Information is the greatest asset in today’s world. And every business needs a safe place to store it. But the times when businesses used their own physical servers are long gone. Today, most entrepreneurs face the choice between VPS and cloud hosting. At the same time, preference should be given to one of them based on a number of factors. What is the main difference between a traditional VPS and cloud hosting, and which one to choose? Let’s try to figure it out.
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What Is VPS Hosting?
The Virtual Private Server service involves sharing the physical server with other users. Each of them will be allocated a separate space on the server with pre-installed processing power. Usually, both volume and capacity are provided by hosting providers in the form of service packages. Users can choose a service package that meets the requirements of their particular project. In addition to the possibility of detailed settings, VPS hosting also offers affordable scalability, which makes this hosting option convenient for many years of use. Of course, such a set of benefits entails investment and requires at least basic knowledge from the user (in most cases, the owner gets Root access to the server). However, some hosting providers have useful technical support and will always help with administration. The main thing is to choose a reliable hosting provider.
What about clouds?
Cloud hosting is a hosting option that uses the power of multiple servers at the same time to spread the load and increase the uptime of websites. The performance of cloud hosting is supported by a network of physical servers that provides all the necessary resources. In view of this feature, this type of hosting is considered more flexible and allows us to talk about reliability. If one or two machines break down, the hoster calmly restores them while the rest of the machines take on the entire load. Even if there are any problems, requests will be redirected to other objects, and the client will receive a fault-tolerant Internet resource. At the same time, users pay only for the resources used, so going beyond the allowable limit in the case of cloud hosting will affect only one parameter, namely the cost, which is much higher than that of VPS. This factor makes cloud hosting an acceptable solution for a truly large business that can benefit from its advantages without paying much attention to a larger budget that cannot be predicted.
Which of the two hosting types is better?
We turned to professionals in the industry for comment. Here is an approximate comparison of two types of hosting from Alexander Svadkovsky, the CEO of is * hosting – a provider of hosting services in the EU and US markets with more than 16 years of experience.
Additional Resources. Both hosting options offer enough opportunities to increase resources. With one click, VPS users can increase the amount of RAM and disk space or increase network bandwidth. Just as easily, users can disable additional resources when they are no longer needed. The only difference is when the increase in resources translates into scalability.
Scalability. Many will say that VPS users will have to change the hosting plan when there is a shortage of resources. This will only be relevant if the lack of resources is critical. In fact, in 90% of cases, this problem is solved by providing additional resources – for a small surcharge and without the need even to change the plan. Сloud hosting users cannot scale resources in any direction without changing an instance. And, as we said above, the higher cost, as well as the inability to include the costs of the provider’s hosting in the planned budget, also cannot be ignored when talking about scalability.
Maximum fault tolerance. If there are any problems on the host side, they will also affect the VPS. In the case of cloud hosting, if any problem occurs, it reroutes to another physical resource, and your site remains up and running.
Security. In the case of VPS, client data is stored on a single server, and root-level access makes it possible to fully configure security tools. On the other hand, in the event of an attack on one VPS, server neighbors will also feel it.
In clouds, resources are distributed across different physical servers. As a result, parts of the data can be stored in different places. This somewhat complicates the data protection process, but users are completely isolated. Also, guarding the data is an additional layer of possibilities for the cloud infrastructure itself.
Price. Cloud Instance Rental is a pay-as-you-go subscription where the user pays for the selected instance type. As the type of instance increases, the level of payment gets higher, too (in some cases, it depends not only on the cloud service but the principle of operation in general).
Renting a VPS is a clear plan that each user can adjust in any direction, focusing on their resources and project needs. The result is a more loyal price tag. Cloud servers are more expensive than VPS, and it is difficult to calculate the cost and budget in advance.
VPS hosting is suitable for medium-loaded projects. This is an economical option in which you can get a solid analog of a physical server. Administration processes are mostly carried out in a simple and understandable administrative panel. However, you need to understand the main difference in scalability and focus only on the needs of a particular project. Cloud hosting is definitely more suitable for large high-load projects. But if you are not an international corporation but rather a strong business with a clear growth forecast and a stable, and therefore not too fast-growing number of website visitors, VPS will be the most rational and, most importantly, cost-effective solution.
Conclusion
Good hosting is the constant maintenance of the site with its content, as well as the constant access of users and customers. Before making a choice in favor of one or another type of hosting, make sure that the possibilities clearly correspond to the needs of your project. For small and medium businesses, VPS is enough. Clear hosting plans with a fixed payment and guaranteed capacity for an Internet resource will definitely simplify your life and will allow you to budget hosting costs (which will be much lower for a VPS than for a cloud) for long-term planning. Сertain difficulties can arise only when scaling the project. However, if your project has high traffic and the ability to quickly scale is a priority for you, and you are ready to overpay for hosting even without a direct need, you should also consider the option with cloud one. Always proceed with your needs.