Do you want to buy a server for your website or business?
There are two main types of web servers: VPS and Dedicated Server... and it's not easy to choose between them, so the What's the Best Hosting team has prepared this guide to help you know the difference between them and which web server is best for you!
As your website grows and its visitors increase, your current web hosting service will not be enough and you will need to upgrade to a larger hosting that can accommodate the increase in your website's needs and provide it with enough resources to serve its visitors in the best way and without slowing down or stopping.
Since Shared Hosting is the most prominent and widely used web hosting service by beginners and most websites are hosted on a shared hosting environment, the next stop when upgrading from shared hosting is often Cloud Web Hosting or a Web Server.
Unfortunately, a Dedicated Web Server requires a large budget compared to shared hosting in order to rent it. And it's not just about the financial costs - a dedicated server requires technical knowledge of how to manage, control, protect, and maintain web servers.
This is very difficult for beginners, as server management is a professional technical task that requires strong knowledge of operating systems, Command-line Interface, and complex software and tools such as databases, programming languages, server control panel, networking, etc.
This is why the Virtual Private Servers (VPS) hosting service, or VPS for short, was born.
Types of Web Servers
All web hosting services and types of web hosting depend on the server in their composition, all hosting services basically consist of either a web server or part of it or even several servers connected to each other, which is the principle of forming cloud hosting, which depends on linking a group of servers to each other in a connected network to form a web hosting platform that resembles a single huge server.
As for the servers themselves, there are two main types of web servers: Dedicated, Private, or Full Server, which is a complete server machine that you rent from a web hosting company for a monthly or annual cost depending on the resources you need.
However, a dedicated server requires a lot of technical expertise to manage, control, and maintain it, and it is characterized by great power that is often greater than the needs of most websites and users. All of this comes with a large financial cost that you will have to bear if you want to rent or buy a Dedicated Web Server for your site.
For this reason, web hosting companies have developed a new hosting service based on combining some of the advantages of shared hosting, such as low price and ease of use, and some of the advantages of private servers in terms of increased control over the server, great ability to customize it, and a better level of security and protection.
This web hosting service is known as VPS or virtual private server hosting..
Virtual Private Server (VPS)
VPS hosting is an intermediate level between shared hosting and dedicated servers and combines the main advantages of both services. This is why most shared web hosting users upgrade to VPS hosting when their sites grow beyond the capacity of shared hosting.
A virtual private web server is created by dividing a dedicated server using specialized software into a group of "virtual" servers. Each virtual server acts as an independent server with its own operating system, settings, and customized resources that are part of the dedicated server's resources.
Although the virtual servers have a great deal of independence and isolation from each other, they still reside on the same dedicated server. This is one of the drawbacks that VPS hosting inherits from shared hosting, as sharing the same server comes with the issue of neighboring virtual servers affecting each other.
Do you need VPS hosting?
In most cases, VPS hosting is the right choice for you and most users because it has most of the benefits of a dedicated server with a lower price and greater ease of use and control.
If you need one of the following things, buying a good VPS hosting server is your best option:
- Your site is on shared hosting but it is no longer enough for it and you are looking for a cheap hosting service that is more powerful.
- You want to install a specific program or tool that is not available on shared hosting.
- Looking for more robust and secure hosting than shared hosting at an affordable price.
- You want to access the server's Root.
- You want to learn how to manage servers without renting a dedicated server.
Some of the most prominent companies that offer virtual private servers include Bluehost, one of the most popular foreign web hosts on the scene, its sister company HostGator, European upstart Hostinger, and more.
Dedicated Server
As the name implies, when you rent a private server, you get a physical server (computer) with all its resources on your own with no other users sharing it, unless of course you divide it yourself into virtual private servers or shared hosting accounts.
You will have maximum control over the server and maximum security and privacy since the server will be yours and yours alone and will host your site files only.
Although this is a very good thing, it also comes with a significant increase in cost compared to a virtual server, as you bear all the costs and fees of the server since you are the sole beneficiary of it and no one shares it or its resources with you, so you will also not find anyone to share the expenses of the server and you will have to bear all the expenses on your own.
Do you need a dedicated web server?
As we mentioned earlier, we at Best Hosting believe that a VPS virtual server is sufficient for you and most users. But it will not be suitable for all users and websites that need certain features or huge resources that are not available in VPS hosting or regular shared hosting.
You will most likely need a Dedicated Web Server if you need the following:
- You want full control of the physical server hardware, not a virtual server.
- You want maximum security and protection for your hosting and are willing to pay the cost of a dedicated server.
- You need huge hosting resources (storage, RAM, processing power, etc.) for your website or project.
- You have a large website that is growing exponentially, such as a large WordPress news website that gets a large number of new images and files every day and your WordPress hosting services do not meet its requirements.
- You have a Reseller Hosting account and want to expand your business selling web hosting to customers.
Bluehost, A2 Hosting, HostGator, HostMonster, Liquid Web, InMotion Hosting, and the most recognizable name in the hosting market, iPage Hosting, are some of the top hosting companies from which you can rent a private server.
In the end, the Best Hosting team tried to explain to you the difference between a private server and a virtual private server, and we hope that you can now easily determine the most suitable server for you.
Need help choosing which type of hosting server is best for your website or business?
Add your question or inquiry in a comment below and the What is the Best Hosting team will respond to it as soon as possible, God willing!
