Joomla! Forum - community, help and support

I run a dozen websites on a reseller account. I have thought of moving to a Virtual Private Server.  I know VPS allows  superuser-level access to the machine. I'd be happy to hear from people who have used both and can possibly compare the pros and cons.

Thank you

There really is not all that much difference between the two with the exception of configuration.
both are shared servers with other site traffic affecting the machine. It is merely a difference of how the accounts are handled. Personally all shared hosting should be done as a VPS if for no other reason that it makes the security issues for the end user much easier to deal with!

And a VPS varies depending on who you get it from...
If the ISP that is offerring it is a major pipe player (such as a Globix) then a VPS is pretty much the same as a dedicated server because the bandwidth available in the backend is so high that rarely will your siter be affected by the other clients.

But if you get one at Bob's ISP he may not have the bandwidth at his NOC to handle the traffic of all his clients reducing performance and slowing down the response of your site.

Some VPS' are configured using clusters which are banks of servers set up to handle each request which will maintain the performance of a dedicated server despite the fact that many clients will also be sending traffic through them.

So it's hard to say what the actual difference is as it depends on who it is your getting the service from.

All in all it is better to avoid a reseller as there is no need for the middleman....
If he can make money renting that server space from someone then you can go to that someone as well and get the better price...

Thank you Asphyx. Are there any VPS providers that you can recommend?

Not really sorry...

Most of my work is done on dedicated as I like the ability to secure it and have complete control.

I do tend to stay away from the smaller companies (for no really good reason) simply because the bigger companies have better support staff and usually have better NOC control and backup.

If you are just starting out and don't have a lot of traffic to contend with I would even suggest doing it in house until the traffic gets such that it pays to buy into the better service.

The biggest overhead for a website is it's connectivity and why pay for connectivity you may not need yet...

IE: you wouldn't go rent a oc129 pipe if you were only getting 100 hits a month...doesn't pay?
By the same token why pay $100 a month to rent server space when all your going to make off that is $25 a month on your traffic?

Better to keep your costs low at first until you know your getting too much traffic for the current service.
It is easy and takes no more than a day or two to get the upgrade and transfer the site over to a better server once you find you need the better capability!

Biggest mistake Web startups make is overestimating how much traffic they are going to get and blow all their startup money on infrastructure they can't possible use yet.

Save that money and put it towards promotion and when the site starts generating enough funds to warrant the upgrade at least you know the site is paying it's own way.

To set up in house all you need is any decent server (1ghz proc or better plus a gig of Ram) and a static IP....(you can even do some things with a dynamic IP but I don't suggest it)
throw a good distro of Linux on it and your good to go...

You get all the benefits of a dedicated server and the monthly bandwidth costs are minimal...you can een use your home connection to do this if you have DSL or Cable service with the right provider..

Just remember though -

With the reseller account the server will be fully managed by your provider. With a VPS plan unless it comes with proactive management you will need to take over some of these systems administration roles.

- Chris

darkchild wrote: I run a dozen websites on a reseller account. I have thought of moving to a Virtual Private Server.  I know VPS allows  superuser-level access to the machine. I'd be happy to hear from people who have used both and can possibly compare the pros and cons.

You will have more control over a VPS than with a reseller account. For one thing, you have full root access -- you can install practically anything you want (SVN, server monitoring scripts, specific versions of PHP, etc.).

The biggest disadvantage of a reseller account is that you are sharing your resources with other resellers on the same server. This is a disadvantage if one of the users run a high-traffic forum, for example. (With a VPS, you have a guaranteed minimum RAM and a burst RAM.)

If you head over to webhostingtalk.com, there are hundreds of resources there on VPS vs shared hosting/reseller accounts.

I found out it was time to go thru the VPS route when our provider shut down one of our websites (because of high CPU usage). I would've stayed on with my reseller account otherwise.

The VPS is a more prefered one if you need the power of the server more, it is more secure(in some cases not) and reliable.
But do not forget you are also sharing the same server with other people too and you do not have a chance to choose them.

I have VPS space from West Host on one of their reseller. I've not had any problems with them. Although, I do have a shopping cart application that I have used for some clients that will not run on their servers (I don't remember why...not pertinent here), so I keep them on a shared hosting environment.

And West Host is not bad expensive, either. Looking at their reseller plans, I see their prices now range from $26 per month to $150 per month (if paid annually). And a couple of times they have upped my storage and bandwidth automatically for the same price.

My only complaint with them used to be the spam filtering, but they have also improved that. Now, they have SpamAssassin and are going to start implementing greylisting (as they call it).

HTH!

VPS is better, i have a both, and VPS better. I use in one of my free hosting forum. User posting to get host

what i like about having a reseller account is everything is taken care of i'll i have to do is advertise they deal with the customer questions and all that jazz