Debian is one of the oldest and most respected Linux distributions, and it’s the upstream distribution that Ubuntu is built on. For Linux VPS hosting, Debian is an excellent choice when you want a lightweight, reliable server that stays out of your way.
Why sysadmins choose Debian
Debian releases are thoroughly tested before they ship. The project is famously cautious about what goes into a stable release, which means fewer surprises on production servers. You won’t find yourself debugging broken packages after an update. Security patches are maintained by a dedicated team for each stable release, typically for 3-5 years.
Debian’s base install is minimal. A fresh Debian server uses less RAM and disk space than most other distributions, which means more of your VPS resources go to your application instead of the operating system. On smaller VPS plans where you’re paying for every gigabyte of RAM, that efficiency matters.
The Debian package ecosystem
Debian has one of the largest package repositories of any Linux distribution, with over 59,000 packages. If you need software for your Linux VPS, it’s almost certainly available via apt. This includes web servers (Nginx, Apache), databases (PostgreSQL, MariaDB, MySQL), programming languages (Python, Node.js, Ruby, PHP, Go), container runtimes (Docker, Podman), and thousands of specialized tools.
Common use cases on VPS
Docker hosts: Many Docker base images are Debian-based (including the official python, node, and golang images). Running Docker on a Debian VPS gives you consistency between your host OS and your container base.
Web servers: Nginx or Apache with PHP, Python, or Node.js for serving websites and APIs.
Mail servers: Postfix and Dovecot are well-supported on Debian and are common choices for self-hosted email.
DNS servers: BIND and Unbound run well on Debian’s minimal footprint.
Development servers: Debian’s broad package availability makes it a solid choice for staging environments and CI/CD runners.
Available versions
We keep current Debian versions available on our Linux VPS platform, including Debian 11 (Bullseye) and Debian 12 (Bookworm). Both are available at all six data centers (Santa Clara, Las Vegas, Dallas, Ashburn, Amsterdam, Singapore).
Deploy from the Client Portal or contact us if you need help choosing between Debian, Ubuntu, AlmaLinux, or Rocky Linux for your workload.