As your business or creative projects take off, you may outgrow your current hosting plan.
Maybe your e-commerce site is so popular that it needs more server resources than your shared hosting plan provides. Maybe your web design business needs more sandbox space to put up test sites for your clients. Or your hosting reseller business is blowing up and you’re ready for the next level. Whatever the reason, you may need to move up to a virtual private server (VPS) or a dedicated server so your business can keep growing, keep customers happy and stay online.
In this post, we’ll cover that these servers are, what they offer and how you can identify the best choice for your situation.
What Is VPS Hosting?
A virtual private server (VPS) is your own private section of a physical server, with that portion of the server’s resources dedicated just to you. You’ll have root access and the freedom to install features that aren’t offered on typical shared and reseller hosting plans, so you can do more custom configurations that you can on a standard shared hosting plan.
So, with VPS you get root access and customizability without the expense of a dedicated server. That makes a VPS a great sandbox environment for trying out new themes and designs, and for creating test sites before you move them to a shared, reseller or dedicated server.
You can also host some kinds of websites on a VPS, if those sites have very specialized software needs and if they don’t use a lot of resources. That’s because RAM on many VPS options maxes out around 8GB. That’s plenty of memory for testing and for low-resource sites, but it means a VPS is not where you want to host a big online store or a site of audio and video files.
It’s also good to know that a VPS has a lower inode limit than a dedicated server. What’s an inode and why does it matter? Inodes are file data structures that hold metadata—one inode for each Linux file on your server. If your site has a lot of files and is always adding more—for example, your business gets, sends and stores a ton of emails—you’re probably going to run into inode limits on a VPS.
Do You Need VPS Hosting?
A VPS might be your best choice if you need:
- Specialized software that’s not available on a shared hosting plan.
- A sandbox environment for design and testing.
- Root access without the expense of a dedicated server.
Learn more about Eastlinkcloud’s VPS hosting plans.
What Is Dedicated Hosting?
A dedicated server is an entire server that’s reserved for your use. You get all of the resources available on that machine—and a dedicated server typically gives you lots of resources.
With this kind of plan, you’ll get more disk space and more inodes than a shared hosting plan. For example, our Power Server plan includes 16GB RAM, a 2TB HDD and unmetered bandwidth. You’ll have root access, and you can configure the hosting environment any way you want.
With this great freedom comes some responsibility: You’ll need a dedicated webmaster who can keep tabs on your sites to make sure they’re secure, backed up and updated regularly, and working properly. You’ll also need a dedicated-server budget: around $200 a month, unless you find a promo deal.
Do You Need Dedicated Hosting?
A dedicated server could be the right choice for you if:
- You need more resources than you can access on a shared hosting plan—for example, if you run a big eCommerce site, have tons of media to load and need pages to load as fast as possible.
- Your business requires storage space for a lot of email—for example, if you practice law or run a customer service business.
- You’re ready to expand your reseller business so you can host a ton of sites and manage their resource allocation.
- You have the budget for a dedicated server.
Learn more about Eastlinkcloud dedicated server plans.
How to make your move to a VPS or dedicated server with Eastlinkcloud
Making the decision was the tough part. Now you’ll need to take a few more steps to finalize your choice and get your new server plan up and running. Here’s how the process works with Eastlinkcloud.
- Choose the plan you want. There are three plan levels available for both VPS and dedicated servers to suit a variety of resource needs and budgets.
- While you’re in checkout, make sure you include cPanel or Plesk as part of your purchase if you want a control panel. If you leave the box unchecked, or if you uncheck it, you won’t have a main interface for your new server. This is important, because while our customer support team can do a lot of cool stuff behind the scenes, they can’t add Plesk or cPanel to an existing VPS or dedicated account. If you decide that you do want Plesk or cPanel after you complete your order, you’ll need to contact customer support, have them cancel your order, and start again.
- Request a migration. We can help you migrate your site(s) to your new server, and many migrations are free if you make your request within 30 days of signing up for your new plan. Contact customer support or, if you already have a Eastlinkcloud plan, fill out our migration request form.
- Create a backup plan for your new server. Remember, VPS and dedicated server plans don’t include off-site automated backups, and you definitely want to keep your sites backed up.
Eastlink Cloud Pvt. Ltd.
Tripureshwor, Kathmandu, Nepal
Phone:166001-95985
Mail:info@eastlinkcloud.com
