What do you think of virtual private servers?

I currently manage and pay for 4 websites and one text-based game. I think I probably pay about $400.00 a year for all of these services combined.

I like these services because someone else takes care of support, security, and patching. I don’t like these services because I lose some flexibility - my data is fragmented amongst 4 services, if I want to rapidly prototype something I have to pay for a new hosting instance, and I can’t use bleeding edge stuff (which I actually enjoy).

In the last year or so, virtual private servers have gained some traction - it looks like a year on a vps server with 512 RAM would cost me $240.00 (and my time). I liked the idea of dedicated servers, but they are way out of my price range. I love the idea of command line access to my own server. yummy. I also want to keep my system administration skills sharp, and this seems like a good way to do it.

None of my 4 sites garner much attention - I get about 400 unique hits a day on this blog, but that is it. I probably have about 40 gigs worth of data on the 4 sites.

I like the idea of consolidating my websites. I can’t self-host because I rent an apartment and don’t have a spare machine. Does anyone out there have experience working with VPS? Drawbacks? Advantages?

I appreciate any feedback, and I would be happy to offer additional details if that would help.

On 15 January 2010, Tom Hoffman inscribed the following thoughts about this post:

I’ve used Linode.com for various experiments.  Very nice setup and admin tools.  No complaints.

On 18 January 2010, Brian inscribed the following thoughts about this post:

I’m planning to move into a VPS far in the future, but right now I basically have almost no money to use. I’m probably going to grow out of my current hosting configuration also because my website that I started in August grew much faster than I expected.

Great site redesign by the way.

On 01 February 2010, Bill inscribed the following thoughts about this post:

Hey Brian!

Thanks for the feedback - I have to tell you, I am SOLD. I am now running ALL my online stuff in one place.  So cool.