When creating a website, choosing the right web hosting provider is fundamental. It affects important factors of a website, such as speed and security.
However, there are so many web hosting options available. Each potentially suitable, depending on the size of your website and the amount of traffic you receive. You can find a cheap dedicated server hosting like SupportHost.
If you have a website with loads of content and receive tons of visitors a day, you should look into VPS and Cloud hosting. Both come with a lot of resources and server space to cater to a large website’s needs.
This article will cover the differences between VPS and cloud hosting based on several main factors to decide which one is more suitable for you.
Table of Contents
What Is VPS Hosting?
VPS hosting stands for Virtual Private Server hosting. This type of hosting shares a physical server with other users, but it’s divided into several individual virtual parts. As you get virtually dedicated resources, you won’t get affected by the traffic of other websites.
It’s perfect if the shared hosting plan can’t handle your website traffic or when you want to get direct access to the server.
What Is Cloud Hosting?
Cloud hosting uses lots of virtual servers instead of a single physical server that’s divided like a VPS plan. Cloud hosting servers connect and create a virtual environment on the cloud.
This hosting plan is suitable for anyone who has fluctuating traffic, like an eCommerce store with seasonal products. New startups can also benefit from cloud hosting due to its easy scalability.
For those seeking varied insights into website performance monitoring tools, platforms like oDown provide comparisons, aiding users in exploring alternatives to various cloud monitoring platforms to optimize their online operations.
Infographic created by HotWire Networks, a web hosting company
5 Factors For Finding The Best Fit For Your Website
To help you make the right decision, here’s a comparison of VPS and cloud hosting in five key areas.
1. Performance
Performance is the top-tier factor when choosing a hosting plan. You aim to have a website that always loads fast and functions well.
The winner: Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting offers higher uptime and is exceptionally reliable. Having multiple virtual servers makes sure that your website stays online even if one of the servers goes down.
In comparison, VPS hosting uses one physical server, so your site won’t be accessible if it goes down
2. Security
The consequences of getting hacked are significant. Online security should be a priority, especially if you have an eCommerce website that keeps users’ credit card details and personal information.
The winner: VPS Hosting
With its physical server, the protection is better than cloud hosting. Moreover, you can regulate the security level as you’re responsible for your own security integration.
Cloud hosting’s resources are spread across multiple servers, which can make it challenging to maintain security.
3. Price
Compared to a dedicated server, both cloud and VPS hosting are more budget-friendly, although more expensive than shared hosting.
The winner: It depends
Cloud hosting can be more economical since you only pay for what you use, but it can be unpredictable due to your traffic. If the traffic is slower than usual, you’ll pay less. But you may end up being charged more when the traffic is higher than expected.
Meanwhile, VPS hosting gives you a more predictable monthly cost. You choose a plan based on your needs, including server specifications and support.
4. Scalability
When you expect your business to grow, make sure you have a hosting plan that supports the demands of a growing website.
The winner: Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting’s resources are virtually unlimited, so it’s easy to scale up the hosting plan to meet your needs. You can automatically upgrade it when more resources are needed.
Compared to cloud hosting, VPS hosting has limited resources, so you have to migrate to a new server if you run out of resources.
5. Customization
The ability to customize the server setup is essential because you may want to build particular types of software and configure PHP versions.
The winner: VPS Hosting
This type of hosting provides customizability with a similar level to a dedicated server. Its full root access enables you to install various operating systems on your server.
With cloud hosting, advanced technical knowledge is needed if you want to customize the setup. Hosting companies usually limit server access because they need to distribute the settings across different servers.
Conclusion
The hosting plan depends on what you need. If you have special software to install and prioritize website security, get a VPS hosting plan. If you want a scalable plan with an impressive amount of resources, pick cloud hosting instead.
Photo by Firos nv on Unsplash
