Many webmasters, both beginners and advanced, use shared hosting without much understanding of the right time to upgrade to VPS or dedicated hosting. This is a common question and a very important one. Recognizing the signs you need to upgrade may save you from a larger catastrophe. If you’re currently using shared hosting, but think you might need to upgrade, use these six reasons to upgrade as a guide.
Six Solid Reasons for Upgrading
1. Uptime, Speed and Stability
If you experience downtime with your shared hosting account, even just a small amount, you can eliminate it by upgrading to VPS or dedicated server hosting. With a virtual private server or a dedicated sever; you gain stability with your email services and your website. This is often worth the price. You will need to weigh the amount you’ll spend for this upgrade compared to the benefits you’ll gain.
2. Run Larger Applications
Applications can take up a large amount of space and they might require you to expand your hosting. If you need to run larger applications or you need to be able to host videos, upgrading to a more robust type of hosting might be the only way to make this possible. With dedicated hosting, your website will run properly even during peak hours. An upgrade will also keep your account from interfering with other accounts on the same server, which can cause an entirely different set of issues.
3. Direct Server Access
Developers often need direct root access to the server, but this isn’t an option with shared hosting. Most hosting companies don’t allow root access because they need to make sure shared servers remain stable. However, with an upgrade to VPS or dedicated hosting, you can gain the access you need to experiment with extra software.
4. Designer/Developer Growth
If you run a web design or development company, you may need to expand your hosting as your client-base expands. VPS and dedicated server options allow you to add more domains, usually unlimited, and provide the resources your clients need. Most companies also give you access to WHM or Web Host Manager, which allows you to give your clients their own cPanel, while controlling the account from your server.
5. High Traffic Numbers
Shared hosting is a great place to start and VPS hosting is the next step. However, if you start to see large traffic numbers, shared hosting may not be able to support your site anymore. This can also happen with VPS hosting and you may need to graduate to dedicated server hosting.
6. Added Security
Any business running an ecommerce site that processes a large amount of credit cards online or stores sensitive information needs a dedicated server. This is the only type of hosting offering the highest level of security, which provides your customers peace of mind they desperately need.
Upgrading to a new hosting account is usually easy, especially if you’ve chosen a company offering shared, VPS and dedicated hosting options. It will come with a larger monthly fee, but in most cases, it’s well worth the extra cost.
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