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Choosing the Right Cloud Provider

In this guide, I’ll explain which cloud provider might be the best option for projects aiming to ship fast, minimize time spent on cloud infrastructure, and keep costs low. Before comparing specific cloud providers, let’s review how cloud computing works and how cloud providers earn money.

How Cloud Works

The cloud is essentially a network of interconnected computers, often referred to as machines. Imagine connecting several computers in an office or at home, such as laptops or Raspberry Pis, to the internet—that’s a simplified version of a cloud. Cloud providers are companies that buy large numbers of computers and rent them to customers. You can rent a physical server or a virtual server, where typically 1 virtual CPU (vCPU) equals one thread or half of a physical CPU core. A machine with 16 threads, for example, can be divided into 16 vCPUs.

There are two main types of vCPUs: “dedicated” vCPUs (one thread per user) and “shared” vCPUs (one thread shared among multiple users). The same concept applies to RAM, which may also be shared virtually among users. These virtual servers go by different names, including Virtual Private Server (VPS), cloud server, or virtual machine (VM). Keep in mind that performance can vary between providers, even if they offer similar vCPU and RAM specs, because they use different hardware.

How Cloud Providers Earn Money

There are two main types of cloud providers based on their business models:

  • Providers focused on renting virtual and dedicated (or bare-metal) servers: Examples include Hetzner, DigitalOcean, and Scaleway. These small to medium-sized providers don’t spend large budgets on marketing and instead offer straightforward, predictable cloud services. They usually offer free or very affordable bandwidth, and cloud costs with these providers are predictable. For instance, hosting a SaaS project with around 1,000 active monthly users could cost $10-20 per month. We use providers from this group in TurboCloud and recommend them for most projects.

  • Providers focused on selling solutions and additional services: They focus on selling different services on top of servers. These providers imagine various problems and sell 200+ services to solve them. By using more of these services, you become increasingly locked into that cloud provider. This group also includes various serverless services. These providers attract engineers through marketing and free credits. While large companies like Meta or Uber may use these services, that doesn’t mean they’re the best choice for everyone. For a detailed account of potential savings from leaving such providers, see this blog post. Costs with these providers are often difficult to predict, as highlighted in these examples:

How to Select a Cloud Provider

We recommend that most projects use cloud providers focused solely on virtual servers (VPS) and dedicated servers. Here are some key factors to consider when choosing a cloud provider:

  • Affordable or free bandwidth: Paying for bandwidth can be costly with providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure. Some providers offer “unlimited” bandwidth but cap the speed, so be sure to check bandwidth speed as well. For more details, see this comparison of data egress costs.

  • Ease of deployment: Look for providers that allow you to set up a server and SSH into it without needing extensive documentation. AWS, for example, can require hours or even days for setup if you’re new to it.

  • Server scalability: Some providers, like Scaleway, don’t offer easy server scaling. If you need to add vCPUs or RAM, you might have to go through a complex process. This can be a warning sign if you expect to scale often.

  • Billing period and setup costs: Some providers, such as OVH, charge monthly rather than hourly for VPS. If you need to frequently start and stop servers or scale up and down, hourly billing may be more suitable. Also, some providers (like Contabo) charge setup fees for cloud servers, which is more common with dedicated servers.

  • Account creation time: Some providers, such as Hetzner, require account verification, including documents like a passport. If you need immediate deployment, Hetzner might not be ideal due to this waiting period. However, if you’re based in the EU and can plan ahead, Hetzner can be a great option.

  • Firewall options: While you can set up your own web application firewall, it’s helpful if the provider offers a free firewall that blocks unwanted traffic before it reaches your server, as Hetzner does.

To summarize, here are a few cloud providers we recommend:

  • Hetzner: Ideal for European companies needing VPS or dedicated servers. Note that account approval can take a few days.
  • OVH: Suitable for dedicated servers or VPS if you don’t plan to scale frequently. It offers cheap dedicated servers with unlimited bandwidth.
  • DigitalOcean: Great for cloud servers with a quick setup process. It’s pricier than Hetzner or OVH but offers easy deployment.
  • Vultr: Another good option for quick-start cloud servers, similar to DigitalOcean but with some slightly cheaper options.

How to Deploy on VPS and Dedicated Servers

For deploying projects on any server, we recommend using TurboCloud’s deployment toolkit. The basic version requires no registration or credit card—simply go to the source code folder and run a single command. Check our documentation for more details.