Virtual Private Servers (VPS) and Dedicated servers are two of the highest-performing web hosting solutions available on the market. Both grant you a customizable server with dedicated resources. However, they do so in different ways and at vastly different prices. So, which one should you get?
We will cover the basics of both types of hosting and the difference between VPS and dedicated server. Learn the advantages and drawbacks of VPS vs dedicated hosting to choose the best solution for your business.
If you’re here just to find out who the best VPS hosting provider or the best Dedicated hosting provider is, we’ve got you covered. We recommend Ultahost for VPS hosting and Kamatera for Dedicated hosting.
Key Highlights
- VPS is cost-effective, while dedicated servers offer exclusive resources.
- VPS scales resources, while dedicated servers provide stable high-performance.
- Both offer root access, but VPS is more affordable.
- VPS provides secure hosting, while dedicated servers offer top security for sensitive data.
What is VPS Hosting?
A VPS (Virtual Private Server) is a hosting option that offers a middle ground between the cost-effectiveness of shared hosting and the robust resources of a dedicated server. In a VPS setup, one physical server houses multiple virtual servers, each operating independently. This provides medium-sized businesses and high-traffic websites with the advantages and versatility of a dedicated server, but at a more affordable price.
For instance, if a dedicated server has 8GB RAM, 1TB storage, and a 2TB transfer capacity, you can get a portion of these resources, say 1GB RAM, 125MB storage, and 250MB transfer with a VPS. VPS hosting providers can also grant you additional resources if you need them and your neighboring websites are not using their allocation to the maximum.
A virtual server makes sense if you need more capabilities than a shared hosting plan yet fewer resources than a dedicated server. Since you’ll be sharing the dedicated server with other users, you will also split the cost, making VPS pricing far more affordable than dedicated hosting.
Why Choose VPS Hosting?
- It’s a highly versatile and easy-to-use hosting solution
- You have exceeded the capabilities of your shared hosting plan
- You opt for more custom configurations than a standard shared hosting plan allows
- It grants you the benefits of a dedicated server on a budget
- You can host large websites with high traffic levels with optimal performance and speed
- Other websites on the same server cannot put you at a security risk
- You want root access without the expense of a dedicated server
- It can grow with you as your business expands in the future
VPS Hosting: Pros and Cons
- Rapid setup and instant activation
- Dedicated resources on a virtually isolated instance
- More cost-effective than a dedicated server
- Excellent flexibility and customization options with root access
- Highly scalable solution (especially with a cloud VPS)
- Optimal security
- Mid-level cost; more expensive than shared hosting
- Not as resource-rich or customizable as a dedicated server
- Less secure than a dedicated server
Recommended VPS Hosting Providers
- Ultahost – Budget-friendly managed VPS hosting lets you host unlimited sites with unlimited bandwidth.
- Kamatera – Offers a pay-as-you-go solution on a cloud infrastructure with no maintenance required.
- Time4VPS – Self-managed KVM Windows VPS with impressive features tailored for Windows professionals.
For a full breakdown, check out our comprehensive review of the Best VPS Hosting Providers
What is a Dedicated Server?
A dedicated server is a type of web hosting where a single server is reserved for one client’s exclusive use. Unlike shared hosting, a dedicated server provides full access to the server’s resources, such as CPU, RAM, and storage. This hosting option is ideal for large organizations or high-traffic websites, offering greater control and performance.
The main advantage is obviously getting more resources. If we go back to the previous example, a dedicated server will grant you 100% of the available resources, meaning 8GB RAM, 1TB storage, and a 2TB transfer capacity. You’ll also enjoy more inodes than with shared or VPS hosting.
Another key benefit is that you will get total control over your dedicated server, meaning you can customize the hardware, resource limits, and software to your liking. That’s not possible with shared or VPS hosting, as in those scenarios, you are a single tenant in the environment, so you don’t have much of a say.
On the downside, this huge dedicated server freedom entails significant responsibility. You’ll need to employ a professional to set up and maintain your server if you are not a webmaster. With all these extra benefits you better prepare your budget as dedicated server pricing is on the high end.
Why Choose Dedicated Hosting?
- It can support the largest websites with the most significant levels of traffic
- You want to take your enterprise online, and you already have a huge following
- It offers the highest security levels for handling sensitive data, such as processing payments on an online store
- You require significant storage space for your emails and other data
- You aim to host multiple websites and manage their resource allocation
- You want to start reselling hosting
- You have the necessary budget to upgrade your web hosting
Dedicated Server: Pros and Cons
- The most advanced web hosting solution
- Industry-leading resources and performance
- Full control over your hardware and software
- Most secure, physically isolated environment from other users
- Maximum flexibility and configuration options
- Most expensive web hosting solution
- Requires a fair bit of technical knowledge to handle due to its complexity
- Scalability is limited by the physical hardware
- More difficult to add resources than with a VPS
Recommended Dedicated Server Providers
- Kamatera – Affordable dedicated cloud hosting designed for endless scalability, unparalleled availability, performance, and cost-effectiveness, with the added benefit of pay-per-minute billing!
- Ultahost – Select from Intel XEON and AMD EPYC processors for your dedicated server, along with your choice of operating systems.
- InterServer – Advanced security, cutting-edge Intel and AMD processors, and rapid deployment in under 15 minutes with your choice of OS and control panel.
For a full breakdown of the top providers, check out our comprehensive review of the Best Dedicated Server Hosting Providers
VPS vs Dedicated Server: What’s the Verdict?
VPS hosting is the go-to solution for large personal websites that have exceeded their shared hosting plan’s capacity or small to medium business websites. It’s a powerful and flexible yet affordable solution, which is why it works better than dedicated hosting for most customers.
Dedicated servers mostly make sense for high-traffic websites with unique hardware and software requirements. You should only consider it if you have a website with a considerable amount of files and you are continually adding content. An example of this is an online store.
VPS Hosting vs Dedicated Hosting: A Full Comparison
You’ve learned the core of VPS vs dedicated hosting technologies. Next, we’ll break down the differences and compare the solutions across several categories so that you can prioritize and choose the best web hosting for your business.
| VPS Hosting | Dedicated Hosting | |
| Resource Allocation | An allocated set of dedicated resources within a shared environment | More resources that are 100% yours and dedicated |
| Performance | Fast loading times and good uptime as the norm; until many websites on the same server simultaneously experience traffic surges | The best performance, uptime, and speeds in the industry, unaffected by other users |
| Security | You can install your security software, but if other sites on the server have a security breach, you’re still vulnerable | You’re in charge of your security, and you can use tools to defend your site without relying on third parties |
| Control & Customization | You can customize the software on your VPS and install any operating system | You can customize both the hardware and the software of your dedicated server |
| Scalability | Flexible resource limits that are ideal for growing your business | Massive resource limits that can be adjusted month to month to meet your demands |
| Support | Depends on whether you choose managed or unmanaged VPS | Same as with VPS, significant differences between managed and unmanaged dedicated server |
| Pricing | Mid-level pricing and excellent value for money | The most expensive web hosting solution on the market |
Resource Allocation
With VPS hosting, you are sharing a server with other users. You get an allocated set of resources to utilize, not the whole server. The good news is that if another user doesn’t max out on their allocation, the provider can add these resources to your account (still, there’s no guarantee this will happen). So, a VPS demonstrates excellent flexibility levels.
Dedicated hosting grants you exclusive access to the whole server, meaning you’ll get far more resources since you own the hardware. Depending on how many resources you need and how much you are willing or able to pay, you can get a lower or higher amount of resources. Still, no matter the size of your resource portfolio, everything you have is all yours.
A dedicated server grants you access to more resources that are 100% yours, meaning you won’t have to rely on anyone else on the same server.
Performance
VPS is the next level from shared hosting. It offers dedicated resources on a partitioned server, delivering more stability, increased uptime, better speeds, and less downtime. On the good side, a VPS can get an occasional speed boost from another site via an excess bandwidth. Yet, the reality is that a VPS can also slow down if numerous sites on the server face traffic spikes.
Dedicated Servers are far more advanced because you get 100% use of the available CPU, RAM, and bandwidth (Although VPS is relatively fast and does well in the speed category). A dedicated server It can accommodate tons of website visitors at lightning-fast speeds, improving their experience and satisfaction, your SEO ranking, conversions, and profits. Therefore, it’s the better alternative for large enterprise websites with significant traffic levels and handling customer transactions.
A dedicated server grants increased resource limits and better performance than a VPS, meaning your site can handle the largest traffic spikes while loading swiftly.
Security
The VPS setup eliminates the security dangers of a shared environment. It’s generally very secure because you get a virtually isolated environment. You can also install additional protection and security features, such as firewalls, DDoS protection, or anti-malware, independent of other users. There is still minimal risk of security breaches due to sharing the hardware components. You are not physically separated from other customers, meaning if one site on your server is attacked, it leaves the door open for that attack to spill over to your website.
A dedicated server eliminates all possibilities of security breaches due to other users. The only way you can get attacked or hacked is if the attack targets your site specifically and if you make a mistake or an oversight regarding security. So, you are responsible for protecting your dedicated environment. Fortunately, you can secure your website in many different ways or hire an expert to do so.
Both VPS and a dedicated server offer exquisite protection, yet dedicated hosting is inherently safer because other users cannot put you at a security risk.
Control & Customization
Control and customization might be the biggest similarity in the VPS vs dedicated server comparison.
A VPS exceeds shared hosting as it enables advanced programming. It allows you to customize the server, access your files, and install any operating system. As a bonus, you also get root access.
Dedicated servers take customization and control to the next level. Apart from software, you also get a say in the hardware components. For instance, you might want to use Intel processors instead of AMD, or vice versa. And unfortunately, you don’t get to choose this with a VPS.
It’s a close race. Still, a dedicated server is more customizable than a VPS.
Scalability
VPS hosting allows you to grow your business and easily scale your plan without glitches or mistakes. It can continuously provide adequate resources, such as CPU, memory, or storage space, on-demand. It’s the perfect choice for small to medium businesses with scaling potential because it can grow with your site until you’re ready to upgrade to a dedicated server, saving you tons of money.
With a dedicated server, you’ll get everything you need outright – resources, performance, and security. It’s an excellent choice for websites with consistently high traffic. However, dedicated hosting usually means you have reached the peak, and there is not much room for scale. It’s less flexible than a VPS, as you’ll need to move to another server or update the whole hardware once you exceed your plan’s resource limits.
A VPS is more flexible than a dedicated server, allowing you to scale your website without downtime or upgrading your subscription.
Support
With VPS Hosting you can choose from managed and unmanaged VPS hosting. With managed support, the provider will set up your server and manage and maintain it. You’ll also be able to get technical assistance round the clock, usually via phone, email, tickets, or live chat. And as the name implies, with unmanaged support, you’ll be left more on your own to handle everything.
Dedicated hosting offers you the same options. However, managed support for a dedicated server can cost significantly more than for a VPS because the technicians will need to set up everything from the core.
There’s no winner in this category, as you can get 24/7/365 customer support with both VPS and a dedicated server. Yet, whether you choose managed or unmanaged support will depend on your experience.
Pricing
VPS hosting offers mid-level pricing. VPS pricing is cheaper than a dedicated server yet more expensive than entry-level shared hosting. You can benefit from a wide-ranging set of prices, depending on the resource limits, features, and level of support you opt for. Either way, you’ll be sharing a server with other users and splitting the costs, meaning you can expect pretty good value for your money.
A dedicated server has the most significant price tag. But it’s no surprise that dedicated server pricing is the most expensive, since it provides you with a whole server. You’ll get all resources at your disposal to do with them as you please. Yet, unfortunately, not everyone has the budget to back up one such investment; for many, it doesn’t even make sense.
VPS is a more affordable solution than dedicated server hosting that would fit right into the budget of a significant number of businesses.
When to Choose VPS or Dedicated Hosting?
A VPS or a dedicated server? Here’s the right time to select each!
| VPS Hosting | Dedicated Hosting |
| Your website traffic is growing, slowing down your website | Your website has high traffic continuously, and you have exceeded the capabilities of a VPS |
| You want more control over your server and the ability to fine-tune the more minor features | You need total control over your server, highly specialized hardware and software |
| If due to a lack of memory, you’re getting a lot of blank pages (RAM) | You’re experiencing slow site performance with your current plan |
| You need complete control over your cron jobs | You want or need to operate multiple sites simultaneously |
| In terms of security, you want to go above and beyond what shared hosting can provide | You need high, reliable, and stable bandwidth, unaffected by neighboring websites |
| You opt for a virtually isolated environment from other users on the same server | You want to physically isolate your website from others and reach maximum security levels |
Security Considerations for VPS and Dedicated Server Hosting
When it comes to hosting a website, security is the most important thing, especially on VPS and dedicated servers. Even though these hosting options provide a high level of security, there are still a few things to keep in mind about security.
Unauthorized access by hackers is one of the biggest security risks for servers. Firewalls, software updates, and strong passwords are important security measures, but there are other practical steps you can take to improve security even more.
Here are five more useful tips for making VPS and dedicated server hosting more secure:
- Use a web application firewall (WAF) to protect your website from attacks that try to exploit flaws in its code.
- Use an SSL/TLS certificate to send sensitive information between your website and users’ browsers in a secure way.
- Scan your server regularly for holes and fix any problems you find right away
- Enable server-side encryption to protect data at rest, like databases and backups
- Set up systems to look for and stop suspicious activity on your server.
By following these best practices for security, you can help keep your website and server safe from threats. Security is an ongoing process, so it’s important to keep up with the latest security trends and constantly check and update your security measures.
Performance Comparison: VPS vs Dedicated Server Hosting
When deciding between VPS and dedicated server hosting, performance is one of the most important things to think about. Both options can work well, but there are some differences that can affect a website’s speed, reliability, and performance as a whole.
In VPS hosting, several virtual machines share the resources of a single physical server, which can slow things down.
On the other hand, dedicated server hosting gives you access to all of the resources on a physical server, so your site will run at its best. But dedicated server hosting can be more expensive than VPS hosting, so you should think about how much performance you need and how much you can spend.
Here are five practical tips that will help you choose between VPS and dedicated server hosting based on performance:
- When choosing between VPS and dedicated server hosting for your website, think about how much traffic you expect and how many resources it will need.
- Use tools for performance testing to measure and compare how fast and well a website works in general.
- Optimize the code, images, and other media on your website to make it faster to load and run better overall.
- Choose a hosting service with fast and reliable hardware, such as solid-state drives with high speeds (SSDs).
- Use content delivery networks (CDNs) to speed up your website and lighten the load on your server.
By using these useful tips, you can improve the performance of your website on both VPS and dedicated servers. In the end, you should choose between VPS and dedicated server hosting based on your website’s needs, your budget, and the amount of traffic you expect.
VPS vs Dedicated Server: Which Offers Better Control and Flexibility?
When deciding between VPS and dedicated server hosting, it’s important to think about control and flexibility.
VPS hosting gives you a lot of control over the server’s resources and settings, but you have to share those resources with other virtual machines, so there are some limits.
On the other hand, dedicated server hosting gives you full access to the physical server’s resources and gives you more control and customization options. But hosting on a dedicated server can be harder to manage and require more technical know-how.
Here are five practical tips to help you decide which type of hosting gives you the most control and flexibility:
- When choosing between VPS and dedicated server hosting, think about how technical you are and how much control you need.
- Choose a hosting service that has control panels and management tools that are easy to use. This will make it easier to manage the server.
- You can change the way the server is set up to meet your needs. For example, you can add or remove software applications, change the amount of storage, or add more RAM.
- Use automation tools to make tasks related to managing servers easier and more efficient.
- Consider hybrid hosting solutions that combine the best parts of VPS and dedicated server hosting to give you the most control and flexibility.
With these tips, you can get the most control and flexibility out of both VPS and dedicated server hosting. In the end, whether you should choose VPS or dedicated server hosting will depend on the needs of your website, your technical skills, and your budget.
Conclusion
As we reach the end of the comprehensive VPS vs dedicated server comparison, the clear “winner” in most categories is a dedicated server. It grants you infinite capabilities and unmatched performance.
Yet, that doesn’t mean that a dedicated server will work equally well for all. It’s far more expensive than a VPS, and the benefits don’t justify the investment for most users. On the other hand, a VPS has similar advantages to a dedicated server, yet, it’s relatively cheaper.
Now that you know the difference between VPS and dedicated server, choosing the best alternative for your business will be far easier. Remember, scalability is the key. Once you exceed the capabilities of a VPS, you can transfer to dedicated hosting. And you can always scale down if you start receiving lower traffic levels.
Our recommendation is that you start with a VPS and work your way up!
Further Reading and Useful Resources
- What Is a VPS? A Beginner’s Guide to Virtual Private Servers
- What Is a Dedicated Server? An In-Depth Guide
- What Is Cloud VPS: A Perfect Solution for Your Business
- What Is Linux VPS? Understanding Linux Virtual Private Servers
- What Is Windows VPS? A Guide to Windows Virtual Private Servers
- What Is a Dedicated Server in Gaming? Enhancing Performance and Gameplay
- VPS vs RDP: The Ultimate Comparison
