed cloud VPS hosting, it’s time to find a provider. While it’s tempting to jump to the first Google Result, be it sponsored or not, in our experience, you should consider researching the options a bit further. There are many questions you should ask a hosting provider before you sign up, but when it comes to VPS hosting, there are a few additional factors to consider.

Reputation

The hosting provider should be reputable and well-known. Find out as much as you can about the brand and read some reviews from third-party websites. Most importantly, check if they keep a regular blog. This shows they are active, thorough, and with attention to detail. It also gives you a pretty good starting point for learning how to build your website, how to handle your marketing, and anything website-related.

Uptime Guarantee

The best hosting providers offer an uptime guarantee. As you are well aware, going down is detrimental to your business. Thus, a great VPS hosting provider guarantees at least 99.9% uptime. They will also offer compensation if you experience more than 0.1% downtime due to their infrastructure or an error on their side.

Traditional or Cloud

Most VPS hosting providers offer the traditional physical server VPS service. This is fine as long as you’re operating on a single continent. If you are going global, you need cloud hosting. Otherwise, no matter how powerful your server is, there will be lag when someone tries to reach it from the other side of the world.

Cost

Clear, transparent prices with no hidden costs. That’s the only thing you should be looking for. Naturally, a more affordable solution is always more appealing. However, cost should not be the driving force behind your decision. It should be the cherry on top.

What Is Their Infrastructure

Even though you might not be very tech-savvy, you should make it your business to understand what the VPS hosting provider offers for your managed solution. Familiarize yourself with their security measures, their processing power, and every other aspect of their infrastructure. If you’re not managing your own VPS, you must understand what your website will be running on.

Security

Security is crucial for your hosting environment, so make sure to find out what free security measures are included in your package. Will they be enough for your needs, or would you have to allocate additional funds for a more robust security?

Support

Finally, the support is instrumental if you are looking for managed cloud VPS hosting. You must be sure you can reach the provider at any moment. You are spending on dedicated resources so you can take advantage of them. So, if you entrust your hosting provider to maintain your VPS, you must be able to reach them at any time.

The Best Managed VPS Hosting Provider.

The best-managed VPS hosting provider, without a doubt, is HostArmada. We offer unlimited control and redundant powering of our cloud environment, which results in one scalable solution for your fast-expanding business.

We pride ourselves on the lightning-fast speed thanks to our NGINX web server. Moreover, we provide you with top-of-the-line security, including IP firewall and Web Application firewall, for no additional cost.

Finally, we give a 99.9% uptime guarantee and we provide 24/7/365 support through ticketing, email, chat, and phone, as well as a full Root Level of access on demand.

So, check out our managed VPS hosting plans and start your VPS journey with the best on the market.