---
title: What is containerized hosting?
description: Plain-language explainer of containerized hosting and how it compares to shared hosting and a VPS.
sidebar:
  order: 2
---

Containerized hosting means your site lives in its own lightweight, isolated environment — a "container" — on one of our servers. Your container is yours alone. Its CPU, memory, disk, and software versions don't depend on what other customers on the same machine are doing.

## An analogy

Think of an **apartment** versus a **townhome in a gated community**.

**Shared hosting** is the apartment. You have your own unit, but the walls are thin. When the neighbour upstairs hosts a party, you hear it. When someone two doors down cooks something pungent, you smell it. You're sharing the same air, the same plumbing risers, the same elevator — so what one tenant does ripples through everyone else's day.

**Containerized hosting** is the townhome in a gated community. You still benefit from shared community resources — the gates, the security, the community centre, the maintained grounds — but you have your own walls, your own kitchen, your own front door. Whatever the neighbouring townhome does inside their walls stays inside their walls. You only feel the upside of being in the community, not the noise.

## How it compares to shared hosting

- **Predictable performance.** Another customer can't slow your site down by running a big import or sending a traffic spike. Your CPU and memory are yours.
- **Pick your software versions.** PHP 8.3 or 8.4? Node 20 or 22? You choose at the site level. Different sites on the same account can use different versions.
- **Isolation = security.** A vulnerability in another customer's site can't reach yours. There's a hard boundary between containers.
- **Add resources without moving.** Need more RAM next month? Upgrade in place — no migration, no downtime.

## How it compares to a Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS)

A [Virtual Dedicated Server](https://anhonesthost.com/vds) is our VPS-class product — you get a whole virtual machine with admin access, and the same WHP control panel layered on top with full server-wide controls. The differences from a containerized plan:

- **No server admin required on a container plan.** We patch the underlying OS, monitor the host, and manage the services. On a VDS, you have admin access and can patch, configure, and manage server-wide settings yourself if you want to.
- **Right-sized resources on a container plan.** A VDS gives you a whole virtual machine with fixed CPU/RAM/storage. A container gives your site exactly the CPU, RAM, and disk you actually use — and you can resize whenever.
- **Cheaper to run small on a container plan.** Containers share the host efficiently, so you don't pay for an idle VM sitting at 5% CPU all day.

## What it doesn't change

- **SFTP still works** within the limits of your plan, so your usual file-upload workflow is unaffected.
- **Your databases still live next to your site**, on the same host, with low-latency connections.
- **Your domain works the same way** — DNS, SSL, redirects all behave like any other web host.
- **The WHP panel works the same way.** Whether you're on a containerized plan or a VDS, you sign in to the same WHP — VDS just unlocks the server-wide admin sections.

## When you might want a VDS instead

A VDS suits you when you want full admin control of the server — kernel-level tweaks, custom services, your own systemd units, or you simply prefer to manage the OS yourself. You get a real virtual machine with root access, and WHP still gives you the friendly panel on top.

A VDS also opens up server-wide options that don't apply to shared containers, like opt-in [data-drive encryption](/whp/admin/data-drive-encryption/) for compliance or peace-of-mind scenarios.

## Related

- [Add-ons overview](/whp/add-ons/overview/)
- [Service hostnames](/whp/reference/service-hostnames/)
- [Data-drive encryption (LUKS)](/whp/admin/data-drive-encryption/) — optional, new-server-only
