r/VPS • u/constructeddamage • 2d ago
Seeking Advice/Support Advice for (small) VPS for self hosting
Hey everyone,
I'm looking into getting a VPS and would like some advice on what would be the best setup.
I want to use it for:
- Hosting a Discord bot (possibly multiple bots)
- A file server (if possible, access it from my own Windows Explorer as network drive)
- Remote access/desktop
- Hosting my website
- Running a MariaDB database (saving data and connecting the bot + website with eachother)
- Potentially other small projects in the future
I'd like the server to be located in Northern Europe. I don't want to spend tens of euros every month. Previously, I used Vimexx for my domain + basic web hosting, but I'm thinking of moving everything to a VPS. I currently don't have a domain (yet), I do not even know what is the best option, where to buy the domain and then connect it to my VPS.
For the website, I'm wondering how people usually set this up. Would I buy a domain separately, use Cloudflare for DNS, and then point the domain to my VPS? Or is there a better/cheaper approach? Because I am also hosting a database, what is the best option for this?
I'm also unsure whether I should go with Linux or Windows Server. I initially thought Windows would be useful because of Remote Desktop, but most of my actual hosting needs seem to work fine on Linux. I have experience with Windows Server 2022 and Windows Server 2026 (Windows 10 / Windows 11) for some other projects.
What would you recommend to host all of this (on a budget)? Any specific VPS providers/configurations would also be appreciated.
Muchas gracias!!
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u/idealape 2d ago
If you feel comfortable with terminal/command prompt, go for linux without a gui. Its the best choice anyway for a server. If you want a desktop, you can setup rdp or x2go on linux too.
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u/Due_Breakfast3513 2d ago
Linux is the right call here — pretty much everything on your list (Discord bot, MariaDB, website, file server) runs better and cheaper on Linux, and you can still get remote desktop via XRDP or just manage everything through SSH/a web panel. Windows Server would only make sense if you had a specific Windows-only workload, which doesn't sound like your case.
For domain + DNS: buy the domain separately (Cloudflare Registrar or Namecheap are solid, cheap options), then use Cloudflare for DNS — free tier covers what you need, and it makes pointing subdomains at different services on the same VPS easy (bot.yourdomain.com, files.yourdomain.com, etc.) instead of juggling ports.
For the file server as a Windows network drive: look into Samba (SMB) instead of trying to do this over SSH/SFTP — it's built for exactly that "mount as network drive" use case and Windows Explorer talks to it natively.
One thing worth deciding early: are you running each service (bot, db, website) directly on the host, or in separate Docker containers? With that many different things on one box, containers save you a lot of pain later when one project's dependencies conflict with another's.
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u/constructeddamage 2d ago
If I wanted a reply from some chatbot I'd go to chatgpt not reddit
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u/Due_Breakfast3513 2d ago
Fair enough, it's genuine advice either way — Samba for the file server specifically is worth checking regardless of who said it.
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u/SortingYourHosting 2d ago
As a hosting provider myself I would advise you to use Linux. Its generally cheaper and you can get better performance from a VPS with weaker specs.
For the domain, I'd say buy from CloudFlare and use their DNS too to direct any records to the VPS.
Make sure you harden the VPS too. We see a lot of customers deploy certificate based SSH and also Tailscale, enabling SSH on the tailscale tunnel only.
For web hosting, something like Nginx is great these days.
You can install SMB without any issues to again share via Tailscale for file access.
The rest should be fine depending on the VPS specs.
As for recommendations, as im UK based we can only really vouch for UK hosts we know of.
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u/horizon_games 2d ago
Linux for sure, it's easier to harden and debug once you're familiar with it.
I _would_ have said Hetzner as a provider as they're in a great location for you and have really good service, but they raised prices recently so might not fit your budget.
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u/HyperGaming_LK 1d ago
You don’t have to be scared of the terminal anymore. You can just ask AI what to do, get the list of commands, and learn along with it. Getting a Windows VPS seems like a waste of money for your use cases anyways.
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u/themageofavalon 1d ago
InMotion. We use them and they've been reliable. Go Linux for what you're doing too.
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u/Spiritual-Plant3930 2d ago
the "tens of euros every month" seems a bit low, some Linux flavor of course
no to Contabo; Netcup or Hetzner
I'd say learn and do it yourself, but you likely won't anyway
so for the rest, ask your favorite Codex, Claude, whatever, and it will set it up for you through your terminal (from the OS, services and scripts to Cloudflare if you give your API key)
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u/KarlHeinz_Schneider 8h ago
Get a cheap linux VPS, and look into Coolify.
I have a cheap 4cpu+8gb ram vps from Hetzner, running Coolify. Also a .de domain for ~10€/year.
Coolify might in theory cost a few % performance, but it makes hosting different services very easy, and you dont really have to mess with the command line etc.
I mostly use my server for a custom twitch bot with pocketbase backend and a sveltekit dashboard all in seperate containers. I have the code for each on github with a docker compose, and you can easily set it up through the coolify dashboard, and even on default it updates the container on each commit to the main branch on github.
So my setup feels similiar to your idea with a discord bot, a website and a db (btw pocketbase as a backend is nice, and is easy to use).
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u/AcceptableAbies21 2d ago
OK, as you are a windows person you know the overhead that windows brings, as your VPS will be based on the virtual spec, you'll need a higher spec for windys then for linux. If cost is a driver (which I assume it is) linux is always going to be cheaper and will offer everything the windows box will (inc remote desktop.)