Running on a VPS
Shared hosting runs this site perfectly well, and most people should start there. A VPS is worth paying for when you want the features that need to run real programs on the server, which shared hosts do not allow.
What a VPS unlocks
- Result cards and premium PDF reports. These are rendered by a headless browser. On shared hosting the site falls back to a simpler image, which still works but is plainer.
- Vertical video for Reels, Shorts and TikTok. Social Autopilot builds these with FFmpeg, which needs a server you control.
- No per-account process limits. Shared plans cap how much can run at once. A busy site with AI writing, translations and scheduled posts can hit that ceiling.
- Your own PHP settings, cron and SSL, without asking anyone.
What runs on it
A bare VPS is a command line. A control panel gives you websites, databases, email, DNS, SSL and backups from a browser instead.
CyberPanel, free and open source
A bare VPS gives you a command line and nothing else. CyberPanel puts a web panel on top: websites, databases, email, DNS, SSL, backups and PHP versions, all from a browser. The core is free and open source, and it ships with OpenLiteSpeed, which is the server this site is tuned for.
CyberPanel needs a VPS. It installs on a server you control and cannot be added to shared hosting, so the order is: take a VPS first, then install CyberPanel on it. Any provider works. We run this site on a Hostinger VPS with CyberPanel on top, and CyberPanel offers its own cloud servers if you would rather buy both from one place.
- Free and open source core
- OpenLiteSpeed included
- Email, DNS and SSL built in
- Backups to remote storage
This is an affiliate link. It costs you nothing and CyberPanel Core stays free either way. We use it ourselves on the server that runs this site.
Three things that catch people out
These are not theoretical. Each one costs a day the first time.
1. Check that your domain actually points at the VPS
Moving a site to a VPS is two jobs, not one: copying the site, and pointing the domain at it. If the domain still resolves to the old host, or to a CDN in front of the old host, you will be looking at the old copy while believing you are looking at the new one. Every strange thing you then see, missing content, an old version number, changes that will not stick, sends you debugging a server nobody is using.
Before anything else, confirm which machine is answering. From your own computer, fetch the same page from the VPS address directly and compare it with what the domain gives you. If they differ, fix DNS first and diagnose nothing until they match.
2. A backup on the same disk is not a backup
Control panels store backups on the server by default. That protects you from deleting a file. It does not protect you from anything that takes the server itself, which is the case you actually bought backups for. Send them somewhere else: a remote destination, cloud storage or your own machine. Then restore one, once, on a site that does not matter. A backup you have never restored is a hope, not a backup.
3. Do not start the LiteSpeed Enterprise trial out of curiosity
CyberPanel offers a fifteen day trial of LiteSpeed Enterprise, one click from the server page. Its own warning says you cannot go back to OpenLiteSpeed afterwards without a licence, and that is accurate: the switch replaces the OpenLiteSpeed files and configuration in place. If the trial expires with no licence, the web server stops. Test it on a spare server or leave it alone.
Common questions
Do I actually need a VPS?
No, unless you want result cards, premium PDF reports or social video. Everything else works on shared hosting, and you can move later without changing the application.
Is CyberPanel free?
The core is free and open source, including websites, email, DNS, SSL, databases and backups. Some add-ons are paid, and you can run the site without any of them.
Can I move from shared hosting to a VPS later?
Yes. The site is a normal PHP application with a MySQL database, so it moves by copying the files and importing the database. Take a full backup first, and remember that the domain has to be repointed as a separate step.
OpenLiteSpeed or LiteSpeed Enterprise?
OpenLiteSpeed, which is free and is what CyberPanel installs. It honours the .htaccess rules this site ships, including compression, cache headers and security headers.