Shared Hosting vs VPS Hosting- What’s the Difference? Pros and Cons

SHARED HOSTING: Shared hosting is the most popular option for people building their first website.

When you sign up for shared hosting, the hosting company will put your website on a server along with hundreds, if not thousands, of other websites. This means each customer has to share space and resources on the server with every other customer, including CPU time, memory and disk space.

Think of shared hosting like living in an apartment building. All of the residents share the same building, but share things like elevators and stairwells, car parking and garbage collection.

Shared hosting is the cheapest and most economical option as far as hosting goes. However, you get what you pay for – in this case, shared hosting comes with strict limitations.

Pros

1. It’s cheap. Some hosting companies charge as little as $4 a month.
2. It’s beginner-friendly. It’s easy to get started with shared hosting compared to other hosting options.
3.  Security, upgrades and maintenance of the server are managed for you.

Cons

1. It can be slow. With so many other websites running on the same server, your page load times may suffer.
2. Security isn’t guaranteed. You don’t know who else is using the same server, so if one site has a memory leak or is hacked, your site could be affected.
3. Lack of server control and performance. If the server is overcrowded or if another website takes up more than their share of resources, performance can drop.
4. It’s difficult to scale due to limited storage and bandwidth.

Also Read: Cloud Server vs VPS vs Dedicated Server – Pros and Cons

VIRTUAL PRIVATE SERVER (VPS) HOSTING: VPS is similar to shared hosting in that your website shares a server with other sites, but there are fewer sites sharing space and resources and the server is partitioned out into different virtualized server environments. Unlike shared hosting, VPS usually provides baseline resources that you’re guaranteed, as well as additional resources available at a moment’s notice should your site experience a traffic spike.

Think of VPS like living in a condo. While you still share the same building as other residents, you are responsible for the maintenance of your property and any repairs that need to be carried out inside your condo. Plus, there are fewer residents and you get your own allocated car parking space.

Pros

1. More affordable than a dedicated server and you pay for what you need.
2. More secure. In order to segment the server properly, the host installs a layer of software that dedicates part of the server to you, which make is completely separate from other customers.
3. It’s fast. You are allocated more resources compared to shared hosting.
4. Root server access. You can make customizations to suit your needs and you have greater control over your hosting environment.
5. It’s scalable. A VPS can grow with your site as your server needs increase over time.

Cons

1. Some server companies oversell their servers, hoping that every site currently using a particular server won’t have a peak traffic day.
2. More expensive than shared hosting.
3. If you choose an unmanaged VPS, it may be difficult to configure, taking longer to get your website up and running.

Authored by: Ashu Agrawal, IT Head, Hosting Plus IT Solution Pvt. Ltd.