Shared vs VPS

thegoldeneye · Apr 25, 2020

Hi there,

I always liked using Namecheap shared hosting for my websites and client's websites and I bought their SSD in July last year. So in a few months, I'll need to renew it, it's not that expensive but also I am not getting that much from them related to the site speed.

I feel that the only thing I am getting from them is extra support. I mean all other provides are the same to me for the shared hosting option. I tried many of them and small things are different.

So in the last few days, I started thinking about buying a VPS and to host there my sites. My friend has a VPS and we tested the same site hosted at shared and there on VPS. My loading speed is 3.5s and his speed is 1. something, so less than 2s and it's amazing.

Why am I thinking then? My biggest concerns were:

Am I going to be able to easily manage and install more than 1 WP site?
How to do it?

Right now price does not question, if I can get for an extra $100 more than w/shared then I am in.

So I did a research on YouTube and found some answers and solutions:

1) I can manage and install more than 1 site on the VPS
2) I have two options, either to do it everything with a console or:

Buy cPanel and Softoculus
Use free CentOS cPanel

I am not going to sell hosting services so I can work manually with a console or to use free CentOS cPanel.

Providers I have in mind:

Namecheap
Vultr
Digital Ocean

I would like to hear your opinions and if you have some tutorials about managing sites on VPS, commands, and so on. I found one YT video related to security and how to make your VPS more secure by using an SSH key.

Thanks

Entexion · Apr 25, 2020

For the panel, I'd suggest something other than CentOS web panel. For example, VestaCP is free and, in my opinion, is easier to manage. Softaculous is also supported with it.

NiteCobain · Apr 25, 2020

A VPS can be a bit tricky to setup and manage if you don't know anything about Linux console. Having a panel preinstalled does wonders.
I'd recommend checking Hetzner, OVH and Veesp for VPS as well.

coolsheet · Apr 25, 2020

IMO all of the mentioned hosting is garbage, I don't know about Vultr though.

I used to vouch for Siteground, however I'm migrating off of them.

For managed WP hosting there is nothing better than LiquidWeb. Their cloud hosting is unbeatable in pricing and performance. Not to mention the headache it relieves doing the updating for me. They update themes and plugins on a staging server to make sure it doesn't affect the site negatively. If it does affect the site they avoid updating the plugin that caused the problem and will only update the plugin once it's been updated by the developer and doesn't impact the site functionality or look.

Once migrating to Liquid Web site speeds improved dramatically. Went from being at about 1.5 secs to 700ms

thegoldeneye said:
Hi there,

Why am I thinking then? My biggest concerns were:

Am I going to be able to easily manage and install more than 1 WP site?

How to do it?

Providers I have in mind:

Namecheap

Vultr

Digital Ocean

Thanks

MisterXYZ · Apr 25, 2020

Digital Ocean has in depth tutorials on installing and managing websites.

You can also go for nginx instead of apache for better speed.

VarrieD · Apr 25, 2020

Should you choose the VPS road, it would be easier for you to then choose cloud panels with a stack that is optimized for WordPress so you won't have to handle any server-side thing and can just focus on running your sites. A few of your options are RunCloud, ServerPilot, GridPane, SpinupWP, Ploi.io, Moss.sh, ClusterCS, etc. From reviews I've heard, Gridpane seems to have the most optimized stack as they yield the fastest WordPress sites and their support is responsive as I've tried them when they still had the Free tier. I haven't actually tried everything I've mentioned but some of those names are popular names so there should be a lot of comparisons and reviews about them.

There are also a lot of better VPS providers than those you have mentioned that are well-marketed. You can find a lot of them in web hosting forums.

stromind · Apr 26, 2020

VPS is bit tricky but not that much tricky now a days, because there are many automation related tools, serverpilot etc even if you dont know anything about terminals you can manage vps now a days from your browser.
but shared and vps doesnt make much difference in terms of resources, i would highly recommend you to consider dedicated server instead even if its in low resources it will serve you better than vps

thegoldeneye · Apr 26, 2020

NH87R said:
For the panel, I'd suggest something other than CentOS web panel. For example, VestaCP is free and, in my opinion, is easier to manage. Softaculous is also supported with it.

I'll check that one, thank you.

Sandr0G said:
A VPS can be a bit tricky to setup and manage if you don't know anything about Linux console. Having a panel preinstalled does wonders.
I'd recommend checking Hetzner, OVH and Veesp for VPS as well.

Thanks, it's really not the problem for me to work with commands and to install website without without any panel. I will try to get as much information as I can before deciding what to do.

coolsheet said:
IMO all of the mentioned hosting is garbage, I don't know about Vultr though.

I used to vouch for Siteground, however I'm migrating off of them.

For managed WP hosting there is nothing better than LiquidWeb. Their cloud hosting is unbeatable in pricing and performance. Not to mention the headache it relieves doing the updating for me. They update themes and plugins on a staging server to make sure it doesn't affect the site negatively. If it does affect the site they avoid updating the plugin that caused the problem and will only update the plugin once it's been updated by the developer and doesn't impact the site functionality or look.

Once migrating to Liquid Web site speeds improved dramatically. Went from being at about 1.5 secs to 700ms

I am not wrong, Vultr is the one I mentioned in the post with the same websites and having better page speed. I will check those you mention, thank you.

MisterXYZ said:
Digital Ocean has in depth tutorials on installing and managing websites.

You can also go for nginx instead of apache for better speed.

Thanks, I will check that.

VarrieD said:
Should you choose the VPS road, it would be easier for you to then choose cloud panels with a stack that is optimized for WordPress so you won't have to handle any server-side thing and can just focus on running your sites. A few of your options are RunCloud, ServerPilot, GridPane, SpinupWP, Ploi.io, Moss.sh, ClusterCS, etc. From reviews I've heard, Gridpane seems to have the most optimized stack as they yield the fastest WordPress sites and their support is responsive as I've tried them when they still had the Free tier. I haven't actually tried everything I've mentioned but some of those names are popular names so there should be a lot of comparisons and reviews about them.

There are also a lot of better VPS providers than those you have mentioned that are well-marketed. You can find a lot of them in web hosting forums.

I am looking for not so expensive solutions instead of shared hosting. I will check those providers you mention, maybe the price is fair enough for me.

stromind said:
VPS is bit tricky but not that much tricky now a days, because there are many automation related tools, serverpilot etc even if you dont know anything about terminals you can manage vps now a days from your browser.
but shared and vps doesnt make much difference in terms of resources, i would highly recommend you to consider dedicated server instead even if its in low resources it will serve you better than vps

Thanks for the comment!

V · Apr 26, 2020

I am using Openlitespeed with WordPress on a Digitalocean droplet and it's working pretty good compared to my old shared hosting. A $5 droplet is more than enough for a small site. Also, you can get free trial to $50 credit and then you can decide yourself if you want to go with them or not.

Starblazer · Apr 26, 2020

A $5 DO droplet is enough for your requirements. You can customize it for your needs. Install Nginx + litespeed, and your site will get fastest speed. If you have a wordpress site, then you should install WP rocket to improve caching.

thegoldeneye · Apr 26, 2020

V said:
I am using Openlitespeed with WordPress on a Digitalocean droplet and it's working pretty good compared to my old shared hosting. A $5 droplet is more than enough for a small site. Also, you can get free trial to $50 credit and then you can decide yourself if you want to go with them or not.

Pavan Teja 1 said:
A $5 DO droplet is enough for your requirements. You can customize it for your needs. Install Nginx + litespeed, and your site will get fastest speed. If you have a wordpress site, then you should install WP rocket to improve caching.

Thanks, guys, I will do a test tomorrow and let you know about results.

Panther28 · Apr 26, 2020

Last time i used digital ocean, i had a problem with my site constantly running out of memory and crashing. Support couldn't help, and I had followed the guides to the letter. Even when i hired a linux expert to have a look, they couldn't tell why it was crashing, and it didn't have too many visitors or anything.

I prefer managed hosting with a cpanel, it might be a bit more expensive. But it saves much headache, at least for me.

Starblazer · Apr 26, 2020

thegoldeneye said:
Thanks, guys, I will do a test tomorrow and let you know about results.

Forgot to mention about the free trial. You get 2 months free VPS trial from DO. Litespeed is free up to 2GB RAM. Choose a server closest to your audience to improve loading speeds. Litespeed has their own cache plugin which works as good as WP-rocket. You can find tutorials to setup server on DO website.

Faruqa97 · Apr 26, 2020

I have tried DigitalOcean in the past, but when benchmarking, there speed is in no way better than upcloud, so, I immediately migrated to Upcloud and I am currently hosting 4 websites on a $5 package,h if you need a tutorial, here is one://upcloud.com/community/tutorials/configure-classicpress-using-vestacp/

IG Professor · Apr 26, 2020

Digital ocean or Vultr these two are the best. you can also create a wordpress site on free AWS VPS

Starblazer · Apr 26, 2020

Faruqa97 said:
I have tried DigitalOcean in the past, but when benchmarking, there speed is in no way better than upcloud, so, I immediately migrated to Upcloud and I am currently hosting 4 websites on a $5 package,h if you need a tutorial, here is one://upcloud.com/community/tutorials/configure-classicpress-using-vestacp/

4 static html websites or wordpress websites?
As far as I know WP is resource hungry and eats all the resources of a basic VPS for a single site.

nSnoopy · Apr 26, 2020

Next month i will switch over to OVH VPS, it's much cheaper than my shared Siteground package and will most likely be faster.
Regarding panels i was stuck with Cyberpanel, VestaCP and Webmin, i did a lot of research and i decided to go with Cyberpanel.
For security there are many tutorials on the internet how to secure a VPS, it's not much work to do, you just need to be careful

Cheers

Faruqa97 · Apr 26, 2020

Pavan Teja 1 said:
4 static html websites or wordpress websites?
As far as I know WP is resource hungry and eats all the resources of a basic VPS for a single site.

No, WordPress, but I am using it with Nginx + php-fm + redis for object caching.

If you can combine those, you are gold. I can share how I did it, really simple.

Mr Dingle · Apr 26, 2020

I"ll second VestaCP. A bit of a learning curve to set it all up, but well worth it. I've been with Time4vps for a couple years. Never had a problem and they have some good 6 and 12 month plans

alurosu · Jun 16, 2020

I'm a web dev and I recommend VPS over shared hosting everyday. It's at least 10 times faster.

I get that it's harder to manage, but if you are serious that's the way to go. If you have a project and it will grow you will inevitably move to vps. Save yourself the trouble and start with it.

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