What would be better, a Shared Hosting, a VPS, or a Dedicated Server?. For some people, those concepts are pretty clear but for others are not so much. Even though you could reach the same goals using any of them, the path you take is different from one to the other.
Let's explain in this article which cases you would be better with what product.
Shared Hosting
It is considered Shared as you are not alone, you are sharing resources with other users on the server. As more users are sharing fewer free resources are available for you and vice versa. But that is not a bad thing, the standard for Shared Hostings is to host smaller sites or static pages that do not use many resources in comparison with bigger sites with front and backend development, for example.
Depending on the server, It is possible to host hundreds of users and all of them sharing the same resources and not having issues like slow pages or high latency if all the web pages and sites are just static pages which means no use for the database. Once you start using the database then a latency layer is been added to the time-consuming processing of the query.
Web Hosting companies like Neteron have different shared hosting plans for different cases, for example, with the Startup plan, you can share resources with other customers if all of them have similar needs like publishing static pages and or the use of the web builders to build their site that is going to be published. This is the best way to use the Startup plan, of course, if you are a geek probably can do a lot more like adding PHP code to execute your scripts.
Advanced and Ultimate Plans are for customers that use dynamic content. Dynamic content makes more use of the resources of the server, and that is the reason why it is more expensive as fewer people are been hosted as more resources are been consume.
As more affordable is the plan you are using as more people are been hosted, and as more expensive is the plan, as fewer people are been hosted. The idea is to have an equilibrium in the number of resources need it over the number of customers hosted, and the profit percent minus the cost of the server. The Ultimate plan is designed to host fewer customers with high needs in resources.
A Neteron rule is to host as fewer number of customers per server as possible and get some profit. This is a general rule followed by most web hosting companies but this is not true all the time. Some companies overcrowd their servers to make the most of the money. It is more noticeable when dynamic web site are been hosted and the huge delay when trying to open them in the navigator.
VPS or Virtual Private Server
This is the next step in web hosting and it provides the customer with virtualization technology for implementing his project. With a VPS your account is virtually isolated and you will have some resources assigned exclusively to you. Memory, storage space, and process power are for you to use in their capacity.
Even though this is a shared environment, the resources assigned to you are inside a virtual machine that you and only you have access to. For example, imagine a server with 32 core processor, 128Gb in Ram, and 1Tb of SSN storage.
You could get a decent started virtual machine when you have your container with 2 core processors, 8Gb ram, and 60Gb of storage assigned exclusively to you, leaving 30 core processors, 120Gb of ram, and 940Gb of storage to others; with the possibility to increase your resources as you grow.
But all these advantages come with disadvantages. You would need to know about operating systems and how to troubleshoot a virtual environment. VPS comes as a vanilla product, you need to install and configure the software you need like the operating system, the web server, the programming software, the email server software, the firewall, and so on.
You must know in what are you getting involved. Neteron offers a series of Managed VPS. Neteron will install the software you need and prepare your development environment so you do not need to do it yourself or hire anybody for that.
Another advantage of VPS is that you can add more resources as you need them, for example, if your site grows up and you need more space, then you can migrate to a higher plan without the need of rebuilding your software again. All of this is done in the background and in just a few seconds your virtual machine will have more storage space, memory, and processor power.
This is not true in the other way. Once you have a plan, it is not possible to go back as there is not possible to reduce the size of your container without losing your software. Be aware that this is only a one-way ticket.
Dedicated servers
This is the last, the ultimate, the best of the best of the web hosting services. It is a dedicated and exclusive server for you and only you. You can host web pages, you can have your virtual machines, and your software, and do everything that you are legally bound to.
This is the whole machine for your project. If your server has 32 cores, 128Gb in Ram, and 1TB in storage, then they are all yours.
Same as VPS, you would need to install the server with the operating system of your preference, same as the rest of the software. There are other caveats like you must know how to troubleshoot hardware remotely. Sounds contradictory but it is true. You must know how to detect faulty memory or hard disc, and you must know how to request revision and replacement of the parts to the data center support office. You are the eyes they are the hands.
In some cases, there is monitor software that is been reviewed by personnel from in site and they can intervene on the server depending on the SLA agreement you have with them. A server intervention will try to keep your services running or in the worse scenery, they will change the necessary parts.
Most of the interventions we have in Neteron servers are for example firmware updates, or the replacement of an old motherboard just because the data center is decommissioning the old one.
Another caveat is that once you have a server, it is not simple to add more resources when you need them. They are made as they are been offered. If you need more resources then you would need to get a bigger server and migrate your systems there.
In conclusion, the price factor
It is obvious that price is another point to take into consideration when deciding how to build your project. As you go the price are too. The cheapest Hosting is the Shared Hosting for reasons we have already discussed, followed by the VPS and the most expensive are the Servers.
Remember these are equipment located in a Datacenter, and data centers are points of connection to the most important autonomous system, which means the connection to the global network. For example, OVH offers a total of 32TB of global network capacity in 33 data centers within 4 continents and more than 34 reductants PoPs.
These PoPs are connections to other carriers, networks, data centers, public, and private Telcos from all around the world like Equinix, Paris Telehouse, Globalswitch, Verizon, Vodafone, Telefonica, AT&T, and Orange, just to mention some of them, the list is long,
It is not possible to compare the price of storage and processing power at home, with the price of storage and processing power located in a data center; if you have it, then you better make the most use of it. This is the most expensive of the options.
The End.
