Dedicated server or VPS

A VPS is a slice of a physical server, a dedicated server is the whole machine. With 4 cores and 8–16 GB of memory a VPS costs almost half as much, with 4 cores and 32 GB the prices are equal, and with 64 GB on 8 cores or 128 GB on 16 cores a dedicated server in the catalog is a third cheaper than a virtual one. Here is what else changes besides the price: neighbours, guarantees, delivery time, hardware failures and remote management.

Updated 04.11.2026 · Find a VPS for your needs →

The choice between a VPS and a dedicated server usually starts with the price, but other things decide it: whether you share the processor with neighbours, who is responsible for a failed disk, how long you wait for the server and whether you can reach the console when the system does not boot. Below is what exactly you rent in each case, a price comparison at equal resources and the signs that it is time to take a physical machine.

What you rent in each case

A VPS is a virtual machine on the host's server. Dozens of such machines run on one physical server, and the hypervisor divides the processor, memory, disks and network card between them. You get root access, your own system and an IP address, but the hardware is shared. How it works is explained in the article What is a VPS, and the difference between the names VPS and VDS in VPS or VDS.

A dedicated server is a physical machine in a data centre rack that only you rent. The whole processor, all the memory and all the disks are yours, and there is no virtualization layer between the system and the hardware unless you install one yourself. The host is responsible for power, network, cooling and replacing faulty parts.

The figures in the plans mean different things too. A VPS lists vCPUs, virtual processors that the hypervisor maps onto the threads of a physical processor. A dedicated server usually lists the processor model and the number of physical cores and threads. "8 vCPU" and "8 cores" are not the same thing: on a processor with two-way SMT, eight physical cores give sixteen threads.

Neighbours and steal time

The main difference of a VPS is its neighbours. If the host sells more vCPUs than the physical processor has threads, and the neighbours load the system at the same time, your machine waits its turn. Linux shows this wait as steal: according to the kernel documentation, it is time spent in other operating systems when running in a virtualized environment. You can see it in the st column of top and vmstat.

Steal near zero means the processor is fully available to you.
A few per cent at peak hours happens even at good hosts on shared cores.
A constant tens of per cent means you pay for cores you do not fully get.

The disk and the network are shared as well: a neighbour's heavy writes can raise the latency of your database, and the server's port is shared by every machine on it. A dedicated server has no steal at all, and disk and network speed depend only on the hardware and your own load. How to test a VPS before paying is described in the article How to check VPS ping and speed.

Memory and disk guarantees

On a VPS with full virtualization (KVM), memory is usually pinned to the machine, but on containers and "burst" plans part of the memory is promised only while the host has free resources. A VPS disk is a file or a volume on a shared array: the size is guaranteed, the speed is not. The differences between virtualization types are covered in the article KVM or OpenVZ.

On a dedicated server, memory and disks are physical modules installed in the machine. The flip side is that their number and type are fixed by the configuration. Adding memory or a disk means a request to the host, and often a shutdown and an engineer working at the rack. On a VPS the same step is a plan change and a reboot.

Pay attention to the disk type: according to the accsly.io catalog for November 2026, about a third of dedicated server plans come with HDDs. That is fine for an archive or backups, but not for a database. NVMe-only plans are collected in dedicated servers with NVMe.

Setup, delivery time and hardware failures

A VPS is created from a template in minutes: according to the accsly.io catalog for November 2026, 955 of 2 210 VPS hosts state instant delivery. For a dedicated server the time depends on whether the machine is in stock: a configuration built to order has to be assembled and tested. Look for the delivery time in the plan description or ask support before paying.

A setup fee is rare for a VPS: according to the accsly.io catalog for November 2026, 500 of 27 thousand plans with monthly billing have one. For dedicated servers, 22 of the 120 hosts with monthly-billed plans charge it. The catalog keeps prices in roubles; dollar figures in this article are converted at the Central Bank of Russia rate of 4 November 2026 and rounded. Taking the cheapest plan of each such host, the median setup fee is about $52, paid once on top of the first month.

Virtual and physical servers survive hardware failure differently. If a VPS host breaks down, the provider restarts the machines on another server, and with network storage this can happen automatically. On a dedicated server an engineer replaces a broken disk or power supply, and the replacement time is written in the SLA, if it is written anywhere at all. That is why physical machines almost always get disks in RAID pairs and a backup kept off the server; how to set that up is explained in the article VPS backups.

ECC and remote console

Two things exist only on a dedicated server, and both are worth checking in the configuration description.

ECC memory. Server memory stores check bits and corrects single-bit errors on the fly. Through the EDAC subsystem Linux counts corrected (CE) and uncorrectable (UE) errors, so a growing counter tells you to replace a module before it fails. Servers on desktop processors do not always support ECC, so check the memory line in the configuration: for a database or storage, memory without ECC risks silent data corruption.
Remote management (IPMI, KVM over IP). A separate controller on the board, the BMC, works independently of the system. Through it you can switch the power on and off, open the server's screen in a browser, mount an installation image and read the sensors. The feature set is well described in the feature list of the open OpenBMC firmware: remote KVM, a console over SSH, IPMI and Redfish, power control. Without such access, a server that did not boot after a kernel update can be fixed only by the host's support.

The VPS equivalent is the VNC console in the host's panel and reinstallation from an image. It is usually enough, and on a VPS you do not see hardware memory errors at all: they are the host's responsibility.

What equal resources cost

For the comparison we took plans with the same number of cores and the same memory, in stock and with monthly billing, from the accsly.io catalog for November 2026. For each host we took the cheapest plan in that configuration, and the table shows the median across hosts. Prices are per month in US dollars, converted from roubles as described above; whether VAT is included depends on the host. Setup fees are not included in the table.

Cores and memory	VPS, median	Dedicated server, median
4 cores, 8 GB	$34 (1 267 hosts)	$79 (23 hosts)
4 cores, 16 GB	$47 (420)	$84 (44)
4 cores, 32 GB	$99 (81)	$99 (52)
8 cores, 32 GB	$96 (470)	$133 (28)
8 cores, 64 GB	$215 (89)	$146 (39)
16 cores, 64 GB	$193 (251)	$221 (37)
16 cores, 128 GB	$402 (61)	$271 (38)

The picture: with 4 cores and 8–16 GB of memory a VPS costs almost half as much, with 8 and 16 cores and 32 and 64 GB a VPS is 13–28% cheaper, with 4 cores and 32 GB the prices are equal, and at 8 GB per core on 8 and 16 cores (64 and 128 GB) a dedicated server is a third cheaper. Keep in mind that a VPS "core" is a vCPU, while a dedicated server core is a physical core, usually with two threads, so at equal figures the physical machine has more processor. The cheapest dedicated server at a mid-market host costs about $94 a month; a selection of inexpensive machines is in cheap dedicated servers.

When a dedicated server pays off

You need a lot of memory. With 64 GB on 8 cores and 128 GB on 16 cores, a dedicated server in the catalog is cheaper than a VPS of the same configuration, and the choice is wider: selections with 128 GB and with 256 GB of memory.
The processor is busy all the time. Builds, video encoding, calculations, game servers for many players: on shared cores such a load runs into steal, and a VPS with dedicated cores costs noticeably more than a regular one.
The database is sensitive to disk latency. Direct NVMe with no virtualization layer and no neighbours gives steady latency.
Your own virtualization. If you carve out machines for your team or clients yourself, you need a server where you can install your own hypervisor: dedicated server for virtualization.
Licensing or audit requirements. A licence counted per physical processor, or a ban on a shared hypervisor.

When a VPS is enough

A site, a bot, a small API or a database of tens of gigabytes: up to 4 cores and 16 GB a VPS is noticeably cheaper.
The load changes: a VPS can be scaled up by changing the plan, while nobody refunds the unused capacity of a dedicated server.
You need the server today and maybe not for long: a VPS is delivered at once, without a setup fee, and many hosts offer hourly billing.
Nobody is available to look after hardware: on a VPS the host takes care of disk failures, RAID and part replacement.

If neighbours hold you back but a physical machine is still too much, a middle option is a VPS on fast processors with dedicated cores: selections high-frequency VPS and VPS with 32 GB of memory. How many resources a site needs is worked out in the article How much memory and CPU a website needs. All physical machines in the catalog are in the dedicated servers section.

FAQ

How does a dedicated server differ from a VPS?

A VPS is a virtual machine on a shared server: you share the processor, disks and network with neighbours. A dedicated server is a whole physical machine that is yours alone, with no hypervisor and no neighbours, but hardware is replaced by the host's engineer.

Which is cheaper, a VPS or a dedicated server?

According to the accsly.io catalog for November 2026, with 4 cores and 8–16 GB of memory a VPS costs almost half as much. With 4 cores and 32 GB the prices are equal, and with 64 GB on 8 cores or 128 GB on 16 cores a dedicated server is about a third cheaper than a VPS of the same configuration.

What is steal time on a VPS?

It is the time your virtual machine waited for the processor while the hypervisor gave it to other machines. You can see it in the st column of top and vmstat. A constant tens of per cent means the host is overloaded.

Is there a setup fee for a dedicated server?

At some hosts, yes: according to the accsly.io catalog for November 2026, 22 of 120 dedicated server hosts with monthly billing charge it, with a median of about $52 paid once. For a VPS such a fee is rare.

Why do you need ECC memory?

ECC memory corrects single-bit errors and reports them to the system. Without it, a failing module can silently corrupt data in a database or in files, so ECC matters for storage and databases.

What are IPMI and KVM over IP?

Remote management of a physical server through a separate controller on the board: power, screen and keyboard in a browser, mounting an installation image. It works even if the system has not booted.

Plans on this topic

VPS with 64 GB RAM VPS with 16 cores Best dedicated server hosts 2026

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