The Difference Between VPS Hosting vs. Cloud Server Hosting

VPS hosting and cloud server hosting are two of the most sought after solutions in the web hosting industry today.  With bloggers, business owners, and webmasters all more aware than ever of the importance of reliable, secure hosting, it is crucial that you know the differences between the solutions that are available to you, and how you can make the most of the features of each.

Storage, Reliability and Security
Most VPS hosting solutions do not have a centralized storage feature.  This means that if you experience problems with the node your site might be down for longer than you’d want.  We’re talking hours rather than minutes, although much could depend on your hosting services provider and their ability to deal with any issues.  Additionally, it is easier to lose data if there are any corruptions on your VPS server.  The biggest frustration is potentially losing this data due to issues caused by another site on the server.

Cloud server hosting will not bring you these frustrations to the same degree.  For example, if your node were to go down, your site can simply get power from elsewhere, thus minimizing downtime.  However, there are issues with security of cloud hosting, such as who can access and see your data.

When Your Website Traffic Grows
When you use cloud server hosting, your data isn’t actually stored on the node, but centralized.  This means that as your website traffic increases and your demands on resources grow, you’re able to react accordingly (or at least, your servers are) and browsers won’t see any noticeable differences.

In contrast, when your site starts to get busier, your VPS solution only has a finite pool of resources that it can use.  You also have to remember that your hosting company has to provide juice to the other sites hosted on the server.  This is why many who discuss VPS hosting recommend using it only if you have a degree of certainty around your traffic volume.

These issues can also affect your uptime and site speed, which can bring your site down during unexpected traffic spikes or should you upload larger chunks of content or applications to your server.

Performance and Pricing
Both VPS hosting and cloud server hosting offer a number of benefits, and both are definitely alternatives that are worth exploring if you’ve found shared hosting or dedicated hosting isn’t for you.

From the outside, it is easy to look at cloud server hosting and immediately proclaim it as better.  However, this is only true if you’re unsure of the resources you’re going to use, and want the flexibility to reflect this.  VPS hosting will perform well if you know what you need, as you can then choose a specific VPS hosting package to reflect your demands.

These principles feed into the pricing, too; what you spend on cloud server hosting will usually be linked to your resources, while a VPS price plan will be fixed.  Web hosting companies trying to sell you one or the other will naturally say one is cheaper than the other; to work out what is true for you, calculate your needs and research the solutions available.