Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : VPS Hosting : Some VPS Questions

[Golfblogger]

I've got a shared hosting plan with GoDaddy (you can send your sympathies) and am looking for something much faster for my Expression Engine blogs

So I have a few questions:

1) Is VPS (from a reputable host) necessarily faster than a shared hosing plan?

2) What kind of RAM should I be looking for in a VPS service?

3) How much more difficult is it to manage a couple of sites on a VPS system than on a basic hosting type account?

[probonic]

To answer your questions:

1) Not necessarily, no. In my opinion, the main focus of VPS is to increase flexibility rather than speed, i.e. the ability to have root access. On most VPS systems the amount of CPU time you will be able to use may be throttled. It really depends on the system it is running on. With shared hosting, you will potentially be able to use all of the CPU when needed. Very often there is a lot of overheads involved in running VPS's.

2) It all depends on how resource intensive your site is. Very often 64MB is enough for a lot of sites. I know that I have run full CPanel on a 128MB VPS before now.

3) It depends on if you are using the server raw, or with a control panel like CPanel or Plesk. If you aren't, it can be pretty daunting setting up things like mailboxes and configuring settings.

I think the main point is that you should only really move to a VPS if you require more control over your environment. Otherwise, getting a shared account with a reputable company should suffice.

[Yaroslav]

1) No, most cases it would be even a bit slower. Like probonic said, whed using shared hosting you can use full power of the server when needed, and with VPS you're limited with whatever MHz you paid for. (Yes there is 'burst usage' practice, but it works well only if the server isn't too oversold.)

However, if you use intensive scripts - a shared host might kick you out for overloading server and affecting other customers. In case of VPS, you can use 100% allotted CPU all the time - they won't care, it's what you paid for.

2) Again, agree with probonic that it mostly depends on a type of site you're tunning. If you have a live blogging site with many users - I'd advise not to go with minimum package, better start with 256Mb or so.

3) If you have some control panel installed, it's mostly the same, adding a few features. Without it, you have to have some decent Linux knowledge, or you'll go through lotsa pain and end up hiring experts to get you giong.