Regular Shared Hosting Vs. VPS Vs. Dedicated Server
Jun 1, 2008
My head is about to explode with all the information available in regard to regular shared hosting verses VPS verses dedicated server and I still don't have an answer. It will probably be of some benefit to say that I have virtually no experience in any of this aside of having previously published a small website. Of course there are no worries when it comes to something small however, now I am getting into something much larger and am pretty much sitting here like a scared rabbit in the face of trying to make the right host decision.
Let me start by saying that my site is a reverse auction type of site that will also have a forum, blog, small auction venue etc. Users will be uploading files and communicating within the site as well. It might help to say that it is similiar to getafreelancer.com. We won't have a technical theme but the set up is similiar.
My question is....I don't know what kind of host to go with! I originally thought IX but then read up on the dishonesty involved with claims of unlimited bandwidth. Then I thought about VPS which I guess is different from regular hosts but I'm not clear as to why. It's still shared isn't it? Finally, I'm thinking about a dedicated server. I have found a place called server4you.com that has reasonable prices but I still need to check them out. The problem with this option is that I have absolutely no understanding of the tech side of dealing with my own server. I know that some companies offer a managed option but they are so expensive and I don't even know what that would entail.
Plus what about security, how does that work with a dedicated server. For example, when shared hosting companies list options that come with a package, SSL is always mentioned for e-commerce hosting. How would I secure my own site?
How in the world is someone supposed to know how much space they need before they publish? You really can't determine data transfer ahead of time. I am in dire need of some good options that won't bleed me dry and I barely know of the right questions to ask.
I am working on creating a social networking website. It will have approximately 2500 members with about 1/2 using video. I spoke to 2 different programmers through rent-a-coder. One told me to get a dedicated server through GoDaddy that runs me about $120/mo. The other programmer told me that there was no way that I would need that much and I could get a shared hosting package for $10-$20/mo and that would work fine. He said that a dedicated server wouldnt be necessary unless I was getting a ton of hits to my site or needed to host multiple sites. I inquired about it with GoDaddy and when I mentioned I was doing a social networking site, they said I would need the dedicated server. I am hiring someone to build the site since it is beyond what I am capable of, so I am clueless on who is correct.
VPS or Dedicated Server?? Or stick with shared hosting?
I currently use a shared hosting reseller account with HostGator for $24.95 which gives me 24 GB disk space and 250 GB RAM and allows me to host unlimited domains. It has cPanel, WHM and it is managed. I've used them for two years and they are awesome! Currently, I have about 20 very small domains hosted under my hosting account: all are very small and require no bandwidth or disk space whatsoever. EXCEPT, I have two or three domains which are solely used for e-commerce which is why I am considering upgrading to a VPS or dedicated-server.Background on the business:Users visit the site (300 visitors a day) and use the shopping cart to place an order for the software which ranges from $50-$300. An account is created for them in which they can login to download the software packages which range from 10 MB to 100 MB file size. They then install it on their computer and activate it with the license key number. Upon activation, the installed software connects with our backend of our website to update their account with their computers fingerprint. Each time the software is executed, their computer connects with our licensing server to verify legitimate usage. Our backend has access to their billing information and licensing; therefore, security is a must.We have about 4,000 users. Recently, with the business growing, I am not sure if I should be looking for a VPS or dedicated-server solution. With HostGator I'm paying $300 a year (and everything is running seamlessly). Or, I can switch to VPS for $500/yr and dedicated server for $2000/year. My budget is open, though I don't want to get anything that is overkill for the logistics of my business. What I current use and need:*Space: Up to 10 GB *Bandwidth: Up to 100 GB*Reliable, 99.9%+ uptime and MANAGED server*Daily backups*Good support (i.e. installing SSL certs, firewall)*Secure*cPanel*Allow me to host other my other non-business websites (1 big forum with 500 visitors/day and 19 very small parked sites) *IONCube support*I will have to get SSL for a few of my sites. And for that, I’ll need dedicated IP addresses. I would prefer if there is a VPS or dedicated server solution which has a package for multiple dedicated IP addressesQuestions:1) For my business, would you recommend VPS or dedicated-server or do you think I am fine with what the shared hosting reseller account with HG I have already? If a VPS or dedicated server is justified, which provider do you recommend that suits my needs?2) Will I truly see a notable and significant improvement by upgrading from my current state to a VPS or dedicated server?3) Will I need a firewall to ensure security for the 4,000 clients? How can I optimize the security of my clients?4) Privacy is a very important concern (not that I'm doing anything illegal). I use GoDaddy to do a private whois so it does not reveal my name or address. If I switch to VPS or dedicated server, should I be concerned that people can use the IP address of the website to identify me? What approaches can I take to protect my privacy?5) What do you think of slicehost.com? I was recommended to use this. I thought maybe the 256 slice plan would be appropriate for me, but I don't know what linux distribution to use: Ubuntu, CentOs, Fedora, Gentoo, Debian, etc. Heck, I don't even know the differences and I don't plan on playing around with anything on the server.I really appreciate your help in this matter. I am a totally newbie when it comes to this hosting stuff.
Do website builders generally go with shared hosting or dedicated server? I mean, if they work on several websites would they get a dedicated server instead of shared? From what I understand through reading shared hosting is basically if you only have one website. So one with multiple websites would go with a dedicated server?
I use shared web hosting service to get my website online. I'm wondering how many people use dedicated servers or virtual private servers instead and pay from $20 to several hundreds of dollars? Will I face any big problem with shared web hosting package which makes me choose dedicated servers?
I've had a couple dedicated servers with 1and1 for a while now(about 6mos). I have to say that my overall experience was pretty good. At the time the prices where pretty good, and are very comparable to most hosts. I received the speeds promised, the server was setup very quickly.
The only negative I had with the server was the kernel. I attempted to install vmware on they system however they did not have the headers needed by GCC to compile vmware. It was an annoyance, but I just opted to update the kernel since there where a few releases since their custom built kernel was made. Once I was running the new kernel the vmware process went smoothly, and everything worked perfectly.
As for 1and1's support team, I have to say their standard support I would not rate a 10/10, however their dedicated server support team, and one particular rep I've come to know in their sales / abuse department (more on the abuse dpt. later) are very knowledgeable. And always addressed any issues or questions promptly. Which honestly no issues besides vmware stand out in my mind, which was just a minor inconvenience, which you would find on most hosts. Since its an un-managed root server your responsible for keeping the system up to date, and run the latest kernels anyway right?
Ok, so I mentioned I came to know a rep out of the abuse department of sales. Now this isn't particularly related to my dedicated servers but I did have one of their hosting packages. Well I never kept tabs on the site and the scripts had a couple vulnerabilities, php5 wasn't enforced.
Anyway to make a long story short, the site was hacked and fake bank sites and other scripts where loaded onto the server. Which is where The abuse department came into play. Now I know (getting off topic, but it may be the same with a dedicated server) hosting companies don't want to run sites like these, and I thought that the way these companies usualy handle these types of situations are to send a take-down notice to their client, as its possible they may not even know its there. But 1and1 opted to completely disable all access to the server, http, ftp, ssh, everything. So at first I didn't know what happend. I call up tech support that night(prob around midnight -- 24/7 tech support is always great), they let me know the account was dissabled do to an abused related complaint. They told me I would have to wait until morning when their sales department opens(as abuse is located in sales).
So I call up the number they gave me the next morning. And meet Bob (I'm calling him bob because his name escapes me at the moment). He was very pleasant and understanding that I needed my site up as soon as possible. He looked at my account he saw I had been with them for about a year and a half, and said he didn't think I had posted any of the content anyway(he disabled it himself imagine that haha). He emailed me links to all the files in question, informed me that php5 was not forced and recomed I fix it. Since that was the only reason we had this isue in the first place. He was also able to tell me what files the hacker used to exploit and gain access to the server, as well as searched the the user directory for any backdoor scripts. Which he did find some and sent me the locations in the email.
So, finally we got of the phone he re-enabled the server. I went through the email went through everything, I just opted to delete everything as i felt the whole system was compromised anyway, and re-upload the site. I forced php5 for all php scripts and never heard anything about it again... and the site still runs today!
Their normal tech support isn't all the great, at least not when it comes to apache. I inquired about mod_rewrite not working and the first rep i spoke to didn't know what i was talking about, I explained in more detail, she put me on hold for about 10-20mins and researched it. Said she found details about my issue and shot me an email. I checked the email, it contained how to moddify headers using MS ASP which has nothing to even do with my "LINUX" shared hosting plan.
I called in a second time frustrated, remember I usually talk to guys from their dedicated server support. When I spoke with the second rep. The first thing I asked Him was if he was familiar with "Apache Mod_Rewrite" (exact words) are you familiar with this, and if not can you please give me to someone that is. He assured me he knew what I was talking about, I explained the situation, and what the other rep sent me was completely off topic. He apologized and assured me he knows exactly what I'm talking about.
He sent me an email with another link to their FAQ yet again. However this time is was on creating 403 redirects in apache. Well I do admit at least they got closer this time right? I laughed and walked out of the room. Took a shower and relaxed. Finally, I decided I'd take one last look at .htaccess configs before trying another call. I played around with different setting and... eureka! I found the solution; for some reason mod rewrite on 1and1's shared hosting servers doesn't support sub-directories; that is you need to access the files in your root directory to successfully process a rewrite.
So whats the moral of the story? Call Dedicated Server Support! lol
So anyway since this is a dedicated server review. So for my Dedicated server experience I would rate it a "9 out of 10".
For my overall experience with 1and1, I would rate it an "8 out of 10". Not the best I ever had, but I would do business with them. There are other minor issues I've had with their shared hosting, but I don't feel like getting into them.
Anyway hope that helps sombody, I kno it was a long post... so for the people that read it all congrats, because I lost concentration over about 80% of that post lol
Little humor there.. anyway thanks for read'n the post... just my little contribution to WHT.
I recently inherited the responsibilities of 2 websites and will be in charge of creating 2 more.
Of these 4 websites, only 2 have serious traffic. The current site, made in Drupal, peaked at 3,000 unique visitors a day and on average receives about 500 uniques a day. This site will most likely be the highest in traffic.
My boss would like to know if dedicated hosting is necessary (I'm the entire IT department), I should be on shared hosting correct?
The 4 websites will be built upon the following platforms: Drupal WordPress PHP TWiki (open source Wiki web collaboration platform)
Do you think that cloud/grid hosting is going to replace shared hosting and dedicated?
I do see the advantages for hosting in some aspects.
Shared works only for small sites, once the client grows his site he needs dedi but its to complicated, people need a website running, most people dont want to handle servers configs, maintaince, etc. Cloud hosting is perfect here, you can escalate when you need it. Even if your dedi with cloud you can escalate more. I see a big advantage into this, since someone can only pay for what he uses. You can fit all models, shared or dedi with cloud since you have very low processing accounts and very intensive ones using several servers.
But then again i see its disadvantages. Software for cloud is to expensive for hosting companies, it requires the latest and biggest from virtualization software and licenses are expensive, which makes the cloud hosting expensive to end client in this business.
It seems also the market is not really ready for it. It doesn't seem to have the best performance yet but is does has scalability.
I also see that most companies make profit of people paying for something and not using it at all, with cloud hosting that doesn't make sense. Like most people that pay a flat rate for their cell phones but don't use to the last minute each month. A hosting company even if it doesn't oversell their accounts has a better profit of people paying all the same prices, this balances out for people that use to much and you cover the costs with those that don't use anything. With cloud each one would pay exactly what he needs. Said that, you would not make to much profit, since you would have people paying allot less then just buying your minimum plans and not using all the functions.
Do you think cloud hosting will eventually be the main stream offer from hosting providers, replacing the existing shared and dedicated hosting offerings, or will it be a combination or mix of all solutions? It escalates perfectly but it comes with a cost.
You think people prefer to pay every penny they use or just have a fixed cost and know they are ok if they ever need to use it, even if they will not?
I think allot of consumers would not like the idea of being nickel and dime to death instead of paying a fixed amount per month, and profit for company is not that great with this system. Thats the main disadvantage i see it. But i see a very big market for people running very intensive websites that dont have the experience or time to manage a server or cant pay the managed dedi offers that are to costly like rackspace. Shared is simple, they only have to handle their account not the server. Cloud is the same here, except you can the power of dedi without the extras that come with it. As i see it, cloud benefits intensive clients but not people that only need a simple account for hosting a site and using email once per day.
I am developing a website for a client of mine (the client is a close friend and know's that he is getting a newbie). This site will be larger (project wise) than anything that I have ever done (everything I have done in the past has been FrontPage). We will be using several third party applications that need to run on the server as well as our own custom developed applications. We do not yet know how much access to the server's deeper structures we will need for all of the applications that we want loaded on our server to run. Things we have in mind: oscommerce, mysql, php5, apache, linux, vbulletin, blogger, phpbb, adserver, ect... Would these things run ok on a shared host and would I have full authority to configure them without needing full access to the server? Or will I need access to the entire server (dedicated server) in order to have full customization capabilities? I guess all I am trying to figure out at this point is will shared hosting for a large project limit our abilities to use 3rd party apps, or do most 3rd party application designers build their stuff to work in a shared hosting environment anyway? If we need to get a dedicated server we will, but if we can get away with shared hosting for a while (especially during development when the site will not be generating revenue) it would be nice to avoid the price of a dedicated server. Many thanks for your comments, insight, and expertise! Also, if anyone can sight some common scenarios that may require a dedicated server over a shared hosting plan, that may help me to understand what the limitations of a shared hosting plan vs. a deicated or virtual dedicated server are.
I'm new to the VPS scene, so could someone tell me the difference between VPS and say shared hosting or dedicated hosting? Actually I really like to know what a Virtual Private Server actually is.. I know shared hosting is typically a single account on a server with several hundred other accounts which is used primarily for the sole purpose of hosting websites, and I know that dedicated hosting is functionally the same as colo except that you rent the server, instead of having your own purchased server plugged into some network. So what is VPS?
Presently, my site is hosted at ICDsoft business shared account And my site is hosted on "two Quad-core Xeon processors, 8 GB RAM and a multi-terabyte RAID 6 disk array."
I am planning on moving away from a shared account.
My site is an ecommerce site and my budget for a new server is around $100-$150 per month.
Should i transfer to a VPS or Dedicated server ?
I need a Full/complete managed server, either it be VPS or Dedicated. I dont want to get involved in setting up, securing etc. the server. I would like a Control Panel, be it Cpanel or any other with Linux System.
Also, my main concern is, how much bandwidth should be good for an ecommerce site with around 20,000 unique visitors per month, around 500,000 hits per month
I am looking into the following companies which provides VPS and Dedicated solutions:
1). Liquidweb
2). DedicatedNOW
3). Wiredtree
Are there any other companies i should look into?
Which company would be the best in terms of service and support response time? Im spoiled by ICDSoft's quick response time
Also, How much RAM would be good, since most VPS solutions have 512 to 786 MB ram?
I'm currently with Hawkhost but I want to move to a UK hosting service as I'm finding Hawkhost to be rather sluggish.
I currently have 15 websites (not that data intensive) but I want to find a UK host that offers shared hosting and then offers the possibility of moving all the data onto a dedicated machine once some of the sites take off.
A) do any companies actually offer such a service of relocating?
B) are there any anyone could recommend? I'm thinking of eventually getting a dedicated server for up to 75 pounds a month.
I’m not sure this I the right place to post this, but since I’ll need also a dedicated server I guess it is (I’m sorry if it’s not).
Hi to you all.
I’m developing my own site. This will be my very first time building and managing a site, so I’m for sure a noob on this type of stuff (but I have a good general knowledge on computers (I build my own computers and solve every problem I encounter)). The site will be managed by joomla 1.5 plus a phpbb3 forum (maybe vbulleting in the future). Obviously when my site is completed and published on the net I’ll have zero members, but I hope to see this number increase (lol…from 0 members it isn’t a hard thing to accomplish…I guess ).
Having a really low number of members and visitors I think that I’ll start from a shared hosting plan (or VPS) and then go up to a dedicated server (when I’ll need it…I hope soon )….probably a managed dedicated server since I don’t know much of the technicalities needed to manage a dedicated server.
This being said, I would prefer to go for a good hosting company (cheap…but reliable) that has both shared and dedicated hosting plans so when I’ll have to upgrade (from shared/VPS to dedicated) everything will be smoothly managed by them.
The site/forum aims to have a large community, a good n° of hosted files (images and mp3’s (recorded voice) ---> everything legal!)
What hosting company would you suggest?
Is it possible to have the site on one server and the forum on another? (considering that the forum will be integrated in the joomls CMS with a bridge).
I am looking for a hosting company based in Canada (preferably) or who has it's servers based in Canada, not in the U.S., who offers both shared hosting as well as dedicated hosting for easy upgrade. The only requirement that I need is the possibility to have SSH access. Could you recommend me a company that has a few years history? I am looking for a long-term host for an important project.
Does Image hosting site requires a Powerful server or just enough bandwidth?
I am not sure if I should get a more powerful SERVER or increase my current BANDWIDTH Cap For people who has a Image/File hosting type website.. what kind of server are you using?
A nehalem with 12 GBs of RAM. It would have 10 TBs of bandwidth. Just wondering how much stress does it use on the CPU/RAM? How many accounts should I put on it? Lets say each account is 1 GB of space and 10 GBs of bandwidth.
I own a small hosting business business, around 50 clients on a shared server and 8 clients dedicated. I do not own a firwall I do everything via iptables on each server which is a pain in the ass.
I just recently purchased a Sonicwall Pro 2040, I wanted to know how do you all recommand to set it up? Should I use MIPS / VIPS? should I do Reverse NAT? Transparent Mode?
From reading a good lot of posts here, I can see that HostGator seems to be a good company and that many have a good feedback to give about it. I've also been reading that you should avoid overselling, though understand that some companies, even though they offer "Unlimited space and bandwidth", they can manage it well. I guess HostGator falls in that category too. My questions here:
1) So what are the conditions under which it is okay to go for a company that offers unlimited space and bandwidth? (Expecting answers like 'if you just have a few blogs and don't require...')
I have read (here and elsewhere) that for most people's requirements, a shared web hosting would do. However, for someone a with a little more web baggage (individuals, not businesses), it is generally advised that they look at semi-dedicated hosting plans.
2) Based on the above quoted, objectively, what are the things that you should look at (like traffic per day etc) and what should be their values (for e.g. like 15000 uniques per day etc) while considering moving from sharing to semi-dedicated plans? I think some of them are the following, can you give me approximate values for these when I should consider the move?
a) Traffic b) Number of active websites c) Sites with heavy resource usage. (Can you give me some examples of this?) d)...
How long do you wait before moving from shared to VPS or dedicated? Apart from security and speed, what are the benefits of dedicated hosting? This says [url] that shared is better than dedicated because you have to do less..
which webhosts offers "real" unlimited shared or dedicated hosting? alot of companies say unlimited but in their terms it says they'll suspend your account if you exceed reasonable use and they don't tell you what this is.
This concerns a fairly successful ecommerce website. It is coded in classic asp and has a MS SQL database.
The site sees average of 1500 visitors a day using about 50 GB of bandwidth a month.
The host wants to move the site to a two box dedicated (1 web - 1 database server).
This is an expensive proposition and the client is balking. I am not an expert in these matters but it seems like overkill to me. It seems like most sites don't have problems with the database and web server on 1 box.
I know Typepad is primarily a blogging platform, like Wordpress. However, many people say that Wordpress can be used as a full-fledged CMS, where, for example, one could maybe even develop their business website with it.
Could you do that same sort of thing on Typepad's hosted offering? For example, may a business website that could support e-commerce and such?
I've trawled the sitepoint forums but haven't found anything relating to this subject. I'm hoping someone out there has found themselves in a similar situation.
As a brief summary, I work as a full time web designer for a company but also run my own web design business in my spare time. Within the next year I plan to go freelance which will hopefully leave with some spare time to learn dynamic web design as well as offer clients domain registration and hosting services.
As a web designer, my knowledge of hosting is not that great, but I intend to learn. Currently, I work with a guy who sorts all this out for me. He has a shared server and pays a certain amount per month and charges me £XX a year per client to setup domains and hosting.
I was wondering how much technical skill I need to set this up myself. With so many hosting packages out there, it's hard to know where to start. Should I buy a dedicated server and host my clients at home or go with the safer option and pay monthly for shared hosting?
I have a dedicated server with SSH ability and I need to backup some of the accounts of the server via rsync to a normal shared account where I only have ftp access..?
