How to Use This Guide

This guide helps you choose the right cloud server based on your website type, traffic volume, and budget.

Selection by Website Type

Personal Blog / Small Site

Business Website / Medium Web App

  • Recommended: 2 vCPU 4-8GB RAM
  • Providers: Alibaba Cloud ECS, AWS EC2, DigitalOcean
  • Monthly Budget: $10-$30

E-commerce / High Traffic

  • Recommended: 4+ vCPU 8GB+ RAM, load balancer
  • Providers: AWS EC2, Alibaba Cloud ECS
  • Monthly Budget: $50+

Selection by Region

Target Users Recommended Reason
China Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud Best domestic coverage
Global AWS, Cloudflare Widest global coverage
Europe Hetzner Best value in Europe
Asia-Pacific DigitalOcean, Vultr Good Singapore/Japan nodes
Developers DigitalOcean, Vultr Low cost, easy setup

Budget Reference

Monthly Budget Recommended Plan
< $5 DigitalOcean $4/mo or Vultr $2.5/mo
$5-$20 Linode $5/mo or Light instance
$20-$100 AWS t3.medium or Alibaba Cloud ECS
$100+ Multiple servers + load balancer

Decision Tree

Website Type?
├── Personal Blog/Site → Light server or VPS
├── Business Website
│   ├── China users → Alibaba Cloud
│   └── Global users → DigitalOcean
├── E-commerce
│   ├── China → Alibaba Cloud + CDN
│   └── Global → AWS + CloudFront
└── API/Backend
    ├── China → Tencent Cloud
    └── Global → DigitalOcean Droplet