VPS

Virtual Private Server: an isolated slice of a physical server, with dedicated CPU, memory, and disk, that you manage as your own machine.

A VPS (Virtual Private Server) is a virtual server created by dividing a physical server into several independent machines, each with its guaranteed slice of CPU, memory, and disk and its own operating system. For the user, it is indistinguishable from a dedicated server: root access, freedom to install any software, but at a fraction of the price, because the hardware is shared.

The VPS sits in the middle of the hosting spectrum:

Shared hosting: cheap, but no control: you share the environment and resources with other sites.
VPS: guaranteed resources and full control, requiring you to administer the system yourself (updates, security, backups).
Dedicated server / on-demand cloud: a whole machine or elastic infrastructure, for larger workloads.

Providers such as Hetzner, Hostinger, Vultr, and DigitalOcean sell VPS on predictable monthly plans, with panels to create and scale instances in minutes. Concrete example: to launch a WhatsApp bot with its own database, an entry-level VPS is enough: you install the runtime, the database, and the bot, point a domain at it, and get a 24/7 service for a few dollars a month, something shared hosting cannot do and that would be pricier and more complex on a big cloud.