Hi Alan-

The biggest difference is that the Managed VPS is already set up for WordPress Hosting and includes cPanel and WHM for server administration. An unmanaged VPS requires you to configure the server and only includes Command Line access out-of-the-box. Check out this page that goes over the main differences.

Hi Sarah-

VPS hosting is often a case of “you get what you pay for.” There are very affordable options out there, but beware that often times these won’t have any kind of management interface, or come with very limited resources. If you’re an experienced system administrator, these types of VPS plans might be just right for you. Here are a couple things I’d want to double-check before I purchased a $15/month VPS.

• Check for cPanel or another type of server management interface, like DreamHost’s Control Panel.
• Check if it comes with the system already configured for WordPress, or if it is a bare-bones operating system that you have to set up and configure yourself.
• Make sure that the CPU, Memory, and Disk Space resources are going to suit your requirements