How to Choose Between Shared, VPS, Dedicated, and Cloud Hosting

Pricing is only one aspect of choosing the correct hosting solution. In fact, making a purchase solely based on price is a formula for failure. When comparing pricing on shared hosting plans vs VPS vs dedicated vs cloud hosting, it may appear like signing up for the lowest option available is a no-brainer, right?

In truth, pricing isn’t always the best determinant of which option is best for you.

Before making an informed decision about which hosting type to choose, let’s first define shared hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting service, and cloud server hosting.

What is Shared Hosting?

Shared server hosting services is the most basic and least expensive hosting option. You may rent space on a shared hosting server using these options. On the same server as your website, many other websites are hosted. These plans are the most affordable since they offer the least amount of performance, security, and flexibility.

What is VPS Hosting?

VPS hosting service is a hybrid of shared and dedicated hosting. A physical server (also known as the parent) hosts numerous VPS instances, each of which is allocated a certain fraction of the parent server’s hardware resources. These instances are rented and function as separate servers from one another. As a result, it’s effectively renting a portion of a dedicated server. These plans range in price and provide more inexpensive scalability, performance, and security than shared hosting.

What is Dedicated Hosting?

The cloud is receiving a lot of attention in the media these days, but traditional methods aren’t going away. So, what exactly does fully managed dedicated hosting entail?

Dedicated Servers are just what the name implies: a single server that is solely dedicated to you. You have complete control over the server’s hardware. In a data centre, bare metal servers frequently share network connectivity with nearby dedicated servers, although they share no hardware. These hosting plans are often more expensive than shared or VPS plans, but they can provide superior performance, security, and flexibility, particularly for individuals who want bespoke settings or unique hardware.

What is Cloud Server Hosting?

Cloud Servers, often known as public cloud hosting, are enterprise-grade cloud platforms that provide scalable cPanel hosting options. Cloud hosting may be set up in minutes and scaled up and down fast in response to traffic fluctuations or workload needs. The servers are also extremely stable, having redundant hardware and high availability built in. These plans are also more expensive, but they provide the most scalability, flexibility, agility, and cost-efficiency.

Now that we’ve established a fundamental grasp of each of the four hosting alternatives, let’s compare shared hosting vs VPS vs dedicated vs cloud server hosting using a few different metrics to see how we arrived at this tier structure.

Shared Hosting Pros and Cons

If you own a web agency, you are not alone in believing that shared web hosting, which may cost as little as $5 per site per month, is the most cost-effective option for your company.

Take a closer look, though, and you’ll discover how the financial, functional, and emotional benefits of a more extensive plan from a managed host deliver significantly more bang for your buck. Managed hosting provides the performance, security, configurability, and scalability required to expand your business.

So, before we go into VPS versus dedicated, let’s start with the most fundamental option: shared hosting.

Pros of Shared Hosting

• Lowest Cost

Cons of Shared Hosting

• Low Performance
• Low Security
• Restricted Configurability
• Limited Scalability

VPS Hosting Pros and Cons

When we shift gears to comprehend the advantages of VPS hosting, we see that performance is important. If you want to keep your clients pleased, you must deliver exceptional results.

According to a Kissmetrics poll, over half of online users anticipate a site to load in two seconds or less, and visitors likely to quit a site that takes more than three seconds to open.

Furthermore, 79 percent of web buyers who have problems with website performance said they will not return to the site to buy again, and 44 percent would tell a friend if they had a bad experience purchasing online.

What’s the bottom line here?

A second difference in page load speeds has the potential to cost you money from disgruntled visitors. Make sure you grasp the benefits of dedicated virtual server hosting before we compare VPS vs dedicated servers.

Pros of VPS Hosting

• High Scalability
• High Security
• Some Configurability
• Mid-Tier Performance

Con of VPS Hosting

• Mid-Level Cost

Dedicated Hosting Pros and Cons

Now that we’ve identified some of the primary drawbacks of shared hosting, let’s take a closer look at VPS versus dedicated hosting. When it comes to hosting solutions, dedicated servers can do it all. They provide as the foundation for all Internet-hosted sites and apps. Because all software must operate on actual hardware in some way or another, dedicated servers have virtually no limitations.

You may also utilise a dedicated server in combination with other dedicated servers to set up clustered or high availability services to avoid or minimise downtime during critical hardware incidents.

A single dedicated server can serve as a parent server for multiple VPS servers running hardware emulation. Those VPS instances can be moved between similarly configured multiple parent servers to allow for more/less hardware as needed. Dedicated servers vs VPS give you complete control over your hosting environment.

Pros of Dedicated Hosting

• Highest Security
• High Performance
• Highest Configurability

Cons of Dedicated Hosting

• Mid-Level Scalability
• High Cost

Cloud Server Hosting Pros and Cons

With a cloud server, scaling is on-demand and occurs when resources are needed with no downtime. Similarly, if a hardware failure or security issue emerges, VPS hosting might require downtime to repair the hardware on the parent server or to patch the downed systems. The cluster is redundant on a cloud server, thus there is no downtime for end users or website/application visitors, resulting in a better experience.

Pros of Cloud Hosting

• High Scalability
• High Performance
• High Security
• Some Configurability

Cons of Cloud Hosting

• High Cost

How Do You Choose Between Shared, VPS, Dedicated, and Cloud Hosting?

When picking between shared hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting, and cloud hosting, choose a hosting company that will not only suit your demands now but will also be able to fulfil your needs in the future. While it is obvious that shared hosting is a less expensive option, it may potentially become significantly more expensive for web firms in the long term.

All of the hosting solutions presented in this resource have advantages and disadvantages to consider when determining which would work best for your requirements. In most situations, your specific requirements will dictate which features and functionality are most important.

Based on the benefits and downsides of each, here’s a summary of which hosting you’ll most likely want:

Shared Hosting

As the most basic service, shared hosting does not offer much in terms of performance, security, or customization. Shared hosting, on the other hand, offers the lowest total cost. This type of hosting is best suited for static websites with little traffic.

VPS Hosting

VPS hosting is a middle-of-the-road service with inexpensive scalability and greater performance and security than shared hosting. It is less expensive than dedicated or cloud hosting. VPS hosting is a good solution for production and development settings since it can accommodate the majority of websites and apps while still offering exceptional performance.

Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated hosting is a viable solution with higher performance and security than shared and VPS hosting, as well as more unconstrained configurability than cloud servers. However, cloud hosting offers more scalability. Dedicated servers are top hosting options that can meet the demands of practically any website or product, particularly those requiring unique setups or legacy applications.

Cloud Hosting

Although more expensive than shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting, cloud hosting is a premium, top-of-the-line service. Cloud hosting is ideal for individuals that want a cPanel solution that is easily deployable, scalable, and dependable.

When deciding on a web hosting provider, keep the old saying in mind: “You get what you pay for.” This is especially true when it comes to the hosting provider you select.