Is Getting Cheap VPS Hosting Service a Good Idea?

image of a three bar image for the table of contents on bloggingtips.com posts

Table of Contents

Our website is supported by our users. We sometimes earn affiliate links when you click through the affiliate links on our website

Contact us for Questions

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]There are a few different ways to get your website up on the internet for very little money. You can try to go with free hosting, which has a number of potential problems. Free hosting can cause headaches ranging from the realization that the other company now owns your content to the realization that they’ve randomly deleted your website to free up extra server space. Beyond free hosting you basically have shared hosting and cheap VPS plans. Shared hosting will generally be the cheapest and quickest way to get your website up on the internet.

But still, there’s this odd zone where the price points of VPS and shared hosting crossover. Some shared hosting plans can cost more than some VPS plans. While in general shared hosting is cheaper, there are higher amounts of shared data that can cost more than certain amounts of VPS data.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”Data vs. Method”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Contents

Data vs. Method

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Which, of course, begs one of the most critical questions in hosting. At what point does the difference between available resources and method of hosting make the biggest difference? There are a number of different methods of web hosting out there. And in general, those methods don’t mean as much as the amount of resources available to your site. If you get three times the amount of resources in one solution over another, for the most part, that’s the better web hosting solution. 

But there are situations where someone would want a specific solution, like if you really need the highest customization, reliability, or security. At these gray areas that normal balance of data versus hosting method can break down.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”Is Cheap VPS Hosting a Good Idea?”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Is Cheap VPS Hosting a Good Idea?

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Shared hosting has a few key issues. At the lowest plans, you don’t get that many resources. You also face security issues from the other websites that live on the same server with you. There isn’t a lot of scalability available, and the single server gives you less reliability than many other hosting options (although still reliable enough for a lot of purposes). 

Also, to be honest, most hosting companies expect that if you’re paying for only shared hosting then you aren’t really too concerned with the backend of the website. You’re probably interested in some basic backend management and a lot of security and email servers. If this is what you’re going for, then a shared hosting program is probably a more cost effecient way of deriving more power than cheap VPS hosting plans.

 

But if customization and power are really important to you, then you might be willing to take a little less data and speed on the frontend of the website in order to get the coveted virtual private server environment. If you don’t know what you’d do with a virtual private server, then you probably don’t need one. But if you want the customizable software installations and your choice of OS, then a virtual private server might be essential.

Is there an issue with getting cheap VPS hosting? Probably not, as long as you trust the company involved. For the same reason that free hosting can be a rip off, you should look twice at VPS hosting that is offered for pennies on the dollar. But if you’re paying $5 a month for VPS hosting, this is probably a cheap yet legimitate way to get your hands on a limited virtual private server.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”Other Solutions”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Other Solutions

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]If you’re looking for “cheap VPS hosting” then it seems that the cost is the main issue that you’re considering with the website. If that’s the case, then VPS hosting may not be the right solution for your. After all, VPS hosting is a great solution for people who need the kind of security and specs of a dedicated server with less resources and significantly less cost. But it isn’t optimized as the cheapest hosting solution, in many cases. There are a few other things you can consider if cost is the main issue for you.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Free Hosting

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]This is probably a bad idea. While there are some sites that will set you up with legitimate free hosting plans, you should be as skeptical of free internet resources in the same way that you’re skeptical of items sitting in someone’s yard with a sign that says “free.” There’s probably a catch. In the case of free hosting, the catch is probably the fact that you only get the site free for a limited time and it will cost more money than other paid hosting sites by the time you get around to paying. If your free trial times out and you want to prevent your website from getting locked behind the paywall, there probably isn’t a good way to transfer the data. In some cases, you don’t even own the data in a free hosting environment![/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Cheap Shared Hosting

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]This is probably your best bet for cheap hosting options. Shared hosting systems are generally the cheapest way to splash information up on the internet without paying a lot. Of course, you get limited access to the management of the data. And shared hosting has the lowest level of security and resources. But if cost is your primary concern, it realy can’t be beat.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Cheap Cloud Hosting

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Cloud hosting is getting cheaper and cheaper, as it’s easy to produce an environment with a massive amount of resources and then slash that environment into a number of virtual private servers. The great perk of cloud hosting in this case is that it is built for scaling. If you start with a cheap website and then your website starts growing and turning a profit, you can easily pay for more data without changing plans or hosts, or migrating any data.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”Final Advice”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Final Advice

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Cheap VPS hosting is probably not a bad idea. But it will also probably be more expensive than a cheap shared hosting solution will be, and you’ll have to ask yourself if you really need the slight increase in security and customization that will be provided for you if you go with VPS. For many users, these perks will not outweigh the cost-savings of simply going for a shared hosting plan.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]