Root access, and a slice that is actually yours
A virtual private server with reserved CPU and memory and full system access, managed or unmanaged. Not on sale yet: here is what it will be, who it is for, and what to use in the meantime.
- Status
- Coming soon
- Access
- Full root
- Resources
- Reserved
- Admin
- Managed or not
Availability
Serverlys VPS hosting is not available to order today, and we are not publishing a price or a launch date until both are real. Everything on this page describes the plan as we are building it. If it is what you need, tell us: requests are how we decide what the first plans include, and we will reply on the same ticket when it opens.
The things shared hosting will not let you do
This is the whole reason the tier exists. If none of it applies to you, save the money and the administration and use a managed website plan.
Choose your runtime
A specific Node, Python, Ruby or PHP version, held there while the rest of the world moves.
Install system packages
Image libraries, a headless browser, a search engine, a message broker.
Run background work
Queues, workers and schedulers, instead of hoping a web request finishes in time.
Tune the web server
Your own nginx or Apache config, cache rules, upload limits and timeouts.
Reserved resources
The allocation is set aside for your server, so a neighbour's spike is not your problem.
Your own firewall
Ports, rules and access policy set the way your security review wants.
Who a VPS is for, and who it is not for
A VPS is more control and more responsibility in equal measure. It is the right tier for a specific kind of project, not the next step up for every website.
- An application in Node, Python, Ruby, Go or PHP that needs a specific runtime version
- Background workers, queues or scheduled jobs that cannot live inside a web request
- Software that needs a system package, such as a headless browser or image libraries
- Docker Compose stacks you already run on a laptop or another server
- An agency hosting several client sites with its own server configuration
- A team that has, or is paying for, someone to administer a server
- A WordPress or brochure site that only needs to be fast and online
- Anyone hoping a VPS will be cheaper and less work than a website plan
- A business with nobody to apply updates, unless it buys managed
- Sustained heavy load that would be cheaper on a whole machine
For websites, cloud hosting gives you the headroom with none of the administration. For sustained heavy load, a dedicated server may be cheaper per unit of work.
What people actually run on a VPS
Most VPS servers end up looking alike: a reverse proxy in front, one or two application processes, a worker draining a queue, and a database and cache on the same box. All of it supervised, all of it restarted automatically, and none of it reachable from the internet except through the proxy.
- One front doornginx terminates HTTPS and forwards to the app on a local port.
- Supervised processessystemd or a process manager restarts anything that dies.
- Private data storesDatabase and cache listen on localhost, not the public IP.
Workloads in detail
Node.js applications
Next.js, Express, NestJS or a websocket server, run as a long-lived process behind nginx. You pick the Node version and keep it there while the application needs it.
Watch out: Run it under systemd or a process manager so it restarts after a crash or a reboot.
Python applications
Django, Flask or FastAPI served by gunicorn or uvicorn, with a virtual environment per project and system libraries installed where a wheel needs them.
Watch out: Pin dependencies; an unpinned pip install on a server is a future outage.
Queues and workers
Celery, BullMQ, Sidekiq or a plain worker reading from Redis: email sending, imports, video and image processing, anything slower than a page load.
Watch out: Size for the burst, not the average. A queue that backs up is a CPU problem.
Docker and Compose
Your stack defined in one compose file, the same on the server as on a laptop. Useful for self-hosted tools and for apps that ship as images.
Watch out: Docker can publish ports past a host firewall like ufw. Bind internal services to 127.0.0.1.
Databases
PostgreSQL, MySQL or MariaDB on the same box as the application, which is simpler and faster than it sounds for most small and medium projects.
Watch out: Never expose the database port publicly, and schedule logical dumps as well as snapshots.
Several sites on one server
An agency or developer hosting client sites with their own nginx or Apache configuration, PHP versions per site and their own cache rules.
Watch out: One compromised site can reach the others. Separate system users per site.
Managed or unmanaged
Unmanaged is cheaper and it is a job. You own patching, hardening, monitoring and the 2am restart. Managed means we do all of that on your server and you keep root anyway. Most businesses buying their first VPS want managed and do not know it is an option. We plan to offer both.
- UnmanagedYou administer it. Right if you have someone who wants to.
- ManagedWe patch, harden and monitor. You still get root.
- Either wayMigration help and backups are planned on every VPS.
Who does what, line by line
The planned split. Whichever you choose, the line between us and you is written down before you buy, not discovered during an incident.
| Task | Unmanaged | Managed |
|---|---|---|
| Physical hardware, power and network | Serverlys | Serverlys |
| Hypervisor and the host machine | Serverlys | Serverlys |
| Operating system updates | You | Serverlys |
| SSH, firewall and hardening | You | Serverlys |
| Web server and standard services | You | Serverlys |
| Monitoring and restarting failed services | You | Serverlys |
| Backups configured and restores tested | You | Serverlys, with you |
| Your application code and dependencies | You | You |
| Your data and who has access to it | You | You |
The first hour on an unmanaged server
If you are going to run it yourself, this is the minimum, on any provider. None of it is optional on a machine with a public IP address.
- 1
Log in with an SSH key
Then turn off password logins in sshd_config. Bots try passwords on every public IP, all day.
- 2
Create a normal user
Use sudo for admin work instead of working as root, and keep root login off over SSH.
- 3
Turn the firewall on
Allow only what you serve, usually 22, 80 and 443, and deny the rest by default.
- 4
Apply updates, then automate them
Run the updates on day one and enable automatic security updates so they keep happening.
- 5
Set up backups before data arrives
Snapshots plus a scheduled database dump, copied somewhere other than this server.
- 6
Watch it
Uptime checks from outside, plus disk and memory alerts. A full disk is the classic silent outage.
If reading that list felt like work, that is useful information: it is the job a managed plan does for you.
What we are building into the plan
Planned for launch, not available today. Sizes and prices are published when the plans open, and not before.
- Planned
Full root access
On managed plans too. Managed changes who does the work, not what you are allowed to do.
- Planned
Reserved CPU and memory
An allocation set aside for your server, rather than a share that shrinks when a neighbour is busy.
- Planned
NVMe storage
The same storage class our cloud plans run on today.
- Planned
Your own IP address
A public IPv4 address for the server, so mail reputation and firewall rules are yours alone.
- Planned
Resizing
Move up a size as a resource change rather than a rebuild.
- Planned
Backups and migration help
Server backups, plus help moving an existing application across.
Start smaller than you think
Rules of thumb for any provider, not Serverlys plan sizes. Over-buying on day one is the expensive mistake, not under-buying.
One busy WordPress site with a cache
Rule of thumb2 vCPU · 4 GB
Watch: PHP worker count before CPU
A Node or Python application
Rule of thumb2 vCPU · 4 GB
Watch: Memory, first and always
App plus its own database
Rule of thumb4 vCPU · 8 GB
Watch: Disk I/O and connection limits
Several client sites on one box
Rule of thumb4 vCPU · 8 GB
Watch: Memory, then storage
Queues or media processing
Rule of thumb4 vCPU · 16 GB
Watch: CPU during the burst, not the average
A Docker Compose stack
Rule of thumbSum the containers
Watch: Each container's memory, plus headroom
Starting points for a conversation, not a quote. The honest way to size is to measure for a couple of weeks: memory, CPU at your busiest hour, and disk I/O.
VPS or cloud hosting: what you can use today
Cloud hosting is on sale now and is fully managed. For websites it is usually the better answer anyway. Here is the honest comparison.
| Feature | Cloud hosting Available now | VPS Coming soon |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A managed website platform | A virtual machine with its own operating system |
| Server administration | Done for you | Yours, or ours on a managed plan |
| System access | Control panel, no root | Full root |
| Best at | WordPress, WooCommerce, PHP sites | Custom apps, workers, containers |
| Background processes | Not the purpose of the platform | Yes, supervised by you |
| Install system packages | No | Yes |
| Price | Published below | Not published yet |
Starter Cloud
Available nowRegular price $7.95$5.01/mo
Black Friday first month, until Dec 7. Renews at $7.95/mo · $1.86 setup fee
- Memory
- 2 GB
- Websites
- 1 website
- Visits
- ~10,000 monthly visits
- Storage
- Unlimited NVMe
Plus Cloud
Available nowRegular price $11.95$7.53/mo
Black Friday first month, until Dec 7. Renews at $11.95/mo
- Memory
- 4 GB
- Websites
- 7 websites
- Visits
- ~25,000 monthly visits
- Storage
- Unlimited NVMe
Turbo Cloud
Available nowRegular price $17.95$11.31/mo
Black Friday first month, until Dec 7. Renews at $17.95/mo
- Memory
- 6 GB
- Websites
- Unlimited websites
- Visits
- ~50,000 monthly visits
- Storage
- Unlimited NVMe
Business Cloud
Available nowRegular price $23.95$15.09/mo
Black Friday first month, until Dec 7. Renews at $23.95/mo
- Memory
- 8 GB
- Websites
- Unlimited websites
- Visits
- ~100,000 monthly visits
- Storage
- Unlimited NVMe
Monthly rates excluding applicable taxes. Black Friday takes 37% off the first payment until Dec 7; the plan then renews at its regular monthly rate. Starter Cloud carries a one-off $2.95 setup fee ($1.86 during Black Friday). Unlimited storage and unmetered bandwidth are subject to fair use. Full feature list on the cloud hosting page.
Need root, or not sure you do?
Tell our sales team what the application is, what it runs on today and roughly what traffic it gets. We will tell you honestly whether cloud hosting covers it now, and let you know when VPS plans open if it does not.
Before you buy
The things people actually ask us, answered plainly.
Can I buy a Serverlys VPS today?
Not yet. VPS hosting is coming soon, and we are not publishing a price or a launch date until both are real. If you need more than a website plan today, our cloud hosting is available now and is fully managed. If you specifically need root, open a ticket with our sales team and say so; we will tell you when VPS plans open.
What is the difference between a VPS and shared hosting?
On shared hosting you get a slice of a server's resources that flexes with what your neighbours are doing, and no system-level access. On a VPS the slice is reserved for you and you get root, so you can install packages, choose runtime versions and run background processes. You are also responsible for keeping it patched unless you buy it managed.
What is the difference between a VPS and cloud hosting?
Cloud hosting is a managed website platform: we run the server, the web stack and the control panel, and you deploy sites into it. A VPS is a virtual machine with its own operating system that you, or we on a managed plan, administer like any server. Cloud is the better choice for websites. A VPS is the better choice when the application needs system packages, long-running processes or a runtime the website platform does not offer.
Managed or unmanaged — which do I need?
If nobody in your organisation is going to apply security updates, read a system log or restart a service at an inconvenient hour, choose managed. Unmanaged is genuinely cheaper and genuinely a server administration job. There is no shame in either answer; there is real risk in choosing wrong.
Can I run Node, Python or a background worker?
Yes. That is most of the reason to move to a VPS. You choose the runtime and version, you can run queues, scheduled jobs and long-lived processes under a process manager such as systemd, and you can install whatever system libraries the application needs.
Will I be able to run Docker?
Docker needs a VPS that is a full virtual machine with its own kernel, rather than a container sharing the host's kernel. Ask that question of any VPS provider before you buy. Running Docker and Docker Compose is one of the workloads we are planning the Serverlys VPS around, and we will state the virtualisation type plainly on the plan when it launches.
How much CPU and memory will I need?
Less than you think, usually, and memory runs out before CPU for most web applications. The starting points on this page are for a conversation, not a quote. The honest way to size is to measure your current usage, or to start small and watch memory, CPU during your busiest hour and disk I/O for a couple of weeks.
What happens if I get the sizing wrong?
The plan is that you resize. Moving between VPS sizes should be a resource change rather than a migration, so starting small is the safer mistake. Disk is the exception to watch on any provider: growing a disk is easy, shrinking one usually is not.
Are backups included, and do they cover my database?
Backups are planned on every VPS. Be aware of one detail that applies to any provider: a disk-level snapshot of a running database is only crash-consistent. For a database you care about, also take a logical dump, such as pg_dump or mysqldump, on a schedule, and test a restore. On a managed plan we set that up with you.
Who is responsible for security on a VPS?
On an unmanaged VPS, you are: operating system updates, SSH configuration, the firewall and every service you install. We keep the physical host and network running. On a managed VPS we take on patching, hardening and monitoring of the operating system and standard services, and your application code stays yours in both cases.
A plan that still makes sense in year two
Free migration, free SSL and daily backups on every plan, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
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