When To Upgrade?

[linker]

When do you need to upgrade from shared hosting to a VPS hosting or even a dedicated server hosting? Do you usually upgrade with the same company where you applied for the shared hosting service?

[trying hard]

When you have generated a good lead in your ranks, I think that is the right time to do it. I'd rather stay with the same company with an upgrade.

[Webguy]

As your site begins to gain popularity and you see hits growing by the thousands each day, it's time to consider moving to a dedicated server.  If you're happy with your current company, I'd upgrade with that company.

[dave]

It is generally a good idea to upgrade before you are in a situation where you desperately need to upgrade. There are a lot of factors involved but if you need a non-standard configuration or your traffic has grown to the point where your site is no longer appropriate for shared hosting then it is time to upgrade.

[Webguy]

Dave, is there a certain threshold you would recommend?  How many hits per day would it take before you start thinking about upgrading?  It sounds like you want to be ahead of the curve on this one and not reacting when it's too late.

[dave]

The problem with trying to gauge this is that all software is different and responds to larger amounts of traffic in different ways.

Example:
Vbulletin Forum with VBSEO at 100 active concurrent users will utilize a lot of cpu.

SMF Forum at 100 active concurrent users does not drive the load on a server up significantly. However if you have a shoutbox setup or other plugins it might drive the cpu utilization up.

There is no way to predict how bad this will be until you try it.

[linker]

Thanks again for the answer dave. You are correct about the heavy traffic as a sign to upgrade.

Now if I want to upgrade, which is the best to go to, VPS or Dedicated? I know the difference but I want to know your standpoint as the web host provider.

[dave]

I would suggest a VPS for anyone looking to upgrade from shared hosting. It's scalable and portable which gives you the best of both worlds.

We recently virtualized all of our shared hosting servers because it allows us to offer a safer and better performing environment for our customers.

[annamae]

My brother just upgraded his business site to VPS from a shared server and is very pleased with it.  He had looked at both VPS and felt that VPS offered a format that was easier to work with.

[Gill85]

If you're satisfied with the company you're currently with then I'd definitely stick with them on their more advanced plan. As for anticipating the upgrade, it depends on your traffic and your website's resources. Like someone pointed out before, certain mods./plugins use a lot of resources yet will function fine if only a few users are on your website but once a lot are on you'll start to notice performance loss and even account suspension if it got too bad so you should monitor resource usage with your current traffic and estimate when the time is right to upgrade.