Hosting plans are sold under four main labels. Each one describes how a physical server is divided up, and who looks after your part of it. Once you know that, most hosting pages become easy to read.
| Type | What you get | Who runs the server | Good fit for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shared | An account on a server used by hundreds of sites | The host | Small sites, blogs, brochure sites |
| VPS | A virtual machine with a fixed share of CPU, memory and disk | You, unless sold as managed | Growing sites, several sites, custom software |
| Dedicated | A whole physical machine | You, unless sold as managed | Steady heavy workloads, strict isolation |
| Cloud | Virtual machines billed by usage, resized on demand | You | Traffic that changes a lot, multi-server setups |
Shared hosting
Your site lives in one account on a server alongside many others, all sharing its processors, memory and disk. The host handles updates, security and backups, and you usually get a control panel such as cPanel. You cannot install system software or change server settings.
The trade-off is neighbours. When another site on the server gets busy, yours can slow down. Hosts cap each account to keep things fair, and those caps, not the advertised disk space, are usually what a growing site hits first.
VPS (virtual private server)
A physical server is split into virtual machines, each with its own guaranteed slice of resources and its own operating system. You get root access, any software and any configuration. With that comes the job of running it: security updates, the firewall, backups and fixing what breaks. A managed VPS hands that work back to the host. See managed or unmanaged.
Dedicated server
The whole machine is yours. No one else shares the hardware, so performance is predictable. It costs more, and replacing failed hardware takes longer than moving a virtual machine. It makes sense when you need a full machine’s power all the time, or rules require physical separation.
Cloud hosting
Cloud is less a type of server than a way of renting them. You create virtual machines, storage and databases on demand, change their size in minutes, and pay for what you use. That suits traffic that rises and falls. The catch is that costs are harder to predict, and bandwidth is often billed separately.
What about “WordPress hosting” and platforms?
You will also see plans sold by what they run rather than how the server is divided.
- WordPress hosting is usually shared hosting or a managed VPS tuned for WordPress, often with caching, staging copies and automatic updates. Compare the underlying resources, not the label.
- Platform as a service (PaaS) runs your app from its code without you managing a server at all. You push code, the platform builds and runs it. It suits apps more than WordPress, and costs rise quickly with traffic.
- Static hosting serves plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript from a global network, often free for small sites. There is no PHP or database, so it suits documentation, portfolios and sites built with static site generators.
- Reseller hosting is shared hosting with a panel for creating and billing separate accounts, used by agencies and freelancers who host clients’ sites.
When to move up a level
Shared hosting is the right start for most sites. These signs say it is time to move:
- Resource limit warnings, or 503 and 508 errors at busy times, even with caching on.
- Pages that are fast at night and slow during the day, which points to busy neighbours.
- Software you need that the host will not install, or a PHP version you cannot choose.
- Several sites in one account slowing each other down.
The usual next step is a VPS with 2 to 4 GB of memory, managed if you do not want to run the server yourself. A dedicated server rarely makes sense until a VPS with 16 GB or more is no longer enough. For sizing, see how much RAM a website needs.
Moving between types
Changing type means moving the site to a new server: copy the files and database, test, then change DNS. Hosts with cPanel on both ends can move whole accounts in one step; see how to migrate cPanel to cPanel. For the general process, see the website migration checklist and how to change hosts without downtime.
Reading a plan
- “Unlimited” always has a limit. Look in the terms for CPU, memory, file count (inodes) or “fair use” limits.
- Compare resources, not plan names. Compare vCPUs, guaranteed memory, storage type (NVMe, SSD or HDD) and bandwidth.
- Check the renewal price. First-term discounts are common.
- Ask where backups are stored and how you restore them. A backup on the same server is not much of a backup.
- Know how you would leave. If you can download your files and database at any time, you can always move.
Related
Something out of date? Software changes. If a step no longer works, tell us and we will check it and update the page.
