The difference decides who fixes what at three in the morning, so it is worth being precise about.
Unmanaged. We provide the hardware, the network, power, and the operating system installed and booting. Everything above that line is yours: updates, security hardening, control panel, web server configuration, backups, and application support. Choose this if you are comfortable on a command line and want full control.
Managed. Everything above, plus we handle operating system updates and security patching, control panel installation and maintenance, service monitoring with proactive restarts, basic firewall configuration, and help when something server-side breaks. Choose this if the server is a means to an end rather than something you enjoy running.
Common to both: hardware replacement, network issues, reboots on request, console access and rescue mode. If the box itself has a problem, that is always ours.
Not covered on either: writing or debugging your application code, custom software development, and problems inside third-party software you installed. We will usually point you in the right direction anyway, but it sits outside the support boundary.
You can move from unmanaged to managed later. If you are unsure, start managed - it is easier to take over a server that has been kept current than to inherit one that has not.
