So you’ve decided to get your website onto the depths of the interwebs, but can’t decide between a Shared Hosting or a VPS Hosting solution. This article is here to help you.

These are the two most popular options to start your hosting journey. Each one comes with its own set of advantages and limitations: one might be easier to set up, but not as scalable while the other gives you more flexibility, but requires more technical knowledge to take advantage of fully.

In this comprehensive guide, we will answer the question what are VPS hosting and shared hosting, while discussing their distinctive features and benefits. Whether you're a senior full stack engineer seeking better performance or a newcomer exploring hosting options, this article aims to equip you with the knowledge necessary to make an informed decision.

I will also showcase real life examples of why upgrading to VPS Hosting stands as an attractive alternative to shared hosting and when is the right time to consider doing it.

So, let's get started on this enlightening journey to uncover the ideal hosting solution for you!

VPS Hosting

A virtual private server, also known as a VPS, acts as an isolated, virtual environment on a physical server, which is owned and operated by a cloud or web hosting provider. VPS hosting uses virtualization technology to split a single physical machine into multiple private server environments that share the resources. - Google Cloud

So, What is VPS Hosting?

Okay so, imagine you have a physical server box and you want to let other people use your resources. You have several options:

• You could let many people just use the server as is without limiting anyone (Shared Hosting)
• You could rent out the server to a single person (Dedicated servers)
• Or, you can let some people use the resources you own, but with certain limits.

Public transport icons created by xnimrodx - Flaticon

These limits can be imposed by creating “Virtual Servers” which simulate a dedicated hosting environment with limited resources. You can assign these “Virtual Servers” to the people buying hosting from you, allowing them to run their software on your machines.

Even though they are also technically sharing resources with other users on your server, the “Virtual Server” resources are guaranteed. Once you pay for it, it’s only for your server and cannot be used by another account.

Advantages of VPS Hosting

• Dedicated Resources and Enhanced Performance

  • A VPS provides guaranteed resources for optimal performance

    • Virtual private servers are given disk space and memory independent of other allocations on the hardware node. This means that if another persons website on the same machine gets a sudden surge in traffic, it won’t affect your websites performance.

  • Comparing CPU, RAM, and storage allocation with shared hosting

    • Let's compare a Hostingers (web hosting provider) Shared Hosting and VPS Hosting plans.
    • Shared:

• VPS:

• We can see that with the shared plans you are not even told exactly what resources you are getting, but are lured in with simple to use add-ons like: custom email accounts, unlimited bandwidth (not really), and stuff like free SSL and Domain which are not difficult to do by yourself.

• Increased Control and Customization Options

  • It can provide you with hands on Linux administration skills.

    • You are provided with Full Root Access.
    • Simply put you have access to do anything on the server. A root user (root admin) has full control over the server. It enables you to access & edit all files, including system-critical files. However, a root user can also accidentally delete critical files and programs leading to grave consequences.
    • Here is an example post on how to connect to your VPS through SSH

• Isolation and Improved Security

  • How does VPS isolation prevent the "noisy neighbor" effect

    • While the potential for individual accounts actions affecting hardware nodes performance still exists, hard limits are set for each virtual environment and improved monitoring capabilities minimize the opportunity for a single user's activities to impact others.

  • Enhanced security measures and isolation from potential vulnerabilities

    • VPS is more secure in terms of security as it has a more closed environment compared to shared hosting. Example: if a virus attacks any of the websites hosted on a shared network - it can easily walk across the directory structure and infect your website as well.

Use Cases for VPS Hosting

• Websites with Moderate to High Traffic

  • Handling traffic spikes and maintaining consistent performance is much easier when you are guaranteed a set of resources. If you start getting over 300 visitors a day to your website, it might be time to consider switching to VPS Hosting.

• Resource-Intensive Applications

  • Hosting applications that require substantial computing resources. For example if you host a server that requires doing constant calculations based on user data, or your website is resource-heavy with animations and videos.

• Developer Environments and Testing

  • Creating isolated environments for software development and testing. We all know the saying that “don’t test on production”. On a VPS you can spin up a test environment where you can merge and test your changes before releasing them to the public.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is a type of Web hosting service that allows multiple websites to share a physical Web server and its resources among the hosted websites. Shared hosting logically distributes a Web server to accommodate, serve and operate more than one website. - Techopedia

What is Shared Hosting?

Let’s think of our server example again. We want to give people an opportunity to use your servers resources again. The server is not a cheap upkeep, so how can we offer reasonable (cheap) pricing to a lot of people?

That’s where shared hosting comes in to play, let’s look at a poorly written metaphor:

Sharing an hosting environment is like staying in a shared hostel room. It’s cheap, there’s going to be a lot of other people around and if one person hogs the toilet, then everybody is going to have a bad time. But again it’s cheap and you got a roof over your head.

Shared hosting is basically the roof to your first website. It allows a lot of people to use a single server at once. A single machine might be serving hundreds of small sites at once. You are not going to pay too much and if you want a simple small site with not a lot of traffic, heck shared hosting might even be the best solution for you.

Benefits of Shared Hosting

Reasonably priced for your first website

Simpler to setup and maintain

• Shared hosting accounts can be set up quickly, often within minutes of signing up. Compared to VPS Hosting the process is also a lot simpler.
• Since the hosting provider manages the server infrastructure, you're relieved of things like updating dependencies and making sure that security is up to date.

Server is managed by the hosting provider

• The hosting provider is responsible for server maintenance, security updates, and technical support. This means you don't have to worry about server administration tasks, allowing you to focus on creating and managing your website content.

Use Cases for Shared Hosting

Personal blogs

• Want to share what’s going on in your life? A shared server might be the perfect place to start you blogging journey.

Affiliate marketing websites

• If you're involved in affiliate marketing and create niche websites to promote products or services, shared hosting can be a suitable choice for launching multiple small websites without racking up high costs.

Portfolio website

• If you're a photographer, artist or a software engineer and want to showcase your work, a portfolio website hosted on a shared server can be a great choice. Shared hosting provides a simple platform for displaying your creations without the need for advanced technical management.

Performance Comparison: VPS vs. Shared

Let’s take a look at a real world performance test, conducted by elegant themes

Website Performance: How was it tested?

• A Wordpress site was set up using one of their beautiful themes.

  • It looked like this on Mobile
  

• The website was hosted both on a VPS and a Shared hosting plan

• It’s average response times were tested in different regions of the world

  • Tested regions: Australia, East and West US, Sweden

• The tools tested loading times (Pingdom tools) and load impact (k6)

Performance Differences: Test Results

Shared Hosting

• Loading times test (run 3 times, these are the average)
  • Melbourne: 3.73 seconds.
  • New York: 2.57  seconds.
  • San Jose: 1.83  seconds.
  • Stockholm: 0.96 seconds.
• Load impact test (only ran in the US)
  • Around 1.5s until 30 visitors
  • Around 2s after 30 visitors

VPS Hosting

• Loading times test (3 run average)
  • Melbourne: 2.13 (-42.89%)
  • New York: 1.41 (-45.13%)
  • San Jose:  1.56 (-14.8%)
  • Stockholm: 3.35 (+248%)
• Load impact test (only ran in the US)
  • Around 0.5s until 40 visitors
  • Around 0.75s after 40 visitors

What the results tell us?

• Upgrading to VPS Hosting comes with several benefits
  • Faster load times
  • Better website performance under stress.
  • Around 20 - 30 % performance increase
• VPS also has some downsides
  • More pricier, so be mindful of your traffic needs
  • No control panel, you have to do everything through the command line interface

Conclusion

In most scenarios, a VPS outperforms shared hosting.

However, shared hosting suits sites with lighter demands and a budget focus. Shared plans are more economical initially, and expenses add up over time. You can upgrade to a VPS later, but be willing to drop about $20 a month for managed plans, a notable cost jump. Unmanaged VPS Hosting options are more affordable, also delivering performance advantages, but command-line skills are necessary.