VPS glossary
Definitions written for buying decisions: what each number means, where providers differ, and what stays unknown until you verify it.
CPU, memory and storage
arm64
A 64-bit ARM instruction set used by providers such as Scaleway's BASIC2 line. Binaries and container images built only for x86 will not run; check your software before choosing an arm64 plan.
Read more in Guides
Block storage
A separate volume billed independently of the instance. Scaleway's STARDUST1-S in this dataset includes no bundled disk: the instance price is tiny, but persistent storage is a separate line item, so a price comparison that ignores it is incomplete.
Read more in Guides
NVMe
A storage protocol for flash drives attached over PCI Express. It is usually faster than SATA SSD, but the plan's disk size says nothing about IOPS or throughput limits, which many providers do not publish.
RAM
Memory available to the virtual machine. Provider pages often quote GiB while some internal limits use GB; VPSTab records the provider-stated figure in MB and does not silently convert between the two.
Read more in Guides
vCPU
A virtual CPU presented to a VPS by the hypervisor. On shared plans the provider schedules your instance onto physical cores alongside other tenants, so two plans with the same vCPU count can sustain different throughput. A dedicated vCPU is not shared with other customers.
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Virtualization
How the VPS is isolated from the host. KVM gives each instance its own kernel, which supports custom kernels, VPN protocols and nested virtualization; container-based plans share the host kernel and constrain what can run.
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Network and addresses
Bandwidth / port speed
The maximum rate of the virtual network interface, typically 100 Mbit/s to several Gbit/s. It is a separate number from the monthly traffic allowance: a fast port with a small allowance still limits total transfer.
Dual-stack
A host configured with both IPv4 and IPv6. VPSTab records each family separately and treats an unstated field as unknown, so a plan is never marked dual-stack on assumption.
Read more in Guides
IPv4
The 32-bit address family most of the internet still uses. Some providers include a primary IPv4 address in the plan price and some bill it as an add-on; Hetzner's price API quotes the server without the address, which is why VPSTab records the composite price explicitly.
Read more in Guides
IPv6
The 128-bit address family. Allocation size matters: a single /128 is enough for one web service, while a /64 or /48 prefix supports routing inside your own network. 'Supports IPv6' does not necessarily mean an address is included by default.
Read more in Guides
Traffic / transfer allowance
The monthly volume of data the plan allows, usually counted outbound. Some providers advertise unlimited fair-use traffic; VPSTab keeps that as unknown rather than treating it as infinite capacity, because fair-use policies can throttle heavy egress.
Read more in Guides
Pricing and billing
Billing period
How often the provider charges: monthly, quarterly, annually or a multi-year term. Two identical monthly figures on different billing periods are not interchangeable, and annual-only plans get a derived monthly equivalent with an explicit note.
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Promotional price
A discounted rate limited to a term or a number of months. It is recorded with its duration; a plan whose promotion ends after three months can cost far more over a year than its headline price suggests.
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Renewal price
What the provider charges after a promotional term ends. VPSTab records renewal separately from the listed price and uses a renewal-aware budget basis in recommendations, so a teaser rate cannot win on price alone.
Read more in Guides
Setup fee
A one-time charge at order time. Many providers charge none, but an unstated setup fee is recorded as unknown rather than assumed to be zero, and the cost calculator includes recorded fees in every horizon total.
Tax scope
Whether a quoted price includes VAT or sales tax. Providers differ, and some display gross prices that depend on the visitor's country; VPSTab records the scope when stated and warns when it is unknown.
Operations and recovery
Backup
A copy of data kept for recovery. Provider backup features vary from weekly snapshots at a percentage of the plan price to daily increments with short retention; the schedule and retention define how much data a failure can lose.
Read more in Guides
Retention
How long a backup or snapshot is kept. A 24-hour retention window cannot recover a deletion discovered on the second day, regardless of how often the provider takes copies.
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SLA
A service-level agreement stating availability or support commitments, usually with credits rather than refunds. VPSTab does not claim SLA verification unless the provider's published terms were captured and reviewed.
Snapshot
A point-in-time image of a disk, usually restored by creating a new instance. It is not a full backup strategy: retention, off-provider copies and a tested restore path are separate requirements.
Read more in Guides
Evidence and data quality
Evidence class
The provenance label on a fact: provider official, provider API, independent test, third party, community or editorial. It tells you whether a statement is the provider's own claim, an independent observation, or VPSTab's analysis.
Stale data
Prices or specifications whose verification date is too old to trust for a purchase decision. The recommendation engine excludes stale offers and explains the exclusion instead of quietly ranking them.
Unknown (data gap)
A decision-relevant field the provider does not publish. VPSTab displays it as unknown, never as zero or 'no', and a recommendation cannot treat an unknown field as satisfying a hard requirement.
Withheld score
A review without an overall score because independent performance, support or policy evidence is missing. Dimension scores shown are evidence assessments, not a universal product ranking.