Because it has scalable memory resources that you can adjust anytime you want. Like if I want a guaranteed 4GB memory resources for just 30 minutes, or just one hour, or a whole 24 hours, or a whole month, I can simply set it without contacting the technical support and no reboot required. Monthly charges will be adjusted accordingly based on the adjustments I made.
Like just what happened last December 6. I am maintaining this blog on a guaranteed 227 MB RAM. But because I was expecting a huge traffic due to Pacquiao De La Hoya fight, I adjusted it to 500MB. And when I saw that it might still exceed that limit, I adjusted it again to 1GB RAM. That’s why you didn’t see this blog going down despite 800+ simultaneous visitors. And when the number of visitors went back to normal, I adjusted my guaranteed memory resources back to 227 MB. And how much am I charged for those changes?
Here’s the screenshot (click for a larger view):
As you can see on the screenshot, I’ve got a guaranteed 227MB running for 5 days 15 hours on the first week of December, which charged me $4.1308. Then on December 6, I adjusted it to 496 MB. It ran only for 1 hour and 20 minutes, charging me only $0.0895. And then I adjusted it to 1035MB and it ran for 5 hours and 37 minutes. This was the time that I was having a huge traffic. And for that, I was only charged $0.7834. And then when the visitors went down, I slowly moved my guaranteed resources down to 227 MB.
So, how much additional cost am I charged for having a higher guaranteed RAM for one day? If I did not make any changes, I will be charged $22.7 for December minus the 20% discount = $18.16. Since I made the changes, I will be charged $19.44 as you can see on the screen shot. That’s only a difference of $1.28.
So, I only paid Dreamhost an additional $1.28 on that day when huge traffic came where I earned more than $100 on Adsense. Not bad, isn’t it.
Now, can you do that on your VPS hosting account? I hope, you can. So, here’s a tip. If you are getting a VPS account, make sure you have scalable resources that you can adjust on the fly. That will make your life much easier, especially on high-traffic days.
Sign-up on Dreamhost now! And use my promo code to get a $50 discount, ok? 😀 Select Private Server if you want a Dreamhost PS when signing-up. 😉
Note: This is not a paid post.
