Getting your business online with the help of a website is one of the best ways to increase your approach to potential customers. As you already know choosing fast and reliable hosting is an essential part of the process. Particularly when your business is well-known and you are sure about the amount of traffic you are going to receive.
The number of hosting types you can choose in such circumstances automatically gets limited to cloud hosting and VPS hosting. Resulting in a confusing question for most non-technical people that is “which one is better between Cloud Hosting and VPS Hosting?”. We will go through every detail to help you decide which one should you choose for your business/project.
What Is Cloud Hosting?
Normally the hosting services are operated from a single server that is responsible for serving the content to your visitors and managing it in a proper way. But, when it comes to cloud hosting the control does not remain centralized to a single resource(to some extent). Instead, the Cloud hosting services are distributed as virtual nodes that are connected to the same physical server.
Cloud-based hosting servers follow a distributed architecture to deal with major drawbacks of other hosting types. Taking the virtualization approach for creating multiple hosts on the same server, Cloud Hosting is rather efficient for sites like News sites, e-commerce stores, and similar high-traffic websites. Not to mention the cost for Cloud Hosting is relatively higher than shared hosting.
What Is VPS Hosting?
VPS – Virtual Private Server hosting has a similar architecture as shared hosting. In shared hosting, the service provider will allow you to use a portion of server resources simultaneously with other site owners. As you are sharing the bandwidth, hosting latency, and storage of hosting with others, it often creates issues under the excessive workload.
Unlike shared hosting, using VPS hosting will allow you to maximize the usage of available resources by increasing your share in the server. In addition, the number of sites that run simultaneously on the same server is limited to assure the best possible performance for VPS users. In simple words, VPS hosting is an upgraded version of shared hosting with added benefits.
Cloud Vs VPS Hosting: Which One To Choose?
The process of choosing the best hosting service between Cloud hosting and VPS hosting comes down to a lot of elements that are essential for your site. Unlike the normal shared hosting, the overall costing for one of these hosting is a lot higher due to better service and reliability. You are already aware of the benefits of having a website for small businesses. Hence, the type of hosting you choose will affect your overall site growth and success rate in the long term without a doubt. Consider the below
1. Security
Security is the leading concern that a customer seeks before choosing a hosting service. It goes without saying that losing access to your whole site is possible if proper security measures are not taken. Especially if your site is built on popular cms like WordPress, it becomes easier for hackers to gain admin access.
So which hosting is better in terms of security between VPS and Cloud hosting? According to our previous explanation, your data keeps moving between multiple sources in cloud hosting. Whereas, if you are using VPS hosting your data is stored at a dedicated place for a lifetime. This creates a possible concern regarding your site security.
2. Performance
Comparing VPN and Cloud hosting in terms of performance is almost useless. Because both the hosting types are built to assure the best hosting service and maximum uptime for the users. Along with the dedicated resources, VPS hosting will keep your site running with a limited number of partner sites that are running on the same server. This is the sole reason why VPS hosting performs better than managed hosting.
Whereas, if we look at cloud hosting which is incredibly fast and secure, they provide almost similar performance. However, if we had to choose which one performs better, the obvious answer would be “Cloud Hosting”. Because whenever we use VPS hosting, it is possible that your site may not perform well due to heavy load on the server which is running other sites as well. Meanwhile, cloud hosting will allocate you a different resource in such conditions without affecting your performance.
3. Monthly Costing
The pricing of a hosting service is one of the deciding factors when choosing it. Comparing both types on a pricing basis is near to impossible. There’s a solid reason behind it, different hosting providers have different pricing for VPS and Cloud-based hosting.
For instance, if you decide to go with HostGator, they charge less for Cloud hosting in comparison to VPS hosting. On the other hand, hosting services like Inmotion charge you double if you wish to use their cloud hosting.
Hence, pricing is something that depends on your choices and service quality. Don’t worry if you are not sure which one to choose, as we will go through some hosting providers that offer both types of hosting services at reasonable prices.
4. Future Scalability
Straight to the point, VPS hosting can not beat Cloud Hosting in terms of scalability. It is possible that you may have not faced any urges to upgrade your hosting service, but certain businesses and websites usually need a lot more resources during peak times. \
Unfortunately, the resources are limited in VPS hosting which can leave you helpless during a sudden traffic increment situation. Whereas, Cloud Hosting service will fulfill your resources requirement even when your site is getting a significant amount of traffic. If a server fails to handle the upcoming requests in Cloud hosting, it will quickly jump to a new server for handling the upcoming requests more efficiently.
5. Control Of Elements
Complete control over the elements of your site is useful in many ways. Whether you wish to remove a particular code or file from the server or update something, people with the right knowledge are always upgrading their site by integrating various software solutions. In order to do this, you must have access to the core files of your site and permission to edit everything to your will.
Utilizing VPS hosting is similar to using a shared hosting service. And as you already know shared hosting allows editing of your core files with features like cPanel and CLI(Command Line Interface).
Therefore, you can enjoy the same features with VPS hosting which is not possible with Cloud Hosting. Your access to files is limited in Cloud Hosting because the resources are distributed within a server.
Best Hosting Providers For Cloud & VPS Hosting
Dreamhost
The most popular hosting service around the globe, Dreamhost is providing up to the mark hosting services for almost two decades now. Offering hosting solutions for small businesses, personal blogs, and enterprises as well.
You can rely on Dreamhost with their blazing fast Cloud hosting and robust VPS hosting services. You can start using the VPS hosting for $10 to $80 according to the plan you choose. Whereas, if you wish to choose cloud hosting from Dreamhost, it ranges between $4.5 to $48 per month.
Hostgator
The second hosting provider on our list is Hostgator which is also popular among businesses. If you are looking forward to using the Hostgator service, it starts at $19.95/month which you have to renew for $79.95 after your first month(VPS hosting).
As we discussed previously the pricing of cloud hosting with Hostgator is lower compared to VPS. Hence, you can enjoy Cloud hosting just for $4.95/month along with a free domain name registration and 45-days money-back guarantee.
A2Hosting
Comparatively cheaper than the other hosting providers, A2One offers a 30-days money-back guarantee on your purchases. Not to mention the services only costs $11.99/month and renew at $19.99 if you choose VPS hosting.
On the contrary, if you decide to choose the Cloud hosting service from A2Hosting, you can enjoy the low prices. They are similar to Hostgator which will cost you around $5.00/month. However, the cost can differ depending on your choice of plan. It also depends on whether you wish to use a cPanel or not.
Inmotion
If you already have a site on WordPress and wish to migrate it, in motion will provide experts for completing the migration process. Doesn’t matter which type of business you have they support everything from small-business to enterprise solutions.
You can enjoy the VPS hosting service for $29.99/month with a one-year subscription. Whereas, if you wish to opt-out of the Cloud hosting services it will cost you $64.99/month with 90-days money-back guarantee.
Bottom Line
Understanding your requirements and addressing the possibilities of the future is very important for choosing the type of hosting. In fact, there are not many differences in performance or security between VPS and Cloud hosting.
However, you can see a clear difference in the pricing of both types. This can affect your business in the long run if you are not making enough profit to pay for the maintenance costs. In conclusion, if you do not wish to face any issues and are able to afford cloud hosting, simply go for it! Feel free to ask any questions or share your suggestions below.
Great post. Helped a lot in choosing the right hosting for my site.