VPS Size Calculator

Answer 4 questions. Get your perfect VPS recommendation in seconds.

Picking the right VPS size is a balancing act between performance and cost. Too small and your site crashes under traffic spikes; too large and you waste money on unused resources. This calculator analyzes four key factors — your use case, expected traffic volume, number of sites, and budget — then matches you with specific plans from providers we have tested with real benchmark data. The recommendations update in real time as you adjust the sliders, so you can experiment with different scenarios and see exactly which plans fit.

1. What will you use the VPS for?

2. Expected monthly traffic

1,000 10,000 visits/mo 200,000+

3. How many websites/apps?

1 1 20+

4. Monthly budget

$2 $20/mo $100+

Your Recommended VPS Plans

How This Calculator Works

Our VPS calculator analyzes your requirements across four dimensions — purpose, traffic, number of sites, and budget — then matches you with the best available plans from our tested providers.

Minimum Specs by Use Case

Blog / Small Site: 1 vCPU, 1GB RAM, 20GB storage
Business Website: 1 vCPU, 2GB RAM, 30GB storage
E-commerce: 2 vCPU, 4GB RAM, 60GB storage
Game Server: 4 vCPU, 4GB RAM, 50GB storage
SaaS Application: 2 vCPU, 4GB RAM, 80GB storage
Machine Learning: 4 vCPU, 8GB RAM, 100GB storage

Traffic-Based Scaling

Under 10K visits/mo: 1 vCPU, 1GB RAM is sufficient
10K - 50K visits/mo: 1-2 vCPU, 2GB RAM recommended
50K+ visits/mo: 2+ vCPU, 4GB+ RAM recommended

All recommendations come from providers we've personally tested with real benchmark data. See our benchmark methodology →

Example Recommendations

Here's what our calculator recommends for common scenarios, so you know what to expect.

WordPress Blog — 10K visits/mo

Single site, moderate traffic, $10/mo budget

Minimum specs: 1 vCPU, 1GB RAM, 25GB SSD

Top pick: Hetzner CX22 — $4.59/mo (2 vCPU, 4GB RAM, 40GB SSD). You get 4x the RAM you need at half the budget.

Runner-up: Vultr — $5/mo (1 vCPU, 1GB, 25GB SSD). More US datacenter choices.

E-commerce Store — 50K visits/mo

WooCommerce, MySQL database, $30/mo budget

Minimum specs: 2 vCPU, 4GB RAM, 60GB NVMe

Top pick: Kamatera — $22/mo (2 vCPU, 4GB RAM, 40GB SSD). Custom configuration means you pay for exactly what you need.

Managed option: Cloudways — $28/mo. Built-in caching, staging, CDN. No server admin needed.

Minecraft Server — 20 players

Vanilla or lightly modded, low latency priority

Minimum specs: 2 vCPU, 4GB RAM, 50GB SSD

Top pick: Hostinger VPS — $6.49/mo (1 vCPU, 4GB NVMe). Best RAM per dollar for game servers.

Performance pick: Vultr — $24/mo (2 vCPU, 4GB). Dedicated resources with 9 US locations for low ping.

SaaS Application — 100K visits/mo

Node.js/Python API + PostgreSQL, $60/mo budget

Minimum specs: 4 vCPU, 8GB RAM, 160GB NVMe

Top pick: Vultr — $48/mo (4 vCPU, 8GB, 160GB SSD). API-first, hourly billing, great for CI/CD integration.

Budget pick: Hetzner CX32 — $17/mo (4 vCPU, 8GB, 80GB NVMe). Same specs at 65% less.

VPS Specs Guide by Use Case

Not sure what specs you need? Here's a detailed breakdown based on real-world testing across our 33 reviewed providers.

Web Hosting (WordPress, Static Sites, CMS)

WordPress with 1-3 plugins and a caching layer (Redis or WP Super Cache) runs comfortably on 1 vCPU / 1GB RAM for up to 25K monthly visitors. Add WooCommerce or 10+ plugins and you'll want 2GB minimum. Multiple WordPress sites on a single VPS? Budget 512MB per additional site. NVMe storage matters here — database queries are 3-5x faster on NVMe vs SATA SSD. Best picks: Hetzner ($4.59/mo), Hostinger ($6.49/mo), see full WordPress VPS guide.

Game Servers (Minecraft, Valheim, ARK, Rust)

Game servers are RAM-hungry and latency-sensitive. Minecraft vanilla needs 2GB minimum; modded packs (FTB, ATM) need 4-8GB. Valheim needs 4GB for 10 players. The key metric is single-thread CPU performance and network latency to your players. Choose a datacenter closest to your player base. Best picks: Hostinger (4GB at $6.49/mo), Contabo (8GB at $6.99/mo), see full game server guide.

Development & CI/CD

Dev environments need flexibility more than raw power. A 2 vCPU / 2GB VPS handles most development workflows. For CI/CD runners (GitHub Actions self-hosted, GitLab Runner), budget 2 vCPU / 4GB per concurrent build. Docker Compose stacks with 3-5 services fit in 4GB. Hourly billing is essential — spin up test servers and destroy them when done. Best picks: Vultr ($5/mo, API-first), DigitalOcean ($6/mo, best docs), see full dev VPS guide.

E-commerce & Business Applications

E-commerce requires reliable I/O for database queries during checkout. Minimum 2 vCPU / 4GB for WooCommerce or Magento. Shopify headless setups can run on 2GB. Factor in SSL termination overhead and database connections — each concurrent user holds a connection. Managed VPS (Cloudways, ScalaHosting) eliminates the ops burden. Best picks: Kamatera (custom configs), Cloudways (managed), see full e-commerce guide.

VPN & Privacy

VPN servers are lightweight on CPU and RAM — 1 vCPU / 512MB handles WireGuard or OpenVPN for personal use. The critical factor is bandwidth: most budget VPS providers cap at 1-3TB/mo. BuyVM offers unmetered bandwidth at $2/mo. For commercial VPN services, you need multiple IPs and US datacenter diversity. Best picks: BuyVM ($2/mo, unmetered), Vultr (9 US DCs), see full VPN guide.

SaaS & API Services

SaaS applications need predictable performance and easy scaling. Start with 2 vCPU / 4GB for your application server. Separate your database to a managed service when you exceed 10K daily active users. Redis for session storage and job queues needs 1GB dedicated. API-heavy workloads benefit from providers with generous bandwidth and low-latency networking. Best picks: Vultr (API, hourly billing), Hetzner (price/performance), see full dev guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

How accurate is this VPS calculator?

Our recommendations are based on real benchmark data from 33 providers we've tested. The calculator matches your requirements to minimum specs validated in production workloads. Application optimization (caching, CDN, database tuning) can significantly reduce resource needs. Consider our recommendation as a solid baseline — you can always scale up later with most providers.

How much RAM do I need for WordPress?

A single WordPress site with under 10K monthly visitors runs fine on 1GB RAM ($4-6/mo). For 10-50K visitors, 2GB is recommended. Multiple WordPress sites or WooCommerce stores need 4GB+. With proper optimization (Redis object caching, Nginx, PHP-FPM tuning), 2GB handles surprisingly heavy traffic. See our WordPress VPS guide for detailed recommendations.

Can I upgrade my VPS plan later?

Yes. Most cloud VPS providers (Vultr, DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Kamatera) allow instant plan upgrades with minimal or no downtime. Start with the smallest plan that meets your needs and scale up as traffic grows. Hourly-billed providers make this especially easy — you only pay for what you use.

What is the difference between vCPU and dedicated CPU?

A vCPU is a virtual CPU core shared with other tenants on the same physical host. A dedicated CPU gives you exclusive access to physical cores with no sharing. For most web applications, vCPUs are sufficient. Dedicated CPU plans cost 2-3x more but are worth it for CPU-intensive tasks like video encoding, CI/CD builds, or machine learning. See our CPU benchmarks for real performance data.

Should I choose SSD or NVMe storage?

NVMe is 3-5x faster than SATA SSD for random I/O operations. For database-heavy apps, e-commerce, or WordPress with WooCommerce, NVMe makes a noticeable difference in page load times. For static sites and simple apps, regular SSD is fine. Hetzner and Hostinger include NVMe by default at no extra cost. See our disk I/O benchmarks.

How much does a VPS cost for a small business?

A VPS for a small business website (under 50K monthly visitors) costs $5-20/mo. Our top picks: Hetzner CX22 at $4.59/mo (2 vCPU, 4GB), Vultr at $12/mo (2 vCPU, 2GB, 60GB), or Hostinger at $6.49/mo (1 vCPU, 4GB NVMe). For managed VPS with cPanel, Cloudways starts at $14/mo. Use our cost calculator to compare annual costs.

How many websites can I run on one VPS?

On a 2GB RAM VPS, you can comfortably run 3-5 low-traffic websites (under 5K visits/mo each). A 4GB VPS handles 5-10 sites. Each additional site adds roughly 200-500MB of RAM overhead depending on the CMS and plugins used. For WordPress sites with caching enabled, budget about 512MB per site. Our calculator factors in multi-site overhead when generating recommendations.