When the Internet was young, only the tech savvy early adopters even knew what it was, let alone had access. In those days there were not many web sites to visit, and most of them were pure text with perhaps some simple graphics. The really flashy websites may have featured an animated GIF graphic or two, which were cutting edge at the time. Remember flying toasters? Me either. As few websites as there were to browse in those days, there were even fewer places to host a website, if you were one of the few who were knowledgeable enough to create one. Commercial web hosting was in its infancy, and most web users didn't even know it existed.
In fact, most early webmasters used their home PCs, which they reconfigured to act as a simple web server using server software and a modem. Eventually some enterprising capitalists saw the demand and began to bring web hosting to the marketplace. 1991 was the first year commercial hosting was available to the public. The early plans were very expensive, and hosting in general was complicated and reserved for tech savvy programmers and software engineers. Nowadays, hosting is incredibly cheap, and so user friendly that virtually anyone who can browse the internet can use a hosting account. The low cost and ease of use of modern hosting is due in large part to the advent virtual private servers, or VPS's.
Before VPS hosting arrived on the scene, webmasters looking for a cheap way to host their sites had to resort to shared hosting plans. A shared plan works like this: A hosting company brings a web server online. That server has an operating system, software, and privacy and security settings. Webmasters then purchase a portion of the storage space on the server. Since one server can handle many websites, the hosting provider's expense in the purchase and upkeep of the server is spread among many customers. This keeps the price for these plans very low, but it's not without drawbacks. Since all the webmasters on one server share the software, operating system, and privacy and security settings, they were all locked in. No changes could be made by individual users, since they would be affecting all the other shared plan customers.
On the other hand, webmasters who needed more flexibility and control than shared plans could offer were forced to purchase a dedicated hosting plan. Dedicated plans, as you might have guessed, dedicate an entire physical server to one webmaster. These hosting plans certainly delivered control and flexibility, but they were very expensive. VPS plans created another option. To create a virtual private server hosting plan, one web server is reprogrammed to act like a bunch of independent machines. Each one can have its own OS and software, and the users can alter the server settings to their heart's content without affecting anyone else. All these users are still sharing the physical server, however, so the cost is only slightly higher than the shared plans.
Like the great rock band Queen, you want it all, and you want it now. Virtual private servers deliver the best of both web hosting worlds. Since these plans were introduced in the early 2000s, they have become the most popular form of web hosting by a long shot. Whatever website you want to create, a VPS plan can help you get your website online as quickly as you can create it. So go ahead and check out our virtual private servers hosting plans, there's one that's ideal for your budget and your website.