Newbie question: is it better to have a beefier VPS/dedi with multiple apps, or one app per VPS?

[qwinter]

I'm about to finish renting a linode machine, and this got me thinking.
If I have say an RSS tool that needs 256mb, a forum that needs 1gb (or say x2 of these), and a static website...
Would I be better off with a beefier machine with 8GB, or two 4gb ones separating concerns?

Thanks!

[humptydumpty]

@qwinter I had the same question a while back and the things that influenced my decision were:

• CPU to RAM Cost Ratio: You'll notice that RAM will double but the CPU is increased by ~1-2 cores for the next higher plan so you'll have to see whether you could benefit from having more CPU or RAM resources (it's usually RAM for most apps).
• Disk Space: Many providers now offer NVME. For instance, with Contabo you can get 50GB NVME or 200GB SSD with their cheapest VPS plan. This comes down to speed vs. capacity and that depends on your use-case.
• IP Server Isolation: If you need to isolate the server IP to preserve its reputation, etc. you might want to consider the cost of adding a 2nd IP address. It might make sense to go with two smaller servers.

I went with a single beefy NVME VPS and it's working great for me. Having that extra resource cushion for all my apps is great. You don't want to deal with server upgrades when you get that influx of traffic.

If you're on the free Cloudron plan, having a premium license is worth it. I started with the need for self-hosted mail and a Wordpress site. Now I have +20 apps installed on the same VPS because I found apps for all my needs and it's all under one super-easy-to-manage roof!

[timconsidine]

@qwinter I used to segregate apps on different VPS. Largely through fear of apps conflicting with each other (different modules/scripts) and my personal ignorance of how containers worked.

It all cost me a fortune !! Multiple small bottom tier VPS, each of which did not consume their resources to an adequate level.

I've since gone with steadily bigger beefier machines, and certainly get better price/performance, adding on extra apps to research ("play") and they don't tax the power of a well-spec'ed host.

I do have separate VPS, one for Cloudron, one for non-Cloudron Docker deployments, etc. So I do segregate apps to different hosts but hopefully with more logic than I did before.

So I would go with the best host which makes sense to you, rather than multiple smaller ones, except where there is a clear technical reason (e.g. I don't risk my main Cloudron host with non-Cloudron docker apps).

[Rahul]

The best and easiest way is to use a single larger VPS to handle the different traffic apps. If uptime and stability are more matter in your case then you can run one app per VPS in critical services. Also, you can do a hybrid approach. The hybrid approach contains the separation of resource-heavy apps and low-traffic apps ones together. It can also work well.

If you consider the cost then a single VPS is easier to manage and allows flexible resource allocation. But, it creates an issue like one application could impact others. Multiple smaller VPS instances provide better isolation and redundancy to one service that stays online if another fails.
I prefer to use a single 4GB vps to a single app mostly. Still, if you want to use one vps for all apps then you have to prefer at least 8GB vps for sure.