Choose the right hosting environment for your Drupal website. Start with straightforward shared hosting, move to Business Hosting when you need more resources and flexibility, or choose a Drupal VPS when you need full server control.
Not every Drupal website needs its own server. The right hosting environment depends on the size of your website, the resources it requires and how much control you need over the underlying platform.
Farbyte provides three routes for Drupal websites. Start with straightforward Shared Hosting for smaller sites, choose Business Hosting for larger or more demanding websites, or move to a Drupal VPS when you need root access and complete control of the server environment.
For a smaller Drupal website, you may not need the additional resources or administration of a Business Hosting environment or VPS. Farbyte Shared Hosting provides a straightforward way to host a Drupal website alongside the other services a typical website needs.
Shared Hosting is designed to keep the hosting environment simple. Farbyte manages the underlying hosting platform, so you don’t need to administer an operating system or maintain a server yourself.
A lower-cost hosting environment for smaller Drupal websites and organisations that don't need dedicated server resources.
The underlying web hosting environment is managed by Farbyte, without requiring you to administer a server.
Host your Drupal website alongside domain email and DNS services within the same hosting account.
Shared Hosting plans include an established backup schedule and tools for restoring your website when required.
Shared Hosting does not provide SSH or root access. If your Drupal project requires command-line access, more resources or greater control over the hosting environment, Business Hosting or a Drupal VPS may be more appropriate.
As a Drupal website grows, the limitations of a basic shared hosting environment can become more important. Larger websites, busy organisations and applications with more demanding requirements can benefit from a more powerful and isolated hosting environment.
Farbyte Business Hosting provides isolated hosting environments with substantially larger resource allocations than Shared Hosting. Current Business plans start with 4GB RAM and 2 CPU cores and scale through larger configurations for more demanding websites.
Your website runs in its own isolated hosting environment rather than competing directly with other websites on a traditional shared account.
Business plans provide substantially more resources for Drupal websites that need additional processing power and memory.
SSH access is available for development and administration tasks that require command-line access.
Use a staging environment to develop and test changes before applying them to your live Drupal website.
Business Hosting includes Redis for applications that can benefit from an additional caching layer.
Node.js is available for websites and applications that require it alongside the main web environment.
Business Hosting includes 30 daily and 12 monthly disaster-recovery backups, providing significantly longer retention than a typical website backup schedule.
Choose a larger Business Hosting configuration as your Drupal website's resource requirements increase.
Business Hosting is a useful middle ground between traditional shared hosting and a VPS. You get a much more capable hosting environment without taking responsibility for operating-system administration and server maintenance.
Some Drupal projects need more than a managed web hosting environment can provide. If you need root access, custom server configuration, additional system software or control over the operating system, a Drupal VPS gives you a dedicated virtual server environment.
Administer the operating system and configure the server environment to suit your Drupal application.
Choose CPU, RAM and storage resources appropriate to your Drupal website and increase them as requirements change.
Install and configure the software, services and server components your Drupal project requires.
Choose a managed VPS if you want Farbyte to handle server administration, or an unmanaged VPS if you prefer to manage the server yourself.
A Drupal VPS is particularly suitable for development teams, agencies, larger applications and projects where server-level configuration is an important part of the deployment.
The simplest way to choose is to start with the level of control and resources your Drupal project actually requires.
Compare the three Farbyte hosting environments available for Drupal websites.
| Feature | Shared Hosting | Popular Business Hosting | Drupal VPS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best suited to | Smaller Drupal websites | Larger and growing websites | Complex websites and applications |
| Hosting model | Shared web hosting | Isolated business environment | Dedicated virtual server |
| Server administration | Farbyte managed | Farbyte managed | Managed or self-managed |
| SSH access | No | Yes | Yes |
| Root access | No | No | Yes |
| Resource level | Entry-level website hosting | Higher dedicated allocations | Flexible VPS resources |
| Staging | Not included as standard | Included | Available through your own configuration |
| Redis | Platform dependent | Included | Available/configurable |
| Custom server software | Limited | More flexibility | Full control |
| Operating system control | No | No | Yes |
| Backup retention | Standard hosting backup schedule | 30 daily and 12 monthly DR backups | VPS backup options |
A company website with relatively straightforward content and traffic may be well suited to Shared Hosting, keeping the infrastructure simple and the ongoing cost low.
Websites with increasing traffic, more content or greater operational requirements can move to Business Hosting for additional resources, isolation and development features.
Applications requiring custom services, server-level configuration, root access or greater control can run on a Drupal VPS.
Development teams and agencies may benefit from Business Hosting or a VPS depending on whether they need server-level control or simply a more capable managed environment.
Drupal websites with heavier database activity, more demanding application workloads or larger traffic levels can move beyond entry-level shared hosting.
If your project depends on specific operating-system packages, services or server configuration, a VPS provides the control needed to build the environment around your application.
Whichever hosting environment you choose, your Drupal website is hosted on Farbyte’s UK infrastructure and supported by a hosting company that has been operating since 2006.
Farbyte's hosting services are operated on UK-based infrastructure for customers looking for UK-hosted websites and applications.
Farbyte's hosting infrastructure uses resilient storage technology designed to maintain availability and protect customer data.
Hosting environments are protected and monitored as part of the Farbyte platform rather than leaving infrastructure management entirely to the website owner.
Get direct support from Farbyte when you need help with your hosting environment or migration.
If you already have a Drupal website hosted elsewhere, you don’t necessarily need to rebuild it to move hosting provider. The appropriate migration approach depends on your Drupal version, database, hosting environment and any custom modules or integrations used by the website.
We can help you determine which Farbyte hosting environment is appropriate before the migration takes place. Smaller websites may be suitable for Shared Hosting, while larger or more demanding installations can move directly to Business Hosting or a Drupal VPS.
We can look at your current hosting environment, Drupal installation and resource requirements before choosing the destination.
Move to Shared Hosting, Business Hosting or a Drupal VPS according to the technical requirements of your website.
Plan the migration around your existing website so the move can be completed with minimal disruption.
Drupal is a flexible platform, so the hosting environment should be flexible enough to accommodate different types of websites without forcing every project onto the same infrastructure.
Choose between straightforward Shared Hosting, higher-performance Business Hosting and fully controlled Drupal VPS hosting.
Host your Drupal website on UK-based Farbyte infrastructure with the hosting and support provided by one provider.
Start with the environment appropriate for your current requirements and move to a more capable platform when your website grows.
Get help from Farbyte when you need assistance with your hosting environment, migration or infrastructure.
It depends on the requirements of your website. Smaller Drupal websites can use Shared Hosting, larger websites can benefit from Business Hosting, and projects requiring root access or custom server configuration should use a Drupal VPS.
Yes. Shared Hosting is suitable for smaller and less demanding Drupal websites that do not require server-level access. The hosting environment is managed by Farbyte, so you do not need to administer an operating system.
No. Shared Hosting does not provide SSH access. If your Drupal development or deployment workflow requires SSH, Business Hosting or a Drupal VPS is a better fit.
Business Hosting is intended for websites that need substantially more resources or capabilities than a standard shared hosting account. It provides an isolated environment, SSH, staging, Redis, Node.js and extended backup retention.
A Drupal VPS is appropriate when you need root access, control over the operating system, custom server configuration or the ability to install and manage additional server software and services.
You can choose between managed and unmanaged VPS hosting. With a managed VPS, Farbyte handles the underlying server administration and maintenance. With an unmanaged VPS, you are responsible for managing the server.
Yes. If your Drupal website grows beyond the requirements of Shared Hosting, you can move to a Business Hosting environment with substantially more resources and additional development and operational capabilities.
Yes. We can help you assess your existing Drupal installation and determine the most appropriate Farbyte hosting environment before planning the migration.
Choose straightforward Shared Hosting, step up to Business Hosting for more resources and flexibility, or take full control with a Drupal VPS.
