Root server or VPS? Picking the right netcup box
netcup sells two lines of virtual servers that look almost the same on paper: VPS and root servers. Both are virtual machines and both give you full root access. People get confused by the name, because a "root server" at netcup is not a physical machine. The real difference is the CPU.
Shared vs dedicated cores
On a VPS, your vCores are shared with other customers on the same host. Most of the time you won't notice. When a neighbour gets busy, your server gets a bit slower.
On a root server, the cores are dedicated to you. You pay more per core, but performance stays the same at 3 a.m. and at 8 p.m.
When a VPS is enough
Most self-hosting stuff barely uses the CPU. It mostly sits there waiting for requests. A VPS is fine for:
- a reverse proxy and a handful of web apps
- Vaultwarden, Uptime Kuma, Gitea, a wiki
- a WireGuard endpoint
- small personal sites and blogs
For this kind of load, RAM and disk space run out long before the CPU does. Buy for those.
When to pay for a root server
Go dedicated when the CPU is busy for long stretches, or when lag is noticeable:
- game servers (Minecraft is the classic one)
- CI runners and build boxes
- databases that get real traffic
- media transcoding
- anything you'd get paged about at night
My rule of thumb
Start on a VPS. If you catch yourself checking htop and seeing high st (steal time), or things feel slow at peak hours for no reason, move up to a root server. Steal time is the share of time your VM wanted the CPU but the host gave it to someone else.
top -bn1 | grep "Cpu(s)"
The last number in that line, st, is the one to watch. A percent or two is normal. Sitting at double digits means you're fighting your neighbours.
Several of the codes on the coupons page give free months on root servers. That's a cheap way to find out whether you actually need the dedicated cores.