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Should I move from shared hosting to a cheap vps for my websites? if so how to setup?
lowendguy7
Member
in Help
Is it alot of work to do this and is it worth it? I currently pay £2.49 a month for shared hosting. Soemone told me recently I would be much better off buying a cheap linux vps and hosting myself but didn't go into too much detail on the advantages.
So is it alot of work to do that and what are the benefits?
I have only a couple of small websites used for marketing with a few pages and adsense. With a couple more which just have statcounters which redirect to affiliate offers.
So is it still in my interest to do that?
Comments
Yes, if you don't know a thing about linux and VPS.
No. Learning to setup things from scratch is not worth it if you just want to save $4 a month.
No, unless you get familiar with VPS things.
You learn something new. Learn to be a Sysadmin, Security Analyst, SEO analyst on the server level and Web Master, among others.
A lot of work? Depends on your knowledge with Linux. Should you? If you are struggling with the resources in shared hosting, go for it. It's also a good way to extend your knowledge. Basic Linux is not hard to learn, I was able to learn basic navigation in a couple of weeks. For someone who is not familiar with Linux or does not have the time, I would recommend you stick to shared hosting. You would not have to worry about constantly updating system packages and properly securing your server. This is all assuming you're currently with a decent shared hosting provider.
Yes, if you want to make a living online
Well, if you are asking this question, then DON'T. unless you are having resource issues at your current host, it's not worth learning all that for just 4 bucks a month. You will spend way more on coffee and asprin in a week, than what you will save in a month.
Starting from Mid-January, it took me about 6-10 months to be fully able to launch a server, secure the server, managing mysql for wordpress(basic-intermediate stuff), do SSL, NAT-d vps and configuring the webserver without a control panel.
I initially used shared hosting, then from April serverpilot.io on digitalocean. There's a lot to learn if you come from a windows background. Switching my desktop/laptop to OS to debian also helps. It's a lot better than windblows and wine runs most things, even goodoldgames non-drm games.
I still have no idea about complex mysql tasks and master slave stuff, reverse proxying, load-balancing or ddos protection.
I also assume if you're in your teens, you'd pick this up sooner.
To be a nice "spammer", I'd recommend crashing several virtual servers on digitalocean($10 credit https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=3967733bef28) or vultr($50 for 2 months https://www.vultr.com/freetrial/?ref=6845287).
Installing serverpilot is very simple. All you need is to run their spat-out installer script.
stick with shared hosting unless you- have the time and want to learn how to administer a server
- need more resources
- intend to allocate more budget
- want better performance
Century summed it up perfectly ^
And it probably needs to be a combination of all those things.
My answer was yes until I tried cPanel.
We can install and configure a control panel for you for any VPS plans here: https://www.hetnix.com/he2bill/cart.php?gid=19
Available with DE, UK, NL IPs
If you are trying to cut down your costs, No. But, if you want to move into your own server with full access, yes with CPanel(costs around $13/month).
If you want a cheaper hosting, get a plan from Buyshared.net (ref: https://my.frantech.ca/aff.php?aff=1502), the $5/year can handle a lot of small sites (if space isn't a problem, if so, get the 20GB disk space for $15/y) + use cloudflare with page rules.
If you want to experiment with a VPS, don't start with a NAT, you'll be totally lost, start with DigitalOcean, spin some boxes and follow some LAMP/LEMP tutorials then go for a LE offer (and pick wisely). Don't want to "waste" money experimenting with DO ? wait for http://vpsbit.com/free-vps.php to restock and get yourself a free vps for a month.
hello,
You need skills and it takes time to learn.
The benefits are save money and dedicated ip (that may count for reputation and seo questions).
It can be necesary if you host a certain number of websites and / or if you have a huge website (lots of trafic).
If shared hosting is working for you why change. Id say just buy a cheap VPS for testing purposes but I wouldn't be to quick to jump off the porch with hosting on a VPS especially if you have no problems with shared hosting.
Well I was told to change because I keep getting resources exceeded message like every day now. I thought it was some kind of rogue script someone is running but Im not sure what it is. I dont have alot of traffic so I think it might still be that but someone who is very tech savvy told me to go to my own hosting asap anyway since I do internet marketing so they told me its essential to learn it sooner rather than later.
So on a side note how do I know if some rogue scripts are on my current hosting. There was some php script I had no idea what it was. I had like 10/20 entry processes running constantly and I deleted that and they went to 0 immediately. I left it a few days and no more resource issues but then suddenly they came back getting the emails. I check in the public html and sure enough another php script in the home folder. I deleted that and changed passwords yesterday to really strong ones. But today I got the email again saying resources exceeded. But I looked this time and don;t see the script so I am not sure what to do next?
I asked support what to do and they weren't helpful they just said 'check your resources'. >_<
@lowendguy7 shared hosting using cPanel? your provider did not adequately secure the server
You have your answer then , but give yourself sometime to learn it . Try moving one site at a time to your new setup (you can make use of the host files to test if your domain is working fine on your new server or not).
In the long run , you will have more freedom and better understanding of how things work .
Keep using the shared hosting for now , get a cheap vps , and test on it . Their are so many "For dummy" tutorials to get started with pretty much any Nix server distro (Centos/Debian/ubuntu) .
Just make sure you use the right keywords when searching in google/other search engines.
What exactly do I have to lookup though for the tutorials that are pertinent to my needs? 'running a linux server'?
"Getting started with Debian/Ubuntu/Centos"
"Setting UP LNMP/LEMP stack on Debian/Ubuntu/Centos"
Most providers have automatted OS installation templates , so choose the OS you want to use -- Debian and Ubuntu have a lower learning curve compared to Centos.
For debian -
Since you are just getting started , some points that might be of help to you
Avoid apache , use nginx + php-fpm only
Use Mariadb instead of Mysql
Bookmark
http://stackoverflow.com/
http://superuser.com/
they are pretty much the same thing except apt-get and yum
I find Debian to be more newbie friendly compared to Centos , since debian has a wider repo support.
I use Centos myself for the most part , mainly cuz i am so used to it now . But if i were to recommend a linux distro for servers to anyone just getting started , it would be debian .
I'm so happy I left shared hosting for running my own servers because I'm able to setup everything exactly how I want it and the performance is A LOT better then what I was getting at most shared hosts.
It takes some time to learn but you'll be thankful you did in the long wrong (especially if your websites are important to you) plus it's a lot of fun...I'm addicted to buying new servers now.
Couldn't agree more. I can't forget all the time I wasted with shared hosting support on bluehost because I couldn't do simple things.
Plus, such support is mostly useless. When they send the question to someone else, you get a negative reply or you solve your issues.
It all depends on how much you want to get out of it. My suggestion is to do what it takes to drop 10 Euros a year on a BudgetVZ 1GB VPS and learn all you can. Learn how to harden the VPS, how to install Apache2, PHP, MySQL, and whatever else you plan to use. If you screw it up, just rebuild it!
I'm using two of these for several personal Dokuwiki Web sites and for general Linux learning. Would I use it for paying clients? Probably not, but so far it has been exceptionally stable and easy to work with.
My advice to you move immediately
take cheap VPS e.g 128mb and install Nginx+php5-fpm+Mysql complete guide Here this for lighthttp tutorial for OS i always prefer Debian 32bit due it low memory usage and big support community .
Would be a good option right but he would need some linux experience.
@lowendguy7 check your provider whether you use suPHP or mod_ruid2 for your Apache. If you use either of them, the possibility of your neighbor breach into your folder is low.
If you use WP, check what plugins/themes you are using, and google for any vulnerability or breach to that plugins/themes. (If you get it from a nulled site, most probably your plugins/themes is already tampered with backdoor).
Check your http log and write down the IP that access your web page and check it against http://www.abuseipdb.com or other ipchecker i.e https://cleantalk.org/blacklists/
If you found out the IPs came from badbots and spammer, block them in your .htaccess file. (if you have a VPS you can block bad robots using IPTables).
Check your log every 2 weeks as there always be new bad robots appear now and then.
The robot that visit your site might be e-mail bot, referrer spam bot, wpbrute bot, sshbrute bot, content scraper bot, and many more.
As a webmaster you should learn how to do this in a shared hosting environment.
@lowendguy7 If you use buyshared, they will give you a dedicated IP for cheap reseller plan, and you can enable cloudflare from their cPanel.
I do have some experience with using linux/centos in the past couple of weeks since I got a vps to run python scripts and had to setup all the repo junk
. It has been pretty easy to pick up so far. If I don't get resource issues again now I might put off moving all sites to a server because I want to keep focusing on coding rather than spending all my time on setting up servers when I don't have to. Gotta prioritise my time.
I guess at this stage I would prefer to put it off since I don't see any huge benefits in my position at the moment and I certainly haven't expended my options with trying to root out the problem on my shared hosting.
Thanks for all the good info though it has given me some things to think about and a better idea of what is in store if/when I do decdie to take the plunge.