For site publishers who are looking to move beyond shared hosting, but aren’t quite ready for the level of financial and technical commitment that comes with operating a dedicated box, a Virtual Private Server may be the ideal solution. VPS hosting allows you to have many of the same privacy and SEO benefits of a dedicated server (your own space, IP address and re-seller accounts) while simplifying the server administration process.
In general, most Linux-based VPS packages run on Web Host Manager, which is a multi-site version of cPanel server administration software. As a result, managing a series of sites on a WHM-based VPS is not much more difficult than cPanel itself and requires little to no command-line knowledge. Some users may opt for a Windows-based VPS, which provides the same benefits (and drawbacks) as a standard Microsoft server in a shared environment.
From a technical perspective, you are, essentially, operating a partition of a server with a few other users – while shared hosting usually places hundreds of users on the same server, a VPS is generally shared between a smaller number of users who have access to greater amounts of bandwidth, storage and options than a traditional low-cost hosting package. Make sure to look for a VPS package that includes 24/7 support, especially if you lack an internal server administrator, so that you can keep your sites up and running at all times. Many hosting companies allow easy migration from a VPS to a dedication server, allowing you to grow your network over time more easily.
