Last Updated on April 17, 2021 by Markeyus Franks
Are you trying to find a good VPN and encountered the term VPS? Read on and learn how each works and their difference in function, features, and price.
What Is The Difference Between VPN And VPS?
As you’re reading this article, you might be looking for an excellent VPN to use. However, while browsing, it might be that you encountered the term VPS. Whatever the reason may be, you’re likely curious to understand what each one means.
Luckily, this article would be of help. In the following sections, we’ll compare VPN with VPS regarding functions, features, and price; please read on.
What is a VPN?
VPN or Virtual Private Network is a tool to stay private online. As such, it allows users to access websites and apps using different IP addresses and locations. Accordingly, it’s possible to access region-locked content like music, movies, and other digital goods.
Besides entertainment and casual use, it’s also useful for individuals in the corporate, political, and government service fields. In other words, users that process, send, and receive sensitive information can benefit from VPN’s private technology. However, it’s also beneficial for casual users for day-to-day tasks like bank transactions, bypassing government restrictions, censorship, and many other related activities.
Currently, there are countless VPN providers available. Moreover, these services range from free to premium prices depending on the connection speed, access limitations, and additional features. Regardless, whatever one ends up choosing, privacy and transparency should always be the top deciding factors.
How does it work?
A VPN’s process starts with the user choosing a provider. From there, the company will give instructions on using its service. Typically, most companies require users to sign up and download a program or a browser extension.
After installation, a user should toggle a switch in the VPN app to start the service. Next, it will try to connect to the most optimal server. In this case, a VPN server is what masks the user’s actual location. Instead of connecting directly to a website or app’s server, it will redirect the request to a remote server before going to the actual destination, hiding the IP address and location coordinates.
As a result, users can disguise their device from another place, an excellent way to bypass region-locked content and avoid censorship. Moreover, while most free VPNs don’t allow users to choose a server, almost all premium ones offer numerous servers which vary in speed and country.
What is a VPS?
VPS or Virtual Private Server is a form of online web hosting. If you’re unfamiliar, web hosting services are servers that developers use to run and make a website or an app work online. Without it, users can’t access platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
While large companies have in-house web servers, smaller ones rent or use hosting platforms. Moreover, while dedicated servers are more popular, other forms, like a VPS, cost a fraction of the price. In other words, if a developer wants to save money while not sacrificing server speed, a VPS would be the most optimal choice.
Apart from independent developers, a VPS is ideal for companies that want a cost-effective and scalable technology. As such, a VPS only requires customers to pay what they use and offers a possibility to grow or downgrade easily.
How does it work?
In order to understand how VPS works, it’s best to learn how other servers process things. First, shared hosting offers a low price since it uses a single device to cater to multiple customers; thus, the connection speed is much slower. Furthermore, dedicated servers cost more since it delegates a server to one customer, therefore, faster connections.
Regarding VPS, there are two types, namely single server and cloud VPS. A single server uses one device but creates multiple partitions, known as private servers, to cater to numerous customers. On the other hand, a cloud VPS uses a string of connected devices to form a single server.
While both types are excellent, there are more advantages in choosing the cloud one. First, unlike the former, it’s easy to scale and downgrade. Next, it’s significantly faster since it uses multiple devices. Above all, the failure rate is much lower as the network relies on different devices instead of only one.
How are they different?
Besides defining what VPN and VPS mean, it’s also beneficial to compare them side-by-side regarding their functions, features, and price.
Functions
While VPN and VPS both have something to do with servers, they differ in terms of function.
First, VPN serves the consumer-level of users. It means that it’s easy to configure, use, and maintain. VPS, on the other hand, requires further software development knowledge and tinkering skills.
Next, a VPS is a server on which end-users will have to connect to access a website or app’s services. Moreover, a VPN is a remote server whose purpose is to change a user’s actual IP address and location coordinates.
Lastly, a VPS could be a VPN, while a VPN can’t be a VPS. In other words, since a VPS is a hosting service, companies can create a VPN server using it, while users can’t turn a VPN into the former due to its design and limitations.
Features
Regarding features, VPN and VPS both have each world.
First, most VPNs offer multiple servers in different locations. On the other hand, VPS providers typically limit customers to a single country server to avoid slow connections.
Furthermore, while both offer privacy features, VPNs tend to provide more. Aside from IP and location masking, there are also other perks like The Onion Router (Tor) _connection and media optimization. Contrarily, on VPSs, privacy gears towards _DDoS, hacking, and end-user protection.
Price
A VPN costs more when it offers many locations, bandwidth, and better speed. Oppositely, a VPS charges based on consumption, connection speed, device specifications, and additional controls. However, while there are free VPNs, all VPS will cost money even on the slowest plans.
Typically, premium VPNs cost around $8 to $13 a month. Though, users can save by getting an annual subscription instead of paying monthly. In terms of VPS services, fees range from around $20 to $150 monthly and typically go on sale frequently.
VPN and VPS – What’s the best for you?
If you’re a casual user who wants to browse the web and access region-locked content safely, then a VPN is the way to go.
