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Choosing the right hosting package can be pretty time-consuming. In the end, you don’t change it every other day, and are stuck with it for some time. And if you’re just starting out, you most likely just want to focus on building your website, and not the technical side of owning a website.
The latter, together with a few other things, is an important point which you should consider when choosing between a VPS and cloud hosting. So, which one is the way to go?
Consideration #1: Support & Technical Issues
When speaking of focusing on your business instead of server management, cloud hosting is definitely a better choice. Unlike a VPS, a managed cloud offers a complete, hassle-free hosting environment, in which you don’t have to do anything on the server-side. This means less room for error, and a higher chance that you keep close to 100% of uptime.
On top of requiring less work upfront, a cloud hosting offers much better support compared to a VPS – where the scope of help tends to be quite limited. Naturally, unless it’s a managed VPS – in which case, you can count on the same level of support as on a decent cloud hosting.
Winner: Cloud Hosting
Consideration #2: Setup Time
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The second thing to take into consideration, especially if you’re just starting out is the setup time of your server. While technically both servers are available within a few minutes from ordering, if you get an unmanaged VPS, it requires that you set it up yourself from scratch. Of course, you don’t have to touch the hardware (that’s what you’re renting), but you’ll have to deploy the admin panel, firewall, and the CMS of your choice. Not to mention that you will be responsible for the server security.
What about cloud? If you choose a reputable company, all that you’ll have to do is sign up, log in, and hit the one-click installation button of your favorite content management system. Once that’s done, you’re free to play with your website. And if you come across any problems during this simple setup, you can just reach out to support, so that they can fix it for you.
Winner: Cloud Hosting
Consideration #3: Available Resources
The third thing worth paying an extra attention to are the available resources. The exclusive access to resources is a significant advantage of both the cloud and VPS hosting packages. This means that no matter what other people do on the other instances of the server, your sites will never get affected.
Naturally, it’s hard to speak about the actual amount of RAM, disk space or CPU power without looking at the specific hosting plans. But, considering that cloud hosting includes extra support in the package, most of the time a virtual private server offers more power (but less help) for the same price. This means that if you don’t mind the extra work required to set up an unmanaged VPS yourself, it’s a better choice than cloud hosting resource-wise.
Winner: Virtual Private Server
Consideration #4: Customization
If all you need is a reliable, fast, and secure environment where you don’t have to do anything and can just host a simple website, you can ignore this point. But if you are interested in the technical side of things, would like to deploy extra applications, experiment with software, and have a full control over your server, it’s important to note that a VPS gives you a lot more freedom.
This is because, unlike a cloud hosting package, a VPS doesn’t come with a pre-installed admin panel (unless you ask for it – what usually costs extra anyway). All you get is a virtual server with just the OS (the two most popular ones being CentOS and Ubuntu – 9/10 times, you are free to choose whichever you want). This allows you to customize the server to your needs – from the OS, and admin panel to all the additional software that you want to install. Naturally, this is only beneficial if you actually know what you’re doing.
Winner: Virtual Private Server
Consideration #5: Scalability
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The last thing which doesn’t matter that much when you’re starting out but becomes critical once you start growing is scalability. Basically, what it means is how easy it will be for you to add resources to your hosting once your website and traffic start growing. In the end, you can’t stay on the basic package forever.
Thankfully, as long as you choose a quality hosting company that’s working with both small and big businesses, you should be able to add extra RAM/CPU power or upgrade the whole tier in just a few clicks. And that’s regardless of whether you’re using a VPS or cloud hosting. No website migration, no downtime, no business problems for you or your customers.
This makes both hosting types an excellent choice for anyone interested in building a sustainable long-term business. Just make sure that you check out the available hosting packages – so that you don’t have to switch companies too soon.
Winner: Draw
As you can see, the choice of hosting packages will depend mostly on your experience and expectations. If you value freedom, love to experiment, and want to set up the server the way you want it to be, then a VPS is the way to go.
But, if all you need is a secure and reliable place to host your website, and you don’t want to have anything to do with the technical side of things, you can’t go wrong with cloud hosting. Just sign up, create your site, and focus on building your business.
