Slow loading times and persistent downtime cause headaches to thousands of companies and web developers. They are aware that 40% of customers expect a website to load in two or three seconds, or they will abandon it.
Resolving these two issues is, therefore, a top priority. That is where web hosting comes in.
The web hosting industry is rising. Its market size is expected to grow to $171.4 billion by 2027. Companies, web developers, and UX designers are fueling its rise by investing in dedicated hosting providers.
Many of them are looking for a hosting solution that ensures their website has an outstanding uptime. They are especially interested in understanding the difference between cloud hosting and VPS, which we will explain in today's article.
Besides the appropriate web hosting, you need a straightforward website-building process to keep your project running. That’s only possible if you understand the technology you are using.
If you need help during this process, TeleportHQ is there for you. Our front-end platform lets you design, build and code static websites in real-time. You can deploy a site to a live server in just one click. Our platform is a one-click hosting option suitable for beginners and experienced developers. Try it out now to create and host your website easily!
Before you begin coding and designing, you should learn more about VPS hosting vs cloud hosting. Let’s discuss each in detail.
What is web hosting?
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Web hosting is a service that enables users to host and publish their websites on the internet. A hosting company offers the technology users need to store online content.
It is not enough to just design and code your website. That code, text, and visuals need to be stored somewhere. Web hosting provides you with a server that holds all of these files. It makes your website work properly.
It’s impossible to develop an online presence without hosting solutions. Your static or dynamic website may crash and be unresponsive if you do not invest in it. How can your company increase sales if customers cannot access your website?
Web hosting is also crucial for the following reasons:
- It offers a safe server environment. Having a secure server is paramount. It protects your website from online threats and other cyber-attacks. According to research, websites face an average of 94 attacks every day. A reliable hosting provider will block these attacks.
- It provides data storage. Having limited data storage can crash your website when traffic is high. Your dedicated hosting provider should store as much data as possible to keep your site live.
- It increases website speed. Slow loading times are synonymous with a bad user experience. Customers have become demanding and won’t wait more than a few seconds for your website to load. Web hosting improves your website speed and keeps your visitors satisfied.
How does web hosting affect online project performance? Let’s explain in the following section.
How web hosting impacts your online project
Choosing a hosting service is a decision that should not be taken lightly. Poor hosting service can make your whole effort pointless regardless of how good your online project is.
Developing and designing an online project demands caution from the very start. That is why you should consider web hosting in the early stages. You do not want to opt for a hosting service that can negatively affect the online project performance.
Web hosting is much more than some virtual space on which you store your website content. It ensures your online project runs effortlessly and smoothly.
Speed and performance
Your website speed and performance should be your top priority. They have the most significant influence on user experience and perception of your business.
Web hosting services are aware of this. It is the reason why they offer speed enhancers and vouch for reliable performance. They work around the clock to launch features that protect against downtime.
A fast website improves the browsing process for internet users. It translates into lower bounce rates for your site.
Speed and performance also directly influence your conversion rates. Imagine a user wants to find out more about your business. They visit your website for the first time only to become frustrated with its slow loading time.
Will they convert to customers? They most likely won’t because your website provides a bad user experience and make them less likely to return in the future.
Security
In terms of security, web hosting is essential because:
- It restricts access to information. A web hosting company limits access to servers. It makes it difficult for hackers to target servers and compromise the information they find.
- It backs up data. Web hosts offer automatic and frequent backups to protect your website. You don’t need to build the site from scratch if you lose all your data.
- It locates and removes malware. Protection against malware is essential. It prevents hackers from stealing business information such as customers’ data. Your company’s reputation will stay intact when customers aren’t compromised.
Before you commit to one web hosting provider, ensure they have features like protection against DDoS attacks to strengthen your website’s security.
Scalability
You will inevitably have more traffic when your business expands. Web hosting has advanced so much that it can now scale to adjust to your traffic growth. If your website traffic goes from 0 to 10.000, hosting providers are there to ensure your website runs seamlessly.
TeleportHQ will support you as your website grows and attracts more visitors. Protect your data from malicious attacks and develop a stunning website with TeleportHQ. Sign up today!
Now that we have covered the basics of web hosting, let’s talk more about cloud hosting vs VPS.
Understanding the basics of Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting
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Virtual private server (VPS) hosting is aimed at companies that have outgrown the need for shared hosting. With shared hosting, one server stores multiple websites, and clients have
limited access to resources. As the website grows, this is simply not enough.
That is where a virtual private server comes in.
VPS hosting uses virtualization technology to give you access to dedicated resources on one server. Unlike shared hosting, you have your own space that can store the data you need to keep your website running.
Although VPS hosting relies on one physical server, it divides it into multiple individual dedicated slots. Each slot stores dedicated resources. If you are on a tight budget, a virtual server allows you to experience similar performance to that of a dedicated hosting service provider.
As you have your dedicated resources, you can customize your allocated partition in any way you want. You do not depend on other users of the physical server. Virtual private servers also do not exchange data or files between users—everyone has access to their own resources only.
You can choose between two types of VPS hosting:
- Cloud VPS hosting
- Managed VPS hosting
Virtual cloud server hosting is unmanaged. There are no app or OS restrictions. The second one, however, uses pre-installed software on a specific OS to operate. Cloud VPS hosting is a better choice if you don’t want any restrictions.
The benefits of VPS hosting
There are numerous benefits of virtual servers for companies of all sizes:
- You have more space for your dedicated resources. Virtual private servers let you rent a more significant portion of their physical server than shared hosting offers. It means you get more space for your dedicated resources than you do with shared hosting.
- You can view and alter all settings. VPS hosting gives you control over the settings. You can manage your server without sharing the same settings with other users. Another perk is that you can add any feature you need for your website.
- VPS keeps your resources secure. Let’s say that three clients use the same VPS cloud server. Although they technically share the same space, they do not have access to each other’s files and data. What you store on a virtual server remains visible only to you.
The drawbacks of VPS hosting
Are there some drawbacks of sharing a single physical server with other users? Let’s see:
- Limitations. When users use the same physical server, limitations are bound to occur. As we said, a single physical server is divided into several smaller servers. One of those smaller virtual servers might consume too much CPU, which is why the physical server fails.
- Virtual servers require technical knowledge. Remember that you should choose VPS hosting if you have the technological know-how. Beginners might find managing and maintaining their virtual server challenging if the hosting providers do not offer guidance. That is why people opt for cloud hosting instead.
- VPS hosting is not as reliable as cloud hosting. Web developers and designers are wary of VPS hosting because it is less reliable than cloud hosting. Why? Every smaller server will also go down if the central physical server fails. It isn’t the case with cloud hosting, which calls on other servers in case one crashes.
To make your choice between VPS or cloud hosting easier, let’s look at the latter.
Understanding the basics of Virtual Cloud Server hosting
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Virtual cloud server hosting is one of the most popular hosting solutions today. It ensures your website is accessible with the help of cloud resources. How does cloud hosting and VPS hosting differ?
Cloud hosting involves using a network of connected virtual cloud servers to host the website. Your website’s hosting resources exist on multiple servers in the network. If one cloud server experiences maximum traffic, it will route new traffic to the idle cloud server.
This way, cloud hosting services can respond to any amount of traffic. A network of numerous cloud servers works together to improve the performance of your website. It is why web developers choose cloud hosting for their online projects.
Some of the critical features cloud hosting providers offer include:
- The ability to scale resources to user needs
- Pay-as-you-go model that ensures you only pay for the resources you use
- Online projects are stored on a cloud network
- Support for SQL and/or NoSQL databases
Let’s discuss the benefits of cloud hosting in the following section.
The benefits of cloud hosting
To make your choice between VPS vs cloud easier, take a look at the latter’s benefits:
- Increased security. Physical servers secure the cloud infrastructure. Those servers protect your data from third-party attacks that want to crash your website. It is one of the reasons why cloud hosting is now popular.
- More reliable than virtual private server hosting. Your website is stored on a virtual partition with multiple physical networks. When one server goes offline, the idle server is there to continue to support your website.
- Cost-effective. Cloud hosting costs make it an appealing choice. Each cloud hosting plan vouches a user will only pay for their use.
Aside from benefits, you should consider the drawbacks of cloud hosting before you decide to commit to it.
The drawbacks of cloud hosting
Cloud hosting comes with the following drawbacks:
- Bandwidth issues. Cloud hosting relies heavily on the internet. You need access to a reliable internet connection to use cloud hosting. Cloud hosting won't work properly without good bandwidth and a fast connection.
- Limited control. Cloud hosting providers manage the servers. You do not have complete control over the infrastructure.
- Vulnerable to cyber-attacks. As you know, anything connected to the internet is not 100% secure. Even the most secure cloud hosting platform faces the risk of cyber-attacks.
What are the differences between cloud vs VPS? Let’s discuss them in detail.
The key difference between cloud hosting and VPS
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When looking for your hosting provider, there are many things to consider. You now know the basics of cloud hosting and VPS hosting, which can help you decide.
But, what is the difference between cloud hosting and virtual private server hosting? The following might help.
The main difference between the two hosting options lies in their infrastructure.
VPS hosting relies on one physical server to host and maintain your website. That server is divided into separate spots for each client. It then gives you access to a specified amount of resources. If your requirements increase, it will crash because you have over the specified amount.
On the other hand, cloud hosting uses a network of cloud servers to keep your website up and running. It deals with the increase in requirements differently than VPS hosting. The cloud environment consists of many unified resources. If one server reaches the maximum, a second server will be there to help, thanks to cloud hosting.
Here is a comparison table to better explain the difference between VPS hosting and cloud hosting:
Consider the above table before you decide between cloud hosting and VPS hosting. Of course, you don’t have to make this choice if you have a solution that lets you create and host your website all in one place. That solution is TeleportHQ!
TeleportHQ provides you with free hosting for your website
Time is money in today’s business world. Developers, designers, and companies need a platform that lets them create, build and host a website from a single place. If you are searching for that platform, TeleportHQ is the right solution for you.
TeleportHQ is a static site generator that lets your team collaborate on the same online project. You can design and build a website with our visual builder that comes with development tools. Making fast changes to any design is also available on TeleportHQ.
Once your team is satisfied with their online project, you can host the website through our platform. Hosting occurs with a click of the button—you won’t even need to switch a tab! You can deploy your website in minutes and make it visible to people worldwide.
Why pay for multiple platforms when you can centralize the whole front-end development process with TeleportHQ? Our platform also makes the process easier by offering free static website templates. You can edit the templates to adjust them to your business needs.
On top of that, TeleportHQ comes with technical SEO features that boost loading speed. For instance, developers and designers can leverage minification, automatic image compression, or CDN to improve their sites.
TeleportHQ is an all-in-one platform for website building and hosting. Work on your website from one place with your company. Sign up now!
VPS or cloud hosting: Which one to choose
The decision between cloud hosting and VPS hosting depends on you. Every website has different requirements. It would be best if you considered them before making a choice.
As far as most web developers are concerned, cloud hosting is their go-to choice. The main reason is they can upgrade bandwidth, disc space, or RAM whenever needed. VPS hosting does not provide this option—you get a specified amount of resources.
We suggest you go over our outlined differences to make an informed decision. On the other hand, if you want to centralize the website-building process and host your online project simultaneously, TeleportHQ is the perfect choice for you.
We rely on third-party cloud servers to keep your website running 24/7. It means we can follow the growth of your business and ensure your website is up regardless of the traffic it receives.
If you want to create a new website, TeleportHQ is also perfect for you. You can develop responsive websites with real-time previews and try advanced customization and our technical SEO features. Start today!
Cloud vs VPS: FAQ
The choice between cloud hosting or VPS hosting is debated extensively on the internet. That’s why we selected the most common questions people post online regarding this topic. You can find our answers below.
Cloud hosting vs VPS - Which is better?
Web developers recommend cloud hosting because they can upgrade bandwidth and disc space whenever their website grows. Plus, this hosting type comes with a pay-as-you-go model, which saves money.
Is cloud hosting the same as VPS hosting?
No, cloud hosting is not the same as VPS hosting. The difference is in the infrastructure. VPS hosting has one physical server, divided into numerous smaller servers. The users share the same physical server and gain access to an allocated space.
On the other hand, cloud hosting consists of a network of connected cloud servers. One user leverages those servers to host and store their website.
Is VPS cloud computing?
No, it isn’t. A VPS is hosted on one physical server, whereas a virtual partition stores a cloud server. That is the main difference between VPS hosting and cloud hosting.
Is cloud hosting better?
Cloud hosting comes with numerous benefits, including
- Pay-as-you-go model
- Flexibility
- Reliability
- Security
It is an excellent choice because it leverages multiple servers within the same network to host and protect your website. Cloud hosting works to prevent your website from crashing by calling on other servers when one server fails.
