To make your website live on the internet, you need to host it on a web server. As soon as you are done with website designing and development jobs, you have to find a website hosting plan that is suitable to your needs.

The 2 most common options for website hosting are:

1. Dedicated web hosting
2. Shared web hosting

However, VDS or, Virtual Dedicated Server is a lesser known third alternative. Virtual hosting stands somewhere in between dedicated and shared web hosting. As a result it offers the flexibility of dedicated hosting at a price closer to shared hosting!

What is Virtual Hosting - An Overview:

This hosting technology gives you the impression of dedicated hosting, when it is not fully dedicated. Users get the experience of managed hosting at a much lower cost than standard dedicated web hosting.

A lot of people go for shared hosting because of the price. However, as you share the server with others, you are not offered the full control over the resources that you would have with a dedicated plan. Shared hosting does not allow users to install software or hardware of their own choice - for this you need to either shift to dedicated server or a different shared hosting plan that has the technical features you prefer.

Now, the costs involved mean that dedicated web hosting is not always suitable for every businesses needs. Small business owners or those who have recently started an online business may not be able to afford buying dedicated server space initially.

Virtual Dedicated Server packages become useful at this stage. VDS plans offer full root access and users are given total control over the environment. So, you can install software, hardware and plug-ins as per your needs without any obstacles.

How Virtual Hosting is different from Dedicated Web Hosting?

Though you get total control over the hosting environment, VDS is still a shared hosting package. Unlike fully fledged shared hosting plans, under VDS users get full control over the resources allocated to them.

Key features of Virtual Dedicated Server:

Control over the environment:

As discussed before, VDS allows users utilize the allocated resources according to their own choice. Users can install applications and software according to their requirements.

Flexibility of usage:

Users can manage settings and configurations on the web server. This helps webmasters secure smooth and uninterrupted online operations.

Secured hosting:

On VDS you do not need to share configuration files and other resources with anyone else. Therefore, chances of hacking or any other security breach are reduced.

Simply put, VDS plans offer managed web hosting solutions for webmasters and small business owners at a rate that even a start-up should find easy to afford.

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