When Is It Time To Switch From Shared To VPS

Upgrading a hosting plan is not necessarily a huge problem for most website owners, especially those who are just running personal blogs or having visitors here and there.  For the most part, one can stay on a shared hosting plan for as long as you want.  But when really is the time to switch from a shared hosting to a VPS plan?  Do you even need to?

But before we go on to the question, what is the difference between the two?  Shared hosting refers to the type of hosting where you share a server with multiple clients, allocating only a portion to you and your site, while VPS, or virtual private servers, is you getting a share of ownership on a server, you do share but you’re responsible for all its management, as in shared hosting, maintenance of the server is up to the hosting provider.

It’s advisable to start off your website on a shared hosting plan.  When you’re starting, you won’t need too much resources to begin with.  Think about it like renting a small office to put up your business.  You only need a room to put up your stuff and establish your brand name.  In a website, you only need a small space in the Internet to establish your online presence.

Nonetheless, of course, in the long run, there’s this option to expand when the need arises.  And that’s the same case with the upgrade from a shared hosting to VPS hosting plan.  At some point in your course, you will have to decide whether to switch or not.  But again, the question is when.

Compare your website to a business.  Say you have your own little office.  For some time, you were able to accommodate all visitors to your office without them feeling uncomfortable.  But once your business becomes the talk of the town and people come and go, you sure would feel the need to find a bigger place.  Same goes with hosting.  Once you constantly reach your bandwidth limit for months and you still know you’ll be experiencing the same (or even more), then it’s time to switch on a VPS plan.

Of course, top that up with earnings.  Stable earnings mean that you’re quite starting to have a solid foundation already.  So say you’re reaching $200 monthly on your site, then you could think about switching to a VPS plan.

Lastly, think about your future plans.  Again, in a physical office, you might want to build a solid group within your customers.  So you may do promotions, plan parties, and other activities.  Can your office accommodate that?  Similar thing with the hosting plan.  If you’re planning further activities to engage with your site’s fan base, do contests and other stuff, you may need to see if your current hosting can accommodate that.  If not, then it’s a green light to go to VPS hosting.

Other factors you may wanna think about are the slow loading times and frequent errors caused by the server.  It might mean that your current plan can’t handle it.  If you also share downloadable items online, then you might upgrade to VPS.

So, have you made a choice?  I would love to hear your feedback on this matter!