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[starsearcher]

VPS versus Reseller Hosting

Mentioned the 3-letter words, VPS, it carves a smile to certain people. Why? Because it resembles a dedicated server. This is particularly a cheerful news for those folks who wish to own a dedicated server but cannot afford to do so. Basically, as most of you would have known by now, VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. The physical server is separated into a few partition and these partitions are the VPS-es. It gives you the feeling of having a stand-alone server when you purchase the hosting spaces. You are isolated from your neighbours and barely know each other although under the same roof.

What about reseller hosting? I'd define reseller hosting as an account in shared server environment. Simple as that, almost the same as shared hosting. But the difference between reseller hosting and shared hosting is that with reseller hosting, you can create multiple accounts of shared hosting. So, to choose VPS or reseller hosting? This is a big question for almost everyone because it's kind of confusing as there are pros and cons to every decision that you make. Let's just analyse some of the features of VPS and reseller hosting, hopefully will make your hosting decision not much of a headache.

VPS - A solution for dedicated server

VPS offers you the features of dedicated server but it's more to a dedicated server being shared by a few other tenants. I know what you are thinking now. But bear in mind that I mentioned "a few" other tenants. Which means, it is not shared by as many other websites as a shared hosting in a physical server. A reliable hosting provider will have the maximum amount of tenants in a physical server to a certain degree so that the resources of the server can fully support the minimum resources allocated for every client. The most precious feature of VPS would be the root access. Every client will be provided a root access, hence, you can install anything that you like from softwares to Operating System so long it has proper licenses.

This means you have the ability to install software which your provider doesn't even have or provide to its other existing shared hosting or reseller hosting clients. Those who long for a peace of mind, will be happy to have owned a VPS because with VPS you are isolated from other clients' VPS-es and regardless of how heavy their traffic is, it won't affect your website. In addition, everyone is provided with a certain amount of CPU usage , RAM usage and bandwidth usage. Although their traffic has drained the amount of bandwidth, it will be the bandwidth allocated to them and has got nothing to do with you although they are your neighbours in the same server.

The above features of VPS seem tempting but do remember that you have to do all the installation yourself. You need to know a bit of server maintenance knowledge and also software-related stuffs. Although you can always refer your problem to your hosting provider, I believe you will be charged with an amount of fees.


Reseller Hosting - Ease your life!

Does reseller hosting offer you a better solution? Well, it depends on people. If you are a person who wants freedom of this and that, you might not be able to survive under reseller hosting. Reseller hosting is good in the sense that it's more organized as everything is setup for you by your hosting provider. You are given the WHM (Web Host Manager) and with WHM you can customize the hosting plans (webspace, bandwidth and etc.) for your resold accounts. A resold account is just like any other shared hosting account, with a cPanel as its control panel under Linux platform. You can sell your resold accounts at your own price and some hosting providers offer the private label reseller plan(meaning you can have your own brand name, thus having your own nameservers). In other words, your resold clients will only know you as their hosting provider and won't figure out you are reselling unless you tell them when they ask you. With reseller hosting, you are bound to what the hosting provider offers you, especially the softwares and applications. Hence, like I've mentioned in the first sentence, reseller hosting might not suit you if you want freedom.

However, it's useful if clients do not mind what the hosting providers offer them particularly in terms of applications. Imagine you don't have to get yourself in with all the fuss of installing and configuring this and that. All you do is via the control panel provided to you, then you can start reselling already. In my opinion, reseller hosting is never a bad option and would still be a competitive option towards VPS. It is indeed reliable and useful when you think of the user-friendliness it provides to those who are not so familiar with hosting related stuff.

In general, it is widely speculated that in near future, VPS might take over the role of Reseller Hosting, but truth is yet to be known. Let those hosting fans decide for themselves which one holds to be a better option.

[Archbob]

VPS is much more expensive than usuall reseller hosting. I don't see VPS taking over reseller hosting anytime soon.

[Atarim]

There are lots of flavors of VPS, including small packages that are quite comparable in price to reseller packages.

[eddy2099]

Well, it really depends on what your needs are. For most people, the reseller's account should be sufficient but if you need control or trying to learn to get on to a dedicated server without the cost, the VPS can be a great way to go.

I don't see the VPS taking over the reseller's account anytime soon. One main issue is that a reseller's account is most likely fully managed but with a VPS, you need to be at least fluent with server management and not be afraid to enter the realm of SSH.

How much CPU load or RAM a reseller account can handle depends on how much free resources is left so on a lightly loaded server, you could almost use the full resources of the dedicated server. However with a VPS (if it is not oversold), you only get up to the resources of what you are provided and usually not more.

Some sites may be best suited on a dedicated server and thus a lightly loaded reseller account may be able to handle that but probably may not really work well on a smallish VPS.

[podja]

I have had a reseller for a while and just upgraded to VPS and it seems a lot better! You have much more control over your hosting.

As I have had some errors, my VPS provider happily fixed them, or explained to me how to fix them which is really good. However I dont know how long he will fix it for me, as I bought unmanaged.

Good article,
Jack

[cyberdog]

Originally Posted by Archbob

VPS is much more expensive than usuall reseller hosting. I don't see VPS taking over reseller hosting anytime soon.

While this is true and there are a lot of people getting reseller accounts for personal use or dreams of making quick .com bucks the people who are serious about hosting usually start of with a VPS for the root access, better isolation, branding and reseller account features of a VPS. VPSs are great and it can be much more profitable to sell VPSs than reseller hosting.

[jonwatson]

I don't see how a VPS and a Reseller Account can be compared. VPS is a server configuration and Reseller is a management function offered by a provider.

A Reseller Account with cPanel/WHM (and presumably any other control panel that supports reseller modes) can operate just as easily on a VPS as it can on a dedicated server or on a shared web hosting account.

Further, many companies offer VPS and Dedicated Server reselling programs that have nothing to do with control panels. On the other hand, a VPS or Dedicated Server or Shared web hosting doesn't have to be used to resell.

A more logical comparison would be something like "Reselling web space in a VPS vice a shared hosting environment" or something. That would be apples to apples. Comparing a server configuration to a management application is comparing apples to cars.

[Fudevs]

Originally Posted by Archbob

VPS is much more expensive than usuall reseller hosting. I don't see VPS taking over reseller hosting anytime soon.

Sometimes Resllers was more expensive than the VPS .. depend on the features and the server Technical specifications

[rl421403]

i dont think it is that simple... i mean ppl prefer VPS coz its fast and reliable but ofcourse at high price.

[mike519]

If static IP is too expensive in your country, VPS may not fit to you.

[cyberdog]

Originally Posted by rl421403

i dont think it is that simple... i mean ppl prefer VPS coz its fast and reliable but ofcourse at high price.

Much less than a dedicated server with the same benefits and if you own the host node you can get a lot more bang for your buck ;-)

[dogonit]

I am looking for a solution that offer separate class c ip's for seo purposes. I guess a vps is the only way. The resellers I talk to never offer separate class c's (due to size?).

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

[lnxcode]

dogonit,

You will need to ask a provider that actually owns the C Class's that way they can give you a direct allocation so you will have fully rights over the C Class's.

Most resellers wont be able to get anywhere near that allocation (normally). The VPS is the best way to go in this direction.... you can resell from a VPS too...

[r2d3m]

Ok, I have a question.

If I want to host multiple sites for myself, should I go with a Reseller Plan or VPS? I would be splitting the disk space and bandwidth that I have to each of my domains.

[jonwatson]

A reseller plan should do you well. Taking on a VPS is only worth it if you:

1. Are running sites that take alot of resources (like heavy forums, for example), or
2. You need root access to the server (you'll know if you need root access).

If you just want to maintain a bunch of sites I'd recommend a reseller package.