This is a place to discuss everything related to web and cloud hosting. From shared hosting to bare metal servers, and everything in between. Post reviews of your current and past hosts, post questions to the community regarding your needs, or simply offer help to your fellow redditors.
What's the difference between shared hosting and VPS
We've noticed a lot of questions lately about shared hosting versus virtual private server hosting (VPS). Here’s a quick primer to help you figure out which option is right for your website.
Basics of shared hosting
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Your website shares a server with many others
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Server resources (CPU, RAM, storage) are divided among all hosted sites
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Cost-effective, but performance can be affected by other sites
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Limited control over server configuration
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Managed through control panels like cPanel for basic tasks
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No root access - can't install custom software or make deep system changes
Basics of VPS
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Virtually partitioned environment on a shared physical server
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Dedicated resources - your own CPU, RAM, and storage
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More reliable performance - other sites can't slow you down
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Root access for installing custom software and configurations
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Generally faster load times and better uptime
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More scalable - easily increase resources as your site grows
Remember, a VPS splits your site from others virtually. It doesn’t mean you have a dedicated server. VPS =/= dedicated server
Why does this matter for your site?
Looking at performance, shared hosting slows down during traffic spikes on other sites, while VPS typically offers dedicated resources for consistent performance. VPS usually gives you the control to customize your environment, shared hosting doesn’t.
From a security perspective, your site is at greater risk if another site on the shared server is compromised. The VPS should provide better isolation to protect you from vulnerabilities on other sites.
Ultimately, it comes down to what you want from your site. If you’re just getting started WordPress blog or small business site, shared should be fine. The latter is almost always a better option if you expect a higher volume than that.
It's a very... raw post.
False. If the provider uses Cloudlinux and doesn't oversell like crazy, there's zero performance impact by other sites.
You also forgot to add:
- Shared hosting: More features, everything will cost you extra on a VPS: Softaculous, cPanel, Litespeed, Backups.
False. VPS is just a shared dedicated server. CPU and Network is shared unless clearly mentioned otherwise. But those services usually have a different name, VDS (virtual dedicated server)
Partially False, because if someone uses lots of CPU, you'll feel it. If someone gets DDoSed, you'll feel it. If someone uses lots of network and IO, you'll feel it.
You also forgot to add the huge overhead of management between them. On shared hosting, the provider is responsible for security audits, updates, maintenance (of the server/hosting environment). On a VPS (unless it's managed) that's 100% on you, and let's be honest here, people are lazy to update their wordpress with 2 clicks, I can't imagine how many people log into SSH and update hundreds of packages, configure their firewall, secure their ssh, etc.
Also, a little dirty trick, if you're on a VPS and you get attacked, they will cut your IP (nullroute) and not really waste any time trying to actually filter the attack (because it's cheaper, faster). If you're on a shared hosting (and shared ip) they will absolutely try their best to mitigate and filter the attack, because it's not just you who's going down, it's potentially hundreds of customers (which means hundreds of support requests)
I expected more from someone being in the business from 1997, or are you stuck in 1997ish concepts?
Source: Over 10 years of recent experience in the field (hosting, system admin, support)
Personally, I would add that the VPS server must be maintained (updates, backups, bug fixes, security management, etc.). Maintenance can be done by the host (for a fee) or directly by the person renting the VPS (if they are capable).
There's also hybrid hosting like SpinupWP where the server updates are managed but the server itself is a VPS you own and control.
VPS =/ VDS
VPS Still share cpu usage, meanwhile VDS is 100% cpu usage for your own.
Look at Hetzner CCX13 plans for example. They are VDS not VPS.
This is the first thing that stuck out at me too
In theory VDS is dedicated, but you have no way of actually knowing this unless you benchmark it daily.
I've had an extremely good experience with Hetzner, there is basically no performance difference between their shared and dedicated instances, I was able to get top performance from both!
Thanks ChatGPT :)
Interesting. I had no idea these were both options.. Very cool. Thanks!
No problem! Unfortunately, they get lumped together more often than they should.