VPS vs Dedicated Server — Complete Comparison
What is a VPS?
A Virtual Private Server (VPS) is a virtual machine running on shared physical hardware. A hypervisor (KVM in our case) partitions physical CPU cores, RAM, and storage into isolated virtual instances. Each VPS gets dedicated virtual resources, full root access, and can run any operating system. The physical server hosts multiple VPS instances, but each is isolated — your resources aren't affected by other tenants' workloads. VPS is ideal for: game servers, web hosting, development environments, and small to medium applications.
What is a Dedicated Server?
A dedicated server gives you the entire physical machine — all CPU cores, all RAM, all storage. No sharing, no hypervisor overhead, no 'noisy neighbor' risk. You get the bare metal performance of the CPU without any virtualization layer. Our dedicated server plans offer AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (16 cores/32 threads), 128 GB DDR5 RAM, 4 TB NVMe storage. Ideal for: high-traffic game networks, 100+ player Minecraft servers, database-heavy applications, and enterprise workloads.
Performance Comparison
CPU: Dedicated gets 100% of physical cores. VPS gets dedicated virtual cores — KVM overhead is <2%. RAM: Dedicated gets all physical RAM. VPS gets dedicated allocation — no overhead. Storage: Both use NVMe SSDs. VPS has slightly higher IO latency due to virtualization (0.1-0.3ms vs 0.05ms). For 99% of game server use cases, VPS performance is indistinguishable from dedicated. The difference matters for: 200+ player Minecraft servers, database servers handling 10,000+ queries/second, and video transcoding workloads.
Cost Comparison
VPS 1 (2 GB, 1 vCPU): €16.80/month. Dedicated Server (128 GB, 16 cores): from €250/month+. VPS is significantly cheaper because physical resources are shared across tenants. For a small Minecraft server (50 players), VPS is the economical choice. For a large FiveM network (5+ servers, 200+ concurrent players), dedicated becomes cost-effective. Our VDS (Virtual Dedicated Server) bridges the gap — dedicated physical cores at a lower price than full dedicated hardware.
When to Upgrade from VPS to Dedicated
Upgrade indicators: 1) Consistent CPU usage above 80% on your VPS. 2) IO wait exceeds 5% regularly. 3) You're hosting 5+ game servers simultaneously. 4) Your database is the bottleneck for 100+ players. 5) You need guaranteed resources for a competitive/esports server. 6) You're hitting the RAM ceiling of our largest VPS plan. Migration from VPS to dedicated is straightforward — we can clone your VPS to dedicated hardware with minimal downtime.
The VDS Middle Ground
Our Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS) plans offer dedicated physical CPU cores with KVM virtualization for the rest. You get guaranteed CPU performance without paying for a full dedicated server. VDS 1-8 cores: from €25/month. Perfect for game servers that need guaranteed CPU but don't need 128 GB RAM and 16 cores. Most gaming communities find VDS to be the sweet spot between VPS affordability and dedicated performance.
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