Anyone who’s looked into creating a website has probably come across VPS hosting. Depending on the kind of site you want to develop, VPS (virtual private server) is either a good choice or a poor one. VPS is better suited to business websites than to smaller or personal websites.

However, this doesn’t mean that you should immediately choose a VPS hosting system for setting up your business website. Before you do that you need to understand what VPS can offer you in terms of advantages. You’ll also need to have a clear understanding of what disadvantages come with VPS hosting before you can make a truly informed decision.

Pro: Affordable

While not as cheap as shared hosting, VPS hosting is still quite affordable compared to colocation or dedicated hosting. VPS hosting does get you more resources than shared hosting does, making it worth the extra cash. You’ll need to decide whether your business requires the extra resources. A good way to figure this out is estimating the average traffic to your site. The more traffic your website enjoys, more resources it’ll need.

Con: Limited Support

While you will have access to customer support with VPS hosting, it likely won’t be around the clock access. That is really going to suck should your website go down at 2:00 AM and you can’t figure out why. 24/7 customer support is a premium feature. You’re more likely to find it with the more expensive hosting plans. If you’re running a smaller business and the website is only a secondary aspect, limited support might work fine. Contrary to this, if your business depends on your website – you will need around the clock customer support.

Pro: Upgrades and Scalability

Perhaps some of the most beneficial things about VPS hosting is that it offers you easy access to upgrades and room for potential growth. If your website starts to experience an increased amount of traffic, it’s easy enough to upgrade your setup. Scaling up your website as required is quite easy with VPS hosting.

Con: Server Maintenance

Unless you’re familiar with servers, you might find yourself in the deep end when it comes to server maintenance. With VPS hosting you’re going to be responsible for things like updates and patches.
This won’t be nearly as technical as it will be with dedicated hosting, but it’s still more than you would have to do if you went with a shared service. While you will have customer support for help, you’ll need to do most of the brunt work yourself. Or you could hire someone to help you maintain your servers. Either way – it’s an extra time/effort/financial cost to you.

Pro: Improved Security

Most VPS hosting services boast of impressive security measures. Companies that provide VPS hosting ensure that your servers are safe from most kinds of attack. If you website collects and stores any kind of data – security is of paramount importance. Businesses like ecommerce website or a hosted SAAS application need to have top notch security!