If you're on traditional hosting, then a VPS provides a decent amount of benefits. One of the many being increased resources and power for your applications. A VPS gives you control over your webhosting environment that allows you to make the configurations and adjustments necessary for your website application. Such control allows you more options in server applications compared to traditional hosting.
If you're looking to development an application or you require specific PHP modules that aren't available, then a virtual private server is definitely something that's going to provide you that advantage.