A few months ago, we first introduced you to VPS (virtual private servers) on our blog. Today, we’ll be discussing whether it’s time to consider moving from a shared hosting plan to VPS.
When to Start Asking Questions
While shared hosting may seem like the most logical choice when you’re first carving your online niche, so to speak, it may not be the best decision in the long run. Why is this? Well it’s not uncommon for a website to take off and “outgrow” its original hosting plan. Shared plans pool resources from a single source to power multiple web properties. What if your site begins requiring more of those resources than its allotted? Even worse, what if someone else’s site does the same? The fact is, you never know how popular your site (or anyone else’s!) is going to become so it’s important to be prepared to make a change if necessary. If you do think it may be time to consider a change, start by asking these 3 simple questions about your shared hosting provider.
Why Your Hosting Should Matter to You
As a site owner, hosting is important because it has a lot to do with how your site performs. The obvious issue is whether your site is actually online or not, but there are other things that will impact your site visitors’ experience. Page load speed, for instance, can have a major impact on user experience (UX for short). It’s important that your site loads as quickly as possible to help keep visitors interested! Shared hosting, unfortunately, can create problems with this because your hosting provider is experiencing a drain on shared resources – whether it’s your fault or not.
VPS to the Rescue?
Scenarios like the one mentioned above can be mitigated well by switching to a virtual private server, or VPS. The concept is actually fairly similar to shared hosting, but VPS does offer a level of scalability and resource allocation that shared providers simply cannot match. With VPS, you get to determine how big a slice of the resource pie your site will enjoy.
A VPS is the sensible, economical “next step”, so to speak, for owners of growing websites. While there may come a point where you have to consider extreme hosting solutions, such as dedicated servers or even colocation, VPS offers many of the benefits of these options while toting a much friendlier price tag.
When Do You Know it Is Time?
If your site is consistently under-performing or you struggle with severe downtime issues, contact your hosting provider and find out why. If the issue has to do with resource allocation, it’s time to move on and VPS is a great choice for this. For space that is not only reliable, but also very fairly-priced, VPS is the perfect solution.
Why VPS Matters to Us
At HostandStore.com, we offer shared web hosting, so it may seem strange that we’d ever mention the benefits of other types of hosting. That’s because HostandStore is a part of a family of hosting brands, managed by our parent company, Root Level Technology. At the end of the day, what really matters to us is that we help you to succeed online. If you ever feel that your hosting needs are not being fully met, please reach out to our friendly, helpful team to learn about what we can do to improve your experience. Working together, we can ensure your online success!
