Web Hosting

A VPS is a virtual private server. It is a type of hosting plan in which you, the customer, has complete control over a virtual server. Often (and increasingly so) the VPS runs on top of cloud infrastructure (in other words — a large pool of networked computing resources, rather than a single piece of hardware).

There are a lot of variables, but the simple answer is:

Small, simple websites and blogs with a limited audience — shared hosting

Large and/or complicated websites and web applications with a large user base — VPS hosting

Usually, yes. The question is whether you want to. If you are launching a more-or-less basic site which will have limited traffic — such as a personal blog, a homepage for a small offline business, or a website for local non-profit organization — then shared hosting is a great way to go. It will provide all the hosting power you need for up to several hundred visitors a day, for a reasonably low cost. If you need a website that will work with larger traffic numbers — several thousand a day, especially highly engaged visitors on an interactive site (like a store or web app) — then shared hosting is going to be a terrible experience for you.

Yes, but you will need a Dedicate IP address.

For web hosting, there are two major operating systems: Linux and Windows. However, some hosts offer other operating systems like FreeBSD.