GoDaddy is one of the best in the web hosting business when it comes to value, consistency and customer service, but like most shared hosting accounts, their shared hosting accounts don't give you much control over the server environment. I have used a GoDaddy virtual server for a years now and am extremely pleased with the service and have gained a great deal of confidence and experience administering my own server.
If you have been using a shared hosting account and have gotten to the point where you wish you could install different software on it, host more domains or just have more control over your account, you should consider a virtual dedicated server.
GoDaddy.com offers virtual dedicated servers (as well as dedicated servers) for a competitive fee. They have many different options for configuration of the hardware and performance criteria as well as software options. This article will cover the setup and operation of their economy virtual dedicated server running Fedora linux OS with the Simple Control Panel.
What is a virtual dedicated server?
First, what is a virtual dedicated server? A virtual dedicated server would be the offspring of a shared hosting account and a dedicated server getting busy. In a shared hosting account, many different customers domains and accounts are stored on a single web server. Your performance can vary based on the usage of all the other accounts on the server, and you are given very limited options and access to the server. With a dedicated server, one customer is allotted an entire web server that is used by no one else, and that customer has complete control over that server.
With a virtual dedicated server, you get the same control and administrator access to the server, as well as being able to host numerous domains on it, as you do with a dedicated server. The difference is that there are other accounts hosted on the same physical server. Each account is isolated from the other in that they will all reside on there own partition, isolated from each other and allotted there own storage space, bandwidth, RAM and operating system.
Benefits of a virtual server
The major benefit of a virtual server is that it allows you almost all the features and control of a dedicated server at a much reduced price. Compared to a shared hosting account, it allows administrator access, giving you the ability to install specific software on the server that you might want for your applications, host numerous domains, and has much better performance and configurability.
What do you get with the entry level plan?
GoDaddys "Economy" virtual server plans come with 1 GB of RAM, 15 gigabytes of hard drive space and 500 GB a month of bandwidth (data transfer). You also get to choose between 3 operating systems: Cent OS Linux, Fedora Linux and Windows.
Whats the price?
As of this writing the Economy plan starts at $29.99 for 1-6 month terms, 12 month terms at $27 and 24 month terms at $24. If your needs are higher you can choose to upgrade your bandwidth for the plan or choose from one of 4 more premium plans. Find out more here. I have been just happy with mine and hope to get to the point where my sites are popular enough and get so much that I need to upgrade!