Start with Ubuntu LTS—it’s beginner-friendly with vast community support and stable updates. For security, automate basics: enable UFW (firewall), restrict SSH to key-based auth, and install Fail2Ban to block brute-force attacks.
Buy linux vps from MangoHost’s! It offers pre-configured Ubuntu images with these settings, plus free SSL via Let’s Encrypt.
Scalability is key. Choose a provider with elastic resources, MangoHost lets you scale RAM/CPU instantly during traffic spikes without migrating. For backups, their 1-click snapshot feature saved us during a botched Node.js update. Restored the server in 5 minutes.
Avoid providers using HDDs, NVMe storage (like MangoHost’s) cuts app load times by half. Use Webmin or Cockpit for GUI management if CLI intimidates you. For Node.js, PM2 + Nginx reverse proxy works wonders.
Test providers with a monthly plan first. We ran stress tests (Apache Bench) to see how their network handled 1k+ concurrent requests, no throttling. Also, check if they offer IPv6 support; it future-proofs your setup.
