How Much Traffic Can a VPS Handle?

VPS hosting is a step above shared hosting and is generally used by website owners requiring more server reliability.

But before doing the upgrade, do you know how much traffic can a VPS handle?

This article aims to throw some light on this critical question by covering several aspects to provide you with a better picture of VPS capabilities.

But before that, let’s get deeper into the meaning of VPS hosting for the newbies to the hosting world here.

Virtual Private Server or VPS is a hosting type where virtualization technology is used to create dedicated server environments for different website owners.

It, therefore, offers the experience of dedicated hosting at a much lower cost.

Though, the same physical server is shared between different website owners, the individual virtual servers provide more privacy, security, and stability than a shared hosting solution.

A standard VPS can easily handle 2000-3000 visitors per day if you optimize it well.

However, multiple factors play an important role in determining the true capacity of a VPS to handle website visitors:

• Resources allocated to the VPS
• Type of content you post on the website
• Number of concurrent website visitors
• Types of server requests received
• The time that is taken by the server to process a single request

A well-optimized VPS can also handle 4500-5000 visitors per day on a website with static content.

Similarly, if this traffic is spread throughout the entire day, you can expect even more from your VPS.

You will be curious to know how much traffic can VPS handle and as well as it’s benefits.

VPS hosting offers loads of benefits to the website owners, some of the major ones are listed here:

A VPS is created via virtualization technology that isolates the server environment from the other users.

Unlike shared hosting, your website or application won’t be impacted by other website owners on the same physical server.

Such isolation provides security and privacy to your data since your server neighbors or cyber criminals attacking the neighboring VPS won’t be able to breach your site.

A major advantage of VPS hosting is the easier scaling of resources.

Many VPS hosting providers allow you to quickly scale up or down depending on your current needs.

Your website won’t even experience any downtime or face technical issues during such scaling.

For instance, HostGator offers easy scalability with its VPS plans:

VPS hosting plans come with dedicated server resources that cannot be used by your server neighbors as in the case of shared hosting.

You will receive a fixed amount of memory, CPU, and storage space depending on the plan you choose.

Whether you use these resources fully or partially, they will never be given to other users on the same server.

Such dedicated means ensure greater reliability with zero fluctuation in the resources allocated to you.

So, the traffic surges on other websites created on the same physical server won’t impact your website.

For instance, the Standard VPS plan from Bluehost comes with the following server resources:

Since, you are the owner of your virtual server, you have complete freedom to customize it as per your needs.

You can select the operating system and other apps for your server with the root access you receive from the VPS provider.

It helps you better optimize your website while also securing it.

If, a VPS provider is suitable for another website in the same niche, it does not guarantee that the host will also meet your needs.

And, you need a professional VPS provider to get a proper idea on how much traffic can VPS handle as they give clear stats on everything.

So, you will have to consider a wide variety of factors when finding the right VPS provider:

You will come across two types of VPS, namely managed and unmanaged A fully-managed plan will take care of all the technical aspects of your server.

Your host will be responsible for maintaining the VPS and doing all the necessary updates. It is best for people with limited technical knowledge.

The unmanaged option leaves the technical aspect for you to manage.

It also provides you with the flexibility and control to manage and use your VPS the way you like. It is best for tech-savvy individuals.

When looking for the right VPS provider for your needs, check if the host offers managed or unmanaged VPS plans, depending on your requirements.

Here’s the difference between the managed and unmanaged VPS offered by A2Hosting:

A backup is your best friend when you lose your website data for any reason. Always look for the availability of backups when choosing your VPS host.

Consider checking out the frequency of backups, the possibility to generate an on-demand backup, and ease of restoration as and when needed.

For instance, OVHcloud offers the following backup features with its virtual server:

The reliability of a VPS can be determined by the uptime offered by the host. Server uptime means the duration for which your VPS, and hence website, will be up and running.

More uptime means more reliability.

So, always look for an uptime guarantee of 99.9% or more when selecting a VPS provider for your business website or personal blog.

For instance, DreamHost offers a 100% uptime guarantee with its managed VPS, so you can be sure of your website being online at all times:

When choosing your VPS provider, you must look for the available data center locations with the host.

Selecting a location closest to your target audience helps improve your website speed drastically.

For instance, if your website is targeting a specific region in Australia, look for a VPS in the Australian continent.

Considering the prices of VPS plans offered by different providers is important to remain within your budget.

Choosing the cheapest VPS plan in the market might not be sufficient for your website needs.

So you must make a list of the server resources you require before looking for the features provided by VPS hosts.

Shortlist all the VPS plans that fulfill your needs and then go with the cheapest one, of course, while also considering the other factors discussed above.

Look at the feature and price difference between the two VPS plans offered by Hostinger here:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to optimizing your website for better ranking in different search engine results.

The benefits that come with VPS hosting bear a huge impact on your website SEO.

Let’s understand how certain VPS-related aspects are connected to SEO here:

Google, Bing, and other major search engines prefer to recommend speedy websites in the search results.

Since, nobody wants to wait for a page to load in this fast-moving world.

A VPS comes with faster loading times for your website because of dedicated server resources.

Moreover, you can choose a data center location nearest to your website audience for a further boost in speed.

With dedicated resources and account isolation, VPS hosting leaves a positive impact on your website SEO.

Additionally, it allows you to quickly scale up your resources in the case of a sudden traffic surge, so you can be sure to receive great speed with a VPS and remain relevant for Google and other engines.

Consider checking your website speed at Think With Google here:

Google and other top search engines never recommend websites that are down for long.

These search engines have spiders that crawl the websites regularly to determine several aspects, including your website uptime.

There will be a negative impact on your website SEO if Google finds, through its spiders, that it was down for a considerable period.

The uptime guarantee offered by a VPS positively impacts your SEO since your website is active for the most part.

Since, your website is not affected by other websites on the same server, the online presence of your site remains consistent.

So, a VPS improves the chances of your website being included higher in the search results by providing you with an uptime guarantee and dedicated server resources.

Search engines prefer reliable and safe websites over unreliable and unsafe ones.

If, there is a security threat on your website, Google won’t consider recommending it to its users.

Since, VPS hosting comes with root access, you get full control over the security of your server.

You can improve the reliability and protection of your website by installing third-party apps for server security, closing unused ports, and modifying security configurations for increased protection.

So, the root access provided by a VPS helps in ranking your website higher in the search results of Google and other popular search engines.

Shared hosting is a service in which a single server is allotted to dozens of website owners.

The host does not make isolated environments for different users as it does in the case of VPS hosting.

Apart from the above basic difference between shared and VPS hosting, there are a few more important aspects that draw a line between these two hosting types:

Shared hosting is generally the first step when a person enters the online world.

This is because it is the cheapest hosting type available in the market. And this lowest cost is the biggest advantage of shared hosting.

A VPS is usually an upgrade for a business from a shared hosting plan since it offers more reliability and better security.

So, it comes with a higher price tag than a shared hosting plan.

Let’s compare the starting prices of shared and VPS hosting plans from the same provider, say DreamHost:

The entry-level shared hosting plan from DreamHost starts at just $1.99:

The entry-level VPS hosting plan from DreamHost starts at $10:

Shared hosting exposes your website to several security risks.

Firstly, your data is not isolated from other users on the same server and they can get unauthorized access to your website.

Secondly, if another website on the shared server is infected with malware or attacked by a cyber criminal, the security of your website can also be breached.

A VPS offers much better security with its isolated server environments.

Your website data cannot be accessed by other users on the same physical server because of virtual containerization.

Even, the attackers targeting another user’s website on the same physical server won’t be able to access your virtual instance.

A shared hosting provider cannot provide you with full root access since the shared hosting server is used by quite a lot of users.

Making a change to the server will impact the websites of all these users.

Therefore, it limits your flexibility to adjust server settings as per your website needs. On the other hand, it frees you from all the technical work.

It becomes easy for you to manage your website since the technical aspects of the server are handled by the host.

Talking about VPS hosting, the host provides you with root access to your virtual server.

You can modify the server settings to tune it better with your current requirements and improve the website performance.

Such root access to the server offers full control and flexibility to the users.

However, you must have some technical skills to handle these aspects or go for a managed VPS hosting plan which is costlier than an unmanaged VPS hosting plan.

Here is what GoDaddy offers with its VPS:

VPS hosting is ideal in the following cases:

1. Website owners and businesses that need more server resources than available with shared hosting.
2. When you are running a website or eCommerce store with low to moderate traffic.
3. Businesses that store customer data on their websites.
4. When website speed is one of your primary concerns.
5. Website or business owners handling financial transactions on their websites or eCommerce stores.
6. When you are immensely concerned about the security and reliability of your website or application.
7. Businesses experiencing traffic spikes in the holiday season, launch days, etc.
8. Individuals in the game development business.
9. When you are a programmer or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider and need root access to the server.
10. If your website or eCommerce store is growing fast and requires additional resources from time to time.

A VPS can handle much more traffic than a shared server while also providing you with the much-needed stability for your website.

The exact amount of traffic handled by a virtual server varies greatly even if you have different servers with the same features.

Many external factors and optimization of your VPS contribute towards determining its capability to handle website traffic.

However, you can always scale up your server resources instantly when using a VPS if your website suddenly starts receiving more traffic than expected.