A hosting server is a computer that stays on, connected to the internet, holding your files and answering requests for them. Everything else — shared, VPS, dedicated, cloud, managed — describes how much of that computer is yours and who is responsible for keeping it working.
The standard treatment of this question is a taxonomy: six types, a paragraph each, in the same order every time. The taxonomy is accurate and it does not help you choose, because the differences that matter are not the ones the categories are named after. What actually separates them is who patches the operating system and what happens when traffic triples.
Table of contents
- The machine, and the two things you are buying
- The four shapes
- Three questions that pick for you
- What managed actually means
- The costs that do not appear on the price list
- Choosing something you will not have to leave
- How this fits the rest of the stack
- FAQ
The machine, and the two things you are buying
Physically, a hosting server is a machine in a datacentre with a network connection, a power supply that does not fail, and cooling. It runs web server software that listens for requests and returns files or the output of an application.
When you buy hosting, you are buying two separate things and they are worth separating in your head.
The first is capacity: CPU, memory, disk, and bandwidth. This is the part that is easy to compare across providers, and the part that price lists are built around.
The second is responsibility: who applies security patches, who notices when it stops, who restores it when the disk fails, who scales it when traffic arrives at 2am. This is the part that is hard to compare and that dominates the real cost of ownership.
Nearly every disagreement about which hosting is cheaper is actually a disagreement about how the second thing is valued. An unmanaged server at a low monthly price is only cheap if your time is free.
The four shapes
Shared hosting. Hundreds of sites on one machine, each in its own directory, all using the same operating system, web server, and database server. Cheapest by a wide margin, no maintenance on your part, and no control. Your site’s performance depends on what everyone else on the machine is doing, which is called the noisy neighbour problem and is not a myth. Suits a brochure site or a small blog and nothing that needs to grow.
VPS. One physical machine partitioned into isolated virtual ones, each with guaranteed CPU and memory and its own operating system. You get root access, install what you like, and are responsible for all of it — patches, firewall, backups, monitoring. More control than shared, more work than anything else on this list.
Dedicated. An entire physical machine, yours alone. Maximum performance and maximum control, at the highest price, and the same operational responsibility as a VPS plus hardware concerns. Justified by consistent heavy load, licensing that is priced per machine, or a compliance requirement for physical isolation.
Cloud and managed platforms. Capacity from a pool rather than a specific machine, which is what makes scaling possible without a migration. Within this, the meaningful split is between infrastructure you still administer — a virtual machine in a cloud is a VPS with a better control panel — and a platform where you deploy an application and the operating system is not your concern. That second kind is where most application hosting has moved, because the operating system was never the interesting part.
The category names are less useful than that last distinction. What actually differs is whether you are handed a machine or handed a place to run an application.
Three questions that pick for you
Rather than matching yourself to a category, answer these.
Do you want to administer an operating system? Not can you — want to. Patching, firewall rules, log rotation, certificate renewal, and the upgrade that breaks something are a recurring commitment measured in hours per month. If the answer is yes, a VPS gives you the most control per pound. If the answer is no, anything that hands you a bare machine is the wrong purchase regardless of price.
What does your traffic do? A steady, predictable load fits a fixed-size server well. Spiky traffic — a campaign, a seasonal peak, an article that lands — fits something that scales, because sizing a fixed server for the peak means paying for the peak year-round, and sizing it for the average means falling over on the day it matters.
What else does the application need? A static site needs a web server and nothing more. An application needs a runtime, probably a database, possibly a background worker, storage for uploads, and somewhere for logs. Those pieces need to live somewhere, and a platform that provides them as first-class things is different from a server where you install and maintain each one yourself.
Answering those three usually makes the choice obvious, and it does so without reference to which of the six traditional categories anyone is selling.
What managed actually means
It is the most overloaded word in hosting and worth pinning down, because it is sold at every level and means something different at each.
Managed shared hosting means the host maintains the machine, which they were doing anyway. Managed VPS usually means they apply operating system patches and will help when it breaks, while the application remains entirely yours. Managed WordPress means they handle the stack under WordPress and often core updates, backups, and caching. A managed platform means you deploy an application and never see a server.
The question to ask any provider is specific: when this breaks at 2am, whose problem is it, and what is the response? The answer distinguishes the four cases above far better than the word on the pricing page.
The related question is what happens when you need to change something. On a managed platform, adding a database or a worker should be a form. On a VPS it is an afternoon. Both are fine; they are just different amounts of work in the direction you will actually need.
The costs that do not appear on the price list
Comparing monthly figures misses most of what hosting costs.
- Bandwidth beyond an included allowance, which is the line that surprises image-heavy and video sites.
- Backups, which are sometimes included, sometimes an add-on, and occasionally your own responsibility entirely.
- SSL certificates, which should be free and are still charged for by some providers.
- The renewal price after the first-year promotion, which is frequently several times the advertised figure.
- Migration cost when you outgrow it, in both effort and downtime.
- Your own time, at whatever rate you would charge someone else for it.
That last one dominates for small teams. An unmanaged server costing a few pounds a month that consumes four hours of attention is not cheaper than a managed one at ten times the price, unless those four hours had no alternative use.
The migration cost is the one people discover late. Choosing hosting you will outgrow in a year means paying for the move — and the move is when things break, because it is the one operation nobody has practised.
Choosing something you will not have to leave
The most useful test is not what fits today. It is what happens on the day the requirements change.
Ask: if traffic multiplies by ten next month, what do I do? If the answer is a migration, that is a plan to have an emergency during your best week.
Ask: if I need to add a database, a background worker, or a second service, is that a form or a project?
Ask: if I want to leave, what comes with me? Code in a repository and data in a standard database export are portable. A site that exists only inside a proprietary builder is not.
A platform that runs static sites, applications in the common runtimes, and managed MySQL or Postgres on one deployment path answers the first two by making them configuration rather than migration — and RunxBuild is built that way deliberately, with autoscaling between a floor and a ceiling plan so a traffic spike is a setting rather than an incident. Whatever you choose, those three questions are worth answering before you commit rather than during the week you need the answer.
How this fits the rest of the stack
A hosting server is capacity plus responsibility, and the second half is what the categories obscure. Decide whether you want to administer an operating system, what your traffic actually does, and what the application needs beside a web server — and the choice makes itself. The RunxBuild hosting calculator lists the service, database, storage, and bandwidth separately, which is the honest way to compare against a single monthly figure that hides several of them.
Useful related references:
- Linux Dedicated Server: Bare Metal, Hosting, and the Right Defaults
- Self-Hosting a Minecraft Server: What It Takes in 2026
- What Is a Static Website? Benefits, Examples, Hosting
- Services on RunxBuild
FAQ
What is the difference between shared hosting and a VPS?
Shared hosting puts many sites on one machine with one operating system and no isolation, so another site’s traffic can affect yours. A VPS gives you a guaranteed slice with your own operating system and root access. The trade is responsibility: on a VPS, patching, firewall, backups, and monitoring are all yours.
Do I need a dedicated server?
Rarely, and usually only for consistent heavy load, software licensed per physical machine, or a compliance requirement for physical isolation. For most workloads a scalable platform handles peaks better than a fixed machine sized for the worst case and idle the rest of the time.
What does managed hosting actually include?
It varies enormously and the word is used at every price level. The question worth asking is specific: when this breaks at 2am, whose problem is it and what is the response time? That distinguishes managed shared hosting from a managed VPS from a managed platform far better than the pricing page does.
Is cheap hosting worth it?
It depends entirely on whether your time is free. An unmanaged server at a low price that needs four hours of attention a month is not cheaper than a managed one, unless those hours had no better use. Also check the renewal price — first-year promotions are often a fraction of the standard rate.
How do I know when I have outgrown my hosting?
The usual signals are pages slowing under normal traffic, hitting a resource limit during peaks, and needing something the plan cannot provide — a background worker, a second service, a larger database. The better question is asked before that: if traffic multiplied by ten next month, would the answer be a setting or a migration?