A VPS (virtual private server) gives you your own Linux machine, reachable from the Internet, for the price of a streaming subscription. It is the most flexible way to host a website, an API, a bot or a database, without the limits of a "serverless" platform.
The choice looks overwhelming: dozens of providers, hundreds of plans. In practice, a handful of criteria settle it. This article deliberately gives no prices (they change every quarter) and contains no affiliate links: Coxios works with any Linux VPS.
How much memory and CPU?
RAM is almost always the first resource to run out. The CPU, on the other hand, sleeps most of the time on a small project. A few guidelines:
| Use case | Memory | vCPU | Disk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Static site, small bot, light API | 1 GB | 1 | 20 GB |
| Web application and its database | 2 to 4 GB | 2 | 40 GB |
| Several Docker applications, building on the server | 4 to 8 GB | 2 to 4 | 80 GB and up |
| Busy database, heavy processing | 8 GB and up | 4 and up, dedicated | Depends on the data |
Building a Docker image on the server (deploying from Git) takes more memory than running it: 2 GB is a comfortable minimum.
Two details in the spec sheets: a shared vCPU is a core you share with other customers (perfect for a website, less so for sustained computing), a dedicated vCPU is yours alone. And check the architecture: ARM plans are often good value, but some Docker images only exist for x86_64.
The other criteria that matter
- Location: pick a data center close to your users for latency. For personal data of Europeans, hosting in the European Union makes GDPR compliance simpler.
- Disk: NVMe SSD has become the norm. Look at the size, and also whether you can grow it without reinstalling everything.
- IPv4 address: some providers, like Hetzner, now bill it separately and offer IPv6-only servers. Handy to save money, but part of the Internet (and of the tooling) still only speaks IPv4.
- Traffic: unlimited, or a monthly quota beyond which you pay. Rarely an issue for a small project, worth watching for video or downloads.
- Snapshots and backups: a disk image in one click before a risky upgrade. Check whether it is included, an option, and how many images are kept.
- Billing: hourly (destroy the server, stop paying) or monthly with a commitment. Very low entry prices often assume a long commitment: look at the renewal price.
- Support and rescue console: browser console access (VNC or KVM) saves you the day SSH stops answering. Support ranges from simple tickets to phone assistance.
- Available images: Ubuntu LTS and Debian stable at least, ideally without a preinstalled control panel.
The most common providers
All of these offer classic Linux VPS reachable over SSH. The table sums up their reputation and what is worth checking before ordering, in no particular order.
| Provider | Based in | Strengths | Worth checking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hetzner | Germany | Great resources for the price, clean dashboard, hourly billing | IPv4 billed separately, few regions outside Europe |
| OVHcloud | France | Data centers in France and worldwide, anti-DDoS protection included | Dashboard and options can be dense |
| Contabo | Germany | Lots of memory and disk for the price | More variable performance according to user reports, setup fees on some plans |
| DigitalOcean | United States | Excellent documentation, simple dashboard, many regions | More expensive for the same resources |
| Scaleway | France | Hosting in France and Europe, wide range of instances | Read the details of the options (IP, storage) |
| Hostinger | Lithuania | Beginner friendly, in-house panel | Entry prices tied to a long commitment, renewal price |
Other solid providers exist: Vultr, Akamai (formerly Linode), IONOS, Infomaniak, or AWS's VPS offering (Lightsail).
Common mistakes
These are what cost you time, far more than a few euros between two plans:
- Going too small to save money: a 512 MB server that runs out of memory kills your processes at random, and you spend evenings wondering why your application keeps restarting.
- Going too big "just in case": on the other hand, most projects run for months on 2 GB. Start small, measure, then resize.
- Picking an image with a preinstalled panel: cPanel, Plesk or an in-house panel take over the firewall and services. To stay in control (and to use Coxios), start from a bare Ubuntu or Debian image.
- Forgetting where the data lives: a server outside the European Union for European customers' data makes GDPR compliance harder.
- Relying on the provider for security: they hand you a running machine, often with
rootand a password. The firewall, SSH keys and updates are still your job.
Our advice to get started
For a first project, take 2 GB of memory, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS or Debian 12, in a region close to you, with hourly billing if available. You can move up later: most providers let you resize a VPS in a few minutes.
Don't choose on the entry price alone: a slightly more expensive but stable server, with snapshots and a rescue console, will save you far more time than it costs.