A Developer's Checklist Before Buying Shared Hosting or a VPS

Disclosure: I run an independent hosting referral site, linked at the end. It earns me a commission, at no extra cost to you.

Choosing hosting is a small decision that quietly costs money for years. Here’s the checklist I use, and give to anyone who asks.

1. Price the renewal, not the intro

Intro pricing usually applies to the first term only. Find the renewal rate, then compare total cost over the period you’ll actually keep the plan.

1. Don’t pick the cheapest tier by reflex

Entry tiers often cap you at one site. If you might host a second project, the next tier up can cost the same or less per month on long terms.

1. Long terms are a bet

A 48-month term gives the lowest monthly rate, but refund windows are typically about a month. Commit long only when you’re sure.

1. A VPS is a job, not a plan

Root access means you handle:

patching and updates
backups
firewall rules and SSH hardening
monitoring and alerts

If you want that control, great. If you just need a site online, managed or cloud hosting saves you the ops work.

1. Verify the discount before paying

If you use a coupon, confirm the discount line appears in the order summary before you pay. Only one code is usually active per order, so remove any other first.

Where I put this together

I wrote a few VPS guides covering hardening a new server, Nginx server blocks for multiple sites, push-to-deploy with GitHub Actions over plain SSH, and self-hosting n8n with Docker Compose and Caddy. They’re at savemores.store.

It’s an independent Hostinger referral site, not Hostinger itself. Prices are indicative; your checkout shows the final amount.

Question for you: what’s the first thing you configure on a fresh VPS?