Shared web hosting plans have long been renowned for being the cheapest type of web hosting available. However, many people don’t realize that this is not an entirely true statement, as the billing structure and various other factors associated with the shared hosting environment can often cause it to be more expensive than VPS hosting plans.
VPS hosting is known as being the steppingstone between the shared hosting and dedicated hosting environments, giving you cheap access to a server partition that is only used by your network of websites at any given time. VPS hosting has a number of advantages over shared hosting, and in reality, it can actually be cheaper than shared hosting when purchased from certain web hosting providers. The following information outlines the major advantages of VPS hosting over shared hosting, and explains why it is possible to purchase a VPS hosting plan for less than shared hosting plan.
Monthly Billing Versus Annual Billing
Most VPS hosting providers allow their customers to pay on a monthly basis, only paying for the month they are about use in advance. On the other hand, shared web hosting providers require their customers to pay for a year in advance, which even at the low cost of five dollars per month, can equal as much as $60 plus setup fees. A VPS hosting plan that only costs $10-$20 per month can be paid for on a monthly basis, and the setup cost is therefore only $10-$20 per month plus any setup fees. Although the monthly cost of the VPS hosting plan may be more than shared hosting plan, the cost of setting up an purchasing a plan is actually less expensive.
Advantages of VPS Hosting Over Shared Hosting
Unlike shared hosting, VPS (virtual private server) hosting gives you much more flexibility, freedom, and overall control over the software configuration and administration of your server partition. With a shared hosting plan, you are required to share a single Web server with dozens or even hundreds of other webmasters simultaneously. This can create problems when other websites within your IP range that are hosted on your web server become liable for nefarious activity. In fact, there have been many cases in which legitimate websites have been taken off-line for hours or even days at a time because of illegitimate activity being performed by unrelated webmasters on their shared Web server. This risk is completely eliminated with VPS hosting, and the web hosting account owner also has the ability to install new software and web applications on their Web server.
Additional Cost Benefits of VPS Hosting Over Shared Hosting
Since VPS hosting plans are known for having less server downtime, and generally offer higher performance than shared hosting plans, it is possible to save money in the long run by eliminating the loss of sales due to slow page loads and server hardware/software issues. VPS hosting plans are more powerful, which means you can boost productivity and enhance the capabilities and functionality of your website through the use of proprietary server-side web applications that are specifically designed to automate and simplify administrative tasks.