Compare VPS Hosting Platforms: OpenVZ vs Xen
OpenVZ (the basis for the commercial Linux platform Virtuozzo) and Xen could be viewed as competing VPS platforms, however, the truth of the matter is that they are very different - read on to find out how the OpenVZ and Xen VPS platforms work, how they differ, and why the choice of OpenVZ or Xen is an easy one to make.
OpenVZ Virtualization vs Xen Paravirtualization
Xen is a paravirtualization platform which is very similar to hardware emulation. Paravirtualization works by creating an interface between the virtual environment's operating system and the hardware which queues and responds to operating system requests from operating systems modified to interact with the paravirtualization interface.
This key difference from operating system-level virtualization allows Xen VPS administrators to modify their kernel modules, utilize swap space to meet memory allocation demands, and watch their Xen virtual private server's boot process as Linux mounts virtualized devices.
OpenVZ is an operating system-level virtualization platform based on a single Linux kernel which has been modified to support multiple Linux virtual environments (more commonly referred to as virtual private servers).
The modified OpenVZ kernel isolates the file system, memory, and processes for each virtual environment, providing OpenVZ VPS administrators with full root access and all of the commands normally associated with a dedicated server.
Key Differences
Xen Platform
- Uses more resources
- Soft memory limit (swap space with performance penalty)
- Full iptables access
Xen Options
- Five Popular Linux Operating Systems
- WHM / cPanel, DirectAdmin, and ServerCP+
OpenVZ Platform
- Uses fewer resources
- Hard memory limit (no swap space)
- Limited netfilter (iptables) modifications
OpenVZ Options
- Seven Popular Linux Operating Systems
- WHM / cPanel, DirectAdmin, ServerCP+, and HostInABox
Choose the Best VPS Hosting Platform for Your Needs
We recommend Xen VPS hosting for the flexibility it can provide when situations which require more memory arise.
The Xen platform should be considered if you plan to use your VPS hosting to complete one-off tasks which have a high memory overhead like Java development, compiling applications, and encoding video.
Xen is not an appropriate choice if you plan to rely heavily on swap space instead of acquiring enough RAM for day-to-day operations - while Xen would appear to be a cost-saver at first glance, the performance penalties associated with constant swap space usage will render an overloaded Xen server unusable.
We recommend OpenVZ VPS hosting for the speed and stability it consistently provides.
The OpenVZ platform is the logical choice for most virtual private server hosting needs. OpenVZ uses fewer resources than Xen, and its interface limitations are not especially relevant to the vast majority of virtual private server administrators.
Ready to make your choice? See our OpenVZ hosting plans and Xen hosting plans to select the plan that's right for you.
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