VPS Hosting vs Shared Hosting 2023: Which One is Best for You & Why?

Choosing a hosting provider can leave your head spinning, especially with so many web hosting providers available. Usually, beginners narrow down their list and get stuck between VPS Hosting and Shared hosting.

If you’re on the go and looking for a reliable and affordable VPS or shared hosting provider, Bluehost is worth giving a try.

Both VPS hosting and Shared Hosting plans are excellent choices for a beginner. Both of them offer helpful features that your website needs. However, you cannot go with both of them, can you?

We have taken all the hassle out of the decision making process by offering you a hassle-free hosting solution that perfectly fits your website.

In this article, we will be tackling some of the critical differences that you need to know about by focusing on some of the most crucial parameters: security, speed, performance, scalability, and pricing.

After you get a clear idea about what each one has to offer, you’ll need to choose a provider; to help, we have also listed our top recommended hosting provider.

Basically, in this article, we are providing a complete solution for your website, and we don’t leave you with a cliffhanger about which one to choose -VPS hosting or shared hosting.

Here’s a quick index to help you navigate this article:

The Overview
The Key Takeaway
How to Choose Between VPS and Shared Hosting?
Top Web Hosting Providers
Conclusion

So without further adieu, let’s dive in.

VPS vs Shared Hosting: The Overview

What is VPS Hosting?

VPS (Virtual Private Server) Hosting means you’re sharing the same server with other sites, but you have considerably more resources and a virtual partition.

With VPS Hosting, you are guaranteed some baseline resources, and your website does not get affected by other sites.

VPS Hosting comes with more exceptional security options and more flexible solutions than shared hosting.

VPS Hosting is a bit expensive compared to shared hosting. It offers better speed and performance, along with some of the essential resources that will help your website maintain its performance in case there is a sudden spike in traffic.

VPS Hosting is the best solution for users who are looking for adequate resources.

What is Shared Hosting?

Shared Web hosting is the primary web hosting solution and cheapest among them all. Shared web hosting is like sharing an apartment with multiple people, where you have to share a common space.

Technically, with shared hosting, you have to share resources with other websites such as memory, CPU, etc.

Unfortunately, your website has more potential risk with shared hosting as multiple websites are hosted on one server. Most of the shared hosting plans come with restricted bandwidth.

However, there are many web hosting providers that offer unlimited bandwidth. We have covered this section further in the article.

Shared Hosting is an economical solution for beginners, as it is incredibly beginner-friendly and has affordable pricing plans.

VPS Hosting & Shared Hosting: The Key Takeaway

As you have read the general information about VPS (Virtual Private Server) Hosting and Shared Hosting above, you know it is still not enough information to help you choose between VPS hosting and Shared hosting.

There are some significant parameters that you need to consider when selecting the best solution for your website.

Rather than directly selecting a web hosting solution, you must understand the kind of performance it offers, the security features that you get, control and customization, and most importantly, whether it fits your budget.

To help you understand, we have listed a brief comparison between VPS hosting and Shared hosting so that you can decide which is best suited to your website.

Performance and Speed

You can have the best website with all the resources, but if your site takes too much time to load, you can no longer be the best in the long run.

In the world of the internet, people have hundreds of options available. If your website does not offer decent speed or takes too much time to load, users will quickly jump to other websites.

This is the exact reason why you need to emphasize getting the best performance. To be specific, you need to look for a hosting solution that offers unlimited bandwidth and speed.

Speed and uptime vary depending on the hosting provider you go for. However, Shared web hosting offers limited bandwidth.

Since you are sharing resources with other websites, one of the sites may consume excess bandwidth, which will drain your website’s performance.

Additionally, when you receive higher traffic, your website is likely to slow down because of the restricted bandwidth.

On the other hand, VPS Hosting does not have restricted bandwidth, and it is the best choice to handle higher traffic. You can avoid all the possible problems that you might face in shared hosting by going with VPS Hosting.

It is no tough decision to state that VPS hits the bar in terms of performance. However, shared hosting plan is perfectly fit to handle small websites with less traffic.

However, for larger traffic, you might want to consider VPS hosting as the best option for you.

Related Reading: How to Speed Up WordPress Site

Security: Which Types of Hosting is More Secure?

No matter the size of your website, every site is at equal risk of being attacked by multiple hackers.

Hackers are smart enough to break through anything, no matter how strict the measures are that you take, but what one can do is be on the safer side by taking precautions against multiple possible threats.

Both VPS hosting and Shared hosting offer decent security measures. However, one of the most significant drawbacks of shared web hosting is that the carelessness of other websites can affect your site’s well-being.

No matter how many precautions you take, if one website is at potential risk, you have to share the risk equally.

VPS Hosting is more secure comparatively. Even if you share the same server, your website stays reliable due to the virtual partition, even if other sites on the same server are getting attacked.

With better security options, you can also ensure that your website remains safe throughout.

Shared Web hosting can leave your website vulnerable at times. VPS Hosting gives you more control over your security and better security than shared web hosting. For tighter security, VPS Hosting is the best solution.

Related Reading: The Ultimate WordPress Security Guide.

Control and Customization: Which is the Best Solution for You?

Control and customization depend on your choices. It is crucial that your web hosting takes care of your website’s technical aspects so that you can focus on other elements.

You do not want to waste your time configuring your website.

Shared hosting is an extremely feasible solution for users who do not have time to sit back and do all the configuration of their website.

The host takes care of setting up the server, installing and upgrading, and other technical considerations so that you can focus on what is most important – growth.

When it comes to customization, Shared hosting has restricted customization over your website.

VPS Hosting is a bit complex in terms of management. You have to sit back and do all the configuration yourself with an unmanaged VPS hosting plan.

Unless you are a knowledgeable tech expert in this field, unmanaged VPS Hosting will get complex for you.

However, VPS Hosting offers two types of plan – managed and unmanaged. Managed hosting plans are similar, like shared hosting plans, while unmanaged plans are complicated and time -consuming.

Coming to customization options, VPS Hosting lets you customize your software to enhance the performance and speed of your website. You can take better control over your website with VPS hosting plans.

The winner over here is VPS Hosting, as it allows for a managed web hosting solution that takes care of all the technical aspects for you while giving you better customization options for your site.

Shared Hosting falls a bit short in terms of customization.

VPS Hosting or Shared Hosting: Scalability

If your website starts today, you can never predict how long it will take to scale up. Sometimes your website can get massive traffic overnight, leading to better growth.

For that, you need a solution that is easy to scale up in the future. Your plans must be easy to upgrade and downgrade according to the changes that take place on your website.

Shared hosting brings a lot of trouble if your traffic increases. The homepage could be ruined with lots of errors, which leads to the bad performance of your overall website.

On the other hand, VPS Hosting is easy to scale up. You can upgrade or downgrade the plan without affecting your site’s performance.

VPS Hosting is built to grow with your site. If you can see the growth of your website, VPS hosting is the best investment to make.

Pricing: Which One to Go With – VPS or Shared Hosting?

Pricing is considered one of the essential factors in everything. Whenever you are going to purchase something, one of the first things that we look at is the price tag.

Every decision is based on the price tag. However, when you buy something for your future, you should also consider the value that you are receiving over the price.

Let us take the example of a car. If you are purchasing a vehicle, you would first look at the features that the car is offering.

If you are getting better features at a bit higher pricing, you will opt for better features, even if the price is higher than the other car that gives fewer features at a cheaper rate.

The basic analogy is, if your website does not generate enough revenue to afford VPS hosting, the chances are high that you do not need one.

But again, the decision varies from user to user. However, the shared hosting plan wins the battle of being inexpensive here.

The pricing of Shared web hosting starts as low as $0.85/month. Since the plans come with restricted bandwidth, the prices are low.

On the other hand, VPS hosting prices differ much more from host to host. The average pricing can start from a couple of bucks to $300/month depending on the web host’s features.

Shared Web hosting is cheaper than VPS Hosting. However, VPS Hosting offers more bandwidth, storage space, and features compared to shared hosting plans.

Related Reading: Best Cheap Web Hosting.

How to Choose Between VPS and Shared Hosting?

After seeing a brief analysis of VPS hosting and Shared Hosting features, one of the main questions in your mind is probably how you know when it’s time to upgrade, and how to choose which one to upgrade.

Well, we have a solution to that question as well.

If you are currently using a Shared Web hosting plan, you need to upgrade to a VPS Hosting plan if:

You are looking for more space and bandwidth.
Your website is encountering high traffic.
You want to host multiple websites.
You are looking for higher security options.
You need better scalable options with faster performance.

You should choose a Shared hosting plan if:

You are starting a personal website and blog.
You are sure that your website will not encounter high traffic.
Your website does not contain a lot of personal data and does not need higher security measures.
You do not want to scale up your website further.

Now that you are clear about which web hosting solution is the best for various scenarios, let us have a quick recap and rule out the differences so you can be more transparent with your choice.

First, when we consider performance, VPS takes the lead with its partitioned servers and stable performance.

Shared Hosting also offers excellent performance but, since the servers are shared with multiple users, overusing bandwidth by one user can lead to abrupt performance issues for your website.

Coming to security, it is not hard to say that VPS Hosting is more secure compared to Shared Hosting, as it has virtually partitioned servers that do not create a disturbance on your site even if your neighbors are being attacked.

Customization and control are easy to rule out too. As we mentioned previously, VPS hosting offers more power to you over your website.

However, Shared Hosting is also a good option if you need managed hosting at a lower cost.

VPS Hosting offers a flexible scalability option. You can quickly scale up your plans anytime you need to without worrying about your website being affected.

Shared Hosting, on the other hand, is more involved in terms of scalability, as it creates a negative impact on your site most of the time.

Lastly, pricing is easy to decide too. Shared hosting is cheaper than VPS Hosting. However, both the plans offer various pricing plans depending on the features and storage space they offer.

Top Web Hosting Providers: VPS Hosting & Shared Hosting

Now that we have clearly stated the differences, we do not want you to spend hours researching the best host provider for you.

We have done that job for you. To save you time and money, below is the list of some of the top hosting solutions for your website.

Before you read our recommendation, you must know, no web host is perfect. They have their pros and cons.

Although there are some exceptional features that each one offers, you need to list your requirements and budget before selecting one.

Now let us quickly go through the reviews of some of the best web hosting providers, shall we?

Bluehost: The Best Web Hosting

BlueHost is one of the most popular web hosting service providers with plans for all kinds of websites, irrespective of their size and niche.

Bluehost offers the best features without fetching out more substantial money from your pockets. Offering an uptime of 99.99%, Bluehost delivers the best performance, with top-notch security on all plans.

They provide intuitive dashboards and cPanels, along with friendly 24/7 support if anything goes wrong.

Read our in-depth Bluehost review to get detailed insights into Bluehost hosting services.

Their shared plans start from $3.95/month to $13.95/month.

We recommend Bluehost because you get unmetered bandwidth on even their cheapest plan, so you do not have to worry about slow performance and restricted bandwidth.

The VPS hosting plans start from $19.99/month to $59.99/month.

Besides, you get a 30 day money-back guarantee on all the plans. If you do not notice the difference, you can easily apply for a refund without any hassle.

Check out our Bluehost coupon to get detailed insights into Bluehost hosting.

InMotion Hosting

InMotion is one of the best web hosting solutions. The reason we recommend InMotion is that they have high-speed optimized servers with top-notch security options.

Their customer support team is exceptionally supportive, and they are available 24/7 through various channels. If you are a newbie, InMotion also sets up your website for you within two days at just $99.

Read our in-depth InMotion hosting review to get detailed insights into InMotion.

Their Shared hosting plans start from $5.99/month, and the VPS Plans start from $29.99/month.

With shared hosting plans, you get a free drag and drop website builder with unlimited email account creation with your domain name.

They also offer several security options. You can set up your website hassle-free and affordable pricing.

A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting is the best solution for users who keep speed as their top priority. They offer the most reliable hosting solutions, with their servers being 20x faster than other host providers.

You can avoid spending dollars on migration and avail yourself of their free migration service. A2 Hosting is an all-in-one solution, as their plans are highly scalable and affordable.

A2 Hosting has plans for beginners as well as professional business owners. Their servers are highly secured, and so is your website with them.

They offer free SSL certification along with constant monitoring of your website to detect threats. The shared hosting plans start from $2.99/month.

You get free website migration, one-click installation of WordPress and other applications, and a lot more.

The VPS hosting plans start from $5/month. You can select your management level, the servers are highly secured, and you’ll get the best performance delivery.

A2 Hosting offers an anytime money-back guarantee, unlike other hosting providers that provide traditional 30 day money-back guarantees.

You can apply for a refund any time that you are unsatisfied with their services.

These are some of the best hosting providers that we recommend. No matter which web hosting provider you go for, these top three are guaranteed to offer you the best speed, security, customer support, and features to help your website grow.

Check out our A2 Hosting Coupon to get an exclusive discount on A2 Hosting services.

VPS Hosting vs Shared Hosting: Conclusion

The hosting solution that you choose depends heavily on the kind of website you own and your requirements.

While VPS hosting is the best solution for small business owners and large business website owners, Shared Hosting is the best choice for Startups.

Both VPS Hosting and Shared Hosting offer useful features. However, VPS Hosting has advantages that shared hosting lacks.

Now that you know the differences and hosting providers that will offer you the best solution, you are just a step away from starting your website.

Your decision should always be based on the website you want and your future goals for your site.

We hope you found our VPS Hosting and Shared Hosting comparison useful, and we hope we helped to guide you through this process. Let us know what you think about each one in the comment section below.

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VPS Hosting vs Shared Hosting 2023: Which One is Best for You & Why?