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Neither shared nor VPS hosting are better than the other. However, they do offer unique benefits depending on what you're looking for. Shared hosting, for example, is ideal for individuals and smaller businesses that don't require a lot of power and need budget flexibility. VPS hosting, on the other hand, offers a bit more reliability and power to your site, but will definitely cost you a bit more, making it perfect for growing businesses.
Hosting your website online is a complicated process, and one of the biggest decisions you'll need to make involves the type of hosting you're going to use. Whether you're a large corporation with the potential for loads of traffic, or a small business simply hoping to get online, you'll need to choose wisely in order to avoid costly outages and pointless features.
In this regard, the differences between hosting types can be staggering. Shared vs VPS hosting is a perfect example – each hosting type caters to different types of businesses, which means you need to understand the differences before making your decision. We'll explain how shared hosting and VPS hosting differ, and what you should be looking for in terms of price, features, and reliability.
Shared vs VPS Hosting: Head-to-Head
Simply put, shared hosting plans are designed for individuals and smaller businesses that are looking to get set up online at a lower price. This type of hosting puts your website on a shared server, which can occasionally be affected by other users in terms of speeds and outages.
VPS hosting, on the other hand, is designed for medium-sized businesses looking for a more in-depth website. Your site will still be hosted on a shared server, but you'll be given your own “section”, granting you more control over how your site is hosted.
Here are a few basic differences between the two:
- Shared Hosting Costs
- VPS Hosting Costs
- Shared Hosting Is Better for Personal Sites
- VPS Hosting Is Better for Small Business Sites
- Shared Hosting Is Cheaper
- VPS Hosting Is More Reliable
- Both Are Cheaper Than Dedicated Hosting
- Final Verdict
- Frequently Asked Questions
- How We Research Website Hosting Services
Shared Hosting
- More affordable
- Less reliable
- Best for basic websites
VPS Hosting
- Slightly less affordable
- More reliable
- Best for growing websites with more functionality
In so many words, neither hosting type is good nor bad – they're simply better for specific businesses. When it comes to looking for a hosting plan, you need to find the pleasant middle ground between overly expensive and low functionality, and that depends on what your company needs. We'll explain in more detail below.
| Plan name | Score | Verdict | Starting Price | Type | cPanel cPanel is a popular online interface that gives you comprehensive control of site and hosting management | Unmetered Transfer | Free backups | Free domain | SSL Certificate An SSL Certificate allows for more secure connections from a server to a browser | Sites included | Sub Domains | Email account | Monthly Visitor Limit | Disk Space | Up Time Performance | See Deals | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |  |  |  | ||||||||||||
| Bluehost | InMotion | HostGator | A2 Hosting | 1&1 Hosting | GoDaddy | WPEngine | ||||||||||||
| Basic | Launch | Hatchling | Startup | Essential | Economy | Startup | ||||||||||||
| 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 3.5 | 3.0 | ||||||||||||
| A feature-rich, cost-effective hosting service with lots of plans | Best overall web hosting service we would recommend, with stellar customer support | A good hosting service with unbeatable uptime | Robust option with decent uptime performance | Great hosting for experts who don't need too much support | Feature-packed, but poor overall value for the cost | Solid web hosting provider, but only for WordPress sites | ||||||||||||
| $5.95 | $7.99 | $2.75 | $2.99 | $4 | $5.99 | $30 | ||||||||||||
| Shared | Shared | Shared | Shared | Shared | Shared | WordPress | ||||||||||||
| | | | | | | | ||||||||||||
| | | | | | | | ||||||||||||
| | | | | | | | ||||||||||||
| | | | | | | | ||||||||||||
| | | | | | | | ||||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||
| 25 | 25 | Unlimited | 5 | 10,000 | 25 | Unlimited | ||||||||||||
| 5 | Unlimited | Unlimited | 25 | 25 | Free for first year | None | ||||||||||||
| 32,000 | 360,000 | 240,000 | Unattainable | Unlimited | None | 25,000 | ||||||||||||
| 50GB | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | 100GB | 100GB | 10GB | ||||||||||||
| 99.98 | 99.97 | 99.99 | 99.95 | 99.98 | 99.97 | 99.95 | ||||||||||||
| See Deals | See Deals | See Deals | See Deals | See Deals | Click Here | See Deals |
VPS Hosting Costs
Yes, VPS hosting prices are a little bit higher compared to shared hosting. However, the added cost contributes to a more reliable experience, sectioning off an area of a shared server specifically for your needs. You'll be able to scale your site better, all while preventing slow speeds and outages.
Check out how VPS hosting providers stack up against each other on price and features, and don't forget to take a look at our comprehensive guide to web hosting costs:
| Plan name | Score | Verdict | Starting Price | Type | Free backups | Free domain | SSL Certificate An SSL Certificate allows for more secure connections from a server to a browser | Email account | Dedicated IP Addresses | Available RAM | Storage | Bandwidth | Allowed Domains/Websites | CPU Cores | Up Time Performance | See Deals | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | | | |  | | |||||||||||||
| Bluehost | InMotion | HostGator | A2 Hosting | 1&1 Hosting | GoDaddy | |||||||||||||
| Standard | VPS-1000HA-S | Snappy 2000 | Power | VPS S | 1 vCPU | |||||||||||||
| 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 3.5 | |||||||||||||
| A feature-rich, cost-effective hosting service with lots of plans | Best overall web hosting service we would recommend, with stellar customer support | A good hosting service with unbeatable uptime | A robust hosting option, though uptime performance is a little below average | Great hosting for experts who don't need too much support | Feature-packed, but poor overall value for the cost | |||||||||||||
| $19.99 | $44.99 | $19.95 | $25 | $2 | $9.99 | |||||||||||||
| VPS | VPS | VPS | VPS | VPS | VPS | |||||||||||||
| | | | | | | |||||||||||||
| | | | | | | |||||||||||||
| | | | | | | |||||||||||||
| Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | 250 | Unlimited | |||||||||||||
| 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||
| 2GB | 4GB | 2GB | 4GB | 1GB | 2GB | |||||||||||||
| 30GB | 75GB | 120GB | 75GB | 50GB | 20GB | |||||||||||||
| 1TB | 4TB | 1.5TB | 2TB | Unlimited | Unlimited | |||||||||||||
| Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | 100 | Multiple | |||||||||||||
| 2 | Unlimited | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||
| 99.98 | 99.97 | 99.99 | 99.95 | 99.98 | 99.97 | |||||||||||||
| Click Here | Click Here | Click Here | Click Here | Click Here | Click Here |
VPS Hosting Is Better for Small Business Sites
Now, if you're a small- to medium-sized company that is expecting a bit more traffic on a more regular basis, low-cost shared hosting plans might not work out for you. Growing businesses can't be cut off from revenue, and an outage can mean fewer conversions.
In this case, a VPS hosting plan will fit you perfectly. While you'll still be sharing a server with other companies and individuals, you'll function within your own area. This makes your site less prone to outages and slow speeds, which makes it more than worth the added cost if you're a growing business.
VPS Hosting Is More Reliable
If you're looking for a web hosting plan that focuses on reliability over affordability, VPS hosting is the best option for you. A dedicated section of a shared server provides all the stability you need to keep outages and lagging speeds to an absolute minimum.
Let's be clear – we're not saying that shared hosting is unreliable. While down-time can happen, it's not going to be a daily occurrence with any decent hosting provider. For a business website, though, any downtime or slower bandwidth will have an impact on your bottom line.
That may not matter for a personal blog or small website, so these sorts of sites can opt for shared hosting. But, for a decent-sized business site, VPS is the way to go.
Yes, VPS hosting does cost a little bit more than shared hosting, but if you need the added infrastructure, it's a no-brainer. Plus, if you're looking to scale your website with your company, VPS hosting provides a much more affordable means of adding storage and data along the way.
Both Are Cheaper Than Dedicated Hosting
Shared and VPS hosting are not the only types of hosting you can find. Dedicated hosting plans will put your website on a server all of its own, giving you a lot of control over how stable your site is and how it's hosted.
However, dedicated hosting plans are expensive. Like, seriously expensive. Dedicated hosting plans from popular providers will often cost several hundreds of dollars per month, providing huge storage caches and massive data allotments. In short, unless you're a massive company with huge site traffic demands, you can probably play it safe with one of the less expensive hosting types.
How We Research Website Hosting Services
We take our impartial research and analysis seriously, so you can have complete confidence that we're giving you the clearest, most useful recommendations.
After conducting an initial exploration to identify the most relevant, popular, and established tools in the market, we put them through their paces with hands-on testing to see their real strengths and weaknesses. In this case, we put 27 hosting providers to the test across a huge 282 areas of investigation.
Based on years of market and user needs research, we've established a web hosting provider testing methodology that scores each product in five main categories of investigation and 30 additional subcategories; this covers everything from the providers' server speed, reliability and performance to the value for money you can expect, as well as much more.
Our main testing categories for hosting providers are:
- Price: the cost associated with the hosting services provided by a hosting provider, such as subscription plans, pricing tiers, and any additional fees or charges.
- Performance: the speed, reliability, and overall performance of a hosting provider's servers. It encompasses factors such as server uptime and response time.
- Features: the specific functionalities and capabilities provided by a hosting provider, including storage space, bandwidth allocation, and server location.
- Help and Support: the assistance and resources available to users when they encounter issues or need guidance, e.g. tutorials and email or chat support.
- Market Analysis / Customer Score: the assessment of the hosting provider's position and reputation in the market.
When it comes to calculating a product's final score, not all testing areas are weighted evenly, as we know some aspects matter more to our readers than others, which are merely "nice to have." After hundreds of hours, our process is complete, and the results should ensure you can find the best solution for your needs.
At Tech.co, we have a number of full time in-house researchers, who re-run this testing process regularly, to ensure our results remain reflective of the present day.
Final Verdict
It's a tie! Depending on what you need a web hosting plan for, you could easily go with shared hosting or VPS hosting.
Individuals and very small companies can get away with the less reliable, more affordable shared hosting, as their web hosting needs are minimal. However, small- to medium-sized businesses looking to scale will need VPS hosting, which provides a more stable environment for their website to cut back on outages and slow speeds – albeit at a somewhat higher price.
Frequently Asked Questions
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