The right VPS plan is one that can handle your current workload with some headroom, without you paying for resources you don’t use. Our KVM VPS plans (from AMD VPS 1 to AMD VPS 32) offer 1–16 vCPUs, 1–32 GB RAM and 10–320 GB NVMe SSD storage. Every plan includes the same 2 Gbps connection with unlimited traffic, an IPv4 and IPv6 address, daily backups, snapshots, DDoS protection and root access, so your choice really comes down to three questions: how much processing power, how much memory and how much storage do you need?

1. What will you be running?

List the services that will be running simultaneously on the server: web server, PHP, database management system, cache (Redis), mail server, Docker containers and background processes. Each of these requires memory, and memory tends to run out sooner than the processor.

• RAM: a database runs quickly when frequently used data fits into memory, and each PHP or application process running simultaneously occupies its own memory space. If memory runs out, the system will start swapping to disk or terminate the processes.
• CPU: The number of vCPUs determines how many requests the server can process simultaneously. A high number of concurrent visitors, image processing, translation or running CI/CD workflows require multiple cores.
• Storage: take into account your website files, databases, log files, Docker images and local backups stored on the server, and leave some spare capacity. A nearly full disk slows down the system and can also cause updates to fail.

2. Check if it’s already running somewhere

If the application is already running on another hosting account or server, actual usage is the best starting point. On Linux, free -h shows memory usage, df -h shows disk usage, and top or htop show CPU load; our article on the meaning of ‘load’ explains how to interpret these load values. On cPanel hosting, the resource usage statistics show how close the account is to its limits. Look at the peak-time values, not the average.

3. Control panel and operating system

For KVM VPS, you can choose from AlmaLinux, CloudLinux, Debian, Rocky Linux and Ubuntu. If you also install a control panel (such as cPanel or Plesk), this will itself require resources; use the manufacturer’s minimum requirements as a basis and add the requirements of your websites to this. Our article comparing control panels outlines the options available. For applications requiring Windows Server (such as ASP.NET or MSSQL), our licensed Windows VPS plans are suitable.

4. Start small and expand

You can upgrade from a KVM VPS to a larger plan at any time via the client portal, which will increase your processor, memory and storage capacity. Therefore, there is no need to start with the largest plan: choose one that covers your measured or estimated requirements with some headroom, and upgrade based on your actual workload. Reducing disk space is technically much more complicated than increasing it, so it is better to increase your storage capacity gradually.

5. Location

Our KVM VPS plans run in our European Union data centre, which ensures low latency for visitors in Hungary and across Europe. If the majority of your visitors are located further afield, you can use a CDN to speed up static content.

Common errors

• focuses solely on the processor and allocates too little memory to the database;
• forgets that logs, backups and Docker images also take up space;
• They start with an oversized plan ‘just to be on the safe side’, even though upgrading is straightforward.

If you’re unsure about the size, please let us know via the client portal what you’d like to run, and we’ll recommend a plan.