Virtual Private Servers (VPS) are similar to shared hosting but with less of the potential reliability problems. With the isolation features of virtualization software, hosting account can now share the same machine without the resource hogging of shared hosting.

If you have a website that gets moderates amount of traffic but requires high availability, VPS hosting can be an attractive option. Virtual private servers now bridge the gap between less reliable shared hosting plans and more expensive dedicated servers.

Much like shared hosting, there are good providers and there and less good. Please do read the reviews and check the objective network evaluations on this site.