Most small business owners don’t need to understand server architecture — they need to know which one box to tick. Here’s the short version.
Shared hosting
Your site runs on a server alongside other customers’ sites, sharing resources. Right for: a single WordPress site, a brochure site, a club or charity site, most small businesses. It’s the cheapest tier because the cost is split across many customers — fine, as long as fair usage is actually enforced fairly (see our piece on what “unlimited” hosting really means).
VPS (Virtual Private Server)
A slice of a server reserved just for you — your own resources, not shared moment-to-moment with other customers. Right for: a site with real, sustained traffic, an application beyond a standard WordPress install, or a business that’s outgrown shared hosting’s fair usage limits.
Managed WordPress
Hosting tuned specifically for WordPress — caching, updates, and security handled at the server level, not left entirely to plugins. Right for: a WordPress site where uptime and speed genuinely matter to the business, e.g. an active WooCommerce store.
The honest answer for most people
Start on Shared. It’s not a downgrade — it’s the right-sized tool for a normal small business site, and moving up later is a straightforward upgrade, not a rebuild. See our hosting tiers.