Virtual Hosting Server Reviews
The virtual server hosting service is well on its way to becoming the most widely used and popular web hosting service today. It is indeed a great service which offers a huge variety of possibilities to the web hosting user. In this article, we'll discuss the advantages of the VPS hosting service, over the shared web hosting, and also the virtual server offers of some of the most popular and experienced web hosting providers. First, let's have a brief look at
What the VPS actually is
VPS stands for Virtual Private Server, which, as the name suggests, is a virtual machine, set up to be used as a web server. VPSes are created by using specific software, which divides the physical server into multiple partitions. Each partition is assigned a certain amounts of the server's features, such as disk space, CPU percentage, RAM and network capacity. Then, a separate operating system is installed on each partition, making them completely independent from one another. The result is a form of a virtual machine, which imitates the capabilities of an actual dedicated hosting server and although it is not 100% private, since there are multiple virtual servers on the same physical machine, it does provide the most important features of a fully dedicated machine, such as the completely dedicated hosting features and the full root access.
Virtual servers versus shared hosting
The main difference between the shared hosting and the virtual servers, is the independency of the hosting features. With both services, you will share one web server with multiple other users, however, while the shared accounts are dependent from one another, the VPS offers much more privacy and by that- greater security and performance. For an example, the shared hosting accounts may actually exceed their CPU usage limitation, so if one account generates too much CPU load, it will start taking from the CPU which is reserved for other accounts. That will, of course, affect the performance of the other shared hosting accounts and may lead to the eventual overloading of the web server itself. In such cases, the web hosting companies suspend the problematic account, which causes downtime for the web site that's being hosted on it. The virtual servers cannot exceed their web hosting features, meaning that if one VPS is assigned 20% of the server's CPU, then it may only use up to 20% and cannot use 21% for instance. When it reaches its CPU limit, the VPS will eventually re-boot itself, as it was an actual computer whose processor is overheating. Since the CPU limit cannot be exceeded, one VPS cannot put the other VPS accounts that are on the same server, at risk. Another important difference is the root access which the VPS offers. Since each VPS has its own operating system, the VPS user is actually free to modify and alter the virtual server's system files and settings, without that affecting any of the other VPS accounts. This ability is also referred as "root" access, since basically the user has access to the root directories and files of the web server. Having root access opens huge possibilities for improving the overall performance and functionality of your web site. The root user may not only change crucial system settings, but can also install additional software, which may be required by the website itself. Shared hosting accounts, on the other hand, do not offer such access, therefore, the shared hosting users can only work with the settings that the company's system administrator has set on the server. Usually, shared hosting servers are set in the most prudent manner, which ensures maximum server stability, considering the fact that there are many users who depend on those settings. Therefore, user requests for system configuration changes, are usually turned down by the company's support team, since such changes may bring the whole server down, affecting all the users that are hosted on it. These are the two main differences between the VPS hosting and the shared hosting services. Of course, there are many other smaller differences, however these two are the most important ones and best cover the main point- that the VPS service is far more technologically advanced, flexible, secure and efficient, than the shared web hosting. In addition, contrary to the popular belief, virtual servers are almost the same price as shared hosting accounts. For an amount of 15 USD to 25 USD a month, one can get a pretty good VPS service and benefit from all the features that the virtual private system offers. And before we move to the VPS offers review, let's have a quick look at
What should one look for in a VPS hosting plan
VPS packages have several main characteristics- disk space, monthly traffic, guaranteed RAM, CPU share and operating system. It is important to know that, when it comes to web hosting, there can be no unlimited amounts of monthly traffic and disk space in particular. It is a common practice amount web hosting providers, to oversell their shared hosting services, offering "unlimited" disk space and bandwidth features on them. You can imagine how that's not in any way possible, since unlimited disk space requires an unlimited number of hard drives and even if you have all the hard drives in the world, you still cannot offer unlimited disk space. But, even though reselling is quite harmless on shared hosting accounts, it is absolutely unacceptable when it comes to private servers. Therefore, if you see a VPS hosting package, which offers an unlimited amount of disk space and monthly traffic, then you can simply mark it as scam and move on to the next hosting provider. The characteristic of a virtual private server should be as they really are, therefore, don't think that a shared hosting accounts is better than a VPS, just because the shared service offers 1TB of disk space, while the VPS offers 40GB- the feature for the shared account is simply unrealistic. That being said, let's move to the operating system. There are two mainstreams, when it comes to web hosting- Linux based servers and Windows based servers. Unlike their PC versions, however, Linux is the preferred OS when it comes to web servers, simply because its open-sourced core allows for better security and overall server performance. Moreover, some of the most widely used scripting languages and database types, such as the PHP and the MySQL, are specifically optimized for Linux servers and therefore - work better when hosted on such. There are several Linux based operating systems, used on web servers. The most popular types are CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu and Fedora. Now, if you are a programmer, or a system administrator, then you will know which Linux distribution will best suit your programming needs. However, if you're a common user, simply go with the default option which is set by the web hosting company. Another thing to look for, in a VPS package, is the price. It is always recommended not to go with the cheapest plan possible, or with the most expensive one, for that matter. When choosing a hosting plan, no matter if it's shared or private hosting, simply follow the rule of the Buddhists and search for the balance. Note that the price for a VPS plan should not be higher than a 100 USD, since for that amount you can easily get a fully dedicated server. Now, when we have an idea of what to look and not look for, in a VPS plan, let's move on to reviewing the offers of some of the most experienced web hosting providers. In this section, we will see the difference between how different companies arrange their offers, depending on what their marketing policy is. I want to point out that this review does not have any commercial intensions, therefore, if I express an opinion on something, note that this is just my personal opinion.
Reviewing the Virtual Private Server offers
For this section, I have chosen three of the biggest web hosting companies- HostGator.com, GoDaddy.com and NTCHosting.com. I have chosen these three, because they all differ from one another in terms of how they arrange their plans, therefore will be a good example of what the marketing policies of the different providers are. Let's start with the
VPS packages of HostGator.com
First of all, I should say that I like HostGator's website. It's simple, small, easy to get around and doesn't contain huge sections of pointless images and useless information. For me that matters. Now, to the point. The first thing that we see, on the VPS hosting section of the site, are the 9 different VPS plans that are available for purchase. It is always good to offer a variety of services that the users can choose from, however, when we get to plans 6, 7, 8 and 9, things become rather exaggerated. As I mentioned, it is quite pointless in purchasing a VPS service for more than 100 USD, since for such money you can easily purchase an actual, physical, dedicated server. Therefore, offering VPS packages at such rates may only confuse the user into making a very unnecessary purchase. The features of the VPS appear to be pretty standard, which is good. After the hosting features, comes the control panel selection. Now, with package 1 and 2, only the Virtuozzo panel appears to be available. This part is a little sketchy, since nowhere it is mentioned that the Virtuozzo is not actually a web hosting control panel. It is used for managing the VPS container itself, or in other words, you can start/restart/stop/update the VPS, but you cannot actually manage features such as e-mails, FTP accounts, databases etc.. Quite simply, the first 2 plans come without a web hosting control panel, however, this section can easily mislead an inexperienced user, who might not be familiar with what the Virtuozzo actually does. In addition, each VPS comes with 2 dedicated IP addresses, which absolutely unnecessary for the first two plans. When a control panel is installed on the server, it is important for it to have its own dedicated IP, however, when the VPs package itself does not support a web hosting control panel, then having one additional IP is an unnecessary appreciation of the hosting package. The additional VPS features, such as unlimited hosted domains, e-mails, etc. are pretty standard and don't deserve any special attention.
VPS Packages of GoDaddy.com
Looking at GoDaddy's website, we see lots of pictures and information, which makes finding your way around it, quite difficult for the novice user. It's great that Danica Patrick is a GoDaddy girl however, her place really isn't on the home page of a company that's trying to get people to sign up online. In any case, once we get to the VPS packages, we see that there are five different plans, with a price of 29,99 USD/month for the cheapest one. The packages indeed seem quite reasonable. There aren't any unlimited disk space and monthly traffic parameters and if you pre-pay for two years, you get a 20% discount per month. Again, we see a completely unnecessary VPS package that has a price over a hundred USD. It is a mystery to me, how serious web hosting providers can actually offer such a service. The Ultimate package, if paid monthly, is 149,99 USD/month. On the other hand, GoDaddy have a dedicated server offer that has the exact same price, therefore, why going with the replica of a dedicated server, when you can get the actual server for the same price? Moving on to the other VPS features. The operating systems that GoDaddy offer, for the private server packages, are two Linux distributions, CentOS and Fedora, and one Windows OS. No remarks here, as both CentOS and Fedora are popular and useful Linux distributions. Windows servers are actually not that popular among server administrators, however, it's always good to have a bit of diversity in the service. The free bonuses, offered with their packages, are also quite tempting. However, there is one But. If you actually look beneath the hosting features, you notice a shaded text, which basically tells you that the free bonuses have certain conditions. For instance SSL certificates are free only for the first only for the initial hosting plan term purchased, after which it will automatically renew at the then-current rate. The 24/7 technical support over the phone looks great at first sight, however, when it comes to virtual servers, most of the problems require an administrator to look into the issue and I haven't yet come across a company where I can speak with an administrator over the phone. Moreover, the VPS plans that GoDaddy offer, just as in most VSP plans on the web, come without a VPS management service, meaning that the hosting company will only provide support for issues, related to the actual web server. For instance, if you have a problem installing a certain software on your VPS and you call GoDaddy for help, they will tell you that you will have to purchase an additional VPS Management package. Now, not providing VPS Management support, is a common practice among web hosting companies, however this is something that should mentioned on the site, so that beginner users do not get the wrong idea. To sum things up, GoDaddy is one of the biggest hosting providers in the world and their service is bound to be reliable. However, the unprofessional website look and shady service terms, for which you have to look at "the small lines beneath the text" is not a sign for an honest business relationship possibility.
VPS packages of NTCHosting.com
At first glimpse, the site of NTCHosting.com, looks a lot like the one of GoDaddy, in terms of being overcrowded and a bit hard to get around with. However, when we get to the place where the VPS packages are listed, we see a completely different thing. We see three VPS packages, with balanced features, prices that do not go over 100 USD/month and a complete, detailed list of the features that each VPS hosting plan offers. On the top, above the packages list, we see a brief explanation of what the VPS is and what it has to offer and beneath all the packages, we see a list of services, which can be purchased in addition to the VPS plans, as well as information about the parameters of the actual server, which will host the VPS account. The VPS offers section of the site is indeed very well arranged and if it wasn't for the chaotic Index page, I would give it a straight A+. Now, to the criticism. Nowhere on the features list, is it mentioned how much CPU usage you actually get with each plan. Inside the Terms of Service, it is actually said that there isn't a certain CPU limitation and that clients should be judicious when suing the CPU power of the server. Now, this would basically mean that the CPU limitation of each account is around 25 and 40 percent, however, the fact that there is no certain limitation is not a very good sign. Apart from that, the services look indeed very well. Unlike most web hosting companies, NTCHosting.com have developed their, in-house build, control panel called Hepsia, which they offer for free with all of their hosting services, including the VPS. The other two control panel options that they have are DirectAdmin, which is again free, and cPanel which costs extra. No bad thing is that nowhere on the site, is it mentioned that control panel has to be selected on the order page and that if you do not specify that you wish to have cPanel, the Hepsia will be automatically applied to the VPS. Back to the features list, we see a couple of bonuses that are available with the VPS plans of NTCHosting.com . The first one is a free Enom reseller account and the second one is a free ClientExec installation, which however, is only available with the "Expert" hosting plan. Nevertheless, the fact that the ClientExec does not come with the other plans, is actually mentioned on the site and I wasn't really able to find any restrictions as to in what cases is the user liable to a free Enom account. This, along with the custom-built, free control panel, the reasonable features and prices and the fact that they are one of the most experienced companies available today, make the offers of NTCHosting.com pretty attractive. However, the chaotic home page and the lack of a specific CPU usage limitation, really create doubtful thoughts.
Data center location
Of the three web hosting providers, discussed above, only NTCHosting.com and GoDaddy actually have multiple server locations and this is not something that has to be taken lightly. Indeed, the connectivity rate to each server depends mainly on the local connection of the visitor and there is no serious web hosting company that will have their servers with anything less than the most modern server network cards. However, it is always better to have your hosting service in a location that's closest to the visitor group that you're going to target. For instance, if you live in Europe, but expect your site to be visited mainly by US users, then you should have your server located somewhere in the United States, in order to ensure a reduced loading time for your site. It is a known fact that having to wait for a webpage to load, is one of the most annoying things in the world, therefore, by selecting a server location that's as close as possible to your targeted visitors group, you avoid the risk of losing visitors because of high website loading time.
Summary and conclusion
Choosing a web hosting company is something that requires a certain amount of research time. Going with a big and experienced web hosting company is always a good thing, however, as we can see above, there are always differences in the services. Therefore, before signing up with any company, one should first have a good idea of how his website will look like, what its requirements will be and which geographical location is it going to target. Then, one should consider all the features that the different companies have to offer and go with the provider whose features will suit the website best. If this is to be taken lightly, then you risk on not only losing your invested time and money, but to also lose website visitors. And since now, the website competition all over the web is at its highest peak ever, one cannot afford to be left behind because of some technical difficulties, caused by overlooking a hosting feature that looked minor at the time. Sometimes, the smallest thing makes the biggest difference.