Shared Hosting vs VPS from an eCommerce Perspective

Shared web hosting is one of the most common types of hosting available, most likely due to its overall affordability. Next in line is VPS hosting, which can often cost only a few dollars more than shared hosting. Both of these hosting types can be used for a variety of online businesses, however which one is better for eCommerce hosting?

Pricing

Although price should not be the only deciding factor to consider when searching for a suitable eCommerce solution, it is important to many who are on a budget or just starting out. Shared hosting is the cheapest kind of web hosting available, starting at about $5 or less per month depending upon the hosting provider. However it is important to note that most shared hosting plans often must be paid for annually, thus you would have to pay for 12 months of service in advance. On the other hand, VPS hosting accounts can cost only a few dollars more per month, starting at about $10 to $15 per month, yet they can be bought on a monthly basis. Thus, a VPS hosting on occasion can be actually cheaper to acquire than a shared hosting account. This is especially important for those looking for the easiest way to get into eCommerce.

Security and Support

Security and support are two crucial factors to consider when shopping for an eCommerce hosting plan. Shared hosting is perhaps the least secure kind of web hosting, simply because your site is sharing a web server with hundreds of other sites. This means that the actions of these sites can directly affect the fate of your site, even though they are completely unrelated. For example, if someone decides to commit a DDoS attack on one of the sites on the server, it may bring down the entire server, causing your site to experience downtime. Alternatively, VPS hosting is considered much safer because your site is hosted on a specific part of the server that is designated for that site. The support offered with each plan depends entirely upon the web hosting provider.

Web Hosting Features

Shared hosting is somewhat limited in the features it provides because the server has to deal with a lot more than the average web server. With hundreds of sites consuming the server’s resources simultaneously the performance may suffer from time to time if the amount of resources allocated to each site is not controlled. Thus, to facilitate a more reliable hosting environment shared hosting accounts have less features than other hosting types. VPS hosting is more flexible, and the hosting environment is more privatized so the features are less limited. In eCommerce you need to be able to host hundreds if not thousands of products, so it is important to have a powerful server. A VPS is generally a more powerful server than a shared server.

Recommendations

By now it should be apparent that a VPS hosting plan would be more suitable for an eCommerce site than a shared hosting plan. Considering the fact that VPS hosting plans can be purchased for less money than shared hosting, it should be an obvious decision for anyone that is serious about growing their eCommerce business.

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