When the first Virtual Private Server was introduced years ago, thе costs of maintaining this innovative hosting solution were high and server resources were still expensive.
Over the years, maintenance costs have dropped and the adoption of server virtualization has become more common, which has made Virtual Private Servers a mainstream solution and which has put them in a position to compete with regular shared hosting services in terms of user preference.
More and more shared hosting users have started asking themselves whether or not to move to a Virtual Private Server.
If you are an e-commerce startup, for example, you will need more resources as you grow. And these do not include only space and traffic.
Even if you avail of unmetered resources on a shared server, you will have a hard time running all the scripts your store needs and handling the growing number of customers and purchase queries because of insufficient server memory.
Here are the features that are typically restricted to shared hosting account owners:
Background processes – for security reasons, most shared hosting providers do not offer support for scripts running in the background. Background processes are often used for content caching purposes. For instance, the Magento script needs the background-running Varnish web accelerator to reduce the response times and the overall network bandwidth consumption.
PHP memory – on a shared server, you will be allocated limited PHP memory resources for the sake of server stability. E-stores that showcase memory-intensive product listings need more memory for the PHP processes to run properly.
Simultaneous processes – there will be a limit to how many threads can be run simultaneously, again, for server stability’s sake. Simultaneous processes are key to the maximum number of page requests you can serve at any given time and their presence will be crucial for your e-store during peak traffic times.
MySQL connections – the number of allowed simultaneous MySQL database connections will also be limited on a shared server. Databases lie at the heart of any e-store, so MySQL connection limits will have an immediate impact on your store’s capacity to handle requests during peak traffic periods. Well, that’s normal.
After all, a server cannot be “unlimited”’.
We have compiled a list of reasons as to why users who’d like to run more complex projects like an e-store prefer going with an entry-level VPS solution:
The benefits of a Virtual Private Server over a regular shared hosting account
The benefits of choosing a VPS over a shared hosting account are mainly connected with the fact that the server resources are virtually isolated and pre-allocated, which allows the user to make full use of what they have paid for at any given moment.
Here are some of the key VPS benefits:
Full insulation from the others on the same machine – on a VPS, if another user is misbehaving, this will not have a direct impact on your projects. If a given account gets compromised, only the respective user’s virtual machine will crash – there won’t be any consequences to the physical machine where your container is located. This way, you will be intact no matter what happens to the other virtual environments on the mother server. This is great if you have an e-commerce site in which case a minute of downtime can cost you diverted customers and missed profits.
Guaranteed speeds – your speeds will always be guaranteed regardless of the present needs of the other users on the same machine and/or of their activity. For example, if two CPU cores have been allocated to you, then you will always have those two at your disposal. If you have paid for 4 GB of RAM, the amount in question will always be at your disposal no matter whether the other users on the same machine are in an excessive need of RAM or not. So, on a VPS, all the resources that your e-store needs will be at your full disposal at any given moment, in contrast to the shared hosting scenario where speeds are affected by server usage spikes.
Guaranteed Stability – using virtualization software, a single physical machine can be partitioned into many independent containers that emulate a dedicated server environment. This way, on a VPS you can never experience service interruptions, hiccups or downtimes caused by the other users on the same machine. This will help your e-store welcome customers at any time, no matter what.
Guaranteed space – on a VPS, your server space will be at your disposal exclusively. No matter if you use it or not, the resources you’ve paid for will be ‘kept away’ from the other users on the same physical machine and will be available to you at any given time. On a shared server, you will be sharing the available resources with many other users, so the space you can avail of will largely depend on how ‘loaded’ the server is at any given moment. For a storage space-sensitive website like an e-store, where the number of newcomers grows by the hour, this ‘uncertainty’ could be critical.
More control – on a VPS, you can get complete root access to your server environment and install any custom software you need for your store. On a shared server, the number of popular software packages a single user can install is limited for security reasons. So, if you are tech-savvy or if you know someone who can do the installation job on your behalf, you can take advantage of software flexibility no shared hosting service is capable of providing.
Easy scalability – the ability to scale your hosting resources is very important if you want your website to grow. On a VPS, you can easily be allocated more resources whenever you need this. If you do not expect great website traffic spikes, then scalability may not be of great importance to you. However, if you are planning to run a promo campaign on your store, for example, and expect a high traffic surge, resource scalability will be crucial. On a VPS, you can add more RAM to your container with a mouse click.
Cost-effective solutions for e-store startups – VPS hosting solutions are now much cheaper than they were a few years ago and the prices are expected to keep going down on the heels of the latest advances in server virtualization. The increased affordability makes VPS hosting an option for a growing number of sites. Today, you can get a small, private virtual hosting environment for as low as $15 per month. That’s almost the price of a more advanced shared hosting account, minus the objective limitations associated with the shared environment.
If you are interested in getting a VPS, read further to learn more about the VPS hosting solutions available on our platform.
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