Managed VPS vs Unmanaged VPS

VPS is an abbreviation for "virtual private server". A VPS works by dividing a physical server into separate virtual machines. Each of these virtual machines, or virtual private servers, operate completely independently from one another. In other words, each VPS has its own operating system as well as allocation of resources like RAM, CPU and disk space. This provides you with an environment that closely mimics that of a Dedicated Server, without the costs associated with it.

There are many advantages to choosing VPS Hosting over competing solutions. These advantanges include:

• Improved Performance & Isolation - You don't share resources with other users meaning your audience will enjoy your enhanced website performance in a VPS environment.
• More Control & Customization - Root access allows you to configure server settings to fully match your hosting needs.
• Cost Effectiveness - You get to experience most of the benefits of a Dedicated Server, without the cost.
• Highly Scalable - As your site becomes more popular, you can also easily increase your VPS' resources to keep up with growth.
• Ability To Host Resource Intensive Software - Some software is not compatible in a Shared Hosting environment as it needs more resources to run properly. A VPS offers those additional resources.

Shared Hosting is likely your starting point when launching a new site because it is the most affordable hosting option. With Shared Hosting, you are hosted on a server where you share the physical resources, like CPU, memory/RAM and disk space, with other users. The primary drawback of Shared Hosting is that it can be relatively inflexible for more advanced users looking for a fully customized server configuration. Also, you can outgrow a shared hosting account as your site becomes more popular and you need a service that can handle the increased traffic. This is when you should consider VPS Hosting.

VPS Hosting is the perfect solution for when you need more power and flexibility than a Shared Hosting account, but are still looking for an affordable hosting solution. Unlike Shared Hosting, you do not share disk space, RAM or CPU with other users. You can almost look at a VPS like having your own "mini" Dedicated Server. This is what makes a VPS a much more powerful hosting solution. Our Unmanaged VPS and Managed VPS solutions also feature full root access giving you the ability to deep dive into your server and customize it to your specific needs. A VPS also allows you to run software more resource intensive software that is unable to run in a Shared Hosting environment.

Of course if you have any questions about which hosting solution to choose our 24/7/365 Guru Crew Support team is standing by to help! Just contact them via live chat, phone or email!

A2 Hosting's Managed VPS Hosting solutions are extremely user-friendly to use! That's because we include the same easy-to-use cPanel control panel, offererd in our Shared Hosting environment, on these VPS accounts. Easily manage your software, websites, databases, files, email and more within the intuitive cPanel graphic interface.

If you are looking for an easy upgrade from your Shared Hosting account and want to continue using an intuitive control panel like cPanel, we recommend that you select a Managed VPS account. Our expert support team can even seamlessly migrate your existing website into a Managed VPS for free!

If, on the other hand, you are an experienced developer who is comfortable working with command line and want root access so you can fully customize your server, an Unmanaged VPS would be a better option for you.

The need to handle increased traffic as your site grows in popularity is probably the main reason why you're considering VPS Hosting. If your website has begun to experience a consistent increase in the number of daily visitors, it is the perfect time for you to consider moving into a VPS Hosting solution.

However, there are a number of additional reasons to consider VPS Hosting including:

• You are running more than one site and you want additional resources to power them.
• You want greater control over your sites' privacy and security.
• You’re have a revenue generating business or e-commerce website.
• You want to run resource intensive software that is not supported on Shared Hosting plans.
• You require root access for your server.
• You want more control over your server and want to configure it to your specific needs.
• You are developing sites for a number of clients.

At A2 Hosting, our motto is "Our Speed, Your Success". That's for good reason too, because we understand that your site's page load speed has a direct impact on your success. Just a 1-second delay in your page load speed can have a severe negative impact on your bounce rate and conversion rate. Even if you're not running an eCommerce site, page speed also is correlated with visitor satisfaction level and your SEO rankings.

Think of the last slow site you visited. You likely hit the back button on your browser before you even finished waiting for the site to load. While there are a number of factors that determine how fast your site will perform, one of the most important determining factors is choice of web host. Choose the fast web host! Choose A2 Hosting!

What is really going to boost the performance of your site is our Turbo Boost option featuring up to 20X faster page loads compared to competing VPS Hosting options. Our Turbo Boost VPS solution:

• Uses less CPU and memory than Apache allowing for increased performance
• Handles your connections faster and more efficiently
• Provides enhanced stability

When you choose our Turbo Servers, you're also going to get the option to use our Turbo Caching solution. Turbo Caching further increases page load speeds by storing the entire HTML contents of your pages in memory. That means your pages can be served without having to run PHP, offering the ultimate performance boost!

Turbo Boost is just one of the features included on our high speed, exclusive SwiftServer platform. Other speed enhancing solutions include:

• SSD VPS - SSD, or solid state drives, is the next generation of hosting technology. Traditional, older hard disk drives (HDDS) use spinning disks and a read-write head to access your data. SSDs, on the other hand, use flash technology to access your data. This allows the SSD to quickly and directly access the data as opposed to waiting for the disk to spin to the location of it. SSD technology is found in smartphones and most laptops now because of its superior performance. In fact, sites hosted on SSDs offer up to 300% faster page loads compared to HDDs. Some VPS hosts claim to offer Solid State Drive Hosting, but they likely end up hosting only your OS or databases on SSDs. They don't use SSD to host your files. At A2 Hosting, we use SSD for everything, including your files, meaning you get the biggest speed boost possible That's why our SSD Hosting loads pages faster than our competition and why even we host our own site on solid state drives. You're going to love them!
• Choice Of Data Center Locations - Another key factor in page load speed is how close your data is located to your visitors. If your data is located on one hemisphere, but your visitor is located on another hemisphere, it's going to take some time for your site to reach your visitor. That's why we offer multiple data center locations allowing your VPS to be located as close to your site visitors as possible.
• Free CDN - At A2 Hosting, you get a free CDN, or content delivery network. While our choice of data centers allows you to host your site close to your visitors, our CDN gets your site to them faster. That's because our CDN determines the most efficient and fastest route to deliver your site from our data center to your visitor. This is done automatically through the use of the CDN's inter-connected, globally located servers.