A Storage VPS is a virtual server plan with a large disk and a modest CPU: few cores and little memory, but hundreds of gigabytes or several terabytes of space. Such a server is not meant for a web site but for storing backups — of its own or other servers. Here is when this plan is actually more cost-effective than a regular VPS, and when a large disk will sit idle.
What a Storage VPS is and how it differs from a regular VPS
A regular VPS balances CPU, memory, and disk for the load of a web site or application: more cores and RAM, with disk sized to the project itself. A Storage VPS shifts that balance toward disk: the CPU and memory stay minimal, while storage capacity grows several times over at the same or a similar cost per gigabyte.
The disk on such a plan is usually not the fastest NVMe but a higher-capacity, cheaper-per-gigabyte type of storage — a deliberate trade-off: for storing archives, read and write speed matters less than for a database under load.
When a Storage VPS fits the task
Such a server makes sense in scenarios where the main parameter is capacity, not computing power:
- Centralized storage of backups from several VPS or dedicated servers in one place.
- An archive of site or database versions over a long period, for audit and restoring to an old date.
- An intermediate staging point before sending copies to cloud storage.
- Storing media files and logs that are rarely read but must be available on request.
- A backup site separate from the production server, so a failure on one does not touch the other.
When a Storage VPS does not fit
If the server is also meant to run the actual workload — a site, a database, a task queue — the minimal CPU and memory of a Storage VPS quickly become a bottleneck. In that case it is more cost-effective to take a regular VPS with enough disk for copies and separately plan rotation of old versions so as not to hit the space limit.
The general principles of site backup — what exactly to copy and how often — are described in the article on creating a site backup; a Storage VPS in this scheme plays the role of a storage location, not a replacement for the backup procedure itself.
How to organize backups on a Storage VPS
A simple option is to drop copies over SSH or rsync straight from the working servers onto the Storage VPS. A more space-efficient option is a deduplication tool that stores only the changed data blocks between versions rather than full copies each time; this is covered in detail in the article on restic and BorgBackup.
# Example: sending a backup to a Storage VPS over SSH, removing copies older than 30 days
rsync -avz /backup/local/ user@storage-vps:/backup/remote/
find /backup/remote/ -mtime +30 -deleteIf the end goal is not to keep copies forever on one Storage VPS but to additionally offload them to the cloud, the difference between S3-compatible storage and other protocols, and how to set this up with rclone, is covered in the article on rclone and cloud backups.
How much disk to budget and how to estimate growth
The starting point for the calculation is the total size of all sources that need to be copied, multiplied by the number of versions that must be kept at the same time. Without deduplication, growth is nearly linear: 3 versions of a 10 GB database take up about 30 GB. With deduplication, the increment of each next version is usually noticeably smaller than the full size — the exact figure depends on how often the data changes between copies.
| Scenario | What matters more | Suitable plan |
|---|---|---|
| A site with a database | CPU and memory | regular VPS |
| Backup storage for several servers | disk capacity | Storage VPS |
| Archive of logs and media files | disk capacity | Storage VPS |
| A background task queue | CPU and memory | regular VPS |
Frequently asked questions
Can a site be hosted on a Storage VPS?
Technically yes, but the minimal CPU and memory will make it impractical even with modest traffic. If both space for copies and power for a site are needed, it is simpler to take a regular VPS with a disk of the required size than a Storage VPS with an upgraded CPU.
Is RAID needed on a Storage VPS?
On the virtual server side, RAID is usually configured by the provider on the physical hardware, not by the client inside the VPS. For reliability, what matters more than RAID inside a single machine is a copy of the data on another physical server or in another region — a single storage location remains a single point of failure.
How to tell disk space is about to run out?
The simplest approach is to set up monitoring of free space with a notification well before it fills up, rather than checking manually. A separate article on VDS resource monitoring covers which metrics to track for this and how to set up an alert before space runs out.