What level VPS hosting do I actually need from hostgator?

I have been building some wordpress sites for friends and family lately. They have refereed me to some actual business so I am trying to make the switch from web hosting with hostgator over to their VPS hosting. I only have one domain that I want to transfer to VPS, then I want to start putting all of my client's sites on VPS.

Usually hostgator is incredibly helpful, but today I felt like the guy I talked to was just trying to upsell me. He keeps pushing the level 3 because he said I will have the cPanel and they will transfer the files for me from web hosting. I have only used fantastico to set up my wordpress sites on hostgator.

So I have a couple of questions if anyone can help:
How difficult will it be to setup multiple wordpress sites on VPS without the cPanel?
How many low traffic domains can I host on the level 1 VPS plan? They will be 5-10 page wordpress theme sites with an average of a few hundred visits a month. I am making these for small businesses with little traffic. CPU 0.57 GHZ
RAM 384 MB
Disk Space 10 GB
Bandwidth 250 GB

Thank you for the help.

I understand you wanting a VPS, but wouldn't it be better to just refer them to their own shared hosting account using you as an affiliate? That way you bank twice and you don't have to worry about support tickets or anything as they'd handle it all).

How to decide when to buy a VPS account. Any specific benchmark in terms of traffic, etc.?

If you only plan to host some WP sites then you should look at the Reseller Package too,
Instead of selling hosting from reseller package,use it for your own sites.

I would definitely go with the reseller plan unless you plan on being the web designer and support desk at the same time. Also like someone said above you can make money twice as an affiliate with less hassel.

However if you are still determined to have a VPS the reason they are pushing you into a level 3 is most likely because without level 3 you don't get cPanel and without cPanel you will need to know how to control your container using shell access most likely "Jailed Shell Access" to do most of everything on your VPS and I really don't think you want to do that unless you know what you are doing.

My advice go with the reseller package.

How difficult will it be to setup multiple wordpress sites on VPS without the cPanel?

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If you are handy with shell access, then you do not need any control panel on Linux VPS server. In addition, you will find several web hosting companies whose reputation is equal to Hostgator and they provide root access to VPS servers as well. However, if you are not good with shell access then better way prefer VPS hosting package with cPanel control panel.

How many low traffic domains can I host on the level 1 VPS plan?

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It depends on the number of website and thier database size

They will be 5-10 page wordpress theme sites with an average of a few hundred visits a month. I am making these for small businesses with little traffic. CPU 0.57 GHZ
RAM 384 MB
Disk Space 10 GB
Bandwidth 250 GB

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The above configuration seems really low ...

therocketdude said:

If you only plan to host some WP sites then you should look at the Reseller Package too,
Instead of selling hosting from reseller package,use it for your own sites.

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This is a great idea that I never considered. I am offering free hosting for a year, then paid after that, so it should be an easy transition.

Derrick H said:

I would definitely go with the reseller plan unless you plan on being the web designer and support desk at the same time. Also like someone said above you can make money twice as an affiliate with less hassel.

However if you are still determined to have a VPS the reason they are pushing you into a level 3 is most likely because without level 3 you don't get cPanel and without cPanel you will need to know how to control your container using shell access most likely "Jailed Shell Access" to do most of everything on your VPS and I really don't think you want to do that unless you know what you are doing.

My advice go with the reseller package.

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Thank you for the advice. I think I will be going with the reseller plan. These are small business wordpress sites with little traffic, so VPS is probably more than I need.

yeah, getting the cpanel is the real challenge; I see hosting for less than $9 per month, but the cost of Cpanel is equivalent to that.

So, a reseller account performance would be equivalent to a VPS?

you can get cheap vps hosting, but those mostly are unmanaged, if you are ready to spend some time to figure it everything, then go for burst.net
Managing the wordpress and other installation is done via kloxo.

Are there any security threats with unmanaged VPS hosting? I am an intermediate level user and dont really know much in the way of techniques..

Huy Phan said:

Are there any security threats with unmanaged VPS hosting? I am an intermediate level user and dont really know much in the way of techniques..

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Lots. If you don't know how to secure a server, I'd definitely advise against getting unmanaged.