VPS
Virtual Private Server — a virtualized Linux box rented from a cloud provider, billed by the hour or month.
Definition
A VPS (Virtual Private Server) is a virtualized server instance on shared physical hardware, sold as a dedicated Linux box with root access. Common providers: Hetzner Cloud, DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, AWS Lightsail. Pricing scales with vCPU, RAM, and disk. The standard cheap way to self-host n8n, a database, or any always-on service.
When to use
Pick a VPS when you want self-hosted control without managing physical hardware. Hetzner is the price-performance leader in 2026; DigitalOcean is the UX leader; AWS EC2 is the enterprise default.
See also
- n8n — Open-source workflow automation tool with 400+ integrations, self-hostable, fair-code licensed.