Managed vs Unmanaged VPS

Virtual Private Server(VPS) is popular because of the advanced requirements from medium to large websites. If you have a website which is becoming more and more popular and requires more server and bandwidth resources, you may want to upgrade from a shared hosting to VPS hosting. See more details about VPS hosting features & FAQs. Here we will compare two of the most popular VPS hosting services and types – Managed VPS and Unmanaged VPS.

A VPS Server is the reasonable web hosting choice for your domains when more system resources are needed. VPS takes of the virtualization technologies to partition physical servers into several virtual machines. Virtual Private Server Hosting is the future of modern hosting as it provides the power and functionality of a high-end dedicated server but at a much lower price. Main virtualization technologies used including Vmware, OpenVZ and XEN etc. By purchasing a VPS hosting package, you get a 100% individual machine with your own dedicated CPU and RAM, and mostly root access to the hosting server. Each Virtual Server can run under its own operating system (Windows server, CentOS and other Linux distributions) or have custom configurations of its own.

Managed VPS

Managed VPS is the VPS hosting service that your hosting company will be responsible for VPS server configuration, server maintenance, server security, software update, etc.

It can varies a lot from VPS hosts to hosts. This can be a little confusing because unfortunately many hosting providers differ in their definition of “managed hosting”, and some providers have “semi-managed hosting”. So if you’ve determined that you need a managed VPS (which is positively the way to go if you are not comfortable with running a Linux server), you must contact your potential VPS service providers for the details or look at the specific tasks that your managed provider will and will not perform.

Unmanaged VPS

Unmanaged VPS means the hosting service provider will offer much less support. Customers will have to do the server system administration, server maintenance, software configurations, etc. Server OS may be pre-installed, remote desktop connection might be enabled that allows users to manage the VPS server.

Managed VPS VS Unmanaged VPS

Which VPS hosting plan to choose between a managed VPS and unmanaged VPS? Generally speaking, unmanaged VPS hosting is less expensive than managed VPS hosting when you compare plans that have the same allocated resources. One of the main reason is that your hosting provider offers less support on unmanaged VPS, thus they charge less for the service. If you are well-versed in VPS hosting and you have a lot of time planed for the VPS server, you can go for a unmanaged VPS. Otherwise, you should get a managed VPS. Some of the tech issues you may need to know if you choose unmanaged VPS include but not limited to: VPS security, software update and patching, LAMP server configuration (linux, apache, mysq, php), DNS configuration, control panel setup, SSL certificates creation, website setup, server backup, etc.

Best VPS hosting providers

Almost all major hosting service providers offer VPS hosting services and packages. Some quality VPS web hosts we recommend are: Managed WordPress hosting from Bluehost, Scala Hosting managed VPS and Knownhost high performance low cost fully managed VPS hosting.