VPS or Virtual Private Server is similar to having your own dedicated server, but at a fraction of the cost. Many online businesses use VPS technology you host their websites. The favorite choice of webmaster worldwide is the Linux platform due to its reliability and performance. Linux VPS is the focus of this article.

Cheapest VPS hosting is basically your own online web hosting environment. While you will share one physical server with other clients, there are less clients on a single VPS machine as compared to typical shared web hosting. You will have root access which is a must for any powerful website. Root access will allow you full control over your hosting environment, including the ability to edit maximum execution time and memory limit of PHP scripts. this becomes especially important as your database grows and your website becomes more complicated in general. A task as simple as parsing a 10 MB XML file can not be done on shared servers due to their strict limits enforced by the hosting company.

With a VPS you get the same functionality of a dedicated server. However, since there are a couple of clients on each physical server, you only pay a fraction of the cost compared to a dedicated server. This makes VPS a good choice for growing companies or individuals who own several websites. You can even resell some of your extra server space to cover some or all of the cost of your VPS server.

Many companies offering VPS hosting will allow you unlimited domains, databases and disk space included with their cheap vps packages. You will have to check each individual offer to see what is included.

As an owner of over 30 domains, the most affordable and reliable VPS host I could find was ApacheVPS. I've been with them over 5 years and there have only been 1 or 2 outages. They also offer 24/7 tech support which is a rare find on VPS packages as low as $8.95 per month.