Shared Hosting vs VPS — When to Move and Why

How shared hosting actually works, what breaks first, and the migration moment: CPU caps, IP reputation, plugin bans and the exit path to a root VPS.

Le corps de l'article est en anglais. L'interface, le catalogue et la caisse sont traduits.

How shared hosting works

Hundreds of sites share one OS, one Apache instance and one IP. The price is low because nothing is yours: CPU seconds are capped by a throttler, “unlimited” traffic is policed by fair-use clauses, and a noisy neighbour’s spike becomes your five-hundred errors.

The five moments people move

1. CPU throttling emails — the classic first warning.
2. A security plugin or cron job gets “not allowed on shared”.
3. Email deliverability dies because a neighbour spammed from the shared IP.
4. An update must change server config — impossible without root.
5. The site outgrows the “unlimited” disk because inodes are counted.

What the move looks like

1. Provision a VPS and harden it (keys, firewall, unattended upgrades).
2. Install the stack or a panel; add the site.
3. Migrate content and database, lower DNS TTL, switch the A record.
4. Keep the old account for a rollback window, then cancel.

On NovaVPS the destination has no KYC step and takes crypto — the migration ends the card auto-renewals too. Compare the classes in detail on the storage ranking or the VPS vs dedicated guide.