The fast-evolving e-commerce landscape demands better user experience, faster site speed, and a high level of security leading to better site management. That is why site owners need the most efficient web hosting options to keep themselves ahead of the competition. Most often than not business owners are stuck in the dilemma of which hosting service to choose for their e-commerce site. Should they opt for a dedicated server or go for VPS Hosting solution? Before jumping to a conclusion let’s look at the requirements of an e-commerce site.
Typically, for a well-performing e-commerce website, you need
- Instant scalability of resources (in case of sudden traffic spikes)
- Minimum downtime so you don’t lose out on customers
- High level of security since the site involves monetary transactions and sharing of personal data
- And, a 24X7 customer support team to instantly solve a glitch if it may occur.
Taking these above as base of comparison, let us look at what each of VPS and Dedicated hosting services has to offer.
VPS Hosting
In Virtual Private Server Hosting, a physical server is divided into multiple virtual private servers. It combines the functionality of both shared hosting and dedicated hosting services. Although this is a ‘shared’ concept, you still get to have an entire virtual server dedicated to your site. This means you can avail of private space on the bigger shared server.
- Each of the smaller servers has their own resources and are capable of hosting websites on their own. It uses the mechanism of virtualization.
- This service allows complete root access to your resources so you can easily manage and customize your private server environment.
- Your server space is given dedicated resources to ensure that your site performance is at its best, thus also fulfilling the ‘dedicated’ aspect of the service.
- In case of any sudden traffic surge on your site, you can opt for instant resource scalability by adding necessary resources to your server space. Unless your growth magnifies to a point where you must look for dedicated hosting.
- Security wise, VPS hosting makes for a safe and sound hosting environment since the servers are isolated from each other.
- Last, but not the least, with the main server being shared among different users, VPS hosting makes for a cheaper and more economical option when compared to other hosting solutions.
Dedicated Hosting
Simply put, this uses a physical hosting platform which is dedicated solely to your website. It works best for very large companies or high traffic volume sites for which VPS hosting doesn’t suffice.
- It offers a highly secure hosting environment since you will be the only client on the server.
- Depending on your business needs your server specifications can be customized.
- Dedicated hosting is a costly affair since it uses an exclusive set of infrastructure, personnel, and other resources reserved for the physical set up.
Key takeaway
As we see, the decision largely depends on your site needs and of course your budget. Every site is unique and what one business needs, the other might not. No matter what you choose always research well and ask questions to your prospective hosting provider and make the right decision by understanding the terms better.
