The real difference is who operates the server
A VPS gives you a slice of a physical machine with root access: you pick the size, install the runtime, configure the web server, TLS, firewall, deploys, monitoring and backups. A cloud platform (PaaS) gives you a deploy target: you push code and the platform decides how it runs.
Neither is universally better. A VPS is cheaper per raw resource and gives total control; a platform is cheaper per hour of your time and removes an entire class of operational failure — misconfigured TLS, unpatched kernels, full disks, forgotten backups.
Cost: the sticker price is not the price
A small VPS costs around USD 4-6/month, which looks unbeatable. The hidden line items are your hours: initial hardening, deploy pipelines, monitoring, and the incident at 2am. For a static site or a mostly-static app, a platform's free tier is usually cheaper than any VPS — the compute involved is nearly zero.
The honest way to decide is to price the architecture your project actually needs, not the machine you assume it needs. Most projects that 'need a VPS' are static sites with three API routes.
When a VPS is the right call
Long-running background workers, custom system dependencies, protocols beyond HTTP, strict data-locality requirements, or workloads that saturate a machine 24/7 — these genuinely favor a VPS or dedicated server, where you pay for capacity instead of requests.
Where SimDeploy fits
SimDeploy analyzes your project (framework, API routes, static share, database, workers) and computes the monthly cost of each compatible architecture from provider price tables — then deploys on the cheapest one. If your project truly needs a server-style architecture, the analysis says so instead of hiding it. Run simdeploy analyze in your repo; it is free, offline, and shows the numbers before any deploy.
FAQ
Is cloud hosting more expensive than a VPS?
For mostly-static projects, no — request-based platforms are usually cheaper because compute is near zero. For constantly-busy workloads, a VPS's flat capacity price wins. The right answer depends on the architecture your project needs, which can be computed rather than guessed.
Can I move from a VPS to a deploy platform later?
Yes — if your app builds to static output or standard serverless functions, migration is mostly repointing DNS. The lock-in risk is in bespoke server configuration, which platforms eliminate.