As a web designer whose business is steadily growing, you are probably wondering when the right time to make the switch from shared hosting to VPS is. Well, if it’s any consolation, you are not alone. Many designers, even the best ones, were in the same position as you. Knowing when to leap is not easy – given there are lots of aspects at stake.
To help clear your doubts, here are six times when its right to upgrade from shared hosting to VPS for designers:
When you get a high amount of traffic
More traffic translates to more business, which is a good thing. However, this can also spell disaster when your site is no shape to hold all those visitors because of its host. A good idea, therefore, is to consider upgrading your hosting from shared to VPS as soon as you realize you have more traffic. Don’t wait until the issue gets out of hand first, because this will only mean missing out on potential clients.
E-commerce website
If you are planning to take the client’s financial information online – or to sell your solutions online, then it’s highly recommended to move from shared hosting to VPS, because of security reasons. VPS option gives you better security, reliability, performance and uptime. As you realize, all these elements are critical not just for your business’ reputation, but customer satisfaction too.
When security is paramount
Shared hosting servers are safe and secure. But since you share resources with other webmasters, there is the likelihood of security breaches to occur. VPS hosting negates that loophole because, in addition to its in-built security features, it also allows you to integrate firewalls, execute extra security restrictions, and rules to make it more secure.
If you want a dedicated IP
With some webhosts, in a shared hosting setup, you have several other sites sharing the same IP as your site. But a VPS server allows you to have one, or more, dedicated IP addresses. This will not only give you more security, but it will also help you with SEO and ranking since other customers’ abusive activities will not affect you.
Customization
A shared hosting plan usually does not allow you to add more resources like CPU or RAM (you have a maximum that you can use). This becomes an inconvenience, limiting when you have an application that requires more resources. In such a case, shifting to a VPS platform will allow you to resolve the restrictions. VPS provides an incredible range of customization options, including control panels, operating systems, hard disk space, amount of RAM and so on. And the best part is, you have the freedom to upgrade or downgrade the resources as you please.
If you are planning to host other websites
A VPS server allows you to include a number of sites – which is a good idea if you have more than one website under your name. If you are considering hosting other clients’ websites, then you may want to go for a dedicated server.
Now is the time
There’s no time like the present to make the move from shared hosting to VPS – particularly given the fact that most hosts have moved to SSD hardware, making VPS’s faster than ever – giving your site the performance boost it needs.