What's the Difference?

First and foremost, the difference is in the name. Virtual Dedicated Servers are not, in fact, complete physical machines that are dedicated to a single customer. Instead, they are a set of resources on a given server that are virtually dedicated to a single customer. In plain English, we break up a single server into pieces, and effectively treat each piece as a distinct server.

The Advantages

The most obvious advantage of using Virtual Dedicated Servers is the cost. With a signifcantly lower setup fee (only $100) and monthly costs as low as $50, users can enjoy many of the benefits of dedicated servers without the same required capital.

Such benefits include enhanced security and firewall protection, PCI Compliance, increased capacity, "root" access for clients wishing to do custom development or host custom applications, and, in most cases, better performance and load times.

The Disadvantages 

So what's the catch? Since Virtual Dedicated Servers have less resources available to them, they will not perform as well as a true dedicated server during high load times. In most cases, however, the available resources are more than enough for standard web traffic.

Is it for me?

While they are an excellent solution for most clients, Virtual Dedicated Servers aren't the right fit for everyone. Resource heavy applications or extremely high traffic web sites should always be hosted on a true dedicated machine. However, most clients can greatly appreciate the benefits of Virtual Dedicated Servers. If you can answer yes to any of the following questions, please Contact Us about our Virtual Dedicated Servers.

• Do you accept credit cards on your website?
• Do your website visitors provide some kind of username and/or  password information?
• Do you need to be able to compile and/or install software on your server?
• Do you need more drive space?
• Do you have a low-end hosting plan and want a faster, bigger website?
• Do you store any kind of sensitive information? (addresses, birth dates, license numbers, etc.)