LAST EDITED ON Dec-20-08 AT 04:28 AM (PST)
 
Hi Ed,

If you get a VPS with WHM/Cpanel (recommended), then it's pretty much the same.

What you'll find is that WHM will have more options to help administer the server itself, in addition to all the usual account control options you see with a reseller account. The extra options are mostly one-time settings when you first get the VPS.

With a VPS you will also get root & Linux shell (command line) access, but you don't have to use the shell - most everything can be done through WHM.

As to transferring accounts - VPS/dedicated to VPS/dedicated transfers are easy if both have WHM, as there is a built-in direct transfer capability. Unfortunately, domains hosted on reseller accounts will almost always have to be transferred one by one. That means a backup of files, databases, recreating email addresses, cron jobs, etc. It can be a real pain, depending on how many domains you have. You should probably count on one month (or partial month) of paying for both servers to get everything done.

BTW, here is a really cheap VPS provider. I don't know anything about them, so be careful. They probably nickel & dime you for everything.

http://www.webkeepers.com/vps/

You can read some of these user reviews:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=webkeepers+site%3Awebhostingtalk.com&btnG=Search

They only offer Plesk, not WHM/Cpanel. Plesk is 'per domain' licensed, which of course gets into higher costs for multiple domains. They might be a good option either for one domain to run your workhorse scripts from, or purely for backup purposes.

Jeff