Which VPS Plan Should You Buy for a Personal Website in 2026?

Choosing the right hosting for a personal website in 2026 comes down to matching your technical skills with the actual resource demands of your application. You do not need a 32-core dedicated server to run a personal blog, a digital portfolio, or a hobby project. However, defaulting to the cheapest shared hosting plan available often leads to frustrating performance bottlenecks as soon as you install your first heavy WordPress plugin.

In our experience managing thousands of servers, clients frequently overbuy resources out of fear or underbuy out of strict budget constraints. For a personal website, the decision usually lands between a shared Web Hosting plan, an entry-level containerized VPS (ct.Entry), or a mid-tier containerized VPS (ct.Ready). This guide breaks down exactly what you get with each option, the technical effort required, and which one provides the best value for your specific use case.

The Baseline: Shared Web Hosting

Before jumping into virtual servers, you must evaluate if you actually need one. Shared web hosting remains the most popular choice for beginners for a very practical reason: zero server administration is required. Our Web One plan starts at EUR 2.99/mo and includes the DirectAdmin control panel, automatic SSL certificate provisioning, and the Softaculous app installer.

On a shared hosting plan, you do not worry about updating the Linux kernel, configuring the NGiNX and Apache web stack, or securing the database server against vulnerabilities. The infrastructure is fully managed. You click a button to install WordPress, and you focus entirely on writing content or designing your portfolio.

However, shared hosting has strict physical limits. You share CPU cycles, RAM, and disk I/O with other tenants on the same physical server. If another user on your node experiences a massive traffic spike, your site might slow down. Furthermore, shared environments restrict deep system access. You cannot install custom software like Node.js, run background daemon processes, or modify global PHP limits beyond the allowed thresholds.

Taking Control: The ct.Entry Plan

If you have basic Linux command-line skills or want to learn system administration, the ct.Entry plan is the best cheap VPS for a personal website. Priced identically to our basic shared hosting at EUR 2.99/mo, it provides a massive leap in control. The ct.Entry plan is an LXC (Linux Container) virtual server that allocates 1 CPU Core, 512MB of RAM, and 10GB of SSD storage directly to you.

Because it is a virtual server, you get full root SSH access. You are no longer restricted to PHP and MySQL. You can deploy a lightweight static site generator like Hugo, run a small Ghost blog, or host a personal API using Python or Go. The 5TB of monthly traffic allowance on a 100 Mbps port is more than enough to handle thousands of daily visitors to a well-optimized static site.

The primary constraint of the ct.Entry plan is the 512MB RAM limit. You cannot run a heavy control panel like cPanel or DirectAdmin on this machine. If you attempt to install a bloated WordPress stack with a large MySQL database on 512MB of RAM, the Linux Out of Memory (OOM) killer will inevitably terminate your database process during a traffic spike. This plan is designed for developers who know how to optimize NGiNX, configure swap space, and build lean, fast applications.

Scaling Up: The ct.Ready Plan

When your personal website outgrows static HTML and requires a robust dynamic backend, the ct.Ready plan provides the necessary headroom. For EUR 5.99/mo, this LXC virtual server delivers 2 CPU Cores, 2GB of RAM, and 25GB of SSD storage on a 150 Mbps connection. The upgrade from 512MB to 2GB of RAM changes everything about how you manage the server.

With 2GB of RAM, you can comfortably install a free, modern control panel like CloudPanel, HestiaCP, or FastPanel. These tools give you a graphical interface to manage databases, SSL certificates, and scheduled backups without typing complex terminal commands. You can host a dynamic WordPress site, run a personal Nextcloud instance for file syncing, or deploy a self-hosted analytics tool like Plausible.

The two CPU cores allow the server to handle concurrent database queries and PHP processing much faster than the entry plan. If your personal website includes a resource-heavy component, such as a large image gallery, an active comment section, or a small forum, the ct.Ready plan ensures the backend does not bottleneck under load. It strikes the perfect balance between affordability and reliable dynamic performance.

Understanding LXC Virtualization for Personal Sites

Both the ct.Entry and ct.Ready plans use LXC (Linux Containers) rather than KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) virtualization. For a personal website, LXC is usually the superior choice because it is incredibly lightweight. Unlike KVM, which emulates hardware and runs a completely separate Linux kernel, LXC shares the host node's kernel.

This shared architecture means there is almost zero virtualization overhead. When you run a command inside an LXC container, it executes almost as fast as it would on bare metal. This efficiency is why we can offer the ct.Entry plan at such a competitive price. However, this also means you cannot load custom kernel modules, run Docker containers securely without specific unprivileged configurations, or install a different operating system like Windows Server.

If your personal project requires Docker, custom networking modules like WireGuard, or complete kernel isolation, you must step up to our KVM dedicated resource plans (vm.Entry, starting at EUR 4.99/mo). For 95% of standard web applications, blogs, and portfolios, LXC provides all the isolation and performance required.

The Security and Maintenance Trade-off

The most overlooked factor when transitioning from shared hosting to a VPS is the maintenance burden. When you purchase a ct.Entry or ct.Ready plan, it is unmanaged. We ensure the physical server, the network, and the hypervisor remain online with a 99.99% SLA. We guarantee the power and cooling in our data centers across Utah, Quebec, and Germany. The software inside the container, however, is entirely your responsibility.

You must configure the firewall using UFW or iptables. You must install Fail2Ban to block brute-force SSH attacks. You are responsible for applying security patches via apt-get update and configuring automated backups. If your NGiNX configuration file has a syntax error and your website goes offline, you must read the error logs and fix it.

If you enjoy the sysadmin process and view server configuration as a learning experience, a VPS is deeply rewarding. If your only goal is to write blog posts and you view terminal access as a terrifying chore, purchasing an unmanaged VPS will lead to a compromised server and frequent downtime. Be honest about your willingness to manage Linux infrastructure before ordering.

Making the Final Decision

Your choice depends entirely on your technical comfort zone and the software you intend to run. If you want zero maintenance, automatic backups, and a user-friendly interface to launch a WordPress site today, choose the Web Three shared hosting plan. It provides ample resources without the sysadmin headache.

If you are a developer building a lean, static website, a Node.js app, or a lightweight API, the ct.Entry plan at EUR 2.99/mo is the most cost-effective way to get full root access on reliable enterprise hardware.

If you want the freedom of a virtual server but need to run a graphical control panel or host a dynamic WordPress site that requires more memory, the ct.Ready plan at EUR 5.99/mo is the definitive choice. It provides the 2GB of RAM necessary to run modern web stacks comfortably while keeping costs aligned with a personal budget.