Strapi VPS Hosting

Strapi VPS hosting means running Strapi on your own server behind a web server, with PM2 keeping the Node process running. The web server is needed because Strapi serves plain HTTP on port 1337 and doesn't handle TLS itself. On GreenGeeks VPS, Apache 2.4 does that job, and the Node.js app, its MariaDB database and its uploaded media all live on one machine. You install the MIT-licensed Community edition, and Strapi serves your content over REST or GraphQL to whatever frontend you build. The current release is Strapi 5.59.0, out October 21, 2026.

Strapi needs an Active or Maintenance LTS version of Node.js, which today means v22, v24 or v26. Odd-numbered releases like v23 and v25 aren't supported. You'll also need npm 6 or newer and standard build tools, plus Python if you use SQLite. The minimum hardware is 1 CPU core, 2 GB of RAM and 8 GB of disk. Strapi recommends 2 or more cores, 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of disk. It supports RHEL 8 to 10, and GreenGeeks VPS runs AlmaLinux 9, which is built to match RHEL 9.

One Strapi project with MariaDB costs $69.95 a month on GreenGeeks' 4 GB plan, and that's enough for most single projects. If you want a staging copy beside production, the 8 GB plan at $129.95 gives it room. The one Strapi fee you might add is the optional Growth license, at $45 a month with 3 users, plus $15 for each extra user. The Community license is free for commercial use. It covers unlimited admin users, REST and GraphQL, roles and cron jobs, so many projects never need Growth at all.

Deploy the same code to the VPS with a MariaDB database. Then move the content with strapi transfer, which copies data and files between two running Strapi instances using a transfer token. Both sides need matching schemas, and the transfer deletes whatever was already on the new server. Admin users and API tokens don't come along, so recreate those afterward. Copy the old .env secrets too, because changing APP_KEYS, ADMIN_JWT_SECRET or JWT_SECRET logs out existing sessions and breaks API tokens. Projects leaving Strapi Cloud move the same way, since the codebase is identical.

You handle PM2, Node and Strapi upgrades, and GreenGeeks' managed team keeps the operating system patched. Most early problems are in the PM2 setup. If you set NODE_ENV=production for the whole shell, npm install skips the devDependencies the build needs. If you forget pm2 save, Strapi doesn't come back after a reboot. Restarting without --update-env ignores changed variables. Add pm2-logrotate, since PM2 logs grow without limit. In cluster mode, Strapi's cron jobs run once per instance, so start with one process and add more only after checking how your cron tasks behave.

It's worth it when a project fits Starter's limits. Since the Free plan ended on July 1, 2026, Starter at $35 a month per project is the cheapest Strapi Cloud plan. It caps you at 100,000 API requests and 50 GB of storage, sleeps when idle, has no cron jobs and includes no backups. Overages cost $1.50 per 25,000 requests and $0.60 per GB. Pro adds cron, weekly backups and always-on hosting for $90. Yearly billing takes up to 17% off. In return, Strapi runs the servers, the CDN and the database.

For one project with its database on the same server, the 4 GB plan with 4 vCPU matches Strapi's recommended spec. The admin build uses the most memory. It runs again after every code change, and on 1 GB servers it often runs out of memory. One tutorial measured Strapi and its database at 1 to 2 GB when idle and 3 to 4 GB under traffic, which is why 8 GB fits production plus a staging copy. Strapi itself takes about 500 MB of disk after the build, so most of the space goes to media.

Use Node.js from dnf and run Strapi under PM2, which is the setup Strapi's docs cover in the most detail. GreenGeeks VPS doesn't support Docker, so Strapi's sample Dockerfiles don't apply. As root, run dnf module install nodejs:22 and install the Development Tools group for native modules. Clone the project, run npm install, then build with NODE_ENV=production npm run build. Start it with pm2 start ecosystem.config.js, then run pm2 startup and pm2 save so it comes back after a reboot. An Apache include file then passes your domain through to port 1337.

Start with the .env file, because restoring with new APP_KEYS or JWT secrets breaks every session and API token. Keep a copy somewhere private, away from the server. Then run mysqldump nightly from cron, gzip the result, and tar the public/uploads folder unless your media lives in an S3 bucket. GreenGeeks doesn't back up VPS servers, so turn on cPanel's daily backups too and send them to Amazon S3. The strapi export command bundles content, uploads and config into an encrypted archive. It skips admin users and API tokens, though, so keep the database dumps as well.

On GreenGeeks VPS, use MariaDB 11.4, which is both the server's default and the MariaDB version Strapi recommends. Strapi supports PostgreSQL 14 and up, MySQL 8.0 and up and MariaDB 10.3 and up. PostgreSQL on GreenGeeks VPS is version 9.6, below that minimum, so it won't work. MySQL 8.0 is possible but means reinstalling the VPS. A new project starts on SQLite in .tmp/data.db, which is handy for local work. Strapi doesn't support MongoDB or any NoSQL database, and Strapi Cloud runs PostgreSQL only.