Virtual Private Server hosting can be considered a smart option between shared web hosting, and a dedicated server. If a shared hosting account is not enough, and a dedicated server is too powerful or costly, then a Virtual Private Server (VPS) may be right for you.
Comparing Shared Hosting to VPS hosting
Shared web hosting allows multiple users and websites to be hosted under one operating system on a single server. In this shared environment each user is affected by the other users’usage, and website issues. The benefit of a VPS over a shared hosting account is that you will be independent from other users and will have a much more reliable hosting environment.
Comparing a dedicated server to VPS hosting
A dedicated server gives one user access to use an entire server and its resources independently. While a dedicated server is ideal for most users who want the reliability and resources, there is the reality of the hefty price tag. As you know, this price tag is not always reasonable. A Virtual Private Server affords a user all of the benefits of a dedicated server, without the high costs of a dedicated server. A VPS solution allows multiple users to share the expense of server hardware, without sacrificing privacy and performance.
Why a VPS is the best choice for hosting
A Virtual Private Server is the best solution for anyone who wants the benefits and reliability of a dedicated server, and without the headaches of a shared hosting account. The true benefits are endless because a VPS gives you all of the power of a dedicated server, at a fraction of the cost.
Source: http://www.a1articles.com/
Professional web designers don’t come cheap. A good web designer can easily charge you $1000 or more for a five page website. This high cost leads many people to tackle web design for themselves. How hard can it be? Get yourself an HTML editor, throw up a website and voila! Your website is live right? Wrong! There is a lot of knowledge you need to develop before you can get your self made website onto the internet.
What is a Sitebuilder?
More and more web hosting companies today offer Sitebuilder software that takes care of all the technical details to getting your website up and live on the internet. They allow a novice to choose a built in template, select some colors, throw in some pictures, and add some text. Once these steps are done, all the novice has to do is publish their website to the internet. All the hard stuff is taken care of by the Sitebuilder software. So what’s the catch?
Next to Impossible to Move your Website to Another Company.
Most Sitebuilders in use by web hosting companies today are designed to make it as difficult as possible for their users to transfer their website away. Most, if not all the fancy features like counters, navigation, templates, etc… are built into the Sitebuilder and won’t work unless you have an active account with that particular company. If you want to take your website elsewhere, you will have to build your website again from scratch.
Cookie cutter approach tends to look amateurish
Sitebuilders in generally lack the flexibility to allow the website creator to create a website any way they like. Most Sitebuilders out there will lock you into doing things in one way – their way. This leads to websites that can look like they were just thrown together and therefore look unprofessional.
Little ability to handle traffic growth.
Most Sitebuilders come with enough storage space and monthly data transfer to meet the average website’s needs. If your website traffic truly takes off though, chances are, your Sitebuilder company will cut you off. Most hosting companies bank on the fact that 99% of it’s clients will use relatively little resources. If your website starts to use too many server resources, most companies will pull the plug on your website. If your website is built with their Sitebuilder, you’ll be out of luck and in the unenviable position of needing to rebuild your website right when a ton of traffic is hitting a dead page. Not pretty.
Sitebuilder or traditional web hosting account – which is for you?
If you have never put together a website before, and you have no desire to dive into the technical details of putting your website online, a Sitebuilder is probably your best fit. For maximum long term flexibility and growth potential, learning how to get your website live on a traditional web hosting account is well worth the effort. You will end up paying less, you won’t be locked into one company, and you will be able to grow your website as traffic demands it.