Best VPS for backups

A backup VPS should be boring, roomy, and easy to restore from. Disk, bandwidth, retention, and provider separation matter more than shiny CPU specs.

Minimum

1GB RAM is enough for simple rsync, restic, Borg, or Syncthing jobs.

Recommended

1-2 vCPU / 1-2GB RAM / enough disk for at least two backup generations.

Upgrade when

Upgrade storage before CPU. Move up when deduplication, encryption, or many clients slow down.

What matters for backups

Backup workloads are usually not CPU-heavy. You are buying disk, transfer, reliability, and a second place to restore from when the primary server fails.

Recommended provider fit

  • Hetzner storage-friendly VPS
  • HostHatch storage VPS
  • InterServer storage-oriented plans
  • RackNerd annual deals

Buying rule

Do not buy the smallest disk that fits today. Size for growth, retention, encryption, and restore testing.

Backup VPS FAQ

What matters most for a backup VPS?
Disk size, restore speed, provider reliability, and bandwidth limits matter more than CPU for most backup workloads.
Should backups stay on the same provider as production?
Prefer a different provider or region. A backup that fails with the same provider outage is not much of a backup.
How much disk should I buy for backups?
Buy enough disk for the current data plus growth and at least two backup generations. Do not size only for today.