Shared hosting, where multiple websites utilize the same server resources, offers a cost-effective web hosting solution. However, this affordability might come at the expense of performance. On the flip side, a VPS (Virtual Private Server) dedicates specific resources to your website, even on a shared physical server. This ensures greater control and performance but tends to be pricier.
Think of it like choosing a home. Shared hosting is like living in an apartment complex where you share facilities with neighbors, while VPS is like having your own condo in a high-rise, with designated facilities just for you. Both are in large buildings, but the condo (VPS) offers more privacy and customization.
Shared Hosting is perfect for beginners. It caters to small websites that need basic resources and offers an ideal starting point for those new to the web hosting world.
VPS Hosting is tailored for more advanced users. It’s designed for growing websites that require dedicated resources, enhanced control, and scalability.
Still contemplating between Shared Hosting vs VPS? We’ll outline the differences between the two, allowing you to evaluate their features, pros, and cons. This will guide you in selecting the best fit for your website. Let’s get started!
Key Highlights
- Beginners often start with shared hosting, but as sites grow, a switch to VPS becomes beneficial.
- Shared hosting is cost-effective and ideal for beginners with small sites.
- VPS hosting strikes a balance between cost and performance.
- Users can choose between a VPS that’s managed by the hosting provider or manage it themselves.
What is Shared Hosting?
Shared hosting is a cost-effective entry-level web hosting option where you share server resources, like CPU, RAM, and bandwidth, with other users. This sharing optimizes costs, making it affordable for many.
Service providers allocate these resources to ensure each site functions efficiently. However, when overcrowded, it could lead to slowed performance, highlighting the importance of selecting a reliable hosting provider.
For more info check out our in depth article What is Shared Hosting?
Why Choose Shared Hosting?
- It’s an easy-to-use solution suitable for beginners
- You don’t need any web development knowledge or tech skills
- It’s sufficient for personal websites, blogs, and portfolios
- You’ll get a managed, all-in-one web hosting package with all necessary features
- It’s affordable and offers excellent value for money
Looking for the best in shared hosting? Check out our Recommended Best Shared Hosting Providers
Shared Hosting Pros and Cons
What is VPS?
VPS, or Virtual Private Server, is a hosting solution that strikes a balance between the affordability of shared hosting and the extensive resources of a dedicated server.
In VPS hosting, while you’re on a shared server, virtualization technology ensures you have dedicated resources. This means other users’ usage, whether it’s CPU, RAM, or bandwidth, won’t impede your site’s performance.
VPS offers a semblance of a dedicated environment but is more budget-friendly than a full Dedicated Server.
The choice between Managed vs Unmanaged VPS dictates your experience.
With Managed VPS, the hosting provider oversees technicalities, letting you focus on your business. Conversely, unmanaged VPS leaves server management in your hands, with the host maintaining only the hardware.
For more info check out our in depth article What Is a VPS? A Beginner’s Guide to Virtual Private Servers
Why Choose VPS Hosting?
- You have exceeded the limitations of your shared hosting plan
- It offers you more flexibility and complete control over your server
- You aim to expand your business significantly in the upcoming period
- It is a scalable solution with sufficient resources
- You have a larger budget that you wish to invest in your website
Looking for the best in VPS Hosting? Select a VPS plan from our Recommended Best VPS Providers
VPS Hosting Pros and Cons
- More customization and control
- Better scalability and on-demand upgrades
- Isolated environment from other users
- Better speed, uptime, and security than with shared hosting
- More expensive than shared hosting
- Requires technical skill and experience
- You need to estimate how many resources you will use
Shared Hosting vs VPS Hosting: What’s The Verdict?
Shared hosting is the way to go if you:
- Are starting out with web hosting,
- Have a static website, such as a personal site or a blog,
- Are generating low traffic levels and don’t expect to expand soon,
- Have a pretty tight budget.
VPS hosting is the next step when you:
- Exceed your shared hosting plan’s capabilities.
- Have larger personal websites, small businesses, and online stores.
- Need more storage, bandwidth, and better speed and security than a shared host can provide.
Shared Hosting vs VPS Hosting: A Full Comparison
You’ve learned the basics of a VPS server vs shared hosting. But let’s take it a step further and compare the two solutions against the main parameters in web hosting.
| Shared Hosting | VPS Hosting | |
| Resource Allocation | Shared CPU, RAM, and bandwidth | Dedicated resources within a shared environment |
| Performance | Mostly stable, yet neighboring websites can use your bandwidth and slow down your website | Better performance, speed, and uptime |
| Security | Generally secure, but a security breach can easily spread on the server | You can add security measures to your VPS independently of other users on the same server |
| Control & Customization | No admin access; a standardized setup without much flexibility | Root access and more control to customize your VPS to your requirements |
| Scalability | Pretty limited in potential | Can grow with your website |
| Support | 24/7/365 support, excellent for beginners | Depends on whether you choose managed or unmanaged VPS |
| Pricing | The cheapest web hosting solution available | More expensive due to advanced features |
Resource Allocation
Shared Hosting means that you will share the server and its resources with other users. If one of your neighboring websites uses too much of a given resource, say bandwidth, this will leave you with less. You can think of the server as a cake; if someone steals your piece, you will be left with none. In turn, this can negatively affect your website speed and performance, thus user experience, SEO, and profits.
VPS hosting grants you exclusive access to your dedicated resources, meaning you don’t have to ‘fight’ for server space or bandwidth. While VPS hosting is not as powerful as a dedicated server, it still makes it more difficult for other users to ‘steal’ your server resources.
You will get more secure computing resources and processing power with VPS hosting, meaning you don’t have to rely on other websites on the same server and worry about how they would affect your website performance with their irresponsible usage.
Performance
Your server performance and loading speeds depend on your provider’s hardware and technologies.
Shared hosting plans generally deliver lower-end performance and speed due to the higher number of users on a single server.
VPS hosting providers usually host fewer websites on a single server. As a bonus, other users on the server cannot use up your bandwidth or slow down your website because you’ll reside in an isolated environment.
VPS hosting is typically more stable and outperforms shared hosting, meaning it can better deal with traffic spikes and prevent unwanted downtime and a decrease in speed.
Security
Shared hosting providers are usually good at setting up a safe environment for your website. Yet, if one of your neighboring websites experiences an error or is attacked by cybercriminals, the security breach can easily spread to your website. Furthermore, the risk for a security breach is higher within a shared hosting environment due to the number of users and because the customers are frequently the least experienced users who can cause server vulnerabilities by themselves.
VPS hosting grants you an isolated environment from the rest of the users on the server. Even if one of your neighboring websites experiences a security issue, it will be almost impossible for it to reach your website. You can also set up additional security measures and protection on your partitioned server, independent of other users.
You can better control your website security with VPS hosting than with shared hosting, which is essential, especially if you are dealing with sensitive data.
Control & Customization
Shared hosting providers will configure the server, set up everything, manage, maintain, and monitor the server, handling all necessary back-end actions. The standardized setup makes shared hosting suitable for anyone that doesn’t want to do anything with server management. However, you won’t get much of a say over the software you want to be installed on your server.
VPS hosting is a more advanced alternative, granting you root access to your server. You’ll get more control over your server to install whichever operating system, control panel, or software you prefer and tailor the back end to your preference. Still, your experience with VPS hosting will determine whether you select a managed or unmanaged VPS. The setup process of managed VPS is the same as with shared hosting; others will configure your environment. With unmanaged VPS, it’s up to you, so you’ll need technical understanding to customize and configure apps and software.
VPS hosting offers more customization options than shared hosting, while the latter is more limited; all users on the same server get the same setup.
Scalability
Shared hosting plans are perfect if you receive a few hundred visitors weekly. However, if you plan on scaling and increasing your visitors to thousands per week, shared hosting won’t be able to support your growth. It cannot accommodate high traffic levels due to limited resources. So, if you receive more traffic, this can essentially slow down your website or, worse yet, turn it into an error message.
VPS hosting is far more scalable. It has relatively unlimited potential for supporting your increased workload and adapting to fluctuating traffic trends. It’s a smart investment for future expansion if you anticipate rapid growth and you have exceeded the server resources included in a shared hosting plan.
You can scale more easily with VPS hosting, while shared hosting fits the bill for entry-level hosting and websites with limited traffic.
Support
Shared hosting plans primarily target beginners and first-time users, you can expect a managed environment where you don’t have to worry about any technical stuff. Instead, you’ll get a user-friendly control panel with 1-click installs, such as cPanel with Softaculous, to make the needed changes on your website. More importantly, you’ll have access to 24/7 customer support, preferably via several channels, such as live chat, tickets, phone, or email.
VPS hosting can provide similar treatment, but only with managed VPS hosting. You’ll get a team on standby to perform all installs, updates, or server changes you want. However, you cannot expect this level of support with an unmanaged VPS. The hosting provider will usually only assist you with hardware-related issues with the latter.
Shared hosting and managed VPS will grant you the same treatment regarding support, whereas you cannot expect 24/7 assistance with an unmanaged VPS.
Pricing
Shared hosting is the most budget friendly option. While VPS hosting exceeds shared hosting across all categories, regarding pricing, shared hosting is the cheapest. The bottom line is, how much does this cost? The more you pay, the more you get, but does it make sense to pay the extra fee? If shared hosting is sufficient for your needs, you can stick to your shared hosting plan and pay a cheaper price for hosting, sometimes even less than a dollar.
VPS hosting offers great value, but at a higher price tag. However, if you have bigger ambitions, you should never trade price for quality because, in the end, your performance and profits will suffer. Also, remember that the price of VPS can vary greatly, which is why choosing a reputable company is crucial. Popular VPS providers frequently offer promotional prices, meaning you can spot a great deal even with a VPS.
Shared hosting wins hands down under pricing, yet VPS hosting provides excellent value for money.
For more insight on shared hosting pricing, check out our Shared Hosting Pricing Page.
When to Upgrade Your Hosting Plan?
Learning the difference between VPS and shared hosting can help you select the better alternative for your upcoming project. But what if you are already on a shared server? When is the right time to upgrade to a VPS?
Here are the main indicators it’s time to upgrade from shared hosting to VPS hosting:
- Your website has slowed down in speed
- You cannot put your security at risk because you are handling sensitive data
- You are expecting a further boost in traffic in the upcoming period
- You plan on hosting more than one website
- You want more freedom and control over your server
- Your budget has expanded significantly, and you have more money to invest
Ready to upgrade to a VPS Hosting plan? Here’s our top VPS provider
Conclusion
Deciding between shared hosting vs VPS hinges on understanding your site’s current demands and future aspirations:
- Shared hosting is an economical choice, best suited for newcomers or sites with modest traffic. It offers a user-friendly experience, but there might be performance limitations due to shared resources.
- VPS, on the other hand, provides greater customization and scalability. While it demands a higher investment, it ensures dedicated resources, leading to consistent performance, even during traffic surges.
For budding websites, starting with shared hosting is practical. It’s easier on the pocket and can sufficiently handle early-stage demands.
As your website gains more visitors or if you’re running resource-intensive applications, migrating to VPS becomes a logical step.
It’s also worth noting that the hosting environment plays a pivotal role in user experience. Slow loading times or frequent downtimes can deter visitors, so investing in a robust hosting solution can directly impact your site’s success.
Always evaluate the long-term value and potential growth trajectories before making a decision.
Next Steps:
- Select a VPS plan from our Recommended Best VPS Providers
- Choose a Shared Hosting Plan from our Recommended Best Shared Hosting Providers
- Use our comparison tool for a Web Hosting side by side comparison
- Unsure about the right plan for you? Use our Web Hosting Advisor
Further Reading and Useful Resources
- What Is Shared Hosting? The Good, the Bad, and the Affordable
- Shared Hosting Security: A Guide to Keeping Your Website Safe
- The Pros and Cons of Shared Hosting
- Shared Hosting for E-commerce Websites: An Affordable Path to Online Retail
- VPS vs Dedicated Server: Which Hosting Should You Use?
- Cloud hosting vs. VPS: A Head-to-Head Comparison
- What Is a VPS? A Complete Guide
