VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. A VPS is a hosting solution whereby a portion of a server's hardware is set aside for the customer. The customer can choose their level hosting specification and can be altered at any point, assuming there is enough available hardware in the machine that the VPS resides on. A VPS is a virtual machine, with multiple virtual machines residing on one web server acting independently of each other. Each VPS is completely separate and can have different operating systems and hardware specifications. The the end user, it will appear as if they have a dedicated server however it benefits from cost savings as you only need to pay for the hardware you need as opposed to a dedicated server whereby you pay for everything in the machine. Opal Creations will generally recommend a VPS in place of a dedicated server unless the hosted website is very resource-hungry!