Every way of putting a site online is a trade between how much control you get and how much of the machine you are responsible for. These guides describe where each model actually sits on that line, without ranking providers.
| Model | Isolation | Root / OS access | Who patches the OS | How you scale | Relative cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Static / edge hosting | Not applicable — files only | None | Platform | Automatic, at the CDN edge | Lowest (often free tiers) |
| Shared hosting | Weak — one OS, many accounts | None (control panel only) | Host | Move to a bigger plan | Low |
| Managed WordPress | Varies — containers or shared | None | Host, including WordPress itself | Plan tiers, usually by visits | Low to moderate |
| Reseller hosting | Same as shared, resold | None (panel admin only) | Host | Buy more quota | Low to moderate |
| VPS | Strong — your own kernel (KVM) | Full | You, unless managed | Resize the instance; add more | Moderate |
| Cloud / IaaS | Strong — virtual machines | Full | You, for anything above the hypervisor | API-driven, horizontal, often automatic | Moderate to high, metered |
| Dedicated server | Total — the whole machine | Full, plus hardware console | You | Order another machine | High |
| Colocation | Total — your own hardware | Full, and you own the box | You, down to the disks | Buy and rack more hardware | Highest up front, lowest per unit at scale |
Ascending order of control, and of work. Nothing in that table is a recommendation: the right row depends entirely on what you are hosting and who is going to look after it.
The models, one guide each
Shared hosting
What shared hosting is, what the control panel hides from you, and the point at which a busy site outgrows it.
VPS
What a virtual private server gives you that shared hosting cannot, the difference between KVM and container VPS, and what you take on when you take root.
Dedicated servers
When a whole physical machine beats virtualisation: predictable performance, hardware you choose, and the operational weight that comes with it.
Cloud / IaaS
How cloud instances differ from a VPS, what elasticity is actually worth, and where metered billing surprises people.
Managed WordPress
What a managed WordPress host does that a generic host does not, and the restrictions that come with it.
Static & edge
Why a site with no server at all is the fastest and most robust option — and what you give up by not having one.
Reseller
Selling hosting without owning servers: what a reseller account includes, and where the model strains.
Colocation
Renting space, power and network for hardware you own — what it costs you in flexibility and what it buys at scale.
Three questions that settle most of it
- Does any part of the page have to be computed per visitor? If not, static hosting removes the server, and with it most of the ways hosting goes wrong.
- Do you need to install software the host does not offer? That single requirement is what moves a project from shared hosting to a VPS.
- Who patches the operating system? If the honest answer is nobody, pick a managed tier. An unpatched VPS is worse than shared hosting in every way that matters.
Work through the longer version in how to choose, compare the models side by side on the comparison page, or look up an unfamiliar term in the glossary.