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Bare Metal and VPS Cost Performance Consideration for WordPress

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Table of Contents
  1. Introduction
  2. Euro Pricing
  3. Hetzner AX Bare-Metal Servers
    1. AX41-NVMe
    2. AX52
  4. OVH Bare-Metal Servers
    1. Rise-LE (Intel Xeon E-2388G)
    2. Advance-2 (AMD Ryzen 7 5800X)
  5. DigitalOcean Droplets
    1. Basic Droplets (Shared vCPUs)
    2. General Purpose (Xeon Platinum 8168)
    3. CPU-Optimized Droplets (Dedicated vCPUs)
  6. Vultr VPS Plans
    1. Vultr Regular (Cloud Compute)
    2. Vultr High Performance Intel
    3. Vultr High Frequency (AMD Ryzen 9 3900X / Intel Xeon 2nd Gen)
  7. Cost-to-Performance
  8. Cost-to-Performance WP Value Index
    1. WP Value Index Explained
    2. Why this works
    3. Spreadsheet version (Excel/Sheets)
    4. Optional: enforce a single-core floor
  9. Final Considerations for WordPress
  10. Bias Recommendation, Bare Metal
  11. Complete Source References
  12. Changelog

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Introduction

When choosing hosting for WordPress most people will look at shared hosting, but some will consider their owns server or what is typically called a VPS. Rarely will you see bare-metal dedicated servers as a recommendation or thought. Each approach carries trade-offs in cost, performance, and management overhead. Here’s a breakdown of how these options compare — especially when raw performance-per-euro matters.

Euro Pricing

I choose to go with Euro pricing mostly because Hetzner was the base here and instead of doing conversions all over the place, I decided to stick to a single currency even though most of them are offered in USD. I might update this later.

Hetzner AX Bare-Metal Servers

Hetzner bare-metal offers exceptional raw CPU and per euro with no IPMI but great support.

Key URLs for sources:

AX41-NVMe

  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (6C/12T, Zen 2)
  • RAM: 64 GB DDR4
  • Storage: 2 × 512 GB NVMe SSD (RAID1)
  • Price: ~€37/month
  • Geekbench 6 Scores: Single ~1300 / Multi ~6700
  • Cost-to-Performance (multi-core/€): 181

AX52

  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700 (8C/16T, Zen 4)
  • RAM: 64 GB DDR5 (upgradable)
  • Storage: 2 × 1 TB NVMe Gen4
  • Price: ~€59/month
  • Geekbench 6 Scores: Single ~2800 / Multi ~14,500
  • Cost-to-Performance (multi-core/€): 246

OVH Bare-Metal Servers

OVH provides a middle ground: strong CPUs with global datacenter presence, but slightly weaker €/perf compared to Hetzner.

Key URLs for sources:

Rise-LE (Intel Xeon E-2388G)

  • CPU: Intel Xeon E-2388G (8C/16T, Rocket Lake)
  • RAM: 32 GB DDR4 ECC (expandable)
  • Storage: 2 × 512 GB NVMe
  • Price: ~€72/month
  • Geekbench 6 Scores: Single ~1750 / Multi ~11,000

Advance-2 (AMD Ryzen 7 5800X)

  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (8C/16T, Zen 3)
  • RAM: 64 GB DDR4
  • Storage: 2 × 960 GB SSD
  • Price: ~€94/month
  • Geekbench 6 Scores: Single ~1800 / Multi ~12,500

DigitalOcean Droplets

Key URLs for sources:

Sources: DigitalOcean product pages (DigitalOcean CPU-Optimized, General Purpose), and Geekbench benchmark data from kikobeats.

Basic Droplets (Shared vCPUs)

  • 2 vCPU / 2 GB (~€12/mo) → Multi ~1700 → ~141 per €
  • 4 vCPU / 8 GB (~€24/mo) → Multi ~3300 → ~137 per €

General Purpose (Xeon Platinum 8168)

  • 2 vCPU / 8 GB (~€55/mo) → Multi ~2000 → 36 per €
  • 4 vCPU / 16 GB (~€110/mo) → Multi ~2382 → 22 per €

CPU-Optimized Droplets (Dedicated vCPUs)

  • 4 vCPU (~€77/mo) → Multi ~2770 → 36 per €
  • 4 vCPU Premium Intel (~€100/mo) → Multi ~4166 → 42 per €
  • 8 vCPU Premium Intel (~€201/mo) → Multi ~7200 → 36 per €

Vultr VPS Plans

Key URLs for sources:

Sources: Vultr product pages (Vultr Cloud Compute, High Performance, High Frequency) and independent Geekbench benchmarks (ServerHunter, VPSBenchmarks).

Vultr Regular (Cloud Compute)

  • 2 vCPU / 4 GB (~€20/mo) → Multi ~2100 → ~105 per €
  • 4 vCPU / 8 GB (~€40/mo) → Multi ~4000 → ~100 per €

Vultr High Performance Intel

  • 2 vCPU / 4 GB (~€30/mo) → Multi ~3200 → ~107 per €
  • 4 vCPU / 8 GB (~€60/mo) → Multi ~6000 → ~100 per €

Vultr High Frequency (AMD Ryzen 9 3900X / Intel Xeon 2nd Gen)

  • 2 vCPU / 4 GB (~€30/mo) → Multi ~4000 / Single ~1400 → ~133 per €
  • 4 vCPU / 8 GB (~€60/mo) → Multi ~8000 / Single ~1450 → ~133 per €

Cost-to-Performance

The following table provides the following details.

  • Provide/Plan
  • Single-core benchmark score
  • Cost to performance based on single core performance
  • Multi-core benchmark score
  • Cost to performance based on single core performance.

The cost to performance is calculated base on the score / cost.

    Provider / PlanPrice (€/mo)Single-CoreSingle/€Multi-CoreMulti/€
    Hetzner AX41 (Ryzen 3600)€37~130035~6700181
    Hetzner AX52 (Ryzen 7700)€59~280047~14,500246
    OVH Rise-LE (Xeon E-2388G)€72~175024~11,000153
    OVH Advance-2 (Ryzen 5800X)€94~180019~12,500133
    DO Basic (2 vCPU)€12~90075~1700141
    DO Basic (4 vCPU)€24~95040~3300137
    DO Gen Purpose (2 vCPU)€55~110020~200036
    DO Gen Purpose (4 vCPU)€110~108510~238222
    DO CPU-Opt (4 vCPU)€77~126616~277036
    DO CPU-Opt (4 vCPU Premium)€100~185019~416642
    DO CPU-Opt (8 vCPU Premium)€201~18609~720036
    Vultr Regular (4 vCPU)€40~100025~4000100
    Vultr High Perf Intel (4 vCPU)€60~120020~6000100
    Vultr High Frequency (4 vCPU)€60~145024~8000133

    Cost-to-Performance WP Value Index

    Provider / PlanPrice (€/mo)Single-CoreMulti-CoreWP Value Index
    Hetzner AX41 (Ryzen 3600)€37~1300~67000.63
    Hetzner AX52 (Ryzen 7700)€59~2800~14,5000.83
    OVH Rise-LE (Xeon E-2388G)€72~1750~11,0000.64
    OVH Advance-2 (Ryzen 5800X)€94~1800~12,5000.55
    DO Basic (2 vCPU)€12~900~17000.53
    DO Basic (4 vCPU)€24~950~33000.47
    DO Gen Purpose (2 vCPU)€55~1100~20000.32
    DO Gen Purpose (4 vCPU)€110~1085~23820.2
    DO CPU-Opt (4 vCPU)€77~1266~27700.33
    DO CPU-Opt (4 vCPU Premium)€100~1850~41660.4
    DO CPU-Opt (8 vCPU Premium)€201~1860~72000.24
    Vultr Regular (4 vCPU)€40~1000~40000.46
    Vultr High Perf Intel (4 vCPU)€60~1200~60000.51
    Vultr High Frequency (4 vCPU)€60~1450~80000.61

    WP Value Index Explained

    What is the WP Value Index, it’s something I came up with using ChatGPT. Sorry, this isn’t my area of expertise, so I left it up to AI.

    WordPress, single-core speed mostly drives page latency, while multi-core is your capacity (how many PHP workers/sites you can run). A simple, robust way to rank “value” across CPUs or plans is. Normalize, weight, and divide by price.

      Normalize each against the best (for S, M) and the cheapest (for P) within your comparison list:

      S_n = \frac{S}{\max(S)}, \quad M_n = \frac{M}{\max(M)}, \quad P_n = \frac{P}{\min(P)}

        Then compute a value index using a weighted geometric mean (penalizes weak single-core hard), divided by normalized price:

        \text{VALUE} = \frac{ S_n^{\alpha} \cdot M_n^{\beta} }{ P_n }, \quad \alpha + \beta = 1

        Defaults for WordPress: α=0.7,  β=0.3\alpha=0.7,\; \beta=0.3α=0.7,β=0.3.

        • Higher score = better “performance-per-dollar” for WP.

        Why this works

        • Geometric mean heavily penalizes low single-core even if multi-core is huge (your concern).
        • Weights let you tune for your mix (more bursty/latency-sensitive → raise α\alphaα; lots of concurrency/tenants → raise β\betaβ).
        • Price division favors cheaper plans at the same performance.

        Spreadsheet version (Excel/Sheets)

        Assume rows 2..N with:

        • B = Single-core, C = Multi-core, D = Price
        • Put α\alphaα in G1 (e.g., 0.7). Put β\betaβ in G2 (e.g., 0.3).

        In E2 (the VALUE score), fill down:

        = ((B2/MAX($B$2:$B$N))^$G$1 * (C2/MAX($C$2:$C$N))^$G$2) / (D2/MIN($D$2:$D$N))

        Optional: enforce a single-core floor

        If you never want to consider plans below some single-core fraction τ\tauτ (e.g., 0.75 of the best), add a penalty. Put τ\tauτ in G3 (e.g., 0.75) and use:

        =LET(
 Sn, B2/MAX($B$2:$B$N),
 Mn, C2/MAX($C$2:$C$N),
 Pn, D2/MIN($D$2:$D$N),
 base, (Sn^$G$1 * Mn^$G$2) / Pn,
 IF(Sn<$G$3, base * (Sn/$G$3), base)
)

        This drops low-single-core options even more.

        Final Considerations for WordPress

        I will be writing more about comparing the bare-metal providers, but here is the high level and of course some comments on VPS providers.

        • Hetzner Bare-Metal (AX series) if you want maximum performance for the lowest cost, and you’re comfortable managing your own server. Their control panel is sometimes not the easiest to navigate or understand, but there are a ton of guides online. Their support is great, and typically are quick to respond to issues and KVM requests as they don’t have IPMI as part of their service.
        • OVH Bare-Metal if you want global data centers and solid hardware, with slightly higher costs. They have a good control panel, support sometimes can be an issue but is rare more now than in the past. They have built in IPMI within their service, so you can do lots on your own. Lots of guides online.
        • Vultr High Frequency – Vultr has consistent high frequency performance, but that changes from time to time. If your placed on a relatively empty node then performance is great, a year later you might see that you’re on a busy node and performance decreases. Vutlr typically provides utilizes older processors compared to bare metal.
        • DigitalOcean CPU-Optimized Premium – I would say the same thing as I said with Vultr, VPS instances are typically all the same in the industry of hosting. Most providers are using older processors, and overselling which leads to inconsistent performance over time. The only benefit to Digital Ocean is that you can upgrade and downgrade CPU and Memory only, versus CPU, Memory and Disk. The later results in not being able to downgrade later.

        Bias Recommendation, Bare Metal

        Unfortunately I’m biased, I can’t recommend VPS instances anymore for WordPress instances as I rarely do find logging into a WordPress sites backend on a VPS instance as fast as a bare metal instance. Even with 100+ sites or a single large site. It’s wild, but it’s also another level to manage and not so much point and click as Vultr and Digital Ocean of which also provide bare metal options but are generally extremely overpriced and the CPU options are typically older and not high-performance in single core.

        If your have a big WooCommerce store, heavy plugins, multisite bare-metal delivers the best cost-to-performance over VPS instances.

        Complete Source References

        Changelog

        None

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