Pros and Cons of VPS hosting

Pros


1. Support. Virtual or VPS servers generally are provided extensive support. This provides an added security should you need help. This support is generally provided at no additional charge to the client of most hosting providers
2. Security. As you are 'leasing' your 'virtual' or VPS system directly from the hosting providers own infrastructure or backbone these servers tend to be set behind their own firewalls, and are shielded away from curious hackers
3. Flexibility. Virtualised platforms are ideally suited for trial and flexibility. You are able to try a variety of features without the need to sign up to long-term contracts and commitment, and are able to sometimes customize or vary your plan to make arrangements for bandwidth, memory, hard disk or even database access that matches your business needs
4. Instant Upgradeablitiy. You are able to vary the amount of resources such as memory or hardisk space with minimal disruption to your hosted sites assuming that it is using a software based virtualization platform
5. Cost. Virtual hosting is excellent value for medium, smaller companies or even start ups that are on tighter budgets, or that are just trying to minimise their capital commitments and refrain from having to make any significant equipment purchase.

Cons
1. Limitations. At the end of the day you are sharing the servers services with other people, and therefore your customers, in theory, could be competing for resources and your site may have slower server response times during peak periods resulting in your visitors receiving 'Website not responding' type messages as they browse your pages
2. Risks. Your hosting company may not issue you with your own IP address, and thus you may be sharing your IP address with other less scrupulous tenants. Since hosted sites on the same IP addresses are sometimes grouped together this may result in your site being banned from search engines that are actively seeking to remove such sites
3. Control. Under some VPS platforms users share software components. This sharing may result in an inability to configure individual settings independently of other clients that are hosting on the same virtual server.
Allwebnow also has great dedicated hosting solutions.