I have a weird problem. I pay about $60 a month for a webhosting account that allows me to host multiple domains, each with its own CPanel. I think it’s called a Reseller Account.
I have several websites that are linked together to form one big CMS, including files from one central site. Everything was working fine until yesterday. All my websites crashed when they upgraded CPanel and/or PHP. Now I can no longer include files between sites, apparently as part of a CPanel upgrade.
So it looked like I’d have to go back to square one and redesign my websites. But someone suggested I check out VPS’s.
So I’d just like to know what the pros and cons are. If I had a VPS, I assume I’d just have one CPanel instead of several. Would I be able to include files between sites, as before? I assume I’d still be able to tinker with each website independently; for example, each site could have its own .htaccess file, right?
If I had just one CPanel, then I assume I couldn’t get statistics for each site, right?
Any other pros and cons you can think of?
Thanks!
P.S. I should add that I’m thinking of upgrading to WordPress or Drupal this summer. Which would be a better platform for those programs?
I don’t know how you were ever able to access files between cPanel accounts using the Reseller functionality. My understanding was that those accounts were distinct. Perhaps I am wrong.
Why are you using the Reseller ability when you can do everything that you need using cPanel’s Addon domain functionality? Are you hosting for multiple clients? Using Addon domains, you can host multiple domains on your account and each separate website can access all the other site’s files as they are all under one parent account.
I’ll address the pros and cons later. I don’t know if this is standard practice, but many VPS plans with cPanel allow you to run one account (one Reseller) or set up a bunch of Reseller accounts as you have now. So you can have one cPanel or several, whatever you wish.
You can do all of that without a VPS and without a Reseller package using Addon domains. Including its own .htaccess.
You can get statistics for each separate Addon domain you have if you have just one cPanel. You do not need a VPS for that. You should be able to have only one Reseller on your current plan and have all the sites residing under that one Reseller as Addon domains.
There are lots of other pros and cons. Under a VPS, you can install custom software and processes. You can use your CPU and RAM for all its worth without worrying about negatively impacting other customers (although some VPS hosts have terms which restrict undue consumption of SAN resources). You can use accelerators, memory caching, and stash data directly in RAM if you want. You can also use current software, compiling it and installing it yourself. Most Linux distributions lag new software by 3 - 5 years. For example, many Linux distributions do not officially support Apache 2.4, making only version 2.2 available in their software repositories. Likewise, as of a few weeks ago some distributions only supported PHP 5.3, which was released in 2009 and goes end of life in three months. So if you want to run current software, you would have to install it yourself and compile it if there are no binaries available (such as with Apache).
There is a lot more you can do on a VPS than on a Reseller on a shared server. But the question is do you need to do those things?
If you have never administered a Linux server before, you are in for a shock at how much you must learn. Using cPanel and a managed VPS, you could get away without knowing much about Linux server administration. It would be similar to what you are doing now and if you needed to update server software for security patches or whatever, you could submit a support ticket and support will do it as long as it is installed by the default VPS image (the OS, the web server, database, PHP, and anything else they installed but not including your own custom programs). That said, you will probably be stuck using Apache 2.2.x and maybe only get as current as PHP 5.4 and MySQL 5.5. If you wanted anything more current, you may have to install it yourself and that may no longer be covered under managed support. Meaning that you will be responsible for keeping the server up and running, installing security updates, ensuring that everything works together, etc.
It depends on how much traffic you get. Wordpress and Drupal are big, bloated scripts. Wordpress will consume in excess of 100 times more server resources per page view than a static HTML page (assuming no Wordpress file caching plugins used). If you are doing serious traffic, any shared hosting is out of the question.
I suggest you look at keeping your current reseller plan and consolidating all your websites under one reseller account using Addon domains before you take any additional steps. You can do what you need to do using Addon domains. I share files like a database class and other files between multiple websites using Addon domains.
You should go with VPS for sure, you will have full control of your server with VPS. Try to check dreamhost they have good reputation for providing reliable hosting services along with 24/7 customer support. <snip>
I have a managed VPS and agree with cheesedude on most points.
You get the space and can fill it with as many websites as you want - for probably less than you are currently paying.
I have a master cpanel ( WHM ) with which I can manage the server and websites.
The managers do whatever they do in the background and I can install whatever I want and if I have any problems they will help me out. They even fix what I break
I can upgrade php, MySQL and I think Apache as well.
I have not tried linking any websites but as you have access to the server you can include files from the server in different websites. For example I have an includes folder and put my includes files for each of my websites in there and I can access them from any website.
It’s better to get a VPS because you can complete access over it and you can get a cPanel license and start hosting either reseller or normal and you also can host multiple domains and see statistics for them separately on the same account using the Addon Domain feature.
vps is safer and more secure, especially if it is a managed dedicated server
yah sometimes it is possible to cheat the reseller web hosting and load 9 domains on one hosting account u just have to be careful when uploading the main domain which contains all the other 9 domains
the other good thing about a dedicated server is that you make the updates yourself if it is necessary
but you need to read up on security as you will be responsible for securing the server
