VPS guide
VPS vs Dedicated Server: Which Do You Need?
Short answer
A VPS is a guaranteed share of one physical server: your own cores, memory and disk, with other customers on the same machine. A dedicated server is the whole machine for you alone. For most websites, shops and business apps a VPS is enough and costs far less. You need a dedicated server when you've outgrown the biggest VPS, need specific hardware, or must have a machine nobody else touches.
The difference
Both give you a server you control, with full root access, your own operating system and nobody else's software. The difference is what sits underneath.
VPS
Dedicated server
On a VPS, a hypervisor (software such as KVM) divides one physical server into several virtual ones. Each gets a fixed allowance of CPU cores, memory and storage. On our plans those cores are guaranteed: reserved for your VPS rather than shared out when the host is busy.
A dedicated server skips that layer. The operating system runs straight on the hardware, and every resource in the box belongs to one customer.
Side by side
| VPS | Dedicated server | |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | A guaranteed share of one machine | The whole machine |
| Starting cost with us | £5.99 a month | Colocation from £66.99 a month, plus your own server |
| Ready to use | Minutes, from a template | Days: hardware has to be bought, built and racked |
| Resizing | Move to a bigger plan | Change or add hardware |
| Hardware failures | The host's problem, not yours | Someone has to replace the part |
| Largest size here | 16 GB RAM, 6 cores (EPYC or Ryzen) | Whatever you put in the box |
| Other customers on the hardware | Yes, isolated by the hypervisor | No |
We don't rent out dedicated servers. If you need a whole machine, our route is colocation: you own the server and we host it in our rack, with power, network and remote hands. That's often cheaper over a few years than renting, and the hardware stays yours.
Is a dedicated server faster?
Not automatically. A dedicated server is faster only when you need more than a VPS can give you.
- Per core, a modern VPS on KVM runs close to the speed of the same CPU without virtualisation. The overhead is small for websites, databases and most applications.
- Core speed matters more than the label. A VPS on a high-clock CPU can beat a dedicated server built on an older or slower one. That's why we offer a Ryzen VPS upgrade for single-thread work such as busy WooCommerce shops and game servers.
- Total power is where dedicated wins. If your workload can use every core and every gigabyte of a large machine at once, no VPS plan will match that.
- Consistency. A guaranteed-core VPS avoids the noisy-neighbour problem of cheap shared VPS hosting, but disk and network are still shared at the host level. A dedicated machine's performance depends only on what you run.
What each one costs
A VPS is a monthly fee and nothing else. Ours start at £5.99 a month for 2 GB and 2 cores, and the largest EPYC plan is £25.99 a month for 16 GB and 6 cores. There's no VAT to add.
A dedicated server costs more in two ways. If you rent one, the monthly fee covers a whole machine. If you own one, as with colocation, you pay for the hardware up front, then a monthly fee for rack space, power and network (ours starts at £66.99 a month). Either way you're paying for the full capacity of the box, whether you use it or not.
The rule of thumb: if your workload fits on a VPS, a VPS is almost always the cheaper way to run it.
Signs you've outgrown a VPS
- You're at the top plan and still short. Your graphs show CPU or memory maxed out for long stretches on the largest plan, not just during a spike.
- You need specific hardware. A GPU, lots of drives, a particular RAID card or a lot of fast local storage.
- Licensing is per physical server. Some database and enterprise software is cheaper, or only allowed, on hardware you control.
- Compliance says single-tenant. A contract or regulator requires that no other customer's workload shares your hardware.
- Disk or network throughput is the bottleneck. Your application reads and writes more than a shared host can give one customer.
If none of these apply, a bigger VPS, or the Ryzen upgrade for single-thread work, is usually the better next step.
Which one to choose
Choose a VPS for business websites, WordPress and WooCommerce, web apps and APIs, small databases, staging servers, VPNs, game servers and anything you want running today.
Choose a dedicated server for large databases, heavy compute, specialist hardware, per-socket licensing or single-tenant requirements.
Choose colocation if you need a dedicated machine and would rather own it than rent it, or you already have the hardware.
Not sure which you need?
Tell us what you're running and we'll suggest a size, including telling you when a smaller VPS is enough.
See VPS plansQuestions
What is the difference between a VPS and a dedicated server?
A VPS is a guaranteed share of one physical server, created by a hypervisor, with other customers on the same machine. A dedicated server is the whole physical machine for one customer. Both give you full root access and your own operating system.
Is a VPS or a dedicated server better for a business website?
For almost every business website, shop or app, a VPS. It costs much less, is ready in minutes, and can be resized as you grow. A dedicated server is worth it when you've outgrown the largest VPS or need specific hardware.
Is a dedicated server faster than a VPS?
Only when you need more than a VPS can give. Per core, a modern KVM VPS runs close to the speed of the same CPU without virtualisation, and a VPS on a faster CPU can beat a dedicated server on a slower one. Dedicated wins on total capacity and fully unshared disk and network.
When should I move from a VPS to a dedicated server?
When you're on the largest plan and still running out of CPU or memory for long periods, need specific hardware such as a GPU, have per-server software licensing, or a contract requires single-tenant hardware.
How much does a dedicated server cost compared with a VPS?
Our VPS plans run from £5.99 to £29.99 a month. A dedicated server means paying for a whole machine: either a higher monthly rental, or buying the hardware and paying for colocation, which with us starts at £66.99 a month.
Do you rent dedicated servers?
No. If you need a whole machine, we offer colocation: you own the server and we host it in our rack with power, network and remote hands.
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Sources
Prices on this page are our current plan prices, checked against our order system on 11 October 2026. If something here no longer matches what you see, tell us and we'll update it.