It has been several years since virtualizationand VPS hosting options came into the picture. Before the introduction of VPS hosting, dedicated servers used to rule the web hosting industry. WebMasters who were more concerned about security, stability and administrative control opted fordedicated hosting solutions. Dedicated servers offered huge computing power when compared to any other available option at the time.
However, due to the high cost of dedicated servers, users were often bootstrapped. The price was perhaps the only factor that prevented dedicated servers from becoming the “go to” solution.
Sacrificing performance, customers opted for shared hosting for its cost effectiveness. A smaller percentage pulled the trigger on the high cost and deployed dedicated servers. The gap between shared hosting and dedicated servers was vast. To bridgethis gap, intermediate VPS hosting was introduced. Technicians started to consider VPS hosting as a tailored solution with benefits of both shared hosting (Price) and dedicated server hosting (Performance).
In a short period of time,VPS hosting becomes averypopular and cost efficient solution forindividual webmasters to business owners. Even today any webmaster would readily suggest a VPS as a web hosting solution. In fact, the Internet is full of websites/blogs that pinpointthebenefits of a VPS over a dedicated server. Let’s check out why a VPS has become the first choice as a Web Hosting solution.
Reasons why people are choosing VPS over dedicated server
Following are the certain benefits that attract customers to choose a VPS over a Dedicated server.
- Cost effectiveness (Probably the most striking one).
- Quick setup.
- Higher uptime.
- Offers perfect amount of resources to run small to medium size websites.
- No need to pay for extra resources that do not require.
- Provides custom or tailor made resources for your business.
- Provides the level of security and flexibility of a dedicated hosting option at much lesser price.
Most of the time, customers choose VPS for the price factor only. If you check the above list more closely, you will notice that price may be the only factor that a dedicated server could not address. But in recent times, as a result of the competitive nature of the Web Hosting industry, dedicated server priceshave drasticallyfallen.
If you have recently visited any hosting provider’s plan page, you must have noticed striked old prices and highlighted discounted prices.
Today every Hosting provider has a wide range of dedicated servers to choose from. More specifically, low-end dedicated servers have comparatively more resources than any high-end VPS plan with the very small price difference. Now, let’s check how Dedicated server overcome VPS hosting.
How dedicated servers overcome VPS
If you are an entrepreneur and still believe that a Dedicated server is not your cup of tea, then we would like to offer you a different perspective. “Dedicated servers are too expensive for business” seems to be an old tale now. The factor of “Cost-effectiveness” quickly vanishes when you check the following live plan comparison.
| Features | Dedicated Server Configuration | VPSConfiguration |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Quad Core Processor (Intel Xeon 3000 / Core2Quad / AMD Opteron 4000 Series) | 4 vCPU Cores (Regardless of physical CPU in main hardware node) |
| RAM | 8 GB RAM | 8 GB RAM |
| HDD | 1 TB SATAII / 32MB cache $20.00 USD or more | 200GB RAID6 SSD Storage |
| MS SQL Server | MS SQL Server Express Edition | MS SQL Server Express Edition |
| Data Transfer | 20 TB / Month | 1 TB Bandwidth / Month |
| Hardware Replacement | Yes | N/A |
| Bandwidth Report | Yes | Depends on service provider |
| Ping Monitoring | Yes | Depends on service provider |
| Port Connectivity | 1 Gbps dedicated port | 1 Gbps shared port (Shared among all VMs on HyperVisor) |
| Other Features | Control panel and Remote Reboot | Control panel and Remote Reboot |
| Price | Between $100 to $130 USD | Between $90 to $120 USD |
You can see that the dedicated server option is the absolute winner here. This is just a random configuration comparison, you may find even high performance and cheaper dedicated server configurations.
When should I choose a Dedicated server?
Let’s take another example, we are sure that you will beconvinced with our thoughts how dedicated server is far superior to VPS. Note that ,you will not be able to verify some of the technical facts mentioned in the following table yourself.
| Features | Dedicated Server Hosting | VPS Hosting |
|---|---|---|
| Guest VMs in HyperV | It is a standalone physical server, so no Guest VMs. | End customer never knows exact number of Guest VMs hosted on the same server |
| CPU resource | Full CPU is assigned to a single server. CPU resources can be fully utilised. CPU Overselling is not possible | Number of vCPU are assigned to each VPS. End customer never knows how many other customers are sharing the CPU resource. Overselling is possible. |
| Port Connectivity | Dedicated Port connectivity. The customer can utilise full 1 Gbps connectivity | Port connectivity is shared among all the VMs hosted on the same server. Hence 1 Gbps to each VM is not possible. |
| Disk I/O Issue | No Disk I/O issues | Since many VMs are hosted in the same server, Disk I/O of the main node is very high. It can cause slowness problems in neighbour VMs often. |
| Virtualization Software Burden | It is a physical server so no Virtualisation software is used | Main node’s Virtualisation software may affect VMs operations. |
| HyperVisor Maintenance | It is a physical server itself. There is no HyperV software installed. | HyperVisor maintenance can cause downtime for all VMs hosted. |
| Additional Bandwidth | Comes with plenty of Bandwidth | Due to limited bandwidth, you may exceed the bandwidth and you will have to purchase additional bandwidth |
| Additional RAM | Comes with plenty of RAM (8 to 16 GB or more) | Due to limited RAM (1 to 4 GB) you will have to pay more than whole VPS price for just 1 GIG of RAM |
| Additional Disk Space | Not required. Disk Space comes in TBs | Limited disk space. At some point of time, you will have to add additional disk space |
VPS hosting is suitable indeed when you have few websites to host. But if the number of websites will increase, problems will be inevitable. To rectify this, you may upgrade your VPS plan or add costly resources. Again, whenever you add resources or upgrade the VPS, downtime is always involved. Cumulatively, you may end up with the never anticipated big total which is very near to a dedicated server cost.
Being on the safe side and considering the future expansion, it is always advisable to start your business upfront with a dedicated server.
Interesting findings. As far as i have understood, with Dedicated server – we need our own operating system license which is not the case with VPS. Is that true?
Hi Viral,
Yes, you’re correct. For a dedicated server, you need to buy a license. Usually Windows 2008 / 2012 Web edition for a dedicated server will cost you $30 / Month approximately and your hosting company will buy this and install on behalf of you.
For a VPS Server, you don’t need to buy a license. The master node (main server, where your VPS is created) is licensed with Data Center Edition by your hosting company. When your main node is licensed with Data Center Edition, guest operating system on that main node don’t need separate licenses.
Thanks Rahul for the information about licenses. Is it then safe to assume your above comparison between dedicated server vs VPS where in you have mentioned price of approx 120$/month for dedicated server includes that licensing cost?
Kind regards
v
Hi Viral,
Yes, you’re correct. VPS servers are guest operating systems, hence, no additional licensing is required.
For dedicated server, you can get a dedicated box, with OS license included, for as low as $120 / month.
I love the concept clear and explained eaily.
Thanks for this post.