Shared hosting vs VPS: which do you actually need?
This site's original 2004 incarnation was literally a shared hosting company — we've run the cPanel boxes, handled the support desk and suspended the noisy neighbours. The comparison below is written from both sides of the counter.
Every hosting decision for a small project eventually reduces to this fork. The honest version of the comparison is shorter than the marketing version:
Shared hosting rents you a slot inside a managed web server. A VPS rents you the server itself. Everything else follows from that.
What shared hosting really is
Your site lives alongside dozens or hundreds of others on one machine the provider runs. You get a control panel (usually cPanel or clones), one-click WordPress, email hosting, and crucially — someone else keeps the server patched, tuned and backed up. You never see a command line.
Strengths: cheapest way to a live website (£2–8/month); zero server administration; email included (a genuinely underrated inclusion — running your own mail server in 2026 is a hobby in itself); support can actually fix your problem, because they run the whole stack.
Weaknesses: you're capped — on PHP versions and extensions, on processes, on what you can install (no Docker, no Node daemon, no custom services); noisy neighbours can slow your site; "unlimited" plans hide fair-use rules that surface exactly when your site gets popular; and quality varies wildly between brands owned by the same few conglomerates.
What a VPS really is
A virtual Linux machine with root access — our buying guide covers the specs. Run anything: containers, Node, Python, game servers, a mail server if you enjoy suffering. Guaranteed RAM, your own IP, your rules.
Strengths: total control; predictable performance; runs anything Linux runs; often cheaper than mid-tier shared plans while being strictly more capable.
Weaknesses: unmanaged means you are the sysadmin — security (start here), updates, backups, and 2am problems are yours; no email service unless you build or buy one; no control panel unless you install one; support ends at "the VM is running".
The decision rule
If the product is a website and you don't want to learn Linux, buy good shared hosting. If the product is anything else — or you're happy at a terminal — buy a small VPS.
Expanded slightly:
- WordPress site, brochure site, small shop, and email at your domain → shared hosting. The admin you're not doing is worth more than the flexibility you're not using.
- Web apps, APIs, containers, bots, anything long-running → VPS. Shared hosting either forbids it or fights you.
- Learning to run servers (valuable career skill, satisfying hobby) → VPS, on purpose, starting small.
- High-traffic or business-critical WordPress → the third option the title skips: managed WordPress/application hosting — shared hosting's convenience at VPS-and-up prices, with experts tuning the stack. Worth it when the site makes money.
Cost, honestly
Shared hosting's famous £1–3/month prices are first-term teasers — renewal at 3–4× the banner price is standard practice, so compare renewal prices only. Decent shared hosting really costs £5–10/month renewed; a capable starter VPS is £4–6/month with no games (details) — plus your time. Neither includes your domain, and shared "free domain" offers are just the renewal jump wearing a bow.
One migration note from the old support desk: moving off shared hosting later is routine (files + database + DNS), so choosing shared first isn't a trap — it's a perfectly good starting rung you can leave when you outgrow it.