Why choose a VPS (and why it goes wrong)
A VPS (virtual private server) gives you your own server resources at a low monthly price, much more power than shared hosting. Many Bangladeshi businesses and developers buy one from Hostinger, DigitalOcean, Vultr, Contabo or AWS Lightsail. The catch: you are now the system administrator. Nobody else updates the server, renews certificates, watches disk space or blocks attackers.
Problems I fix
| Problem | Usual cause |
|---|---|
| 502 / 504 Gateway errors | App crashed, wrong port in Nginx, container not running, timeouts |
| SSL “Not secure” | Certificate expired, renewal failing, wrong DNS or Cloudflare SSL mode |
| Slow site | No caching, no swap, database not tuned, too many workers for the RAM |
| Out of disk space | Logs and Docker images never cleaned, backups stored on the same disk |
| Emails going to spam | Missing SPF, DKIM, DMARC or reverse DNS |
| Deployment errors | Build fails on low memory, wrong environment variables, database not migrated |
Server setups I build
- Coolify (a self-hosted Heroku/Vercel alternative) for easy Git-based deployments of Next.js, Node.js, PHP and databases.
- Docker with Nginx or Caddy as a reverse proxy.
- Classic LEMP (Linux, Nginx, MySQL/MariaDB, PHP) for WordPress and Laravel.
- PostgreSQL and Redis for modern web apps.
- Cloudflare in front of the server for DNS, SSL and protection. See Cloudflare website security.
Security basics every VPS needs
- Log in with SSH keys and disable password login for root.
- A firewall that only opens the ports you actually use (usually 22, 80 and 443).
- Brute-force protection such as fail2ban.
- Automatic security updates.
- Databases that are not exposed to the internet.
- Off-site backups you have actually tested restoring.
Most hacked servers we see are missing at least three of these.
Emergency help
If your site is down right now, send a WhatsApp message with the error and your server provider. I will tell you quickly whether it is something I can fix immediately.