To throw more light upon the differences between shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting, let´s do a short comparative analysis and understand the key differences.
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is like you are living in a rental apartment with a lot of unknown companions. You live like this because it is affordable and cheap. It means you must adapt in the same room and you can split the cost of several things.
However, having several individuals sharing the same space means there must be some degree of adjustment. Resources need to be shared (e.g. 10 people sharing 1 bathroom among them).
It also means that what affects one friend may affect you as well. If one of the people sharing that space has the virus – you might get infected as well. Everything that is in that room is to be shared among all of you. There are no exceptions.
Majority of website owners prefer to use shared hosting services for the simple reason that it is cheap. But sharing resources can impact and degrade website performance. For example, if one website is using up a lot of resources because it has high traffic or a resource-intensive application, your website might become completely inaccessible, forcing users to wait or just leave your website in frustration. This will affect the performance of your business through no fault of your own.
VPS Hosting
If Shared hosting was like sharing an apartment, VPS hosting is like you are now the only person living in the apartment. No one else is staying with you, you have all the facilities to yourself and complete privacy and security. No one is going to infect you with the virus.
Of course, there are other people are living in the same building, but you have your own secure apartment. If your neighbours are running a highly resource intensive site, it will not affect you at all because you are isolated from them. In short, no one will be affected by how much resources another is using.
You will get the speed and security and you have all the benefits of a private server but in a way still share the cost of services.
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated server hosting is like being the owner of a house. You own the entire place but have to take care of all the expenses and bills.
So, the first factor to think about when considering a dedicated hosting plan is your business model and requirements. This option is beneficial for larger websites, such as e-commerce businesses and high-traffic sites. That’s because the content on these sites needs to be served fast. Further, performance and reliability are extremely important. Also, you will be able to better protect your stored data and be better prepared to deal with threats and attacks.
Naturally, all of this comes at an increased price. Dedicated hosting is more expensive than VPS or shared hosting options. Besides being the most expensive hosting option, it also requires vast technical expertise to manage the dedicated servers.