VPS size calculator

Tell it what you will run and how busy it gets. It suggests the vCPU, memory and storage to start with, explains where each gigabyte goes, and shows what that size costs today.

What will it run?
Start with 2 vCPU · 2 GB RAM · 40 GB

Where the memory goes

The system and the app
1 GB
Database
0.5 GB
Visitors
0.1 GB
Headroom, 25%
0.4 GB
Memory needed
2 GB
Traffic, roughly
0.2 TB a month Work it out exactly

Servers with at least this much, ranked by what they cost each month with the IPv4 address and fees added. From €4.49 a month today.

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How it is calculated

Memory decides the size of most servers: the processor sits idle most of the day, but a server that runs out of memory slows to a crawl or stops its database. So the calculator adds up memory first, from what each part of the setup typically uses once it is running, then adds a quarter on top for updates, backups and busy hours.

memory = (app + other sites + database + traffic) × 1.25
vCPU = 1 or 2 for the app + 1 per 200,000 busy visits a month
disk = system and app + data for each site + database

Every figure is then rounded up to the next size providers actually sell (1, 2, 4, 8 GB…). The starting values come from the software’s own minimum requirements and from what small installs use in practice; they are a sensible first server, not a guarantee. Watch memory and CPU for a week after you move in, and resize if either stays above 70%.

Example

WordPress with 3 sites, 60,000 visitors a month and MariaDB on the same server: 1 GB for the system and WordPress, 0.5 GB for the two other sites, 0.5 GB for the database and 0.3 GB for the visitors make 2.3 GB; with 25% headroom that is 2.9 GB, so a 4 GB plan with 2 vCPU and 40 GB of storage.

Questions

How much RAM does a WordPress VPS need?

1 GB runs one WordPress site with a page cache and a few thousand visitors a day. Choose 2 GB when the database is on the same server or you host several sites, and 4 GB for a busy shop or a site that serves logged-in users, which skip the cache.

Is 1 GB of RAM enough for a VPS?

For a static site, a VPN or a small bot, yes. For anything with a database it is tight: MySQL or Postgres alone wants a few hundred megabytes. 2 GB costs little more at most providers and leaves room for updates and backups to run.

How many vCPU do I need?

One or two for almost every website, API or small app: web servers spend most of their time waiting for the network or the disk. Game servers, video encoding, builds and busy databases are the exceptions; they need more cores, and dedicated ones.

What is the difference between shared and dedicated vCPU?

A shared vCPU is a slice of a processor that other customers use too, so its speed varies with their load. A dedicated vCPU is reserved for you. Shared is fine for websites; choose dedicated for games, databases under load and anything sensitive to lag.