Self-hosting, sized honestly
How much server does your self-hosted app really need?
Official requirements, real numbers people have reported, and the cheapest VPS plans that fit, for each app. Every figure links to its source and shows the date we checked it.
App requirements
Photos & video
Immich
Machine learning ON: 6 GB RAM / 2 cores minimum, 8 GB / 4 cores recommended
Files & collaboration
Nextcloud
1 user (AIO, no extras): 2 GB works, 4 GB recommended
Automation
n8n
Official Docker Compose stack (with Assistant sandbox): At least 4 GB RAM and 2 vCPUs
Deployment platform
Coolify
Coolify minimum: 2 CPU cores, 2 GB RAM, 10 GB free disk (amd64 or arm64)
Media server
Jellyfin
Official RAM: 8 GB recommended for the average deployment; 4 GB may be enough on Linux without a desktop GUI
Password manager
Vaultwarden
Reported idle RAM: About 30–58 MB in a single container in four independent docker stats reports; a maintainer says Vaultwarden alone can run in under 100 MB
Document management
Paperless-ngx
Reported idle RAM: About 145–600 MB for the Paperless container in most reports; one long-running instance sat at about 1.5 GB
Tunneled reverse proxy
Pangolin
Official minimum: 1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 8 GB SSD "is sufficient for most deployments"; 1 GB may need swap
Home automation
Home Assistant
Official minimum: 2 GB RAM and 2 vCPUs for a Home Assistant OS virtual machine; the disk image defaults to 32 GB
Monitoring
Uptime Kuma
Reported RAM: 102–159 MiB in three independent tests with 0 to 200 HTTP, TCP and ping monitors (v1 and v2.5.7). The project publishes no official minimum
Developer tools
Forgejo
Reported RAM: About 150–320 MiB for the Forgejo process in tests on versions 15.0 and 17.0, and a 231 MB peak in a packaging CI run. The project publishes no official minimum
DNS & ad blocking
Pi-hole
Official minimum: 512 MB of RAM and at least 2 GB of free disk (4 GB recommended). The project says Pi-hole "does not require much processing power"
Recipes & meal planning
Mealie
Official minimum: None published. The official SQLite and PostgreSQL compose files set a 1000M container memory limit and recommend setting one. Images exist for amd64 and arm64 only, not 32-bit ARM
Developer tools
Gitea
Official guidance: "2 CPU cores and 1GB RAM is typically sufficient for small teams/projects", and "a Raspberry Pi 3 is powerful enough to run Gitea for small workloads". Git 2.0 or later on the host, and a dedicated non-root user
Bookmarks & read-later
linkding
Base image: 148 MB idle and 566 MB of disk in one clean-install test; "somewhere around 230 MB" after running a while, per the maintainer. No official minimum is published
Web analytics
Plausible Analytics (Community Edition)
RAM: At least 2 GB recommended by the official CE guide. 619 MB idle right after a clean install in one independent test; one user's ClickHouse container alone read 541 MiB
New apps are added regularly. Coming next: OpenClaw, Linkwarden, Umami.
Cheapest VPS with at least 4 GB RAM
Ranked by ongoing monthly price (renewal price where a provider advertises an intro rate). Prices checked Oct 28, 2026. See the full table →
| Provider & plan | RAM | vCPU | Disk | Price / month | Terms | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contabo Cloud VPS 4 | 8 GB | 4 shared | 100 GB SSD | €4.40 excl. VAT · ≈ $4.93 |
24-month term (effective monthly rate) | contabo.com checked Oct 28, 2026 |
| Contabo Cloud VPS 6 | 12 GB | 6 shared | 200 GB SSD (or 100 GB NVMe) | €6.00 excl. VAT · ≈ $6.73 |
24-month term (effective monthly rate) | contabo.com checked Oct 28, 2026 |
| Hostinger KVM 1 | 4 GB | 1 AMD EPYC | 50 GB NVMe | $11.99 intro $6.49 before tax |
Prepaid intro rate; renews at $11.99/mo | hostinger.com checked Oct 28, 2026 |
| Contabo Cloud VPS 8 | 24 GB | 8 shared | 300 GB SSD (or 150 GB NVMe) | €11.20 excl. VAT · ≈ $12.56 |
24-month term (effective monthly rate) | contabo.com checked Oct 28, 2026 |
| Hostinger KVM 2 | 8 GB | 2 AMD EPYC | 100 GB NVMe | $14.99 intro $8.79 before tax |
Prepaid intro rate; renews at $14.99/mo | hostinger.com checked Oct 28, 2026 |
Why trust these numbers?
- Every number has a source. Official docs first, then community reports from GitHub, forums and Reddit, each linked with the date we checked it.
- We say what we haven't measured. Our own lab measurements are on the way. Until a page has them, it says so instead of guessing.
- We recommend the best fit, not the best payout. Some of the best-value hosts pay us nothing. They still rank where their price puts them. Disclosure.