Virtual Server or Shared Hosting?

I have a kickass domain name and a great script that will hopefully be making me some serious bank over the next few months. But everything hangs on getting this right first time.

The script needs cronjobs and PHP5.2. I can get webhosting with cronjobs enabled at one host for a few dollars a year. Or I can get a VServer for 5.99 a month with unlimited traffic, wildcard subs, SQL Dbases, php5.2 and the works.

In your experience how well do shared servers function with cronjobs running as well as all the other trimmings when compared with a VServer? What should I invest in?

The site will eventually be a Youtube clone, but with paid-to-share functionality. So people will earn a few cents whenever they share a video from my site. Not sure on the legalities of paying people to share public domain content (do I need to go offshore for this?).

People will also be able to upload their own vids, so space wil become an issue, but in the interest of risk management, I'm thinking shared to begin with? Hope this all makes sense, just looking for some advice from older wiser heads.

Shared hosting and vps are similar because in both cases there are multiple instances on one machine all competing for resources. In a choice between the two I'd pick shrewd as it's going to be less hassle. I would go with a good host where you will be able to upgrade easily if you find you need more resources or a dedicated server.

philmcc said:

Shared hosting and vps are similar because in both cases there are multiple instances on one machine all competing for resources. In a choice between the two I'd pick shrewd as it's going to be less hassle. I would go with a good host where you will be able to upgrade easily if you find you need more resources or a dedicated server.

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Thanks for the help. One more question, they also offer something called a managed server. Is this the same as a dedicated servier? It's expensive too, $249 per month for a quad core and 8Gig RAM.

redfan123 said:

Thanks for the help. One more question, they also offer something called a managed server. Is this the same as a dedicated servier? It's expensive too, $249 per month for a quad core and 8Gig RAM.

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Yeah, managed will be a dedicated server that they look after. F you get a dedicated server you need to set it up how you want it and look after it. If you don't absolutly need it I wouldn't start with one.

Go with a basic plan ( that has all the req covered) on shared hosting with someone like hostnine. Their support is good and they can help you move up servers as you grow.

Oh yeah, they also offer cloud hosting which might be an option for you as well instead of a dedicated server.