Private Server Benefits?

[thersey]

We are currently on a shared server with our hosting company. Our hosting company is recommending that we switch to a private server. They are telling us that our website will run faster while there are several customers on our website and we will get more traffic hits. The cost is about $50.00 a month more for this option. Is this worth the cost? Also what are the other benefits to making this change?

[Katt]

$50 more for a private server? That sounds too low... are you sure they didn't say VIRTUAL private server? If they mean virtual, then who knows... I've seen cases where moving to a virtual server improved performance, and other cases where it didn't. The problem with a virtual private server is that you are still sharing the server's hardware with others, you just have your own partition.

Moving to a private server that is in no way shared with anyone can offer great improvements in performance and flexibility. You can do things on a private server that you could never do in a shared environment but I can't imagine it would only cost $50 more than a shared plan.

[thersey]

Yes, they offered the virtual private server for an extra $50.00 a month. They wanted $400.00 for the dedicated server.

[danlefree]

Can't say whether you're getting a deal or not without looking at the specs on what they're offering, but unless you're getting a managed virtual private server, you're in for a pretty big transition over shared hosting.

[kgun]

I think you can get cheaper solutions:

Dedicated Servers, Dedicated Hosting, Affordable Hosting at ServerPronto (http://www.serverpronto.com/)
SERVER4YOU - Reliable Dedicated Servers For Best Prices (http://www.server4you.com/us/index.php)
The first company has been in the business for some time. The second is fairly new to me. I have no relationship with any of the companies.

[chandrika]

The benefits are that you have more control over the settings of the server. So if you site is using alot of databases or whatever you are able to speed things up by allocating different resources where you want them, which you cant do on a shared server.

If your site changes have involved heavy use of database queries that may be why they suggest moving to speed things up, as you can alter how much of the servers ram for example is available for SQL if you have your own server.

I know you can do that on a dedicated server, not sure about VPS though...

[adtastichosting]

I don't know that you have provided enough information to truly qualify/justify whether you actually need to move or not. Some questions would be, how much traffic does the site get now, how database intensive is the site, what type of system is it on now, what type of software does it use, what is the current load statistics and that would be for starters.

Would moving to a virtual dedicated server improve performance? Likely but then too there are many questions you'd need to ask first off would be understanding what your choices of configuration would be and the cost thereof versus a fully dedicated server. IN principle a virtual dedicated is the same as having a dedicated to some extent except you are still on a shared box versus a dedicated box. Meaning- you have root access and more control but that also means you have the potential of higher administrative costs and to oyou are sharing the core with other users on the same box. Having the control brings its own set of issues for example you need to be in charge of your own security, upgrades to your server, upgrades and compilations of your php and on and on. Many of these details are handled for you when you are on shared hosting. But then. shared hosting doesn't give you the ability to easily control if at all the particular php environment and things like that. And too you would have to ask about the type of control panel and system setup and determine what might be best for you based upon your experience or lack of experience. For example, in my opinion, if someone has limited experience they might be better of on a linux box with whm/cpanel since it automates much of the upgrades, makes it easy to recompile and modify your php settings and so forth and so might be better for someone to manage that doesn't have alot of server experience. This is just my opinion.

So first you need to ask yourself- how much traffic do I get, what kind of revenue am I making on my site and is it justifiable to have more control. If you are a small site with small revenue stay on shared hosting. If you are a large site with lots of traffic and large revenue move to dedicated server and pay the difference for managed hosting or hire an IT expert. Where is the line? Not sure where that is but there is aline whereby it becomes much better to move to a dedicated or virtual dedicated server.

$400 a month for a dedicated server surely should be managed hosting. At least, being in the business myself I'd hope so otherwise it isn't really that competitive unless it is a really, really nice server. I won't plug in detail our services here because I just want to offer you a little bit of professional advice to think about from someone in the industry, but lets say we offer managed hosting on a decent dedicated server for about 50 less than that amount and I think our prices are fairly even with the norm.

But for someone doing "ok" now on shared hosting they probably wouldn't need or justify moving to a "top of the line" dedicated server (ie expensive) but MAY benefit from having a dedicated box. So you need to look hard at what you have now, the amount of traffic you have, load times, what the configuration of your back end is (ie databases, shopping cart and so forth) and would having more control over the box, the security the php and so forth give you potential benefit for your bottom line.

Because then comes the expense of moving. And that too could be a tricky proposal, take time and cost money. When it comes down to it, it might be more beneficial to find someone with professional experience that would not be potentially biased and pay them to do an analysis of all of these things to determine what WOULD be best and an estimate of costs, what type of configuration would best serve you, how difficult it would be to move and what you'd need to expect once moved, etc...

These are just my ideas, thoughts, suggestions on the matter, hope it helps.

[claybutler]

A VPS may or may not give better performance. I know when I moved a client's Magento/Typo based site to NEXCESS.NET Web Hosting - Magento Hosting with the Magento SIP (http://www.nexcess.net/magento/) (they call it an SIP but I believe it's based on the concept of a VPS.) I saw a substantial performance gain.

You won't however get more traffic or "hits". That's a separate issue.

Now a private server, well that's an entirely different animal and I don't recommend it for a casual user. It's basically your own server. This usually means you install the OS, the Cpanel, the software...everything. You are also the tech support for the most part. Not for beginners or non-techies. If you go that route you should get a managed server.

I'm using Slicehost - VPS Hosting (http://www.slicehost.com/) for a tech start up where we need full control. But my co-founders are programmers. It's a VPS on steroids and scalable. No way I could handle it myself.

[sanver]

"Private Server" can be VPS or a Dedicated Server. Broadly speaking it will provide:

1. Greater RAM or Memory. This would improve the normal website loading or accessing speed.
2. Administrative rights to the root of the server. This can help the webmaster / developer in exercising greater control over the server environment to suit the development needs of the website

A good Managed Linux VPS can be had for $50-60 per month. A basic knowledge of webservers is always useful, even if you are on a shared server.

[MrGamm]

As far as I know... If your running e-commerce on your server, it's really good option for you. If not just for you, but for the security of your customers.

While I don't know the security policies of a Managed VPS environment verus a shared, I do know that on shared server your sharing space with potentially alot of people running insecure or outdated versions of software. Plus you can whitelist sensitive services, and strip down all the stuff you don't need or want on the server.

I would have said it really didn't matter upto a few weeks ago... but Linux is, whether anybody wants to admit it or not, susceptible to server level breaches...

http://www.bing.com/search?q=Linux+Kernel+vulnerability&filt=all

Supposedly with a VPS environment a server level breach due to one of your neighbors poor security practices just isn't going to wipe out your site. By hardending the machine your on, it reduces the chances of somebody gaining access to the shell where they can run commands and compromise an entire machine. When your sharing space with neighbours, your security is in their hands... if they have a vulnerable piece of software which will allow someone to gain remote access, then your website runs the risk of being compromised.

Please if I am wrong somebody correct me as I really have no idea if a root compromise on a VPS server could spread. It could still be possible, I don't know for sure.

I have had some people tell me that websites will not make particular security standards (PCI compliance) if they share space with others. I'm going VPS and I don't plan on looking back or recommending shared server space for anything that requires commerce.

If you are concerned about performance... I would say that a VPS might do that, but you should also be worried about what could happen to your brand if your site goes down for a day or two while people recover a machine from back up...

[dyimonkey]

Their price for VPS sounds a bit high. If you are going to move the site anyway, maybe now is the good time to look for another hosting.

[aliceandmosee056]

There are various benefits of private server because you have more control on the settings. You can easily speed your website even if you have a lot of things on it.

[masyk]

Benefits:
1. Security (no hacker will be able to buy space on the same server as you to gain access to your website.)
2. Uptime (the will be no one else on your server to shut it down because of scripts errors caused by other clients or over hyped website on the same server)
3. Speed (You can use custom enhanced server software such as nginx, own C+ servers, custom DB to make everything faster)

[greetea]

When it comes to web hosting, having a private or dedicated server can be a costly affair. The high cost stems directly from the fact that the resources of the server are only available to you. However, if you need additional security for your website, a private server can fit the bill well. Note when going in for a private server, make sure you have the necessary skills to maintain and use it.

[feedmyfish]

VPS allows for more traffic and easy to up scale your site, if you expect it to grow fast.

[feedmyfish]

shared hosting puts you at the risk of server overload caused by other websites. If you have a VPS, you will avoid this.

[feedmyfish]

I have a shared host and due to a hacker getting into my site and causing the server to overload, my site got pulled offline without any notice. I wasn't very happy but can understand why they did it. If they didnt do this, then everybody else's site would be at risk of shutdown.

[cocowoo]

first you need to ask yourself- how much traffic do I get, what kind of revenue am I making on my site and is it justifiable to have more control.

[marklowren]

With dedicated server you will get totla control, but ask yourself at the beginning are you ready to spend $400 for it?!