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WordPress test server, or 2 live sites + test server
Looking for VPS provider and plan recommendations for two possible setups. EU data centre required, ideally Nordic.
Setup 1: test server only
- 3 to 5 WordPress test installs, side by side on PHP 8.3, 8.4 and 8.5, with MySQL 8.4
- Automated browser tests hit it in bursts: hundreds of page loads per run, plus a full run of about 90 mins 04:00 GMT+2. No public traffic.
- Minimum spec I have in mind: 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB NVMe
Setup 2: two live WordPress sites with around 10k visitors each a month + the test server above
- The live sites must stay fast while tests run
- Minimum spec I have in mind: 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 60 GB NVMe
For both: Ubuntu 24.04 or 26.04 LTS, root SSH, IPv4 included, snapshots. No control panel; the setup is scripted.
- Which provider and plan would you recommend for setup 1, and for setup 2?
- Is the minimum spec right for each?
- For setup 2: one VPS for both, or two separate ones so tests never slow the live sites?
Comments
For setup 2 I'd go with two separate VPSes, or at least strict resource limits, because bursty browser tests will otherwise compete with the live sites for CPU and PHP workers. If you do share one box, I'd run the test stack in containers (Podman works well for me) managed by systemd units, and cap them with CPUQuota and MemoryMax so a test run can't starve the live PHP-FPM pool. Having each PHP version in its own container also keeps 8.3, 8.4 and 8.5 cleanly isolated.
Quick question, do the browser tests run on the VPS itself, or on another machine accessing it? And how many tests run in parallel? Both make a difference to the resources you’ll need.
For setup 1, 2 vCPU and 4 GB RAM looks like a reasonable starting point, especially if the browsers run elsewhere. I’d monitor CPU, memory and disk I/O during the full 04:00 run before deciding whether to scale up.
For setup 2, I’d lean towards two separate VPS instances. Running tests alongside your live sites can create competition for CPU, memory and disk I/O. Separating them reduces that risk and lets you rebuild the test server independently.
Full disclosure: I work with CubePath. We don’t have Nordic locations; our European location is Barcelona.
Our 2 vCPU / 4 GB RAM / 80 GB NVMe plan is $9.61/month, and the 4 vCPU / 8 GB RAM / 100 GB NVMe plan is $16.71/month. Both include IPv4 and full root access, with hourly billing. Automated backups cost an additional 20%.
Snapshots are also available by converting a backup into a permanent snapshot, which you can use to deploy a new VPS. These snapshots don’t expire and remain available even if you delete the original VPS.
One possible setup would be the 2 vCPU / 4 GB VPS for testing and the 4 vCPU / 8 GB VPS for the two live sites, totalling $26.32/month before backups. That provides more resources overall than your proposed combined setup, so I’d treat it as an option with extra headroom rather than a minimum requirement.
Hope this helps!
Hard to guess without metrics. What I can recommend, start with small plans and hourly billing, so when you hit limit you just resize servers up.
Hey @Traxior,
Up front, we're in Eygelshoven, NL, so EU but not Nordic. And we don't have snapshots in the panel, we run automatic backups instead.
Your minimum specs look right to me. For setup 1, our RYZEN 4G DDR4 fits with 2 cores on a 5950X or 5900X, 4 GB RAM and 50 GB NVMe in RAID 1 for 4.99€/mo, or 4.49€/mo with code LET10.
For setup 2 I'd go with two separate VPS, so a 90 minute test run can't slow down the live sites. Keep the RYZEN 4G as the test box and add a configurator build with 4 cores on AMD EPYC Zen 3 Milan, 8 GB RAM and 60 GB NVMe for the live sites, at 10.89€/mo, or 9.80€/mo with LET10.
All plans come with root SSH, 1 IPv4 plus an IPv6 /64, and traffic with no monthly cap on a 10 Gbps shared port. Ubuntu 24.04 is available as a template.
Order: skri.me/ryzen5950X | Configurator: skri.me/epyc-config
Test IPv4: 77.90.60.30 | Test IPv6: 2a09:3f00:3000::cafe
Looking Glass: skrime.eu/network / AS215365
If you keep all three on the one box, the RAM hog isn't WordPress itself, it's idle php-fpm workers. Give each PHP version its own pool with pm = ondemand and a low pm.max_children, so workers only spawn when a request comes in — idle sites then sit near zero RAM. Set pm.process_idle_timeout to something like 10s and disable the PHP modules you don't need per version. Way less wasteful than static/dynamic pools on a 4 GB box.