VPS stands for Virtual Private Server and defines a virtual machine offered with an “as-a-Service” approach by an hosting provider. In the Cloud sphere, a VPS is an useful solution for online services without the burden of an on-premises server, be it physical or virtual, including its configuration and management.
In practice it’s a instance or an operating system, commonly a Linux distro, with a dedicated virtual hardware and a Web control interface available to the user.

According to computational needs, available VPS in the market can be either very cheap (a few euros a month) or extremely expensive.