Private VPS parent vs VPS hosting

[Originally published 2019, updated 2024]

With all of the cloud technologies available on the market these days, there are a lot of hosting options and services available to you. Depending on your business needs, cloud hosting can benefit your organization by offering a virtual infrastructure that is accessible anywhere and at any time.

Two popular cloud hosting options are VPS Hosting and Private VPS parent (VPS reseller) hosting, which offer similar technologies but serve different purposes.

So, which is right for your business, a Private VPS Parent or VPS Hosting? Let’s take a look at each one and determine the best fit for your business.

What is VPS hosting?

VPS hosting is a virtual system comprised of emulated hardware that runs inside of a physical machine, called its parent server. A cloud platform consists of a large volume of these parent servers, built with superior hardware specifications.

A single parent server can house many independent child instances, which are isolated from one another in their own server environments. These child instances are known as Virtual Private Servers, or VPS for short.

How can I use a VPS?

Consider a parent server with 64 processing cores. We can run 64 single-core child instances, or two, 32-core child instances, or any other combination that adds up to 64 total cores. This same resource division applies to both memory and disk space as well.

VPS is great for hosting many system types such as web servers, email, databases, Linux, Windows, cPanel, Plesk, and more.

Also, VPS are scalable systems. Their on-demand modification allows for adding or subtracting resources as necessary. This makes certain you only pay for the resources you need. Scalability allows growth and eliminates the need for complicated migrations when upgrading. Most providers handle all the hardware component aspects, since the VPS parent servers are part of their core infrastructure. This allows you to focus on your applications and running your business.

What is a private VPS parent?

The private VPS parent is a robust, flexible, and isolated virtual solution. Instead of VPS instances running on a parent server within the hosting provider’s cloud platform, the private VPS parent gives you sole control over the parent server and its resources.

Liquid Web builds these parent servers to order, based on your capacity needs. Once built, they get all the same scalability and features as any of our typical VPS systems, but with a private VPS parent, you get the keys to the kingdom.

Benefits of a private VPS parent

First, you can create as many VPS instances as desired for your business. This is limited only by the hardware available on the private VPS parent server. You won’t be charged by the instance, only for the private VPS parent itself.

You can also run both Linux and Windows instances together, at the same time, on the same private VPS parent, which is extremely flexible.

Another bonus is privacy. These parent servers only have a minimal connection to the rest of our public cloud platform. The connection is enough to enable access to the backup and imaging features within the My.LiquidWeb.com Interface.

However, you get to operate under isolation, which means you do not share network bandwidth with other tenants as you would on a traditional VPS. This isolation reduces the frequency of neighboring DDoS attacks from impacting your systems.

Finally, you’re not limited to a single private VPS parent. Adding extra parents expands your capabilities and resources, allowing you to shuffle your instances between private VPS parent servers at your leisure. You can adjust resource allocation to make room for new instances as needed. You can also move any instances over to our public cloud platform right from your Manage interface. This allows for easy conversion of instances into traditional public VPS when desired.

How can I use a private VPS parent?

There are many ways to leverage private VPS parents. Each instance uses our cloud technology in its own way. The granular control over your virtual infrastructure has limitless possibilities.

Here are some real-world examples to help paint the picture:

1. Private virtual office
2. VPS reseller
3. Web developer/design firm

Example 1: Private virtual office

A virtual office scenario may look something like this:

• Web server (WHMCS): internal billing server
• Web server: internal utilities server
• Database server: stores customer and employee data
• File server (Windows): internal document storage and sharing
• Windows Server 1: virtual workstation 1
• Windows Server 2: virtual workstation 2
• Secured with Cloud Firewall and VPN

This scenario helps secure your infrastructure in one virtual location. Users can remotely access their desktop clients on the workstation servers. This enables our free Cloud Firewall to protect the servers from any other outside traffic. In addition, users can connect to the free Cloud VPN to establish secure connections to the virtual private network.

Example 2: VPS reseller hosting

The most common use case for our private VPS parent is for reseller hosting You can slice off sections of your hardware for any number of clients. These individual instances function exactly like our VPS servers, and provide a superior infrastructure to build a client base with that will scale with you. If you exceed the parent resources you can add another parent.

In order to make this process simple for our partners, we even have a WHMCS Plugin that works with our Cloud API to make this process easier and automated.

Explore reseller hosting options →

Example 3: Web development/design firm

Another partner that can take full advantage of the versatility offered by the Private VPS Parent is a web design firm. In this example, we use a single Private VPS Parent. This doubles as both a company hosting setup and a development lab.

The servers involved in this type of setup may look like this:

• Web Server (cPanel): Company Site
• Database Server: Company Database
• Web Server (WHMCS): Billing Server
• Web Server (Development 1)
• Web Server (Development 2)
• Web Server (Development 3)

In this example, we carve up the Private VPS Parent to handle a company’s hosting needs. We then create small instances for each client’s development work. Once the site meets the clients’ standards, the client has a few options.

1. Accept delivery of the completed source code.
2. Opt-in for a resold private instance hosted by the firm.
3. Opt-in to buy the instance where it’s exported to the public Cloud and ownership turned over to their own account with LiquidWeb.

Find your optimal cloud solution

Now that you understand the differences between our Private VPS Parent vs VPS Hosting, you can select the product that best suits your cloud hosting needs. Or, if you are still not sure, download our Hosting Buyer’s Guide to make an informed decision on the different types of hosting, management levels, and scalability options available to your business.