Web Hosting Glossary Terms: VPS

VPS is short for Virtual Private Server and is a type of website hosting account that offers a large amount of storage space as well as a number of other benefits for the website owner. However, the majority of websites would not require this level of hosting with the basic account being the most commonly used form of web hosting account.

While a private server or dedicated server allows the use of an entire physical server, a VPS is effectively a solution lies somewhere between this and a shared hosting account. A single physical server is partitioned so that there are effectively a small number of virtual servers. The Virtual Private Servers operate completely independently of one another even though they are all on the same physical server or computer.

In most cases, a VPS offers a much greater percentage of the server than a shared hosting account would. Shared hosting can see dozens or even hundreds of websites residing on the same server while a VPS will restrict this number to considerably fewer accounts. This obviously allows for greater storage space when compared to a shared hosting account.

To all intents and purposes, a VPS offers almost all of the same benefits as a private or dedicated server except that the limitations are not physical but software based. Each account is usually able to administer their own VPS and can install any software or applications because the partition in the server allows complete security for each virtual entity.