5 Major Differences between VPS and Cloud Hosting That You Should Know

Congratulations! Your website is ready, but what about hosting? The number of hosting options, hosting providers, pricing plans and technical jargon makes it difficult to choose the right hosting for your business. Many companies tend to think that VPS and cloud hosting are literally the same and are terms used interchangeably. Unfortunately, that is not the case. There is a fine line between VPS and cloud and the lines keep on blurring, making it tough for businesses to differentiate the two.

To clear the confusion, we compare the two side by side in this article and tell you the major differences that set VPS and private cloud apart.

Price

The first thing you will notice when comparing VPS and cloud hosting side by side is that VPS is more expensive. There is a reason for that. VPS hosting is geared towards websites with advanced needs. It packs more power and is capable of handling complex web needs and applications.

On the other hand, cloud hosting is usually targeted towards small businesses with basic needs, so if you need high performance and are ready to pay extra for it. Cloud hosting might not be a good option for you. Both VPS and cloud hosting have different target audiences, which is why there is a difference in price.

Scalability

The days when you can survive with a static solution are long gone. Today, businesses need to adapt quickly; thus, they need scalable and dynamic solutions that grow with their business needs. When it comes to scalability, the cloud is a clear winner.

When you opt for VPS hosting, you have to choose how much memory and processing power you need in advance and pay a fixed fee for that. There is less room for expandability. When you want to upgrade in a VPS environment, you will either have to change your plan or buy something else. In both cases, you will have to pay more. Even if you choose one of those custom solutions, your monthly bill will still be fixed.

Meanwhile, cloud providers offer businesses control panels, which enable businesses to acquire the resources they need and only pay for what they use. Businesses can easily scale up and down their resources based on their business needs with a cloud. For instance, an e-commerce business can acquire more resources in real-time before Black Friday or Cyber Monday to cater to a sudden surge in traffic. Unfortunately, VPS does not offer its users this option.

Server Setup

A virtual private server is a physical server that is shared between multiple, just like shared hosting. It takes advantage of virtualization to split the server into different parts. Yes, VPS servers have fewer users sharing the same server than shared hosting, which also provides each user their own space and more control over a section of the server.

On the contrary, a private cloud uses resources spread over multiple physical servers. Even though users might see it as a single server, but multiple servers are running in the background. The transition from one server to another is smooth, thanks to the redundancy. It prevents the risk of data loss or corruption in case of hardware failure or any other issue. In short, the server setup process is completely different in both the VPS and cloud.

Virtualization and Root Access

Most VPS servers are virtualized across many different machines. Unlike traditional hardware, VPS servers use virtualization, so if you are trying to find a physical port ID such as Ethernet port ID, you won’t find it. Cloud takes this to a whole new level with a network of servers spread around the globe.

In a cloud environment, your data is stored on multiple servers located in different locations around the world. This makes it less prone to cyber attacks and data loss, making it much more secure. Additionally, cloud providers ensure that your data is backed up. They create mirrored copies of your data so you don’t end up losing all your data if a disaster strikes. Virtual private servers do not offer all these perks to its users.

Location

Another major difference between a VPS and cloud is the location of the hardware. In most cases, a VPS is hosted at a third-party web hosting provider while a private cloud is hosted in your data center on-premise. With cloud using dedicated hardware made for this purpose, you will get better performance with a cloud. A Virtual Private Server uses shared resources from a third-party hosting provider which can negatively impact performance, especially if the hosting provider is experiencing a heavy load.

Which one do you choose, VPS or cloud? Feel free to share it with us in the comments section below.