# Web hosting categories

Source: https://www.fortrabbit.com/hosting-guide/providers/overview
Created: 2026-07-12
Reviewed: 2026-07-12


| Category                                 | In short                                   |
| ---------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ |
| [Shared hosting](#shared-hosting)        | Cheap, oversold, thin walls                |
| [VPS](#vps)                              | Your own VM, your sysadmin job             |
| [Server management](#server-management)  | A panel that runs a VPS for you            |
| [Vanity hosting](#vanity-hosting)        | Hosting for software ecosystems            |
| [Serverless](#serverless)                | Runs on demand, billed per use             |
| [PaaS](#paas)                            | Push code, the platform runs it            |
| [IaaS](#iaas)                            | Cloud parts you wire together yourself     |
| [Low-code / no-code](#low-code-no-code) | Prompt a site                              |
| [Managed hosting](#managed-hosting)      | Experts build and run custom infra for you |

- [All providers in one list](/hosting-guide/providers)

## Shared hosting

The cheap end. Dozens of sites crammed onto one machine, walls only at the directory level, and oversold on top. Fine for a brochure site nobody leans on. Fragile the moment it ships from Git, runs a background job, or has to stay up under load.

- [Providers](/hosting-guide/providers/shared-hosting)
- [Overview](/hosting-guide/providers/shared-hosting/overview)

## VPS

A virtual machine with root. Cheap on paper. The real price is your time: the updates, the security patches, the 3 a.m. page are all yours now. Worth it with a sysadmin already on the team, or a stack that truly needs kernel-level control. Otherwise, no.

- [Providers](/hosting-guide/providers/vps)
- [Overview](/hosting-guide/providers/vps/overview)

## Server management

Laravel Forge, Ploi, RunCloud, and the rest. A dashboard that provisions and configures a VPS for you. It smooths the setup. It does not take the server off your hands. The OS upgrades and the responsibility still land on you.

- [Providers](/hosting-guide/providers/server-management)
- [Overview](/hosting-guide/providers/server-management/overview)

## Vanity hosting

A polished panel bolted onto someone else's infrastructure, usually at a premium. The experience can be good. The value rarely is.

- [Providers](/hosting-guide/providers/vanity-hosting)
- [Overview](/hosting-guide/providers/vanity-hosting/overview)

## Serverless

Functions and scale-to-zero containers that run on demand and bill per use. Nothing to manage, scaling handled for you, nothing charged while idle. Good for spiky or mostly-idle work. More to adapt for a steady app.

- [Providers](/hosting-guide/providers/serverless)
- [Overview](/hosting-guide/providers/serverless/overview)

## PaaS

Heroku, Render, Railway, Fly.io, Laravel Cloud, fortrabbit. Push code, the platform runs it. No root to hand over, no infrastructure to assemble. A middle ground for many PHP teams, and where we sit.

- [Providers](/hosting-guide/providers/paas)
- [Overview](/hosting-guide/providers/paas/overview)

## IaaS

AWS, GCP, Azure. Raw cloud parts, compute, storage, network, that you wire into a running system yourself. Not hosting in the everyday sense. The parts, not the product.

- [Providers](/hosting-guide/providers/iaas)
- [Overview](/hosting-guide/providers/iaas/overview)

## Low-code / no-code

Lovable, Bolt, v0, and friends. They generate a frontend and host it. Good for a prototype. Not where a PHP app you plan to keep should live.

- [Providers](/hosting-guide/providers/lcnc)
- [Overview](/hosting-guide/providers/lcnc/overview)

## Managed hosting

The premium, hands-on end. Talk to cloud experts, describe the requirements, and the provider designs, builds, and runs the infrastructure for you, in a data center or on public cloud. Bespoke setups, training and consulting on the menu, uptime guarantees past the usual 99.99%. Think SysEleven or AnyNines in Germany, Rackspace in the US. Expensive, and for a high-stakes e-commerce site or a one-off enterprise stack, worth it. fortrabbit counts as managed hosting too, the automated, standardized version of it, with developer support included instead of a sales call.

- [Read more](/hosting-guide/providers/managed-hosting)