Every website needs a home. The question is: what kind of home does it need? Just like homeowners may need extra rooms as they think of the future pattern of tiny feet, new businesses could quickly outgrow their allocation of resources with shared hosting and need to expand.

Many businesses will need powerful hosting from the start, while others will have expanded beyond their initial hosting arrangement and are looking for the next stage. They will likely choose either a VPS (Virtual Private Server) or Dedicated server hosting package, but deciding which is best for their needs is not always as simple as it seems.

In this article, we will make the VPS vs. Dedicated server distinction, weigh the pros and cons of each of these hosting types, and help you work out which is best for your web project.

What is VPS Hosting?

Virtual private servers offer a type of hosting that sits somewhere between shared hosting and having your own dedicated server. The server that you use is shared between other users (like shared hosting), but it is divided using virtualization software. This means each user effectively has their own virtual server, with their own resources and environment, but the physical server is divided and shared.

When you have a VPS plan, the number of users you are sharing with is much lower than when you choose Shared Hosting. VPS Hosting also provides you with root access, the choice of operating system (OS), and complete control of your virtual server.

There is also the option for your VPS Hosting provider to host you using either cloud hosting or a traditional server. Find out more about the differences between traditional VPS and cloud hosting.

What is Dedicated Hosting?

This is, quite simply, when you have the entire server to yourself. With a Dedicated server, you have more space and resources, as well as complete control over the setup, management, and configuration.

If VPS Hosting can be seen as owning an apartment in a building with other tenants, then Dedicated Hosting is having your own house.

For everything you need to know, take a look at this Dedicated Hosting guide.

How Dedicated Hosting and VPS Hosting compare

When choosing a VPS or Dedicated server, you will see that the differences between the two hosting types make them suited to users with different needs.

With a Dedicated server, you will have more hardware power as well as a higher degree of flexibility. Dedicated Hosting also enables improved resource isolation because you are the sole owner of the server. With VPS, the isolation is virtual, so there may be several other virtual machines on the same server node.

Managed vs. unmanaged hosting

With VPS and Dedicated hosting, you can choose whether your servers are managed or unmanaged. When you have managed hosting, the provider will take on certain responsibilities and services so the user doesn’t have to. With unmanaged hosting the user has more responsibilities, which can be better suited to those with advanced server administration skills. These users will have the extra control of root access, creating a custom environment, and choosing the firewalls, monitoring software, and other tools that may be needed.

While some providers sell managed products separately, others sell them as optional add-ons.

Namecheap offers three levels of management and additional ad hoc support as needed. We also sell server management as an add-on at an extra price. Alternatively, we offer a managed service at an additional total cost of your subscription.

You can find out more about Namecheap’s VPS management options in this article.

VPS Hosting vs. Dedicated Hosting: Pros and Cons

When comparing two products, it’s always good to look at the individual features to see how they match up. Here we have focused on six of the main factors affecting the hosting-type decision.

Resource allocation

Dedicated servers generally come with more power. You can notice this when you look at the following server specs:

• Core count
• Bandwidth
• CPU
• Storage
• RAM

Naturally, the specs vary with each individual provider, but in most cases, Dedicated servers have a greater capacity in comparison to VPS servers.

Security

First, VPS and Dedicated servers are very flexible in terms of security. They both provide you with the control to install and configure any security tooling, or the hosting provider may already have it installed as part of the management plan.

However, unlike VPS users, Dedicated server users are not at risk of being hacked by their node neighbors, which puts them at a slight advantage.

But security shouldn’t be a deal-breaker for users on VPS, who can secure their servers so their server neighbors may pose less of a risk. Similarly, Dedicated Hosting users are also exposed to external attacks if they do not look after important security measures, such as anti-malware, logging, and a firewall.

Performance

The performance of a server will depend on the following criteria:

• Configuration
• Server optimization
• The software and licenses that are used for server optimization and the ability of the system admin that set up the server and its components
• The specifics of the project that is running on the server

For small projects, there could potentially be no difference in performance when comparing a Dedicated server vs. VPS server, provided that everything is set up the same way. But performance results may vary when there are differences in the setup or resource consumption, such as when the project is too large for a Virtual Private Server and therefore isn’t able to perform as effectively.

Configuration and customization

Dedicated Hosting usually offers a greater range of plans, as well as more flexibility in the use of operating systems. With VPS Hosting it is sometimes the case that you can only install the OS from a limited number of templates. Dedicated Hosting also usually offers more hardware control and the ability to include more server optimization solutions, due to a greater resource capacity.

However, additional resource adjustments with a Dedicated server are somewhat limited as upgrades are more difficult.

Scalability

There are more options for upgrading your resources or plans when you have VPS Hosting. With Dedicated Hosting, however, any upgrades will usually mean purchasing a new server, which is a more complicated process.

Price

If you want to have a server all to yourself, then you need to pay for the privilege. Dedicated Hosting does not just cost more, but also there are the additional costs of extra licenses. Things like a control panel and firewall are more expensive for a Dedicated server.

Namecheap VPS vs. Dedicated Hosting

Here is a summary of the pros and cons of the VPS and Dedicated Hosting products we offer at Namecheap. This breakdown of the difference between a dedicated server and VPS may vary with other hosting providers.

VPS

Dedicated

Should you choose VPS or Dedicated Hosting?

Whether a Virtual Private Server vs. Dedicated server is better for your needs depends on the specific needs of your project or business.

Reasons to choose VPS Hosting

Perhaps you require the control of having root access, but you cannot be quite sure how many resources you will need. This could be the case for those who run a small personal or educational project. Then it may be a good idea to go with VPS.

You can find more reasons to choose VPS Hosting in this article.

Reasons to choose Dedicated Hosting

VPS may also include Root access, but with Dedicated hosting, you will be able to configure security to the highest level. You should go for a Dedicated server for your project if the following are true:

1. You require more power. You may find that the required specifications (RAM, storage, bandwidth, etc.) for your project are not typically offered with VPS plans. This may be the case if you run resource-extensive projects, in such things as gaming, video streaming, e-commerce, popular news resources, or other websites with huge traffic spikes.
2. Your project requires a completely isolated environment. This could include your internal business infrastructure, a testing sandbox, or compliance with certain security certifications.

Have we helped you make a decision?

Your choice of server type can make all the difference for your website hosting. Are you ready to take on the extra responsibilities of a dedicated server — and do you really need all the extra resources? Can you predict how your project is going to grow and are you able to factor in the scalability you will need? How important are price and security to you? The answers to these questions are not always completely clear. This is why the planning and review stages are crucial in the decision-making process.

Whichever you decide to go for, it’s good to know that every type of hosting can be found in the same place. Namecheap has a wide selection of Hosting plans so you will always find the one that meets the needs of your project.

In June 2022, an exciting new aspect of WordPress themes was launched through a plugin that enables easier access for all. The Create Block Theme plugin lets users create a child theme or a whole new block theme entirely – fully allowing creativity and curiosity.

Creativity Diversified

The plugin is very accessible, giving everyone creative control.

It’s been designed to complement the existing tools in the Site Editor to build a theme using it. The editor contains different elements of blocks, each block representing a different type of content.

Minimal to no coding skills are required, so users can customize the theme via the WordPress Site Editor and quickly export it.

Here’s the Flow

Below is a step-by-step guide on how to install and use the plugin.

1. Install and activate Create Block Theme and Gutenberg plugins.
2. Activate a block theme like the default Twenty Twenty-Two.
3. Open the Site Editor by navigating to Appearance -> Editor and start customizing the theme and the templates.

Alt-text WordPress Site Editor Home Page

4. Open the Create Block Theme plugin panel by navigating to Appearance -> Create Block Theme. Select one of the options and click Export theme to download its .zip file.

Alt-text WordPress Create Block Theme Options Page

Eventual Integration for All

There are high hopes for the plugin. WordPress is also encouraging contributors to submit their own Block Themes. This will allow the WordPress theme repository to grow.

Have you used the Create Block Theme plugin? Let us know what you think about it in the comment section below!

As a hosting provider and domain registrar, Hostinger aims to help online business owners and independent contractors succeed with their websites.

Choosing a domain name is very important when building your online presence. Besides serving as an address for users to visit your site, it’s also an essential branding element, shaping how your target audience sees your business.

That’s why we’ve identified the most significant trends and developments in the domain name industry. We’ll cover which top-level domains (TLDs) are most popular and which ones are emerging.

Most importantly, we’ll answer whether it is essential to have a .com URL for your website.

Table of Contents

Research has shown that .com remains the strongest contender among all TLDs.

As of June 2022, 52.8% of the internet use .com domains – far more than other generic top-level domains (gTLDs). For comparison, .orgwhich is the second most popular gTLD, only makes up around 4.4% of all registered domain names.

To better illustrate the massive market, Verisign reports that over 161.3 million .com domain names have been registered as of the first quarter of 2022. That’s more than eight times the number of domains using .cnChina’s country-code top-level domain (ccTLD).

.com itself stands for commercial, as it is intended to represent business entities.

That said, according to Dataprovider.com, 33% of websites that use .com domains are content publications. The second largest share belongs to business sites at 24%, while eCommerce stores account for 4%.

According to InternetX’s 2022 Global Domain Report, legacy gTLDs like .com, .net, .org, .bizand .info make up more than half of all registered domains on the world wide web.

While these older domain extensions dominate the industry, new gTLDs are expanding the TLD market.

Our data reveals that .online and .xyz are two of the most registered top-level domains at Hostinger after .com. This trend has been consistent since August 2021.

At the beginning of 2022, all new gTLDs made up around 7.5% of all websites. Today, .xyz is leading the pack with over 4.8 million registered domains.

Although the combined market share of all new gTLDs is small in comparison .comnewer gTLDs have a much more significant year-on-year growth.

For instance, .xyz registrations rose 23.5% last year, whereas .shop saw a 31.4%. growth Contrast this to .comwhich only grew by 4.5%.

All of this reveals a vital trend – while .com is still the market leader, the number of available and attractive domain names with this ending is running out. This has led website owners to look for alternative gTLDs.

The Growth of ccTLDs and geoTLDs

A country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) represents a country code, like how .us signifies the United States. It’s a popular alternative if you’re building an online presence in a specific region or your desired .com domain name is unavailable.

As of June 2022, the most popular ccTLD was .tk for Tokelau, with over 26 million registered domains. Interestingly, the island only has a population of less than fifteen hundred.

The rest of the domain extensions that top the list are from Europe, like .de, .uk, .ruand .nl. This trend signifies the prevalence of ccTLDs in the continent compared to the rest of the world – so much so that they account for 61% of domain registrations in the region.

Although ccTLDs are intended to denote a specific country, many of them have grown beyond their original function. For instance, .iothe domain extension for British Indian Ocean Territory, has become popular among tech companies.

.co, which stands for Colombia, is a widely-used .com alternative. In fact, the sales volume for .co domains has doubled during the pandemic, starting from $800,000 in 2020 to almost $1.5 million in 2021.

In recent years, we’ve also seen a rise in geoTLDs – a category of domain extensions linked with geographical or cultural communities.

Some examples are cityTLDs, like .tokyo, .nyc, .berlinand .london. They’re ideal for small businesses and establishments that want to build their brand and attract customers in the area. Reportedly, Japan has the largest share of business and eCommerce sites that use cityTLDs.

How Crucial Is a .com Domain?

In our buying a domain name tutorial, we explain that the right name could boost brand awareness, establish visitor trust, and make it easier to find you online.

Choosing a TLD that is short, easy to remember, and relevant to your niche will help you achieve these goals.

From a memorability standpoint, .com has become top-of-mind. Growth Badger’s survey results show that users can recall .com domains 44% more correctly than those with other TLDs. .co is second most memorable at 33%with .org trailing at 32%.

When it comes to credibility,com wins with a rating of 3.5 on a scale of 1 to 5. .co andorg are again second and third, rated 3.4 and 3.3, respectively.

It’s clear that .com still immensely helps to establish a credible online presence. It’s concise, familiar, and highly versatile – virtually any website can use it.

That said, a .com domain is pricier – it starts at around $8.99/year. This is much more expensive than newer gTLDs, costing as little as $0.99/year. .com prices are going to increase by almost 7%, too, due to recent agreements between the US government and Verisign.

Paired with the fact that the .com market has become highly competitive, aspiring website owners will have to consider buying domain name alternatives.

Use domain name generators. They can come up with multiple name options that sound close to the one you want the most.

Secondly, consider buying other TLDs. If you want the same level of familiarity as .com and don’t mind paying more, .net is a good choice. Otherwise, try new gTLDs like .xyz, .online, and .site, which are cheaper but just as versatile.

More TLD Trends to Watch Out For

Here are some other trends that may rock the domain industry in the near future:

• Based on Sedo’s top searched keywords in 2022, terms related to NFT, cryptocurrency, and the Metaverse are highly popular. Since these industries may keep getting bigger, we can expect to see this trend continue.
• Google Registry released the .day TLD in early 2022 to celebrate national holidays and raise awareness of important issues. Many large organizations have registered a .day domain for their causes, like Comic Relief for rednose.day.
• Since March 2022, Australia’s ccTLD .au has been available to register as a direct domain name – such as example.au. Previously, users could only purchase it as a second-level domain. Only people with verified connections with the country could own this TLD.

Key Takeaways

When choosing a domain ending, think about your website’s long-term goals.

Getting a .com domain may be worth it if you plan to grow your business in the future.

For the new gTLDs, competing with .com will be tough. On the other hand, they are a great way to establish a unique identity. Furthermore, with .com domains running low, it’s safe to say people will gradually become more familiar with these domain endings.

ICANN published a report on gTLD application procedures, stirring rumors that they will open submissions for new domain extensions soon.

In any case, we can expect to see even more domain endings for various niches down the line. While they may not have a significant domain market share, they have the potential to become major players in the internet landscape of the future.