Semi Dedicated Hosting or VPS
We have multiple choice after website outgrew regular shared web hosting service, like VPS and dedicated server. Several other options are also provided before you have to get a server. Semi dedicated hosting is one of the most popular choice. How is the service being offered? Is it better than VPS or dedicated server hosting?
The term Semi dedicated always guides people to VPS but they work in completely different ways. Following is an indepth comparison between semi dedicated hosting and VPS server.
- Performance. VPS provides better performance since you receive guaranteed server resources. You have full access to configure server end service by your best practice skills. Semi dedicated hosting is completely managed by hosting provider. We just get more server resources to support the extra traffic on website.
- Hosting Features. Semi dedicated hosting brings more features than VPS. A semi dedi service simply works the same way as regular shared server with even more features provided such as separated servers for database, website and email. We also receive extra support for some specific service like dedicated IP and SSL certificate. A VPS server is just a basic server system and we have to configure most stuff by our own.
- Server Access. We don't get server root access for semi dedi hosting but we do for vps server. We only get a hosting control panel via semi dedi service or probably get limited SSH access to server space but it's not possible to get root permission. Instead, we fully control over vps server including OS.
The above difference is caused by the different server configuration. While vps is virtualized from host server, the semi dedi is 100% located on physical server system, no virtualization included. That's the main difference comparing to a vps server. So basically it's a upgrade of shared hosting but with the same management.
Who provides semi dedicated hosting plan? Actually very few hosting providers offer this service nowadays, the semi dedi term was popular in the past. If you're looking for this service for the moment, siteground is the best choice. Their server specification and hosting features are even better than most vps servers.
The siteground Gogeek semi dedicated hosting service is configured on these server specifications: RAID10, SAS HDD, MySQL on separate SSD, 24 CPU cores and many other leading server features. They guarantee 4 times more server resource than regular shared service. They also configured the semi dedicated server for PCI Compliant plus a free SSL for the first year.
Go to siteground and view plan details http://www.siteground.com
Because semi dedicated is an old term, based all its features and advantages, more hosting providers offer similar service on enterprise or business hosting plans. Most of those hosting plans are configured with similar features. They announce to put less customer accounts on server space to generate better performance on customer websites, they also provide extra support such as priority backup and extra bonus for website hosting. The best experience we have for business hosting service is from Arvixe(www.arvixe.com) and we actually use it for the moment. Our website webhostpark is hosted on their business server since 2011. Their server and support people are so far so good in supporting our account. I would highly recommend if someone would like to get better web hosting experience with less problem fixing requests.
Who should use semi dedicated or business hosting?
As we learnt from the service features, it's setup between shared and VPS plans. Means if you have outgrew shared environment but not ready to manage a server by yourself yet, you can choose such semi dedicated hosting because you get further upgrade with no change on management system.
Also, since it's shared by less clients with lots of extra features, it's idea choice for ecommerce applications. Especially when you need online check out from website, performance and security are extremely important for both clients and store owners. Except for the ability to handle extra traffic, semi dedicated hosting is more secure than shared hosting. Even you got account failure for any reason, urgent backup/restore can be provided to make sure you're always online in safe place.