Web Hosting is a vital factor whether you are maintaining a website or starting off with your business. Before going for a VPS hosting solution, one should have the technical knowledge and needs to consider a plethora of important factors. It is considered important if you are looking for an upgradation from a standard shared plan.
Smile, your search for best VPS ends here. You're on right platform. Following are Top 11 key points to consider that will help you pick the best VPS according to your needs
1. RAM (Random Access Memory)
RAM, or Random Access Memory, shifts information in order to complete specific tasks. Same as like the CPU cores, it is connected with the user experience and overall performance. Virtual servers are available with dedicated RAM of their own. The more RAM is available, the more you can run an efficient website loaded with huge content. You can go for a VPS plan having 2 GB of RAM, with which you can run an efficient website along with firewall, monitoring script, and scalable MySQL database. If you wish for enhancement of your site’s performance, you can increase your RAM up to 4 GB.
When you see more traffic after expansion of your website, you can upgrade your VPS server’s RAM up to 32 GB or even more. Having more RAM enables you to have a larger MySQL database, utilize caching plugins, operate the content delivery network, and a whole lot more.
2. CPU (Central Processing Unit)
CPU’s role is significant as resource allocation to operating system is done by CPU. The capability of virtual server’s multiple task handling rely directly on number of CPU cores. Shared hosting plans lacks the choosing option for cores. And in VPS, customization option is available. You can edit cores as per your needs. Multiple numbers of cores are offered by the dedicated hosting plans with VPS hosting.
Cheaper plans offers one or two cores, which is enough to run smaller websites which has less content to show. If your website having larger database or heavy applications then you should move with the hosting plans where eight or more CPU cores are available. You can choose plans which fits your needs and also friendly with your pocket.
3. VPS Disk Space
Hosting providers deliver huge amount of storage for VPS plans. There are providers who offers unlimited storage. During choosing of your provider, look carefully at which kind of storage that company is using. SSDs(Solid State Drives), are far better in comparison to the normal hard drives as because of the reliability and smother connection speed.
4. Bandwidth Allowance
Bandwidth means transfer of maximum number of data through a specific path. Bandwidth will be still in use whether there is a visitor on your site or not. Even if you aren’t offering any downloads, bandwidth will still be used. There are lots of VPS providers in market who are offering unlimited bandwidth to their consumers.
At the end, you will always have the choosing power of adding various resources in expansion of your growth. Although there is not a hard bandwidth cap good. And it is still not advised to avoid selecting providers that implement a cap. With unmetered bandwidth you won’t have to worry about performance issues which occur more often due to excessive amount of traffic.
5. VPS Security System
In this modern world different kind of threats are evolving like DDoS attacks, malware, hacking and identity theft. And with the increasing threats multiple security features are being offered by various VPS providers to keep your data and visitors safe.
Go for a provider who regularly backups to reduce downtime and run your site smoother just as like before. We recommend you to also check if there’s
free SSL certificates, firewall protection, malware scanning and DDoS protection.
6. Control Panel
For the management of web hosting server, a software is required. This software is termed as Control Panel and it basically provides graphical interface and automation tool to its end user or website owner.
There is plenty of control panels in market like Plesk, Webmin, Direct Admin and cPanel. Most common and popular control panel is cPanel. Many hosting providers prefer it because of its user friendly interface.
cPanel will help you in handling of all aspects of your website. All tasks like you load CMS like WordPress, install plugins, use custom scripts etc. can be done at one place.
7. Operating System
Depending upon operating system you can get the best VPS solution i.e., Windows or Linux-based. There is a significant point to be noted that Windows server isn’t offered by all hosting providers as they can only use Microsoft frameworks like ASP.NET.
The most common and compatible server is the Linux servers as it offers flexibility and suitable with more frameworks, database and programming languages. If you have decided to go for Linux system, then you must pick a plan which is compatible with your preferred distro. There is many well-known options available for you to choose like Ubuntu, CentOS and many more.
8. Root Access
Root access features is not provided by all web hosting providers. Even those who provide this feature, gives only a single administrative point for the safety of website. It is recommended by the experts to avoid the use of root access feature until you are highly experienced with web hosting. Or got a team full of skilled IT engineers.
The management of your server in a deepest level possible through a VPS plan having a root access feature. This feature makes you capable of implementation of complex coding, editing of every files located on virtual server and installation of software. If you are really going to do the above mentioned things than you should select VPS plans having full root access. But, with this feature, there is a greater chances of you ruining your website.
9. Managed/ Unmanaged
Operating a VPS server may be tough. And because of this reason a team of IT experts is hired by most of the small businessman to manage the hosting environment smoothly. If you are like those businessmen or confident about your technical expertise, then you should choose unmanaged VPS plan without a single hesitation. In compare to managed plans, unmanaged VPS services gives a bit more control. However the choice is up to you entirely. If you are worrying that handling of the server on your own is a little bit messy, then stop worrying. There are plenty of hosting providers from whom you can get managed VPS servers. These managed servers are a little bit costly in comparison to unmanaged alternatives. But that won’t bother you as you will get professional assistance and providers will handle the important tasks to run your website efficiently.
10. VPS Uptimes
So the equipment can perform efficiently, all hosting providers put their almost entire efforts. Sometimes, something unusual occurs and some providers get affected than others, which leads to decrease in the uptime ratings.
For how long the server remains online is termed as Uptime rating. Sometime mishaps can occur in different ways like date breach or a power out can shut devices. These things can cause you loss in income and customer as because the longer the problem persists the longer your visitors won’t be able to use your site. That is why you need to pay a little bit more attention that which provider is promising higher uptime guarantees and powerful security systems at the data centres. Usually all the providers try their best and go over and above to assure you that the data centers are safe, reliable and secure.
11. Connection Speed
Always keep in mind that if your website is slow and takes longer time to load then you may lose your customer. Connection speed needs to be in your priority list when you are about to purchase a standard shared plan or if you are about to own a dedicated server. Look for providers who offers and maintain regular fast speed to your visitors, have high-performance equipment and data center’s location also needs to be taken in consideration.
The virtual machine is kept at a safer place and this is called data center.
In simple words it can be defined as a centralized locations where computing and networking equipment is concentrated to collect, store, process, distribute and allowing access to larger amounts of data.
It is advised to select data centres closer to your targeted audiences. The lesser the distance between physical server and customer is the lesser time will be taken to load the contents of your site. Don’t worry if you have got international audiences. Here comes the content delivery networks (CDN). CDN loads the cached version of your site on the large web of server nodes. Instead of sending message to the data centers which are at distance, the user can connect to the nearest node for the loading of website. By this technique, the loading time reduces to some extent.
Final Words
There are key features that you must think before purchasing best VPS hosting solution. You must weigh every options and evaluate them according to your own need and choose only that VPS solution that not only fits your needs but is also friendly with your pocket.
