For your business to thrive successfully online, it is important to have background knowledge of what a virtual private server VPS for small businesses in Nigeria is all about. Before I proceed into the nitty gritty of what it is, it is pertinent for you to give a genuine answer to the questions below.
Do you own a small business? Do you wish to increase the visibility of your business online? or do you want to know what a Virtual Private Server really is?
Are you interested in hosting a virtual private server for your small business?
Have you made your choice on the type of Virtual Private Server for your small business?
If this sounds like you then keep reading as this article will expose you to the various Virtual Private Servers (VPS) hosting for small online businesses.
Meaning of VPS Hosting?
This refers to a platform that mimics a dedicated server hosting environment but within a shared server. It is a popular choice for business today because it is more affordable than having a dedicated server and is more secure than shared server hosting. VPS hosting gives small businesses access to more resources than shared hosting, thereby allowing you to scale the resources as your website grows.
It also comes with many potential benefits like better reliability, superior security, improved performance and uptime guarantee, etc. All of that is vital to stay competitive in any industry. What’s more, you can also get root access to the Virtual Private Server, making it simpler to install the required applications or make server environment changes to suit your needs.
Types of VPS Hosting for small business in Nigeria
- Managed VPS hosting refers to a VPS that is pre-loaded with a control panel, and critical software already installed.
Most hosting companies offer additional management services on top of this hosting stack, so even non-experts can enjoy the benefits of private hosting.
- Unmanaged VPS: hosting is generally cheaper than managed because you get a bare minimum of hosted services with your package. You get an operating system and a text-based terminal, that’s it. For some do-it-yourself users, this is a good way to save costs and enjoy more freedom. But for most users, the managed approach is worth the extra costs.
Benefits of VPS Hosting for Small Business in Nigeria
It is an excellent choice for programmers, SaaS providers, game developers, or businesses that require more resources than those provided by a shared hosting service. Moreover, it is the go-to option for companies, which need a more secure environment for their business applications but do not have the resources to go for dedicated server hosting. No matter the reason for choosing VPS hosting, it will bring the following benefits to the table.
1. Improved Performance
In a shared hosting environment, multiple users share the resources offered by the same server, which can take a toll on your performance. When you choose VPS hosting, it gives you dedicated resources for your business as per your requirements by partitioning the server into small virtual environments that mimic a dedicated server.
Furthermore, it means that you will not have to share any processing power or bandwidth with another user, which helps increase performance. Apart from boosting performance, it also helps avoid functionality problems when your website gets high traffic levels.
2. More Control
It offers you access to your root environment, which means that you can install applications and services to the server to meet your unique needs on the go. With root access, you will not have to rely on the hosting provider to install necessary software apps or make changes within the server environment whenever required.
In addition, you can remove unsupported software from the server partition that you think can create security concerns for your business.
3. Better Scalability
VPS server hosting allows you to scale the resources as and when needed. This is especially beneficial for businesses that cannot predict the amount of traffic their websites will receive. As your business expands, you will need a server that can accommodate your growing needs.
4. Increased Savings
One of the most remarkable benefits is that it allows you to explore the features of a dedicated server without having to break the bank for that. It is essentially a shared environment with virtual partitions that keep your business isolated from others on the server. With dedicated resources, better security, privacy, and scalability options, VPS is the most cost-effective hosting platform out there today.
5. Lower cost of ownership
The arrival of the Internet has released small businesses from the burden of owning and managing their own servers. By renting server computing needs from a VPS service provider, they are able to rent out just the right amount of server computing needs they need.
6. Portability
A common problem of owning physical servers is the portability of the application and the speed with which you can move your application over to another server. A proven benefit of VPS is the portability of applications. VPS accounts are managed as server images by the service provider. Should you decide you need to upgrade or downgrade your server, your provider can move your image to a new server with zero downtime.
8. Security
A common concern shared by all businesses going online is security. This is the main objection of companies when faced with the prospect of outsourcing their server needs to a third party. It allows your source and data files to remain hosted behind a secure partition unavailable to other clients of your service provider.
9. Dynamically scale IT with business
Many businesses are cyclical in nature. Owning your own physical server means that you have provision for growth even before the server is shipped to you. Whereas with a VPS service, you can start as small as your business can afford, and grow as your business expands. An added benefit of this elasticity is the ability to shrink your plan in the event that your business experiences a downturn.
The Cons of VPS Hosting for small business in Nigeria
Even though VPS hosting seems pretty great it’s not the perfect fit for every kind of website owner.
Here are some of the most common reasons people decide not to go with VPS hosting:
1. Prohibitive Pricing
Even though VPS hosting is quite cost-effective, especially with all of the features, the pricing can still be steep for some website owners.
2. Poor Resource Allocation with Low-Quality Hosts
It relies upon proper resource allocation. If you’re using a low-quality host, another site on the same physical server may impact your site, or your site won’t be able to perform at the level you’ve grown used to. However, using a high-quality host should help you easily avoid either of these issues.
Uses of VPS Hosting for small businesses in Nigeria?
Beyond hosting a website, VPS servers have a myriad of other uses. Even if you’re currently happy with your existing hosting plan, you might want to check out the other types of scenarios it provides.
Here are the most common VPS use cases beyond your standard hosting plan:
1. Hosting Your Own Personal Server
There’s a multitude of reasons to run your own server environment, outside of simply hosting your website. A VPS server gives you your own virtual playground for additional online activities.
2. Testing New Applications
If you regularly deploy web applications or test out custom server setups, you’ll need your own server environment to test these things out. But, an entire dedicated server might be too expensive to warrant simple testing.
In this case, a VPS will fit the bill perfectly. This will give you a playground to do whatever you wish without incurring high monthly costs.
3. Additional File Storage
Sometimes, you want to create another backup of your files, but using cloud storage accounts can become expensive. If you want to create secure and easily accessible backups, then consider using a VPS server. Overall, this might end up being cheaper than a cloud hosting account, depending on the overall volume of the files you need stored.
However, keep in mind that not every hosting provider will allow their accounts to be used for pure file storage, so double-check the terms and conditions before you move forward.
Who Should Use VPS (Virtual Private Server) in Nigeria?
- SaaS providers
- Game makers
- Developers or programmers who want to learn more, upload code to the host and ensure security – Does this answer the question ‘As a developer, on what ground do you choose a VPS?’
- With a virtual server, you can freely install all kinds of programming languages to deploy your application.
- Companies have grown beyond the need for shared hosting. This answers the question – ‘What is the right time to switch to VPS?’
- Companies that require a secure and affordable backup environment
- Smaller businesses and medium enterprises need the benefits of a dedicated server but can’t afford dedicated servers.
Does My Business Need VPS Hosting?
There are cases for every type of hosting, so who exactly is VPS hosting for? You should consider VPS hosting if:
- Your business is expanding beyond the constraints of shared hosting.
- You are expecting a substantial increase in site traffic within the next few months. For example, your site is geared toward a new marketing effort or promotional campaign, or if you’re expanding into other markets.
- You might have enough bandwidth to handle a single website, but two, or three? If you plan on hosting several websites in the near future you’re going to need more resources. Similarly, if your current shared hosting account is eating through the help and your host is asking you to consider upgrading, it’s time to consider VPS.
- Your website needs better privacy and performance compared to what’s available with shared hosting.
- You want full control over the server, things like custom configurations, root access and installations unavailable with shared hosting.
Where to get VPS hosting for small businesses in Nigeria
When you want to get VPS hosting, you will get a lot of options out there that can make you confused, therefore, we will show you a reliable hosting company in Nigeria that you can use to buy your hosting.
Truehost is one of the best hosting companies in Nigeria that you can use to buy VPS hosting at an affordable price with excellent features. When you compare the hosting features attached to the prices of the plans with other hosting companies, it becomes obvious to you that they are among the most affordable hosting companies you can find.
Their hosting plan, prices and features are displayed below;
Tcloud 1 (LiteSpeed)
₦ 7000 per month
- 30 GB SSD
- 1 GB RAM
- Unlimited Domains
- Unlimited Emails
- Free SSL
- 1 vCore(s)
- 2.4 GHz
- 1 TB Bandwidth
Tcloud 2 (Litespeed)
₦ 9000 per month
- 60 GB SSD
- 2 GB RAM
- Unlimited Domains
- Unlimited Emails
- Free SSL
- 1 vCore(s)
- 2.4 GHz
- 1 TB Bandwidth
Tcloud 3 (Litespeed)
₦ 15000 per month
- 100 GB SSD
- 4 GB RAM
- Unlimited Domains
- Unlimited Emails
- Free SSL
- 2 Core(s)
- 2.4 GHz
- Unlimited Bandwidth
Conclusion
If you carefully follow through the article, you will discover that the advantages of using VPS hosting outweigh the disadvantages, so if you want to design a website for your small business, you can buy VPS hosting to get started, instead of using shared hosting that has a lot of limitations and constrictions.
Virtual Private Server Hosting FAQs
We will now go over some of the common questions many people have such as “what is VPS hosting used for?”
Is VPS Hosting Worth It? Why VPS Hosting?
Every website will have different needs. With sufficient optimization, an average site with about 25-50 visitors at one time can run well on shared hosting. However, as your site grows to a hundred or even a thousand visitors at a time, a VPS becomes a necessary expenditure.
Is VPS Server Hosting Better Than Shared Hosting?
A VPS provides the perfect middle ground between entry-level shared hosting and the ultimate power of dedicated hosting.
- Load balancing and monitoring traffic between multiple other servers
- Web application firewalling (WAF) traffic to and from another virtual server
