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CPU vs. RAM: What is More Important for a VPS Web Hosting?

You’ve done all the research you can about your website, but there’s still one problem that you’re running into.

Do you need RAM or CPU when web hosting? Is one better than the other? What about both? There’s no need to worry any longer because your questions are about to be answered.

CPU and RAM each serve different purposes but also work together to give you the best performance. Read on to find out more about CPU vs. RAM when it comes to your Virtual Private Server.

What’s the Difference?

CPUs (Central Processing Units) do the heavy lifting when it comes to processing instructions. As a processor, the more CPU cores that your server has, the more instructions it can process at the same time.

RAM (Random Access Memory) is equally as important. It stores data temporarily on the computer. The size of the RAM reflects how much storage it’s capable of holding.

CPU and RAM complement each other and often work alongside one another to give the best performance possible.

Let’s Get Down to the Details Of CPU vs. RAM 

One important thing to note when choosing how much you need of each is the traffic your website receives. You don’t want to overpay for more than you need or be stuck with poor performance that will hinder the experience of your users.

As a general rule, the more CPU cores you have, the better the overall performance will be. It will be more efficient and will be able to handle more tasks at once. In terms of a VPS, having more cores is beneficial when your VPS is running a website that is very data-intensive, such as one crunching statistical data, or handling many tasks (ie image manipulation) at once.

When it comes to RAM for VPS, the minimum for a VPS for web hosting purposes should be about 2GB. This is best for websites with low to moderate traffic.

If your website is more demanding or attracts more users, you’ll have to go bigger. 4GB is a great start for mid-sized websites, while even more RAM is recommended when running larger-scale websites.

If you have lots of content or a complex site, you’ll need much more RAM to make it work efficiently. Having a large amount of RAM is more important when you expect a large volume of visitors and it allows your VPS to keep more things in memory to serve more concurrent users faster. Having more RAM is particularly beneficial if your website or application is very database-intensive, or regularly needs to manipulate large amounts of data.

Remember, if you go with more RAM, you’ll also need to scale up the CPU cores to match it – they work in parallel.

Ready to Choose Your VPS?

While terms like CPU vs. RAM can be daunting for newcomers, they’re not quite as scary as they sound. However they are definitely key factors to consider when choosing your VPS hosting.

If you are still unsure about what balance of RAM vs CPU you need for your own website, please feel free to contact a member of the CanSpace sales team and we would be happy to discuss your specific needs in depth.

In the meanwhile, check out our options to find the VPS that you think will best suit your needs!

CanSpace Team

CanSpace Solutions is Canada's leading domain name registrar and web hosting provider. Keep an eye on our blog for expert information on domain names, websites, and running a business online.