VPS vs dedicated server: virtual resources or the whole machine

On a VPS the resources are yours, but the physical machine is divided between several virtual machines. On a dedicated server, the hardware is all yours — processor, memory and disks.

Side by side


VPS
Dedicated server
Resources Reserved for you alone on KVM virtualisation: from 1 vCPU and 2 GB up to 8 vCPU and 32 GB, on SSD. The whole physical machine: Xeon or i7 processor, 16 to 64 GB of RAM, its own disks in RAID 1.
Administration Yours. We hand it over with the operating system installed and root access; from there it is on you. Yours. Delivered with the operating system installed.
Control panel Not included. Can be bought separately, at order time or later by ticket. Not included, bought separately.
Growing Move up a plan, with a machine restart. Changing machine means a migration and a maintenance window.
Backups Not included. Bought separately, at their own cost. Not included, bought separately.
Built for Custom applications, several heavy sites, anyone who needs to install what they like. High, constant load, full isolation requirements, lots of disk.

The short answer

The VPS wins on almost everything day to day: it costs less, is delivered faster and grows by changing plan. The dedicated wins on own disk, on steady performance under heavy load, and when you need control of the hardware itself, RAID included.

See VPS plans See Dedicated server plans

Signs it is time to move

1 The largest VPS is permanently at its limit, not only at peaks.
2 You need your own large disks with your own RAID.
3 You want fully predictable performance, with no hardware sharing at all.
Moving up a tier changes who administers it. Above shared hosting, the system becomes your responsibility: updates, firewall and backups. Read what changes between a managed and an unmanaged service before deciding — that is the part that catches people out.
What does not change with the plan. The domain stays registered in your name and e-mail can come along. Migrating does not force an address change or lose messages — it is planned and done without the site going offline.

If you are not sure, tell us what the site does and how much traffic it gets. Asking costs less than moving twice.

We will tell you the right option for your case, with no push towards the dearest plan.

Talk to our team

SEE ALSO

All four tiers at once: Shared hosting, VPS, Cloud or dedicated: the full comparison.

VPS AND CLOUD SERVERS

For when shared hosting is no longer enough.

Dedicated resources, root access and freedom to install whatever you need. With the same support team behind it.

See servers

Linux or Windows · scale when you need to

  • 0 Users Found This Useful
Was this answer helpful?

Related Articles

Shared hosting vs VPS: which one does your project need? The difference is not "better" and "worse": it is who administers the machine. On shared hosting, we do. On a VPS,...
Shared hosting vs dedicated server: when the jump is worth it These are the two extremes: on one side, everything handled by us on a shared machine; on the other, an entire...
Shared hosting vs Cloud: what actually changes "Cloud" is so worn out in advertising that it has stopped meaning anything. In our catalogue it means something...
VPS vs Cloud: the difference is the network, not the marketing They are close relatives: in both cases you get a virtual machine of your own, with root access and administration...
Cloud vs dedicated server: flexibility or raw hardware This is the choice between growing fast and in pieces or having a whole physical machine. Both serve large projects;...