When to make the switch from shared hosting to VPS?

[Officer Cartman]

So we're about to launch a brand new sports forum, and we're anticipating rapid growth based on a number of initiatives that we have in place.

As a newcomer to the forum world (I spent the last 7 years managing high-traffic Wordpress blogs, but I never messed around with forums until now), I've spent the past few weeks reading through the XenForo forums trying to take in as much information as possible.

While I see numerous people say that XenForo can run on a shared host without issue initially, I'm curious about when we'd need to make the move to a VPS. Is there a point where one hits a certain number of users/users online/threads where shared hosting no longer proves reliable, at which point a VPS is needed?

I'd much rather do things right from the get-go rather than deal with a messy migration in a few months if we're going to outgrow things in a hurry. (Unless the host offers automatic migration from shared to VPS, in which case I'm fine with going that route)

But given that this is all new to us, I don't want to throw away money if we're going to be fine on a shared host for a year's time or something like that.

Thanks!

 

[craigiri]

It seems the amount of money you are talking about may be quite small - some VPS setups start at $10 or $20 a month, where shared hosting can start as low as $5.

My suggestion is to start with a smaller VPS (whatever your budget allows - $20-30 can get a decent one) and have it with a host that could upgrade it (RAM, CPU) in place with no delay.

I'd skip the shared hosting....if you are spending a lot of time and energy on the effort it's hard to imagine how $10 or $15 a month in savings is going to help much. Better that you become more familiar with the VPS setup, etc....

 

[TPerry]

If you are already familiar (if you are doing unmanaged) with VPS configuration - I'd go that route as it will allow you more room for expansion later (lots of hosts will set up a VPS with up to 8GB RAM and plenty of drive space). It is a simple matter to upgrade the VPS normally with minimal impact on your site (usually it's due more to the resizing of the partition when you upgrade to allocate the new space - or at least it was with RamNode). If managed it's even simpler - "Hey hosting guy I want to upgrade the VPS to more memory/drive space. Take care of it for me!".

 

[Mike Edge]

Why does everyone think they need to make a switch from shared hosting to a VPS? Shared hosting can be far more powerful then VPS if configured correctly. We host clients with 1k+ online and 2-7mil posts on our shared servers and have been told even our solutions are faster then when they had a $300.00 or more dedi on several occasions. People need to stop believing the VPS hype.

 

[TPerry]

Why does everyone think they need to make a switch from shared hosting to a VPS? Shared hosting can be far more powerful then VPS if configured correctly. We host clients with 1k+ online and 2-7mil posts on our shared servers and have been told even our solutions are faster then when they had a $300.00 or more dedi on several occasions. People need to stop believing the VPS hype.

For me... I like the control that I have. And the watchword is highlighted in your quote.
Are you going to seriously tell me that with a shared hosting solution I have more control over my system than I do with a VPS? Naw - I knew you weren't.
For most people shared hosting will be sufficient. But for a shared hosting that will support the numbers you quote are not your "normal" shared hosting solutions.

 

[Mike Edge]

For me... I like the control that I have. And the watchword is highlighted in your quote.
Are you going to seriously tell me that with a shared hosting solution I have more control over my system than I do with a VPS? Naw - I knew you weren't.
For most people shared hosting will be sufficient. But for a shared hosting that will support the numbers you quote are not your "normal" shared hosting solutions.

He wasn't asking about having more control though Yes, agreed most shared hosts can't handle the numbers we do.. But their are several, me included that can, so it shouldn't always be ruled out to go VPS

 

[TPerry]

He wasn't asking about having more control though Yes, agreed most shared hosts can't handle the numbers we do.. But their are several, me included that can, so it shouldn't always be ruled out to go VPS

Agreed... but usually when you go with a shared host you find out that you can't use stuff like GeoIP in PHP because of the resources it takes and a few other odds and ends that make it nice. That's what originally drove me to a VPS.

And we have to go by what the majority do (which is oversell....oversell....oversell ).

Hosts that provide services like you relate are few and far between.

 

[Sheratan]

Why does everyone think they need to make a switch from shared hosting to a VPS? Shared hosting can be far more powerful then VPS if configured correctly. We host clients with 1k+ online and 2-7mil posts on our shared servers and have been told even our solutions are faster then when they had a $300.00 or more dedi on several occasions. People need to stop believing the VPS hype.

I know a shared host like this. In fact, I am a costumer. They use Litespeed and they shared host is as low as $5-$10

 

[Officer Cartman]

I know a shared host like this. In fact, I am a costumer. They use Litespeed and they shared host is as low as $5-$10

Care to share the hosting company you're with?

And for the record, I'm not at all familiar with VPS's, so I'd probably go with a managed VPS so I wouldn't have to deal with it.. When we outgrew shared hosting for our Wordpress sites, we moved over to Rackspace (then Mosso) and started using their Cloud Site offering. It was a good service at first, but being a usage-based system, it got quite expensive when traffic spikes hit, and there were a slew of other issues that eventually drove us away.

 

[Sheratan]

Care to share the hosting company you're with?

I can, but it's a country based hosting (Indonesia). It will, somehow, useless to anyone who outside Indonesia. But they had US based host too.

 

[Officer Cartman]

Yeah, I guess I should have mentioned that I'm based in the US, as are the majority of our viewers. I see lots of people recommending Nimbus on the forum, but since they're based in the UK that doesn't really help.

 

[Devilwillcry4you]

Yeah, I guess I should have mentioned that I'm based in the US, as are the majority of our viewers. I see lots of people recommending Nimbus on the forum, but since they're based in the UK that doesn't really help.

I'm in the US as well and use shared hosting with out any problems. If you want a suggestion try http://webline-services.com

 

[CountRock]

We moved to VPS from a shared hosting provider.. 3 actually. Mostly performance issues with VB. Overselling is really an issue with most shared hosting providers.