Why It Matters
Shared hosting is affordable but unpredictable. When another site on the same server experiences a traffic spike, your site can slow down. A VPS eliminates that problem by ring-fencing your resources. You also get root access, which means you can install custom software, configure the server to your needs, and run applications that shared hosting does not support. For businesses that have outgrown basic hosting but do not need (or want to pay for) a full dedicated server, a VPS is the natural middle ground. It offers control and reliability without the cost of exclusive hardware.
Example
A digital agency hosts client websites on shared hosting, but clients with higher traffic and custom requirements keep running into performance issues. The agency moves those clients onto individual VPS instances, each with guaranteed resources and custom configurations. The clients get faster, more reliable sites, and the agency can manage each server independently without worrying about one client’s traffic affecting another. For teams exploring cloud hosting as an alternative, that option trades some control for greater flexibility in how resources scale.
Back to the glossary.
