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Shared Hosting or VPS?
CreativeBluebird
Member
Hello everyone,
I had a chat with a new shared hosting provider and now I have to decide which road to take for my freelance journey: shared hosting or VPS.
For the past two years I have been using a local shared hosting provider, but that means that I can't create backend servers or simply SSR websites unless I 'trick' the provider by installing WordPress on a subdomain and using it as an headless service for my frontend hosted on the root. This approach worked for me, but the more I use it, the more I understand that not only this is not optimal, but also inefficient and very slow.
For this reason, some time ago i started a discussion here to choose an inexpensive VPS for hosting my clients websites, create email addresses for them, eventually set up databases and more. Thanks to the replies in that thread, I figured out that although I know how to use Linux, I really should offload server management to a provider and instead focus on developing websites as I always did.
The new shared hosting provider i chatted with (which is also here on LET but I don't know if I can write its name), would allow me to host both CSR and SSR websites, add unlimited domains, send emails, setup databases, all of this in a single plan (domains not included in the plan). Basically everything i wanted from a VPS, except for managing the server itself.
It almost feels too good to be true so, to give me a reality check, I would like to ask you if you are in a similar situation, which road did you take, if this could be a viable strategy, and if you have any tips for the future.
Thank you for reading!
Comments
depends
VPS
Having done both, a vps is a great way to learn, play, break, fix, and more. However as your learning you may not wish for this vps to be hosting your sites just yet. Shared Hosting, Namecrane is who I use, Fran and his team has been nothing but amazing. Non Aff. https://namecrane.com/store/da-shared-hosting However as hyperblast stated, it all depends.
When hosting clients, don't fuck around with some VPS if you're inexperienced.
From what I understand, today shared hosting from good providers can be stellar; and just as good as a VPS, if your provider is good.
If you don't know how to manage a server, avoid a VPS. Your additional problems include security, traffic thiefs, licensing costs as well as the server being an attack surface. Choose shared hosting.
If you wish to gain long term for value, perhaps you should pick a shared hosting plan while building out dev.xxx on a VPS and once you achieve good uptime without any issues, you could transition.
There exists something called managed hosting but unless you have significant resource needs, it doesn't tend to work out being good value for money. This is where a VPS is managed for you - you send instructions which are fulfilled. A minimum spend of $80 per month for this is what I'd consider average. $40-$50 of that is eaten up as a management fee and the rest pays for your VPS. Given you are comparing to shared hosting, I don't think it is likely this is the case for you.
go with shared hosting either cpanel (the best and userfriendly) or some directadmin host. both allow subdomain, unlimited domains, emails, CSR and SSR, one-click wordpress, etc. its more better than managing VPS. plus you get to use full 1 core and 1 gb ram on shared. with fair usage. budget wise also shared hosting starts around $10-12 a year and vps would cost $25 a year in low end market.
Do you like having someone else manage it for you? Get shared hosting
Do you like setting it all up yourself, managing it yourself, and having custom setups? Get a VPS
You have used shared hosting. Now take the next step and explore the freedom of a VPS.
If your budget allows, I’d recommend going with a VPS for a better overall experience.