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HOSTING GUIDE
Managed and unmanaged VPS: who takes care of security
A VPS gives you more freedom than ordinary shared hosting. That freedom also brings work that may not appear on a product card. Judge the difference between managed and unmanaged service by the actual tasks included, not by the plan name.
The provider usually supplies a virtual server and basic access. You or your administrator then install applications, update the system, set permissions and the firewall, monitor the service and arrange backups. You are also responsible for responding to incidents and checking free disk space. If you have neither the time nor a person for these tasks, a low VPS price may be misleading.
'Managed' needs a written scope
One service covers only operating system updates; another also covers the database, web server and response to an outage. Ask whether the provider manages your application, how quickly they respond outside working hours and whether they perform restoration from a backup. It also matters who approves changes and what happens if an update disrupts the service.
Make a responsibility matrix
List tasks in two columns: system updates, certificates, user management, backups, recovery tests, monitoring and incident response. Assign a named person or service to each one. An empty row is a risk best discovered before ordering rather than during the first outage.
Try a sample incident: the disk fills overnight and the application stops saving data. Who receives the alert, who can access the server, who decides what to do and where is the latest usable copy? If the answers depend on one person, add a deputy and a securely stored procedure. Only then compare the cost of management with the price of the virtual server itself.
If you only need an ordinary website, first consider whether good shared hosting meets its requirements. A VPS makes sense when you can use its greater control and arrange suitable management.