Shared Hosting is very popular because it is economical. Shared Hosting allows multiple customers to share the resources of one big Server, thereby spreading out costs among many. In order to protect the integrity of information, file security schemes are used. In order to insulate one customer from another, some key processes are mapped to a specific domain (customer). These solutions are workable, but the bottom line is that being on a shared server is like living in an apartment with a lot of common areas where rooms like Bathroom, Kitchen and the Living room are shared with others.
On a Virtual Private Server (VPS) the story is different. The VPS is designed to be economical, by allowing multiple customers to share the resources of one big server, yet with an extremely high degree of privacy and insulation. The separation is achieved by running a complete separate operating system for each customer. VPS customers have "root" or “administrator” level access and can enjoy many of the benefits of a dedicated server, at a much lower cost. In a VPS you live in your own apartment and do not share the bathroom, Kitchen nor the Living room.
Here are some key advantages that VPS offers over shared hosting.
1. Security - VPS accounts are insulated from each other, minimizing the risk of unauthorized access from hackers as well as other customers. The isolation of your account also minimizes the risk of being impacted by a DDOS attack that was intended for someone else.
2. Performance - All resources can be regulated in the VPS environment. Some one else can't run away with a large share of the resources living you without server resources to process your task, thus, your service will run reliably and predictably.
3. Protected Mail Service - Each VPS account has its own private mail server. This eliminates the risk that your mail service will be blacklisted due to abuses of others sharing the same mail service.
4. Customer Installed Applications - With our VPS you have your own partition and root access. You have the ability to install applications that we do not offer. Please note that we do not provide support for customer installed applications. You also must assume the responsibility to update any applications that you install in the event that a security vulnerability is discovered in the version you install.
5. Flexibility - Some applications require that certain ports and/or protocols be opened or closed in the firewall. With Shared hosting, custom firewall configurations are not advisable due to security reasons, how ever under a VPS structure, custom firewall configurations are feasible because of the partioning between customers. In a Linux VPS, for instance, you could also close ports using the IPTables feature. This will let you open ports that are normally closed, or for more sophisticated firewall needs, choose our Custom Firewall Configuration.
6. Growth opportunity and scalability - Our VPS systems allow us to manage your hosting environment (we call it a container) and treat it as an image. This means that your entire VPS can be restored from backup to any physical server with no changes to your configuration. You can also easily downgrade or upgrade your service with no downtime!
