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VPS vs Shared Hosting

Shared hosting puts hundreds of websites on one server and hopes for the best. A VPS gives your site its own resources and its own walls. Here's why that matters for security and performance, and why it's the only kind of hosting we sell.

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Shared server

Your site (blue) shares one CPU, RAM and disk pool with every other account on the box.

Web7 VPS

YOUR VPS

CPU cores · RAM · NVMe
allocated to you

Your sites run on resources set aside for your server, behind their own walls.

At a glance

Shared hosting vs a Web7 VPS.

Shared hosting

Web7 VPS

Server resources

✕ One CPU, RAM and disk pool shared by every account

✓ CPU cores, RAM and NVMe allocated to your server

Neighbor impact

✕ A traffic spike or runaway script next door slows you down

✓ Other customers' traffic doesn't touch your allocation

Security isolation

✕ Accounts share one operating system and web server

✓ Your own isolated server, plus per-site containers

Speed consistency

✕ Varies with whatever the server is doing that minute

✓ Predictable, because the resources are reserved

Configuration

✕ One-size-fits-all settings for everyone

✓ PHP versions, caching and limits tuned for your sites

Reputation

✕ Shares a server and IPs with strangers' sites

✓ Your server's reputation is built by your sites alone

Security benefits

Your own walls, not a shared hallway.

Shared hosting's biggest risk isn't your website. It's everyone else's. A VPS shrinks your attack surface to the sites you actually run.

01 / Security

ISOLATION

No shared operating system

On shared hosting, every account runs on the same OS and web server. One compromised account, or one privilege-escalation bug, can put everyone on that server at risk. A VPS runs its own isolated environment, so a neighbor's breach stays theirs.

CONTAINERS

Your sites are walled off from each other too

Enhance runs every website in its own lightweight container, even within your own VPS. A vulnerable plugin on one site can't be used to reach the files of another.

REPUTATION

Bad neighbors can't drag you down

Shared servers share IP addresses. When a neighbor sends spam or hosts malware, that shared address can end up on blocklists, hurting your email delivery and search reputation. On a VPS, you aren't sharing a server with strangers' sites.

MANAGED

Hardened and patched for you

We keep the operating system and hosting stack patched, hardened and monitored, so the security of your server never depends on someone remembering to run updates.

LOGINS

Brute-force protection & 2FA

The Enhance control panel defends against brute-force login attempts, and you can turn on two-factor authentication for your hosting account.

RECOVERY

Backups you can actually restore

Your sites are backed up daily and each backup is kept for 30 days, so you can restore a full site, a single file, a database or a mailbox yourself if something goes wrong.

See everything we do to secure your server, including our four-layer firewall →

Performance benefits

Speed you can count on, not speed you hope for.

Shared hosting can be fast, right up until someone else gets busy. A VPS gives you performance that doesn't depend on your neighbors.

02 / Performance

NO NOISY NEIGHBORS

Resources that are actually yours

On shared hosting, your site competes with hundreds of others for the same CPU time. When a neighbor gets a traffic spike or runs a heavy cron job, your pages slow down. A VPS's CPU cores and RAM are allocated to you.

NVMe

Storage that keeps up

WordPress makes thousands of small database and file reads per page. Our NVMe drives connect over PCIe for dramatically lower latency than the SATA SSDs and hard drives still common in budget shared hosting.

CLOCK SPEED

Fast single-thread CPUs

Each PHP request runs on a single CPU thread, so clock speed directly affects how fast uncached pages, wp-admin and checkouts load. Our Pro plans boost to 5.5 GHz.

CACHING

Room to cache properly

RAM reserved for your server means PHP OPcache and Redis object caching can actually keep your data in memory, instead of being squeezed out by everyone else's sites.

TUNING

A stack set up for you

Choose your PHP version per site and get limits sized to your server, not to the lowest common denominator of a shared box.

CONSISTENCY

Predictable under load

Because your resources aren't shared, response times stay consistent through busy periods. That's better for visitors, conversions and Core Web Vitals.

The fine print

So why is shared hosting so cheap?

Because the economics depend on overselling. A shared server is packed with as many accounts as possible, betting that most of them will stay quiet. "Unlimited" plans work the same way. They're unlimited until your site actually gets busy.

Low introductory prices are also common, often followed by a much higher renewal rate. We'd rather sell you a real server at an honest price, with published specs, than a slice of an oversold one.

Is a VPS overkill for a small site?

Not anymore. Our VPS plans are fully managed and come with the Enhance control panel, so you don't need to be a sysadmin. Plans start at $20/mo billed annually, with unlimited sites and email.

✓

No server administration skills required

✓

Free migration from your current host

✓

Credit for time left on your old contract

Compare VPS Plans

FAQ

Common questions.

Still deciding? Ask our team. We're happy to talk it through.

What is a VPS?

A virtual private server is a virtual machine with its own operating system and its own allocation of CPU, RAM and storage, running on a physical server. It behaves like a private server for your sites, without the cost of renting a whole machine.

Is a VPS more secure than shared hosting?

Generally, yes. A VPS isolates your sites from other customers at the operating-system level, so a compromised neighbor can't easily reach your files. Combined with Enhance's per-site containers and our managed patching, your attack surface is limited to the sites you run.

Will my site actually be faster on a VPS?

In most cases, especially under load. Your site no longer competes with hundreds of other accounts for CPU time, and you get NVMe storage and RAM for caching. The best way to know is to test it: request a free demo environment and benchmark it yourself.

Do I need technical skills to run a VPS?

Not with Web7. Every plan is fully managed. We look after the server, and you manage your sites through the Enhance control panel.

What's the difference between a VPS, a VDS and bare metal?

A VPS gives you an allocated slice of a physical server's resources. A VDS (virtual dedicated server) reserves dedicated CPU resources for even more predictable performance. Bare metal is an entire physical server. VDS and bare metal are coming soon to Web7.