Web entrepreneurs used to have two choices when it came to hosting their content, a low-cost, low-traffic shared hosting account, or a high-cost, high-maintenance dedicated server. The introduction of the virtual private server (VPS) helped bridge the gap, with web hosting companies now free to offer their clients the convenience and flexibility of their own root account at an extremely low price. Now consumers have three choices: low-cost shared hosting, mid-price virtual private server hosting, and top-level dedicated server hosting.
The introduction of the VPS has forced web-based companies to decide what platform best suits their business plan. The virtual private server has matured to the point where providers can sell a low-end VPS to a client, and then re-provision or migrate their server on-the-fly, without downtime. Thus a consumer who needs a VPS never has to worry about having "bought too small" - they can always transfer to a larger plan.