Cloud server or dedicated server?

Both are servers you rent and manage yourself. The difference: a cloud server or VPS is a virtual machine that shares a physical server with others. A dedicated server is a whole physical machine just for you.

The differences at a glance

	Cloud server / VPS	Dedicated server
Provisioning	usually minutes	minutes to days, depending on the model
Billing	often hourly or monthly	monthly, sometimes with a setup fee
Resizing	a click and a short reboot	only by moving to another server
Performance per dollar	good at small sizes	best with lots of RAM, storage and CPU
Neighbors	share the hardware	none
Hardware failure	provider restarts the VM elsewhere	provider replaces the hardware; RAID and backups are up to you
Snapshots, firewall, networks	usually built in	depends on the provider, often DIY

When a cloud server fits

You start small and want to grow later.
You need servers only for a while, e.g. for tests or load peaks.
Snapshots, quick reinstalls and flexible sizes matter more to you than maximum performance.
Websites, shops, APIs, container hosts, VPN, monitoring.

For steady high CPU load there are cloud servers with dedicated vCPUs – a middle ground between both worlds. More on that: Shared or dedicated vCPU?

When a dedicated server fits

You need lots of RAM or storage – dedicated servers are usually much cheaper per dollar here.
Your application runs under constant high load: databases, virtualization, build servers, game servers, storage.
You want no neighbors and full control over the hardware.

What to watch when comparing prices

Compare the monthly price without a minimum term. Cheaper prices for 12 or 24 month terms are shown separately, including the renewal price.
Add extras: IPv4 address and setup fee are shown on every card.
Performance, not core count: an older processor with 8 cores can be slower than a current one with 6. We show the Geekbench score for known CPUs.

Compare now

Both lists show price, specs and stock per datacenter, refreshed every 5 minutes.