The differences that surprise people.
WHAT YOU GAIN
Root access and the ability to install anything Dedicated resources Control over the entire stack The ability to run persistent processes No neighbours affecting your performance
WHAT YOU TAKE ON
Operating system updates and security patches Firewall configuration Backup configuration and testing Monitoring and alerting Diagnosing and fixing failures Service restarts after a crash Renewing control panel licences
WHAT NOBODY DOES FOR YOU ANY MORE
On shared hosting, if a service fails at three in the morning, someone notices and restarts it. On an unmanaged VPS, nobody does. Your site stays down until you notice.
WHAT STILL WORKS THE SAME
Your applications, if you install a control panel and replicate the environment.
THE TIME COST
Budget several hours for initial setup and an hour or two a month for maintenance, more if something goes wrong.
If that time is worth more than the difference between a VPS and a larger shared plan, the shared plan is the better business decision.
