Start-ups have always benefitted from shared hosting plans because they have to work on a tight budget. However, when you own an ecommerce site, it is important to upgrade to VPS hosting or, better still, dedicated hosting, to ensure that you get a guaranteed high uptime and you can keep the site up and running at all times for your customers. With shared hosting, guaranteeing this may be difficult because shared hosting can only offer you limited resources. This is why when you launch an ecommerce website, it is probably the first sign that you now need to make a switch from shared to VPS hosting plans.
In VPS hosting environment, a physical server is typically compartmentalized for creating many virtual servers. Every one of these virtual servers functions like a dedicated server because it can run its choice of an operating system and install custom scripts and software. Websites can enjoy a definite amount of RAM, CPU and bandwidth which can be scaled up whenever needed. So, VPS hosting is usually recommended by experts when you wish to have more control over the server and you do not want to spend a fortune on buying dedicated hosting.
- One of the first signs that it is time to make a switch to VPS plans is when you find that your current shared hosting plans are no longer enough to satisfy your business needs. When the business starts to expand, you realize that the server resources, which you had hitherto shared with neighboring sites on a shared server, are no longer sufficient to handle your extra workloads. This is when you must move onto VPS hosting so that you can get additional resources like extra bandwidth or memory or power when you need these.
- As your website starts growing, you will also need to tweak the site settings and server configurations to make room for new activities and greater growth. This is why you are going to need direct control over the server. With root access to servers, you can install scripts and applications of your choice, you can reboot the servers if needed, and you can even install new software. The latter is especially vital because new programs are being launched almost every day and the business needs to keep pace with these.
- When your visitors arrive at the site and find that they have to wait rather long for the pages to load, they are likely to be disappointed. So, with an increase in site traffic there will be corresponding demand for better speeds and faster downloads. When traffic is high and resources not enough, downloads are going to be slow and data transfer speeds sluggish. In a shared server, as a site becomes unable to cater to user expectations, your visitors are likely to leave it and go elsewhere. While this may not be visible to you, your web hosting provider is likely to detect the problem. It will alert webmasters about the dangers of overshooting their site resource limits.
- VPS hosting is the best possible solution when you experience an increase in the occurrence of downtimes. For businesses which are launched online, dealing with downtimes is hard because every minute of downtime implies huge revenue losses. In shared hosting, the downtimes are more often experienced and to tackle this problem, shared hosting providers add more accounts for better profits. But this will only cut down on resource allocations for individual sites, and your website becomes a victim in the process.
- When you realize that your site needs more robust and comprehensive security features, you should consider upgrading to a VPS hosting plan. As the site grows, there are more visitors and this in turn implies more sales. With more sales the cyber thieves get access to even more data from online transactions. When you have shared hosting plans, you can be a victim of hacking and other cyber attacks. So, most sites now prefer to sign up for VPS plans to enjoy better security features which will deter cyber criminals from stealing valuable data.
- If you see that the time is right to expand your business further, it is a good idea to upgrade to a VPS plan. Shared plans are perfect for businesses which are just taking off. But, if you want to grow your business through increased sales via an online portal, you should buy VPS solutions. The trick is to know the right time to make the switch and not wait for the traffic to escalate first. So, you should be proactive and make the transition when you understand that the site is going to experience a surge in traffic.
- Shared hosting is the cheapest hosting alternative and the truth is that businesses find these plans to be lacking in terms of features and services. So, it is perhaps wiser to spend more money to get VPS hosting solutions for long-term benefits. For a slightly higher cost, you can enjoy better security and reliability from the virtual servers. Incidentally, technological advancements have also make VPS plans much more cost-effective these days and smaller businesses can afford them easily.