VPS stands for "Virtual Private Server" and is a hosting environment that mimics a dedicated server within a shared virtual environment. A VPS plan offers more control, providing you with the ability to perform more advanced website tasks. With VPS hosting, your resources are exclusively yours (not shared with anyone else).
With shared hosting, users are sharing all server resources, which means there is no guaranteed RAM, CPU, or disk space. There is also no root access allowed with shared hosting. This makes shared hosting suitable for smaller sites and personal blogs.
VPS acts as a combination of shared and dedicated hosting. With a dedicated server, you are renting an entire server. This is ideal for people with high site traffic, but can be quite costly. VPS hosting allows you to rent a smaller portion of a server, having it be a much more cost-effective option for people considering dedicated hosting. Your resources are exclusively yours and you have much more freedom and control with root (administrative) access.
The main advantages offered by VPS hosting include:
Privacy: Since VPS hosting provides you with your own operating system, your files aren't shared with any other users, providing you with the peace of mind that your files are secure.
Stability: Periods of high traffic will never affect your server stability since resources are specifically allocated to you.
Control: With root access, you have total control over all of your site files. You also have the ability to install and uninstall various programs and modules.
Dedicated Resources: With VPS hosting, you are guaranteed resources. This means you never have to worry about RAM, CPU, or disk space.