Shared Hosting Plans, Virtual Private Servers & Dedicated Servers

Choosing a hosting plan or server that is right for you

There are a lot of choices when deciding where to host your website. We’ve put together this resource to help you choose your hosting platform and match it perfectly to your needs and budget. To get started, lets go over how to determine some basic information that will be crucial to making the right choice.

When to choose a shared hosting plan

Shared hosting plans are often attractive to budget conscious people because of the low price. It’s important to remember, however that you are trading price for performance most of the time. In order to keep their prices as low as possible, hosting companies will put hundreds (or even thousands) of sites on the same server.

Since you share the server with all of these other websites, even though your host may claim a “unlimited” storage or bandwidth, you are competing for these resources with all of the other sites on the server. In most cases, small sites with little traffic or sites that are just starting out will do just fine with a shared hosting plan.

Once your site starts to get up to or over a few hundred visitors per day, you should keep your eye on your resource usage and the time it takes your site to load. Once you start seeing performance problems, it’s time to upgrade.

When to choose a virtual private server

A virtual private server (VPS) is sort of a cross between shared hosting and a dedicated server. Like shared hosting, you will share a server with other sites/clients, however unlike shared hosting, the number of people sharing the server is much smaller and you are generally guaranteed a portion of the server’s RAM, hard drive and CPU cycles.

From a security standpoint, you also benefit from what’s called user isolation – meaning your VPS runs in its own private section of the server’s memory and cannot be accessed by others. In most cases you can even log into the operating system itself (such as linux/windows) and configure advanced settings or install software.

Price-wise, a virtual dedicated server is a step between shared hosting and a dedicated server. Keep in mind, however that you will need to make sure that you have someone that can help you with managing the operating system and programs. Most of the time, support for a VPS from the hosting company is very limited.

When to choose a dedicated server

A dedicated server is going to offer you by far the best performance and security for your website, but the tradeoff of this is the cost. People choose dedicated servers for a variety of reasons, but most of the time it is to have full control of the server and not have have to resources with other websites.

If you are an e-commerce site, you might need a dedicated server simply to adhere to payment card industry security requirements (also called PCI Compliance). It is very rare that you can pass a PCI Compliance evaluation on a shared hosting provider or VPS.

The only problem with a dedicated server is that you are completely responsible for monitoring it to make sure it is online, managing the operating system (patches, etc) and perhaps most importantly keeping it backed up.

Shared Linux & Windows Web Hosts

Compare Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting Plans

Compare Dedicated Servers

	ServerPronto	HostGator	GoDaddy
Starting Price:	$37.95/mo	$139/mo	$89.99/mo
Linux Inlcuded:	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Available:	Yes ($$)	Yes ($$)	Yes ($$)
CPU:	AMD 2000+ Single-Core	Intel Xeon Quad-Core	Intel i3 Dual-Core
RAM:	1GB	2GB	2GB
Hard Drive:	2 x 40GB	2 x 250GB	2 x 160GB
Data Transfer:	5TB	10TB	5TB
Dedicated IPs:	1	5	3
Prepayment Discount:	Yes	Yes	Yes
Special Offers Available:	Yes	Yes	Yes
Reliability:	Excellent	Excellent	Good
Speed:	Excellent	Excellent	Good
Overall Rating:	Excellent	Excellent	Good
Detailed Review:	Yes	Yes	Yes
Was this useful to you? If you have any suggestions, Let us know!