If you are an owner of web site that has good rankings and very popular among people, if you own blog, forum or some multimedia site where the downloading of images, music, films or some video files is provided, if you feel that your shared plan is too small for your needs or may become insufficient in the nearest future, and if you are not ready to pay for dedicated server at the moment, the best choice you may make is (it's high time to think of ordering VPS) to order VPS hosting plan.
This situation remembers the main cause for revolution: when upper class already can't rule and the lower class doesn't want to put up with it. So I'd name VPS hosting plans a kind of revolutionary decision in web hosting industry.
Ordering a VPS plan you get root access, which gives you possibility to install and configure different software you need on your server. With VPS you may host unlimited domains, create your own hosting accounts, host different hosting services, for example mail service.
The main disadvantage of VPS is that you need to have some experience in the web server administration; otherwise it will be difficult to operate it. Also you will use the same RAM and CPU with your physical server's neighbors but virtual private server has its own resources limit not depended on the other users' accounts.
A lot of hosting companies provide VPS plans now. At first let's learn how to choose right hosting company and then we'll examine their VPS plans closer.
So, before choosing a hosting company it's very important to pay attention to the several things:
- What kind of support is provided (phone, live chat, support ticket system, e-mail, 24/7 availability) and how fast and irrefragable are their answers?
- What are the specifications of the web hosting company's server?
- What is the primary kind of provided OS?
- How many other VPS owners are in the physical server together with you?
- How long is this company in business?
- Do they make backups? If yes, then how often?
OK, after you have chosen fitting web host, let's see what the market offers.
Most hosting companies offer virtual private servers that are ready to go from the very outset, with fully updated software, firewall, web panel installed and configured. The most popular and manoeuvrable control panels are Plesk and Cpanel. The average price is about $40 per month. If you do have too much of technical skill you can choose the hosting companies that offer a true 7x24 managed support (it's a little bit more expensive).
So, VPS is a much more affordable solution than a dedicated server, normally offering all the same benefits, such as root access and it fills the gap between shared hosting and a dedicated server.
By Olga Elizarova (c), © Copyright B10WH.com 2007
