A project starts out on the cheapest VPS available. A couple of months later, the website begins slowing down in the evenings. The team upgrades to a plan with “room to grow,” usually interpreted as “more CPU cores.” But the actual bottleneck may be insufficient memory or competition for CPU time with other virtual machines. The hosting bill goes up, and the performance problems remain.
To avoid this, it helps to answer four questions before ordering a server. Does your project need dedicated CPU resources, or will shared cores do? How much memory and storage will it need six months from now? Where are its users located? And how long will it run—a few days for testing, or years in production?
Shared vs. Dedicated: What Is the Actual Difference?
At first glance, the specifications of the two VPS ranges look identical. Entry-level configurations offer 1 CPU core, 2 GB of RAM, and 30 GB of NVMe storage, while the largest configurations go up to 16 cores, 32 GB of RAM, and 480 GB of NVMe storage. The fundamental difference is how CPU time is allocated.
With Shared VPS, CPU cores are shared. The physical processor divides its time among multiple virtual machines, so when neighboring workloads are busy, your VM may receive less CPU time. RAM and storage capacity, however, are allocated to your instance rather than shared in the same way. For a website with relatively steady traffic, a bot, or a testing environment, this is often sufficient: these workloads typically leave the CPU idle for much of the time.
With Dedicated VPS, a full physical CPU core is reserved for your server, and disk operations are additionally accelerated by an in-memory cache (RAM Cache). Other customers' VMs do not take away your allocated CPU time. This option makes sense when CPU demand is sustained or when users are sensitive to latency—for example, with e-commerce platforms, game servers, and databases.
Both ranges use KVM virtualization. Each virtual machine is isolated from the others, you have full control over the guest operating system's kernel and firewall, and tools such as Docker, Podman, and LXC run as usual. Nested virtualization is disabled, however, so you cannot run a hypervisor such as Proxmox or create your own KVM virtual machines inside the VPS. For that, you would need a physical dedicated server, which we will discuss later.
At the entry level, Dedicated VPS costs approximately 1.4 times as much as Shared VPS for an equivalent configuration of 1 core, 2 GB of RAM, and 30 GB of NVMe storage. Check Aéza's website for current prices and billing currencies.
How Much Capacity Should You Plan For?
Start with memory, because shortages often become noticeable first. You need enough RAM for the operating system, the application itself, and the data it accesses frequently. If available memory regularly approaches zero and the system begins swapping or triggers the OOM killer, adding CPU cores will not solve the problem. You can check available memory with free:
# Check the available column; 'free' memory is often low on Linux because of caching.
free -h
CPU requirements depend on the workload. A web application handling many concurrent requests can often make effective use of multiple cores. A single-threaded task, such as a game loop or an individual resource-intensive report, benefits more from higher per-core clock speed. Aéza's Shared and Dedicated VPS ranges use AMD Ryzen 9 processors with frequencies of up to 5.7 GHz.
Both ranges use NVMe storage. A 30 GB disk may be enough for the operating system and a small project, but logs, user uploads, and local backups can grow faster than expected.
If none of the five predefined plans fits your needs, you can build a custom configuration when ordering: 1–16 CPU cores, 2–32 GB of RAM, and 10–480 GB of NVMe storage. This is useful when your project needs plenty of RAM but few CPU cores, or the reverse.
Where Should You Host Your Server?
Virtual servers are available in international locations including Helsinki, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Vienna, Paris, London, and Charlotte (USA). As a general rule, hosting closer to your users reduces network latency. The order form displays the ping from your computer to each location, and you can inspect the route to a specific data center through Looking Glass.
Hardware also varies by location. In Charlotte, configurations use AMD Ryzen 9 9950X processors and offer network links of up to 25 Gbps. Many European locations use Ryzen 9 7950X3D processors, with network links of up to 1 Gbps. Available hardware, network capacity, and prices may differ by location, so check the configuration shown during ordering.
Other features are not location-dependent. Traffic is unlimited, and each server includes one IPv4 address and an IPv6 /48 subnet. Basic DDoS protection is included and runs continuously, with up to 2 Tbps of coarse filtering and 600 Gbps of fine-grained filtering. For gaming workloads and more complex cases, enhanced L3–L4 and L7 protection is available as a separate service, configured with support for the specific application.
All Server Options at a Glance
| Product | Specifications | Billing | Recommended use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shared VPS | Shared AMD Ryzen 9 cores, NVMe, 1–16 cores | Hourly or monthly | Websites, bots, development, and testing |
| Dedicated VPS | Dedicated physical CPU cores, NVMe with RAM Cache | Hourly or monthly | E-commerce, game servers, and databases |
| Promo VPS (Stockholm) | 1 AMD Ryzen 5 3600 core, 4 GB RAM, 10 GB NVMe, up to 300 Mbps | Promotional plan; check availability | Landing pages, bots, and learning projects |
| Storage VPS | Intel Xeon Platinum 8260, 2–16 TB of HDD storage in ZFS RAID, up to 10 Gbps | Monthly; check current rates | Backups, archives, and media files |
| Physical Dedicated Server | AMD Ryzen 7 7700, 8 cores, 96 GB RAM, 2 TB storage | Monthly; check current rates | Running your own VMs and hosting large databases |
| Web Hosting | Control panel, SSL, MySQL, and email | Monthly; check current rates | WordPress and other CMS-based websites |
Recommended Configurations for Common Workloads
Website or Blog
If you do not want to manage a server yourself, web hosting is the simpler option. The Start plan supports one website, three databases, email mailboxes, and an SSL certificate. Our specialists can install WordPress or migrate an existing WordPress site. Check current introductory offers and trial availability on the official website.
If you need your own technology stack—for example, Node.js, Docker, or custom web server settings—a Shared VPS with 2–4 GB of RAM is a better fit. Current pricing is available on Aéza's website.
Bot, Pet Project, or Test Environment
A bot, pet project, or test environment will often run comfortably on a Shared VPS with 1–2 CPU cores and 2–4 GB of RAM. For environments that only need to run for a few hours or days, hourly billing is convenient: a server is provisioned in about a minute, and you pay only for the hours you use. Servers can also be managed through a REST API, including from CI pipelines.
For particularly lightweight workloads, such as a landing page or a simple bot, the Promo plan in Stockholm may be sufficient for basic projects. It has a network link of up to 300 Mbps and a less powerful CPU, so Shared VPS is a better starting point for production services with meaningful load.
E-commerce and Business Applications
E-commerce platforms and business applications often depend on database queries, disk access, and caching. Some workloads are also sensitive to per-core performance. Dedicated VPS can provide more predictable CPU availability because the allocated cores are not shared with neighboring VMs.
For a small online store or business application serving a handful of users, a reasonable starting configuration is 4 cores and 8 GB of RAM. As the product catalog and order volume grow, consider moving to 8 cores and 16 GB of RAM, guided by actual resource measurements.
Game Server
Players notice lag immediately, which makes shared CPU cores a less attractive option. Many game servers, including Minecraft servers, execute their main game loop on a single thread. That means per-core clock speed often matters more than the total number of cores.
For a vanilla Minecraft server or a Paper-based server with a few dozen players, the same Dedicated VPS configuration with 4 cores and 8 GB of RAM is a reasonable starting point. Modpacks generally require considerably more memory.
Choose a location close to your players and test real latency to that data center before deploying. Basic DDoS protection is included, and enhanced filtering can be arranged through support for the requirements of a particular game.
Database Server
For PostgreSQL or MySQL, the key is to have enough memory to hold frequently accessed data. This allows most reads to be served without reaching the disk, while NVMe storage with RAM Cache handles the remaining I/O efficiently.
Start by considering Dedicated VPS, and size RAM according to your working set—the frequently accessed data and indexes—rather than the total size of the database.
Backups can be configured in the control panel: up to five copies on an automated schedule, at 20% of the server price. For critical databases, it is also useful to maintain separate database dumps, for example on a Storage VPS, as described below.
Storage for Backups and Files
Aéza offers a separate product for this use case: Storage VPS. These virtual servers use HDD storage in ZFS RAID, with configurations ranging from 2 TB to 16 TB. Check Aéza's website for current pricing, availability, and supported locations.
The network link offers up to 10 Gbps, so uploading and restoring database dumps will rarely be limited by storage-server network bandwidth. However, HDD storage is not suitable for databases or other workloads requiring fast random disk access. Those are better hosted on NVMe.
When a VPS Is No Longer Enough
A physical dedicated server makes sense if your project needs more than 32 GB of RAM or 480 GB of disk space, if you want to run your own virtual machines, or if you need the entire physical machine to yourself.
Available configurations include an AMD Ryzen 7 7700 with 96 GB of RAM and 2 TB of storage. Another option offers 192 GB of RAM and a 2.5 Gbps network link. Ask support about current configurations, custom builds, and whether you can announce your own autonomous system (AS) and network prefixes.
How to Reduce Hosting Costs
Start with a smaller plan. You can increase CPU, RAM, and disk capacity through the control panel without losing your data. The server reboots and becomes available again in approximately one minute. There is no need to buy excess capacity far in advance.
Use hourly billing for short experiments. Suppose you need to run a load test over a weekend. With a Dedicated VPS configured with 8 cores and 16 GB of RAM, a 48-hour test only requires paying for those hours rather than a full monthly period, if hourly billing is offered for that configuration. Compare the current hourly and monthly rates before ordering.
If you are unsure whether Shared VPS still provides enough CPU performance, check CPU steal time. It shows how much CPU time the hypervisor assigned to other virtual machines while your instance was waiting to run:
# The st column shows the percentage of time taken by the hypervisor for other VMs.
# Ignore the first row, which is the average since system boot.
vmstat 1 5
If st consistently reaches several percent or more while your application is CPU-bound, it may be time to switch to Dedicated VPS. If st stays near zero, investigate memory, disk I/O, or application-level bottlenecks instead.
Prepay for long-running projects. Longer billing terms may qualify for discounts: 5% for three months, 9% for six months, and 12% for a year under the tariff terms described here. Confirm current offers for your account and chosen location before paying in advance.
How to Order a Server
You can order a server through your account dashboard. First, choose a location. Then select a standard plan or a custom configuration, choose the operating system, and set the billing period.
Available Linux distributions include Ubuntu 26.04, 24.04, and 22.04; Debian 13 and 12; AlmaLinux; Rocky Linux; CentOS Stream 9; Arch Linux; and Alpine Linux.
You can pay hourly, weekly, monthly, or in advance for 3, 6, or 12 months to receive the corresponding discount. You can also enable automatic renewal and order several identical servers at once. The server is generally ready to use approximately one minute after payment.
If you prefer not to handle server setup and maintenance yourself, you can also request Aéza's server administration service through the dashboard.
Key Takeaways
Shared VPS is a good choice for websites, bots, and test environments where the CPU is idle much of the time. Dedicated VPS is better for sustained workloads or applications where users immediately notice latency: online stores, game servers, and databases. Storage VPS is designed for file storage and backups, while a physical dedicated server is the next step when you need more than 32 GB of RAM, more than 480 GB of storage, or your own hypervisor. If you just need a website without server administration, web hosting may be the most convenient option.
You can build your configuration on the virtual servers page. If you are unsure which plan is right for your project, contact support. The team is available 24/7 and can help you choose the most appropriate server.
Top comments (0)