VPS Hosting vs. Dedicated Hosting: Price vs. Performance

VPS and dedicated hosting are very similar, but there are subtle differences we will explain here.

Dedicated hosting is when you rent an entire physical server to host your website. VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting is when a web host takes a physical server and uses virtual machines to turn it into multiple, smaller servers, and you rent one of those.

The right hosting type for you depends on your use case and budget. We go over both in this article.

VPS vs. dedicated hosting overview

VPS and dedicated hosting have quite a bit in common and some overlapping use cases. Here’s a quick comparison of these two web hosting types.

Note: Both kinds of hosting can be entirely unmanaged (maintained by you). Or you can get managed hosting, where the hosting company manages your server for you.

Features	VPS hosting	Dedicated hosting
Scalability	High	High – Depends on the host
Performance	Medium to high	High
Pricing	Low to high	High
Flexibility	High	High
Reliability	Medium to high	High
Security	Mostly depends on you	Mostly depends on you
Support	Low to high – depends on the hosting plan	Low to high – depends on the hosting plan
Use case	Medium-to-high traffic sites Web apps	Host almost anything High traffic and CPU usage

What is VPS hosting?

VPS hosting is when a web host takes a single physical server and uses virtual machines to divide it up for multiple users. Since every website runs on its own virtual computer, with dedicated server resources like CPU cores, RAM, and storage, anything that happens to other VPSs on the physical server is less likely to affect yours.

What is dedicated hosting?

Dedicated server hosting is when you rent a whole physical server for yourself. You choose from a list of available servers with varying hardware configurations and pick the one that suits your needs. That extra hardware and the lack of shared resources mean you can run more resource-intensive tasks.

VPS vs. dedicated hosting differences

Let’s look at the specific differences between VPS and dedicated hosting.

Scalability

This is a pretty even matchup. On most VPS platforms, when you need more resources, you can just pay to add more CPU cores, RAM, and storage.

Dedicated hosting offers more initial space with dedicated hardware, but physical servers can also have more RAM and storage added. If you need a better CPU, that requires a full migration.

Performance

There’s no question that dedicated hosting wins this category. Even when a VPS has dedicated CPU cores, GBs of RAM, and storage space allocated to it, it’s still on the same physical server as others.

Moreover, some hosting companies will tell you that you have, for example, 3 CPU cores allocated to your VPS, but they’re actually being shared with others as well. So it’s more like “up to 3 CPU cores.”

Pricing

VPS hosting wins the pricing war here. Once again, it comes down to a simple equation: You’re renting a piece of someone else’s physical server, rather than the whole thing.

Flexibility

While they serve similar purposes, dedicated servers tend to be faster and offer better overall performance. Both allow you to install any operating system supported by the host and any compatible software. Either type is often used for private game servers, various computational tasks, and hosting websites.

Reliability

Dedicated hosting means you have dedicated hardware performing whatever task you need, so it tends to be a bit more reliable. VPS hosting takes the middle ground between shared hosting and dedicated hosting.

Security

If you get a managed hosting plan for either your VPS or dedicated server, then you can usually rely on your hosting company to maintain a solid baseline of security. If you’re managing it all yourself, it comes down to you.

Support

Again, this depends on whether your hosting plan is managed or unmanaged. Managed hosting will include in-depth support of the hosting environment, down to installing your favorite CMS, if you want. Unmanaged hosting will mostly leave you to your own devices, and you can make the server as secure or unsecure as your knowledge of servers allows.

Use case

There’s a lot of overlap in the use cases between VPS and dedicated hosting. It all comes down to what you need as a customer. Go for VPS hosting if you need to stay on a budget. For hardware superiority, go for dedicated hosting.

Best web hosting services

Whichever hosting type you choose, the next step is to decide which web hosting provider to go with.

VPS hosting services

• Bluehost has a long-standing reputation for good performance, reasonable prices, and affordable managed plans.
• Hostinger offers solid VPS plans at pretty good prices, but you have to go to the cloud hosting plans if you want a managed server.

Dedicated hosting services

• IONOS lets you choose between AMD, Intel, and ARM servers. You can also get dedicated storage or GPU servers.
• DreamHost also offers great managed dedicated servers.
• Interserver is versatile. I used to run an Ark: Survival Evolved server on Interserver. It worked great, and that’s actually kind of impressive.

FAQs

Bottom line

VPS hosting and dedicated hosting have a lot in common, and the real differentiator for most people will be the price. VPS hosting is generally a lot more affordable. However, a dedicated server will offer you more control and slightly better performance.

Check out the reviews linked above if you’re looking for a place to start your search. We’re testing web hosts all the time, and the one you’re looking for is bound to be in there.