VPS vs. Dedicated Hosting: Which is the Best for High Traffic Websites?

03/02/2024

You have landed on this article means that you already have the basic understanding of web hosting. At least you know about shared hosting. If no, let me explain it to you in short. Shared hosting is a type of hosting in which one physical server hosts multiple websites on it. Simply speaking, your website needs to share the server’s space and resources with multiple other users.   

When you are just creating your online presence or building your first website, you don’t need more resources or the resources available with you are enough to cater your website’s needs. But as your website starts growing, it becomes hard to manage the traffic on your website with the limited resources on the shared server. This is where you feel the need to upgrade your web hosting plan.  

Immediately after shared hosting, people switch to VPS. The reason is that best VPS hosting offers scalability that enables you to scale the resources as per your requirements. Moreover, a VPS is expensive than shared hosting but affordable than a dedicated server.  

Let’s learn more about VPS hosting. 

VPS Hosting Explained 

In a VPS hosting, there is a single physical server that is divided into multiple virtual servers with independent hosting environment. Also, there are fewer users on the same server as compared to a shared server. Because you get independent hosting environment, there is no interference of other users on your website. Also, with the scalability feature, you can scale the resources accordingly.  

You might be visiting different restaurants and cafés every day. It isn’t just open for you at once. There are plenty of people that are sitting on different tables. It means each one going to the restaurant or café has a dedicated table assigned where you can have your own meals. There isn’t an interference of other people on your table. You order as much you want to as per your needs. Imagine if you had to share the table with others, it would be messy right?  

This same is the case with VPS hosting. The restaurant is the physical and the table is your virtual server environment. The meal is the number of resources your website needs. This type of independent server environment ensures high security and best performance.  

For example, if the server is configured with 8 GB of RAM, you might get 1 GB of that 8 GB of RAM. What is important is that you don’t need to share that 1 GB of RAM with anyone else – it’s 100% dedicated to you. 

These resources in a VPS, something called as hypervisor is used to create virtual environments for each customer on that server. It isn’t compulsory to understand this technology. You can simply need to know that each of the account on the VPS is completely isolated from the other user accounts. 

Dedicated Hosting Explained 

In dedicated hosting, the complete server is dedicated to you. You don’t have anything as virtual environment on a dedicated server. It is just a physical server that can only be used by you. No sharing of space and resources with any other user.   

Do you own a car? Silly question, right? But actually many of you surely do. Now, your car is completely dedicated to you. There isn’t any other outsider that is using it. You are the owner and will use it only for taking yourself and your family from one place to other.  

When you own something, it is just for you and this is what the example of dedicated hosting is. Ultimately, a dedicated server hosting is more secure than a VPS.  

Dedicated hosts are just worth considering if you’re receiving over 500,000 visitors per month and have the technical experts to maintain and optimize your server. When it comes to dedicated hosting, you get the total control from the start, and can select your own resource limits. Dedicated hosting is mostly made for medium to big business sites, but if you have set higher goals for your business, you can save time and efforts in the long-run by signing up for a dedicated plan. 

The Bottom Line 

You can’t easily make a decision as to which type hosting to select. It completely depends on your needs, technical know-how and the budget.  

Basically there isn’t something such as right and wrong when it comes to hosting. Instead, it actually relies on what’s the best choice for your website. All websites have different needs. So make sure you sign-up for the kind of hosting support you’ll need before selecting a web host. 

But, as a dedicated server is an expensive option, it’s generally a good idea to opt for a VPS until your company generates enough traffic and revenue to afford the cost of a dedicated server.