Choosing the right VPS hosting can be a daunting task unless you know the parameters that you need to evaluate. With the sheer number of web hosts in the market, making a decision is more complicated now.
All right, this article can make you feel better as in this article we will be discussing about How To Choose The Right VPS Hosting For Your Business considering all the key aspects of a perfect web host.
But before we get into it, we need to understand what is a VPS and why we really need a VPS instead of a typical shared hosting. Let’s get into it.
What Is A Virtual Private Server (VPS)
VPS, as the name suggests is a virtual private server. Why it is called virtual? It is because the resource allocation is virtual. You won’t get access to dedicated physical resources. But through virtualization technology, you will get access to dedicated virtual resources.
VPS is mostly faster than shared hosting as you get access to dedicated virtual resources. You can choose the amount of RAM you need, the number of CPU cores you required, and other computing resources in VPS hosting
Upscaling is also possible in VPS hosting. This means, when you see a spike in traffic, you can upscale your resources to handle the spike.
There are two types of VPS mainly offered by web hosts.
- Traditional VPS: A Traditional physical server is allocated to many users using virtualization
- Cloud VPS: An array of cloud servers are allocated to many users using virtualization
Cloud VPS can be further divided into various types based on the application requirement as shown below.
- General Purpose VPS
- Memory Optimized VPS
- Storage Optimized VPS
- Compute Optimized VPS
Why VPS?
As per Google, speed is a ranking factor. So everyone is running behind in improving the web core vitals of their website. It is justified too, as better speed carries better customer satisfaction.
The speed component can be divided into two types. One is the web server speed that decides how good your server Time To First Byte (TTFB) is, and the other one is web page speed (TTLB- Time To Last Byte) that ensures how fast the webpage load for your visitors.
Web page speed vastly depends on the web server speed although you can improve it by caching. However, for first-time visitors having a fast web server speed is important. So, our main focus has to be to improve the TTFB of our server, everything will fall in place automatically.
So basically, if your server offers good TTFB, you can improve the TTLB by caching, CDN, and other web optimization methods.
Most Shared hosting suffers from poor speed as in shared hosting, you are sharing your resources with others. There is a security concern too.
That’s where VPS comes into the picture. In VPS, you will get dedicated server resources (Virtual). Your account will be isolated and resources won’t be shared with any other tenants on the same server.
You are likely to get better speed and good security in VPS. The best thing about VPS is that you can control the server the way you want unlike in shared hosting where everything is controlled by your host.
How To Choose The Right VPS Hosting [ 10 Key Points]
Here are the factors that you should consider while choosing VPS hosting for your business. Although there could be many other factors, but the factors listed below are the most important ones and can’t be ignored.
Managed Or Unmanaged
Managed VPS hosting means that your hosting environment will be managed by the web host support team. For example, AccuWeb Hosting. All your hosting day-to-day activities, security, and software patches are handled by the support team.
On the other hand, in the case of Unmanaged VPS hosting, you will have to take care of setting up your server, installing applications, server management, and numerous other tasks. Unless you have the required skill to manage a server, you should not choose unmanaged VPS hosting.
Managed VPS hosting plans are relatively costly as the support team is handling your server. However, it brings peace of mind which is more important as you can focus more on your business rather than on your hosting.
Speed
Getting dedicated resources does not always mean that you will get good speed. Before you choose a VPS, ensure that it offers a good speed. Check the web server configurations and RAM before you take a call. For example, a lite-speed-powered web server is much faster than an Apache-powered server.
Most VPS hosts nowadays offer a free trial. Make sure that you check the speed during the trial and if you are satisfied, then only continue further.
If you are choosing a managed VPS hosting, there could be a lot of speed tweaks already in place by your web host. However, testing the speed will ensure that you are not choosing the wrong host.
Security
Although VPS hosting is much more secure than shared hosting it is not immune to threats. Especially, if you choose an unmanaged VPS and don’t know how to secure your server, you are in danger.
That is why, I always suggest choosing a managed web host so that you don’t have to worry about security as mostly the support team will take care of that.
However, at the application level, you can use some reputed security plugins like WordFence to protect your application.
Backup
Managed web hosts mostly offer free backups, however, unmanaged web hosts charge additionally for backups. You need to look for how frequently your web host is taking backups and how long they keep the backups.
You may have the ability to quickly create server snapshots that can be restored with much greater speed than a conventional backup
Mostly VPS backup means the whole server backup. The application level backups have to be taken care of by you only. You can use plugins like WPVivid to take care of your backups in case you are using WordPress CMS.
Personally, I hate spending money on server backups as mostly those are of no use in case of any issues. I prefer to arrange backup by some other means rather than depending on the web host.
Upscaling
Your VPS should allow for upscaling when there is a spike in traffic and you need additional resources.
In the case of shared hosting, you mostly sign up for a year or so. But in the case of VPS, it is generally on a monthly basis. So you always have the roam to change the plan.
But there is a catch. Changing the plan means, you need to set up your server again which is not always convenient. That is why upscaling is important as you can upgrade your resources without changing the plan.
Resource Selection
Go for a VPS host that offers a wide range of resource selections so that you can decide based on your need.
Just look at the offering from Accuweb Hosting. They have a VPS plan for almost any type of business, be it a small or a large business.
Uptime
Most web hosts will commit 99.99% uptime, but you need to check the history of their uptime record before you make a decision.
Stay away from cheap VPS web hosts. They will commit a great uptime, but in reality, you may see your server getting down every now and then.
Don’t even consider if the uptime is below 99.95% as anything below that number is considered an unstable host. Your website may lose a chunk of traffic if you choose an unstable host.
Control Panel
Hmm, that’s a grey area for most VPS web hosts. Unless you are choosing a managed web host, you are unlikely to get a control panel.
You will have to use your Linux skill to operate the VPS using a command line interface. Unless you have that expertise, don’t choose a VPS that does not offer a control panel.
The good news is that there are numerous free web hosting control panels available in the market, but in that case also, you may need a good amount of Linux skills. So, choose your VPS wisely.
Cost
VPS hosting is a little pricier than shared hosting and it is justified too as you are getting dedicated resources, better speed, and better security.
In an online business, you should not get stressed about spending a couple of dollars more on hosting and should focus more on your business. You need to do a cost versus service analysis and see if the extra dollar yields any benefit or not.
Cheap web hosting plans may look great but in the long run, it will hamper your business more than anything good.
However, you should always check the price against the kind of service they are offering, and based on that you can take a call.
Special Features
Special features are differentiators. Watch out for special features that web hosts are offering and if those features are really useful to you.
For example, A VPS host may offer you free email hosting and another VPS host may be offering you a Cloudflare Pro plan for free. You should always choose the VPS that offers Cloudflare Pro as it justifies the money that you are paying. Email hosting can be done elsewhere for a very cheap price.
Our Recommended VPS Host
Personally, I would recommend AccuWeb Hosting for its excellent VPS plans that offer a great price-to-feature ratio. They are into this business for over 20 years and they know what is right for your business
They have traditional VPS hosting as well as Cloud VPS hosting. I would recommend Cloud VPS hosting as you will get better speed and a wide choice of resource selection.
Here are a couple of salient features that make it one of the best and cheapest VPS hosts out there.
Fully-Scalable Resources
As I said earlier that “Upscaling” is a key differentiator in VPS hosting, and you will get that in Accuweb Hosting. You can upgrade your resources anytime you want.
You won’t lose your data while upgrading and there is almost no downtime during the transition. Your IP address will also remain the same.
DDoS Protection
Other web hosts charge around $10-$15 for DDoS protection. But AccuWeb Hosting offers that feature for free with all cloud VPS hosting plans.
With DDoS protection, you can control your Cloud VPS and get real-time monitoring to alleviate traffic, defend your website, and manage sudden attacks.
Free Backup
Unlike other VPS hosts, Accuweb Hosting offers weekly free backups with all its could VPS hosting plans. You can restore your server in no time using those backups.
Choice Of Operating Systems
With all Cloud VPS hosting plans, you will get the option to choose your operating system from a wide list of reputed Linux distributions and Windows. Personally, I prefer Ubuntu to host my websites on a VPS
Full Root Access
Since AccuWeb Cloud VPS hosting plans are unmanaged, you are responsible for managing your server. You will get root access to your server and you can do whatever you want with your server. That gives a lot of freedom to you to manage your server.
Conclusion: How To Choose The Right VPS Hosting
Choosing the right VPS hosting is not rocket science if you know the basics. First of all, you should know your requirement and based on that narrow down your selection.
Whatever parameters we listed here should be good to start with to choose the right VPS host, however, there could be special requirements and we can help you out if you comment your queries down below.
