HostGuide

Many people tend to use Shared web hosting and the features it provides them suites their needs fully, however it has some disadvantages. Shared web hosting means that hundreds of user accounts are stored on on physical machine with combined server recources like the CPU, disc space and RAM, which are shared for all accounts. For a website, which has small and medium number of visitors these resources are enough so that a website will run smoothly and won’t load long.

If you have a bigger website, the biggest disadvantage on a shared web server is the lack of control over the software installed on the server.

Many website owners usually don’t care about that fact and they shouldn’t. However, as we mentioned if you own a big website with a lot of visitors every day you won’t feel comfortable on a shared web hosting server. There is a solution to this kind of issue – it’s called Virtual Private Server or the also well used term VPS. The VPS or Virtual Private Server can offer that control over the software resources for the people with more websites under one account or the ones who own a particularly big web site.

To know the advantages over the shared web hosing, first you need to be introduced to some definition for a VPS. The VPS is again a like a virtual account, divided by a Virtualization software, located on a physical machine. This time however, the resources are not shared – every VPS account has own predefined(usually by the webhosting company, depending on the VPS package you have ordered) resources like RAM and allocated space. You have a control over every software aspect on your Virtual Private Server as well and every other configurations, available for a web server.

The main advantage for that kind of server is the access granted to the owner of the VPS. The owner has “root” access to the Virtual Server and this allow him to control the software, configuration and even create other user accounts. In other words, a VPS is like any other normal Server.

The VPS has other advantages like the better security. For example, if a hacker breaches in a shared web hosting server, where all the accounts are stored, he can cause alot of damage to the all these accounts, located on the server. A VPS however acts independently and you can customize the level of security for it on you own preferences.  The structure of a Virtual Private Server is such, that even if a hacker gains access to a VPS, he cannot get to the other VPS accounts, stored on the same physical machine.

Virtual Private Servers can be setupped by the hosting company in many different ways. The most common configuration is depending on the hosting package, they give you defined disc space and RAM. The Operating Memory or Random-Access Memory also known as RAM is very important for a web server, since most of software you will use tend to use the RAM more than the CPU. You can read more for the RAM on Wikipedia if you like. Depending on the Virtualization software the web hosting company is using, there are some different setups as well. For example, a web hosting company which uses Parallels Virtuozzo sets a soft and a hard RAM limit. Once you hit the hard limit, you get a warning that you are exceeding your resources.

The main advantage of a VPS can also be the disadvantage. It is highly recommended that you know what you are doing and have the technical know-how so you can operate with your VPS. The Virtual Private Server is not for people who don’t like technical stuff or are not willing to learn, shared hosting plan is perfect for them.

In general, a today’s VPS packages are highly affordable and are huge advantage to the common big web site owners. If you are wondering what type of VPS hosting package you should order, make sure you are familiar with the software you will be using and how much resources it will take.