What is VPS – VPS For Beginners

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VPS or virtual private servers have become quite popular among bloggers and webmasters in last few years. They offer better features than shared hosting packages while being affordable in comparison of the dedicated servers. This is one of the primary reasons why VPS or virtual private servers have become so popular. But do you know “What is VPS?”

What is VPS?

Knowing is half the battle won so technically you don’t need to know what is VPS but it is always better to know about the product you have purchased or planning to purchase.

In fact, you are not required to learn VPS hosting details in order to manage it, it is just that you can make informed decisions while purchasing it.

Ok, so What Is VPS Hosting & What Is a Virtual Server?

VPS or virtual private server is a kind of hybrid of shared hosting and dedicated hosting. In shared hosting resources are shared and in dedicated hosting, you get a dedicated machine. In VPS hosting, virtual machines are created and hosted on single machine hardware with the use of technology.

Virtualization create virtual servers which act and work as separate servers under normal circumstances, though all servers on a hardware could be impacted if there is something like a DDoS attack which result in a massive traffic spike.

But as mentioned earlier, under normal circumstances VPS acts as separate server and provide dedicated resources.

Each private server is allocated certain amount of resources like processer, ram, hard disk etc.

Technology behind VPS hosting is similar to Virtual host which allow hosting companies to run multiple virtual servers on one physical machine.

This is the broad overview of VPS hosting.

Benefits of VPS hosting

Customization – one of the biggest advantages of having a VPS is customization. You can customize anything in your server. If you want to install a specific version of php or install any other service, you can do it with VPS whereas you can’t do these things in shared hosting.

Dedicated resources – as you have access to dedicated resources, you can manage better traffic for your website. Sites on shared hosting may crash if there is sudden rise in traffic. Either they should use VPS hosting or other services like CDN to manage high traffic. In case of VPS hosting, your site can easily manage high traffic conditions.

Security- as in case of VPS hosting your resources is not shared and you are in control of everything. You can ensure better security and take regular backups to maintain your site.

Better Performance – sites on shared hosting tend to load slow if there are too many sites hosted on machine by your web host (this factor vary with hosts). Also, certain content management system like Vbulletin consume resource at a higher rate, so there will be performance related issues with them on shared hosting. As mentioned earlier, higher traffic will also cause your site to load slowly on shared hosting.

VPS hosting offer better resource allocation thus improving your site’s performance and page speed.

Host Multiple sites– although you will find shared hosting packages which offer you to host multiple websites but most of them may have performance issues while hosting  multiple websites on single hosting account. In VPS hosting, you can create and allocate resources to multiple sites under one account thereby optimizing the resource utilization. Therefore you can host multiple sites with VPS hosting with ease without compromising the performance.

VPS hosting is best for small businesses and websites with relatively higher traffic.

Type of VPS hosting

1. Self- Managed or Unmanaged VPS hosting– under this type of VPS hosting account, you have to manage everything on your hosting account which include configuring your account, installing services & software and taking backups. It is not suitable for those who don’t have proper understanding of hosting’s technical details and may have devastating effect if chosen by users who can’t handle it.
2. Managed VPS hosting– it is ideal for non-technical users or anybody who doesn’t want to spend time in managing their hosting account. Everything is done by your web host. So don’t forget to check with your hosts before finalizing the deal. There are varieties of hosting packages available and some host may not cover everything. I have been using hostgator VPS hosting and they do everything for me. It is ideal for those who want to stay away from managing their hosting account.

So choose based upon your requirement and skill set.

I will recommend managed VPS hosting if you have any doubt.

Best VPS hosting

There are many web hosts which are currently offering VPS hosting but management of hosting account and customer service should be the key factor along with cost before you make your call on this.

Based upon my experience and information, following web hosts are best for VPS hosting;

1. Hostgator
2. Inmotion hosting
3. Myhosting hosting
4. Godaddy hosting
5. WordPress hosting (it is not for non-wordpress cms)

Conclusion

This is the broad overview of “what is VPS” and how you can choose your vps host. Irrespective of the host you choose, try to focus on above mentioned factors. You can get Windows VPS and linux based VPS accounts.

As mentioned earlier, VPS hosting is best for small businesses and websites with higher traffic.

Please share your views and feedback about VPS hosting also, don’t forget to share it on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

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