Dedicated Server vs VPS: Which One Is Better for You

If you have an excellent website that has gained a lot of attraction, you can think about all the potential benefits of upgrading to a new hosting plan. For many businesses, this comes to only two choices: (1) Dedicated hosting or (2) Virtual Private Server Hosting, which is also called VPS.

To begin with your choice making process, you can start off with understanding a few fundamental things related to hosting. So let’s gain quick insight into what hosting is all about and which type of sever will be more beneficial for you.

A server is more like a computer that has a CPU, a hard drive with a considerable amount of memory and a couple of input/output ports. In many ways, it is more like the computer you use at home. Apart from whatever you choose for hosting your website, it stands that the bigger and the more powerful the hardware you use for your server, the faster your website is going to run. Also, you need to consider the following when selecting your server plan:

• The available memory offered
• The speed of the CPU 
• The storage/disk space 

Dedicated & VPS Hosting

Dedicated hosting plans have only one user that is permitted the use of all the hardware on the server. You can think of this as using your own regular computer. The user owns all the equipment and has access to all the available resources.

As far as VPS hosting is concerned, the server hardware can be used by more than one user. This means multiple users would be linked to a computer, and the resources would be shared amidst them.

You can take the example of an office that employs a single computer and the time and resources associated with that computer are shared by various users. This implies users who are running different versions of Windows are allotted equally distributed disk space and memory, and they would, in a way, share the CPU speed too.

A VPS server primarily uses ‘virtualization’ technology to split the resources amidst different users and carry out operations in an effective way. Thus for instance, if the hardware has a 500 GB hard drive, a 12 GB memory, and if 4 people are using the hardware, each will get around 125 GB storage space and a 3 GB memory.

What Are the Key Differences between VPS and Dedicated Servers?

As far as the capabilities and operations are concerned, both VPS and dedicated hosting can offer high-end and low-end servers. Both of them can get you incredible speeds, automatic malware scanning, and malware removing capability, security audits every year, and many other conveniences to work with.

Packages can also include specific services for free while there are many other packages where you are supposed to pay a little extra money if you want to add more capabilities.

Here are a few factors that may help you get to a conclusion when selecting either of the two servers to host your website:

Security

Dedicated servers are considered more secure than VPS. This is because of the usual threats which VPS hosting has to face. VPS servers possess a particular weakness that is mainly associated with the hypervisor. The hypervisor is responsible for handling, creating, and managing all the virtual machines on the server.

Many viruses only affect one virtual machine that is a single user account. However, in many cases, there can be advanced virtual machines too that are capable enough to bypass the hypervisor and spread to all the reports on the server.

The Cost

This is one of the most critical aspects that makes or breaks the deal. If a hosting company can place more people on the same server, they can make their packages a little more affordable as well. And this makes the VPS options a bit cheaper than the dedicated servers. You can get a low-end VPS service at rates starting at $20 a month, a mid-range service at around $55 a month while high-end servers can cost you around $120 a month or a still higher rate. 

Dedicated servers are available for around $99 a month. You can get a good-quality low-end product for about $150 a month, and many mid-range solutions can be availed for around $250 a month or more. It all depends on your specific needs. For websites that have millions of visitors a month, you can even avail a server for $2500 a month.

Server Performance

Performance is one other aspect related to the server’s hardware specification. If you have two servers with the same specifications, dedicated servers will always have the edge over VPS servers. The reason is they don’t need to distribute resources amidst different users. That’s however not the case with VPS servers that do allocate resources amidst various users. Chances are if you have a website or an enterprise, you would need a large amount of hardware to get things running.

Still can’t make up your mind? That’s alright, let’s try to make things easier for you.

Let’s forget about the cost. If your business is not generating enough revenue as yet, then VPS hosting will prove to be a better choice. A simple principle to follow is that if your business can’t afford to have a dedicated server, then there is a high chance that you might not need one.

You can also ignore security because the additional security risk of a virus bypassing the hypervisor is quite low as in it rarely happens. If however, you consider safety to be your baseline, then you might want to think about getting a dedicated server to ensure unobstructed and streamlined operations as well as peace of mind.

If you take into account factors like configuration and performance, you might be better off with a dedicated hosting option that allows you to assemble the physical server. For instance, if you need to install any special software or tune your hardware to get your software running efficiently, a dedicated server would be the ultimate choice. Performance is, however, something tricky and is all about actual hardware configuration; hence, you might not find dedicated servers necessarily faster than VPS servers unless configured for optimum output.

I would suggest you always go for a server that fits your business needs. And for that, you must understand and realize what your priorities are and what you essentially need. Is it the security, the cost, or the performance?

Determine all these variables and get the best fit for yourself and your organization. This way, you will choose the best option that will translate into quality service for your customers and more profit for you.