Dedicated, VPS or Shared Hosting?

Remys said:

It can be difficult when setting up an online site which type of hosting to purchase.

Shared: You share a server and all its resources with other sites, sometimes 200!! This is the cheapest form of hosting and is usually only useful these days for a small paged static site.

VPS: These days a VPS can be excellent value, this is a virtual server but you physically get the resources all to yourself, so it acts like a dedicated server. This is a good option for busy blogs, membership sites, forums, ecommerce, etc.

Dedicated: Always go for a VPS first, when you out grow that then you move to a dedicated server, but I run forums with 100,000's of posts on VPS with no problems.

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VPS is a little more expensive but might well be worth it. As I understand it, it is is the unique IP address that separates your virtual server from the crowd.
If you have a unique IP address through some other arrangement then would this potentially have the same benefit.
I currently have hosting with GoDaddy who provide a unique IP when you take out an SSL cert however it is difficult to gauge if there is any tangible benefit by purchasing a VPS hosting arrangement.
Can you advise and perhaps suggest a good VPS provider I could consider ?

Remys said:

Shared: You share a server and all its resources with other sites, sometimes 200!! This is the cheapest form of hosting and is usually only useful these days for a small paged static site.

VPS: These days a VPS can be excellent value, this is a virtual server but you physically get the resources all to yourself, so it acts like a dedicated server. This is a good option for busy blogs, membership sites, forums, ecommerce, etc.

Dedicated: Always go for a VPS first, when you out grow that then you move to a dedicated server, but I run forums with 100,000's of posts on VPS with no problems.

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I have to disagree with the section in bold - in fact most sites these days are not static but will run perfectly well on shared hosting. It is also not always the cheaper option.

One thing you failed to mention is server maintenance - unless you are well versed with server maintenance and management, shared hosting is normally the better option for most websites, unless you also pay for managed VPS/dedicated server.

As for Shared vs VPS vs Dedicated, this all depends on the server specs of each - a top end VPS *can* be more powerful than a low end dedicated (depending on it's resources and virtualisation type) - and a high end shared can be more powerful than VPS or dedicated.

I guess what I'm saying is that there are an too many variations between the three types to simply generalise like this. It's normally better to discuss the requirements of the site with a prospective hosts who should be able to advise best.

Steve

If it is the domain you show on your footer, it has SSL so it needs its own IP address for the certificate.

You can pm me for more info

Remys - should'nt you be posting this sort of thing in the blog and not on the forum?

A useful snippet of advice yes, but constantly posting this sort of thing in the forum makes me think that all you want is exposure. After all, this board is for forum members who have IT technical problems.

It might be the cynic in me but as you keep doing it it makes me question your motives (especially as IT isn't exactly your business line).

Hmmm....

Representative 2692.8%APR

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Should be illegal, why on earth do people take out these 'loans'

HFServices said:

Should be illegal, why on earth do people take out these 'loans'

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[FONT=&quot]Desperation and the fact that these legalised loan sharks are allowed to trade in the first place![/FONT]

HFServices said:

Should be illegal, why on earth do people take out these 'loans'

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I once went in to "The Cheque Centre" to buy some Euro's (their rates are good) and some poor sod was taking out a pay day loan for £500 and had to pay back just over £700 in a couple of weeks time.

I felt terribly sorry for the bloke, I nearly gave him the £500 to avoid him getting his pants pulled down.

Remys said:

It can be difficult when setting up an online site which type of hosting to purchase.

Shared: You share a server and all its resources with other sites, sometimes 200!! This is the cheapest form of hosting and is usually only useful these days for a small paged static site.

VPS: These days a VPS can be excellent value, this is a virtual server but you physically get the resources all to yourself, so it acts like a dedicated server. This is a good option for busy blogs, membership sites, forums, ecommerce, etc.

Dedicated: Always go for a VPS first, when you out grow that then you move to a dedicated server, but I run forums with 100,000's of posts on VPS with no problems.

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Shared Web Hosting
Shared web hosting is similar to the flat I live in, everyone has their space (within their flat) but access to the GYM, swimming pool, lift and stairs are shared amongst the people residing in the block.

The space is dependent on the rent per month, but the resources are unlimited. Some web hosts charge for parked domains (car parking space) add-on domains (additional parking space). Other resources you’ll find you’ll be sharing with sometimes thousands of other users of the server are CPU time, memory and disk space. The term oversold is used often within the industry because many servers are oversold and overly used resulting in many servers downtime issues because of the bandwidth strains the owner of the server puts the server under. You’ll find these owners are usually selling their space at unlimited space, bandwidth and resources on eBay for 0.99 cents.

Virtually Private Servers

Virtually private severs or VPS Hosting range from company to company. 256MB, 512MB, 1024MB (1GB) is similar to owning a penthouse at Deansgate Beetham Tower. You’ll be paying a premium for exclusive rights to your own space. You’re responsible for the maintenance and up-keep of your property and repairs within the penthouse. The upside is the lack of neighbours. With VPS servers you’ll find these aren’t so oversold but rather undersold and the downtime is very minimal, the servers only ever going down when essential maintenance is provided.

On a Virtually Private Server you’re allocated resources that are not shared by other users of the server. Although the CPU time and memory (RAM) are shared across the server, however portions of those resources are always dedicated to each user of the server. Therefore allowing for more flexibility and power over a shared web hosting account.

Dedicated Hosting

We’ll compare dedicated hosting to owning the Beetham Tower in its fullest. You’ll be responsible for absolutely everything, from renting it out (if one wishes to become a web host themselves) root access to the server. No one else resides on the server and the resources are fully yours to exploit. The downside is that you’ll need some understanding of how servers are ran however there are many web hosting providers that can manage your dedicated server with you.

Moving from a block of flats to a penthouse, you’ll find the average price for undersold shared web hosting is at around £2.50 for 50MB of space and bandwidth. Regardless of the price your website will be hosted on a server and dependent on the resources your website requires depends on if you’re going to need to move out. Shared web hosting can be great for users of WordPress and Joomla and usually a good few e-mail accounts to go round (although I recommend my clients to sign-up to Google Business Apps)

Time To Upgrade?

When your website starts to grow it is important to consider moving from shared to VPS, the new traffic requirements may slow your server down. A real life example; five years ago when I were 13 I opened a chat room site using PHPChat, and with the help of an online community I had managed to attract just over 30 people. However after a few lines of chatting, the server crashed. It would have been at this point I should have invested in a VPS. However if my chat room attracted a few hundred people, it would had been necessary to acquire a dedicated server.

Hope this has cleared up the difference between the various types of web hosting solutions out there.

Successukdotcom said:

If it is the domain you show on your footer, it has SSL so it needs its own IP address for the certificate.

You can pm me for more info

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How wrong you are. These days you do NOT need a dedicated IP address to run an SSL certificate. Granted, it is still the norm in many cases but it is not a must.

DanielSalesConsultant said:

......
Hope this has cleared up the difference between the various types of web hosting solutions out there.

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I don't think you've helped there. What you've said is vaguely true in some cases but not all. Also, it's "Virtual Private Server". There's so much misinformation flying around the web these days from people who are supposed to know what they're talking about. No wonder no-tech-types find this arena so confusing and frustrating. People need to stop generalising, shortening and obfuscating the bare-bone facts. If you're going to give advice at least make sure you're 100% sure the advice you're giving is true and factual, not some rubbish read from a website/blog elsewhere. Real world experience goes a long way to help the less informed!

Posilan said:

I guess what I'm saying is that there are an too many variations between the three types to simply generalise like this. It's normally better to discuss the requirements of the site with a prospective hosts who should be able to advise best.

Steve

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^ This. This and more of THIS.

Can anyone recommend a good value VPS provider pls ?

My friend does but he doesn't have a website. However they're expensive. You get 15GB space, 100GB Bandwidth, 1GB Dedi Ram, 1IP address, cPanel £60.

JRAD said:

Can anyone recommend a good value VPS provider pls ?

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Have you considered our VPS services @ http://www.webhostingbuzz.co.uk/virtual-private-servers.php ?

Matt

JRAD said:

Can anyone recommend a good value VPS provider pls ?

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Are you looking for fully managed VPS Hosting? you can also check out : http://www.webhost.uk.net/linuxvps.html

What no-one has mentioned yet is pricing and customer service. One of the reasons shared hosting has got a bad name is the business models are often based purely around volume and not quality. If things things go wrong it's not economical for them to have lots of highly experienced techs available providing instant help.

One thing I would take a very close look at is levels of support and what channels it is available through e.g ticket system, landline, premium line, email, forum, chat etc.

digital way said:

What no-one has mentioned yet is pricing and customer service. One of the reasons shared hosting has got a bad name is the business models are often based purely around volume and not quality. If things things go wrong it's not economical for them to have lots of highly experienced techs available providing instant help.

One thing I would take a very close look at is levels of support and what channels it is available through e.g ticket system, landline, premium line, email, forum, chat etc.

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Absolutely. There's too many non customer-centric web hosts around and it is a shame the industry has a bad reputation. These web hosts generally are either at the low / bottom end of the spectrum and are very small (without the human resources to effectively support customers around the clock) or the largest ones (who constantly look to shave off HR costs from their bottom line).

Matt

One thing I would take a very close look at is levels of support and what channels it is available through e.g ticket system, landline, premium line, email, forum, chat etc

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I agree but unfortunately you never really know how good these are until the point comes when you actually need it.

When looking for a host I advise anyone to pitch a few questions at them via these help channels to see the quality of the response (even if you know the answers). It can be very revealing and might give you an indication of what to expect if things did go belly up after you've signed up.

Shared: if you can't afford 20 quid/month. No excuses otherwise.

VPS: the big thing about VPSs is that if you need to suddenly support 10 times the visitor numbers you have right now, it's very quick to "spin up" a few new servers to handle the load, and take them down when they're no longer required. If your site is likely to deal with spikes in visitor numbers like this, VPS is the way forwards.

Dedicated: for everything else.

Different companies can offer different control panels etc. on top of their hosting packages, but that's not relevant to the underlying tech in place.

MooToTheMax said:

Shared: if you can't afford 20 quid/month. No excuses otherwise.

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It really isn't as simple as that.

To run a VPS or dedicated server, you either need to know how to do it *properly* (ie, make sure it's secure and up to date etc) or pay the hosting company or third party to do that for you.

If you can't do the maintenance yourself (and most people who buy a hosting account can't), it's normally going to cost more than £20 a month.

Steve

Posilan said:

It really isn't as simple as that.

To run a VPS or dedicated server, you either need to know how to do it *properly* (ie, make sure it's secure and up to date etc) or pay the hosting company or third party to do that for you.

If you can't do the maintenance yourself (and most people who buy a hosting account can't), it's normally going to cost more than £20 a month.

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Fair point, managed hosting (i.e. hosting company looking after things) will cost more. I will maintain till my dying days that shared hosting is the worst of all worlds though

MooToTheMax said:

Fair point, managed hosting (i.e. hosting company looking after things) will cost more. I will maintain till my dying days that shared hosting is the worst of all worlds though

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Not when it's done right. It's just so often done wrong and gives the product a bad name.

for small web site i recomended to use a shared hosting, because shared hosting is very security.
VPS is not security because, he has a root access.

aleksandr10iv said:

for small web site i recomended to use a shared hosting, because shared hosting is very security.
VPS is not security because, he has a root access.

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Utter rubbish. Move along, nothing of value to read here...