Linux or Windows VPS: which one do you actually need?

Picking an operating system feels like a detail you can sort out later. On a VPS it decides three things at once: what you pay, how much of the RAM is left for your own work, and how you look after the server every day. Here's the short version, then the numbers behind it. We measured them on fresh servers from our own images.

The short answer

Choose Windows when the job needs a program that only exists for Windows: a Windows-only trading terminal, a desktop app your business already runs, an old .NET Framework service, automation that clicks through Windows software. Windows also suits people who want to manage the server like a desktop PC and never open a terminal.

Choose Linux for almost everything else: websites, Docker, databases, VPNs, Telegram and Discord bots, trading bots written in Python, AI agents and game servers. Most of the software in those categories is written for Linux first.

If you aren't sure, it's probably Linux.

What each one uses before you start

We booted fresh servers from our images and measured them about a minute and a half after boot, with nobody logged in:

Before your own software starts, Windows uses at least three times as much memory as Ubuntu and about twenty times as much as Alpine. That's why our smallest Windows plan has 4 GB of RAM, while the smallest Linux plan gets by on 1 GB. On disk, Windows takes about 14 of the 50 GB on its plan. Ubuntu takes under 3 GB.

What it costs

Prices for our plans, per month:

At the same size, Windows costs $3 to $7 more on NAT and $12 more with its own IPv4. The bigger gap is at the bottom of the range. A small bot or website that runs happily on a $3 Linux server needs at least the $11 Windows plan, because Windows alone uses about 1 GB.

There's also the licence. Our Windows image is Windows Server 2022 that you activate with your own key (how BYOL works). Linux has no licence to buy.

How you look after it

Linux is managed over SSH, in text. Configuration lives in files, software comes from a package manager, and every step can go in a script. That's also why automation tools and AI agents find Linux servers easier to drive. Our setup guides for Ubuntu, Debian, Rocky Linux and Alpine take about ten minutes.

Windows is managed over Remote Desktop: a full desktop, the usual GUI tools, and PowerShell when you want to script. Two people can be connected at the same time without extra licences (how to add a second user). For scripting from another machine, OpenSSH is built in too. The first thing to do on any Windows server is lock down RDP.

Three common mix-ups

"I need Windows to use Remote Desktop." You don't. A Linux server can run a desktop that you open with the same Remote Desktop app. With XFCE and xrdp, one session added about 360 MB of RAM on our Ubuntu test server.

"Trading bots need Windows." Most don't. Freqtrade, Hummingbot and nearly every bot written in Python or Node.js run natively on Linux. Windows is only needed when the terminal itself is a Windows program.

"I want Windows 10, not Server." Desktop Windows on rented servers is a licensing problem, and Windows 10 is out of support. Server 2022 runs the same programs. The details are in Windows 10 vs Windows Server on a VPS.

Our pick

• A website, Docker stack, database or bot: Linux. Pick Ubuntu 24.04 if you follow tutorials, Debian 12 for less overhead, and Alpine for the leanest Docker host.
• Software that exists only for Windows: Windows Server 2022, starting with Windows-Small.
• Not sure: start on Linux. Nano costs $3 a month, so finding out is cheap.

Choose at the start, though. The Windows image runs only on the Windows plans, so going from Linux to Windows later means a new plan and moving your data. All Linux plans are in VPS plans and all four Windows plans are on the Windows VPS page. Payment is in USDT, USDC or ETH on Base, Ethereum or Polygon, and no ID is needed.