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What is the difference between Cloud Hosting vs. VPS Hosting?
Cloud Hosting is when a website is virtually allocated space on multiple servers for maximum availability and can utilize this space at scale when needed, whereas VPS hosting is when a website is allocated a certain amount of space on one single, physical server.
Here are the main differences between Cloud Hosting vs VPS Hosting:
- VPS Hosting is partitioned on one single physical server, whereas Cloud hosting is partitioned in a cluster of multiple physical servers in multiple physical locations (Data Centers).
- Cloud hosting is not restricted to a single physical server, so its scalability is practically unlimited.
- VPS Hosting has the advantage over Cloud Hosting in that you get complete root access to your virtual server, whereas with Cloud Hosting, you don’t.
Cloud Hosting is definitely a step up from Shared Hosting in the fact that if the physical server that your web files are on happens to run slower.
Perhaps there is too much traffic on the particular server where your web files are stored or it’s down for any reason, your web files are copied and merely transferred to another server within that data center or another.
VPS Hosting or “Virtual Private Server” Hosting is almost like a cross between Shared Hosting and Dedicated Server Hosting.
Your website’s files are stored on a portioned part of Dedicated Server. There may be other websites or accounts also hosted on this Dedicated Server, but each has their own portioned section and your website is guaranteed a certain amount of data space on that server that can’t be shared with other websites.
Having VPS Hosting also gives you access to the server that your website is on. This is similar to having a Dedicated Server in that not only do you have access to the server, but you can also upload and run any software, apps or any other tools that you like on your portion of that server.
This is where a VPS does differ from Shared Hosting and Cloud Hosting, both of which do not give you access to any server(s) and you cannot run software, apps or other tools from the server where your website is hosted on.
Is Cloud Hosting better than Shared Hosting ?
Cloud Hosting is definitely a step up from Shared Hosting. With Cloud Hosting you can easily scale and garner more resources for your website as your traffic and processing needs increase. You can also downgrade resources when traffic or your processing need decrease as well.
Also, downtime is extremely limited if ever. How?
If anything happens to the physical server where your website files are stored on or if that physical server has performance issues, your files are simply duplicated and quickly moved over to another physical server within that cloud data center.
What all this means is that you have practically guaranteed up time. Of course, if the entire data center goes down for whatever reason, this would not be the case. But it’s very rare that an entire data center goes down.
It also means that your website’s performance and speed will always be optimal. If you need more data space, processing etc, you can always scale up.
With Shared Hosting you are pretty much stuck on a server with other websites, sometimes hundreds of them. If that server goes down or gets hacked through one of the other websites on that shared server, then your website may go down as a result as well.
Also with Shared Hosting, you do not have the ability to scale if you get a surge in traffic for example. Your website would just go down until the server’s resources where it’s hosted recovers.
What is VPS Hosting used for?
VPS Hosting is used when you want to have your own predetermined portioned off space on a Dedicated Server. In addition, you may need access to a server if you want to install any specialized software, apps or run any tools from that server.
A VPS Hosting plan can basically give you many of the benefits of a Dedicated Server plan at much lower costs.
Is Cloud Hosting faster than VPS?
VPS Hosting can be very fast since you have a guaranteed portion of a Dedicated Server, which in turn can give you much more processing power than any Shared Hosting plan ever could. However, with a VPS you don’t have the ability to scale your resources when you need to.
In addition, with VPS Hosting you’re paying for processing power and server space on a Dedicated Server that you may never use or you may actually need even more resources and processing power, but can’t scale it since you are limited to the portion of that server you have paid for in your plan.
That’s why Cloud Hosting can be much faster than VPS Hosting. You could scale up your resources with a flick of a switch and you only pay for what you use.
In fact, you literally have access to all the servers that your Cloud Hosting Provider has access to. That’s pretty powerful.
When should you use Cloud Hosting ?
Cloud Hosting should be the next level of hosting plan you should move to if you are currently on a Shared Hosting plan.
Cloud Hosting is considered a step up from Shared Hosting. Cloud Hosting can give you much better performance as well as other benefits than any Shared Hosting plan ever could. The benefits of which are throughout this post.
Unlike Shared Hosting, with Cloud Hosting you basically have the ability to scale as your traffic increases and becomes too much for your Shared Hosting plan.
If you’ve also had problems with excessive downtime as a result of traffic surges or other service issues, then Cloud Hosting would definitely be a step up.
How do I manage VPS Hosting?
You can get VPS Hosting either managed, where the Web Hosting Provider does all the physical maintenance as well as all the updates. Or you can also get unmanaged VPS Hosting where you are responsible for everything on your Virtual Private Server except physical maintenance to that server itself.
So if you are going to get an unmanaged VPS Hosting plan, then you need to know how to manage a server beforehand. Using a VPS Hosting plan as a training ground to learn how to manage a server is not the way to go about it. You can do some serious damage to your website’s files among other things.
Therefore, if you don’t know about server maintenance, at least from a software standpoint, you’re better off getting a managed VPS Hosting plan.
Do I need a VPS?
In most cases, you really don’t need a VPS. You only need a VPS if you would like to have access to a Dedicated Server so you can run specialized software, apps and other tools for your website or websites.
Most other hosting plans, including Shared and Cloud Hosting do not give you access to any physical server.
Therefore, unless you need access to a server, you’re better off with another web hosting plan, like Cloud Hosting.
Why is Cloud Hosting cheaper than VPS?
Cloud Hosting is considered cheaper than VPS Hosting simply because with VPS you are guaranteed a portion of a physical server. The portion sizes and resources are only divided up among a few clients per server.
Therefore, you have access to much more server capacity than possibly on a Cloud Hosting plan, which is usually run on a scaling price plan. Meaning the more you use the more you pay, but also the less you use the less you pay.
In addition, Cloud Hosting plans can normally host hundreds or even thousands of websites throughout data centers that are leased by your Web Hosting Provider.
Web Hosting Providers may have their own Data Centers or lease out space in other Data Centers. Many times a combination of the two depending on how large the Web Hosting Provider is.
So according to economies of scale the more clients they get the cheaper they can provide their Cloud Housing Services. Whereas with a VPS, again they are limited to the amount of space they can portion out on one single server.
What is the difference between VPS and a Dedicated Server?
A Dedicated Server is an entire physical machine or server. A VPS is a “Virtual Private Server” that literally rests on top of a dedicated physical server.
As I’ve mentioned above, with a VPS you’re literally renting a certain amount of space on a Dedicated Server. You’re not renting the whole server.
Is the Cloud a physical Server?
The “Cloud” is not one physical server, but many physical servers in one data center.
Does the Cloud ever go down?
The Cloud rarely goes down. Although Cloud Data Centers host many physical servers, there is always a possibility of one of those servers going down, though it’s a very rare occasion where all the servers in a particular cloud data center go down at the same time.
However, there was one such instance that happened in the news recently here, “CHI (Chicago) Data Center Outage Overview”. This was when a whole data center actually went down. It was news because this rarely happens.
Cloud Hosting vs. VPS Hosting, conclusions.
In the Cloud Hosting VS. VPS Hosting matchup, in my opinion, for most users getting a Cloud Hosting plan is a much better deal than getting a VPS Hosting plan. Don’t get me wrong, VPS Hosting plans do have their place.
If you need access to a server so you can run software, apps and other tools but you don’t have a budget to rent an entire Dedicated Server, and getting a VPS Hosting plan is ideal.
For most of us who don’t use specialized software, run apps or other tools and are more interested in website performance, speed and little to no downtime and the ability to scale when needed, then Cloud Hosting is the way to go.
