The key difference between VPS and Cloud Hosting is important to understand, especially if you’re searching to host your website or application but don’t clearly understand which one to choose as a beginner.

So, in this blog, we will explore the key differences and the importance of the two types of hosting: VPS and Cloud Hosting. This will help you choose the option that best fits your current requirements.

Let’s dive into it.

What is a VPS?

A VPS means virtual private server, which represents a virtual compartment fully dedicated to a user by separating the entire physical server. Unlike shared hosting, which shares the same resources with other users, VPS doesn’t share its resources, such as CPU, RAM, Storage, and Bandwidth, with other users in the same physical server. People sometimes refer to VPS as the “private cloud.”

How does VPS hosting work?

The technology behind VPS is called Virtualization technology, which runs on software called Hypervisor that helps divide the physical server into tiny compartments, and the resources for those compartments remain fully dedicated to that particular compartment. Therefore, the user can access the VPS servers as root (admin) to install the required OS and software, and perform customization according to the website’s needs. Thereby, the VPS server maintains stable performance and provides much more security than shared hosting.

Can we scale the resources if our website grows?

Yes, VPS is especially useful for beginners to host their website, and eventually, if the website attracts more traffic, the resources of the VPS can be increased, which allows us to maintain low investment at the beginning, and later, we can upgrade the plan or increase the resources individually. For example, we can purchase a VPS with very low resources (Example: 1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU) for a low amount, and when the traffic increases gradually, we can upgrade the plan to (Example: 2GB RAM, 2 vCPU), etc. Additionally, we can increase bandwidth and storage accordingly.

What about the cost and security of a VPS?

VPS hosting creates an individual environment that significantly minimizes the risk of local breaches from other websites and allows more advanced security parameters. It is not just affordable but delivers some dedicated server-like performance at a fraction of the cost that small and medium businesses can afford. It comes with monthly or annual plans.

What is cloud hosting?

Speaking about Cloud hosting, it completely differs from the traditional way of hosting websites, where VPS operates on a single physical server in a data center, while Cloud hosting runs on a network of virtual servers spanning diverse geographical locations. Since the resources used by cloud hosting draw from a pool of resources, the scalability of cloud hosting remains flexible, which means the cloud hosting provider can allocate a few or more resources as needed.

Why do we consider Cloud hosting?

The flexibility of cloud hosting offers freedom that users can experience, as it enables the use of appropriate solutions that any situation requires by instantly provisioning parameters of the virtual machine across the network.

What about the cost and security of cloud hosting?

Cloud hosting primarily operates on a pay-as-you-go model, which serves as an easy solution for all types of websites or applications, meaning that costs can also scale up or down depending on usage. In contrast, VPS typically operates on a monthly or annual flat fee. Cloud hosting equips physical and virtual security for its servers, protecting websites from malicious attacks. Its security layers include firewalls, identity management and access control, Secure Sockets Layers (SSL) for transmitting data, and more.

Conclusion

We’ve discussed the key differences between VPS and Cloud Hosting in this blog, and we will update a new blog with the key differences of Dedicated and collocation servers.

Finally, if you have a VPS/Cloud or are looking to buy one, Nixtree and its team stand ready to help you with server hardening, customization, monitoring, etc. Even for other services, you can contact us as well.