Umbraco Hosting on Your Own VPS
A .NET CMS running on Linux — no Windows Server licence in the price.
Size a server for Umbraco
Every stop is a real configuration you can deploy. Priced per month and billed monthly, exclusive of 18% GST.
What Umbraco is
Umbraco is a .NET content management system with a reputation for getting out of editors' way. Since Umbraco 9 it targets ASP.NET Core, which means it runs on Linux — a change that removes the Windows Server licence that used to be an unavoidable part of its cost.
The deployment shape follows ASP.NET Core: Kestrel serving the application, NGINX in front for TLS and static files, and the site running as a systemd service. Database options are SQLite for small sites or SQL Server for larger ones, and SQL Server runs on Linux too.
The characteristic that shapes hosting is that Umbraco caches its content tree in memory. That makes delivery fast and makes memory the resource to watch as the content tree grows — a large site holds a correspondingly large cache, and the published cache is rebuilt on startup, which is why a big site takes a moment to come up after a deploy.
“With more than 700,000 installations, Umbraco is one of the most-deployed Web Content Management Systems on the Microsoft stack”
Why run Umbraco on a VPS
Linux hosting, so no Windows Server licence is bundled into the cost.
Root access for the .NET runtime version and systemd configuration.
Memory sized for the published content cache, which grows with the site.
SQL Server on Linux, or SQLite, depending on scale.
Umbraco features
ASP.NET Core with Kestrel behind NGINX
Backoffice with a document type system
Razor views and models builder
SQLite or SQL Server on Linux
Package ecosystem via NuGet
Content versioning and scheduled publishing
Umbraco hosting requirements
The recommended starting point for Umbraco, not a hard floor — size it on the sliders.
| Memory | 4 GB for a typical site; 8 GB for a large content tree or SQL Server locally |
|---|---|
| CPU | 2 vCPU; 4 with a local database |
| Storage | 40 GB, more with a substantial media library |
| Operating system | Ubuntu 22.04 LTS |
| Installs on | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Debian 13 (Trixie), Debian 12 Bookworm |
| Ready in | About 8 minutes |
| Smallest server | 2 vCPU · 4 GB memory · 20 GB disk |
How deployment works
Umbraco 17 LTS is installed on SQLite, published and run as a systemd service, with NGINX terminating TLS and serving static files. Kestrel binds to localhost only. If you move to SQL Server on the same machine, size memory for both — SQL Server on Linux has a meaningful floor of its own.
What people run it for
.NET shops
A CMS in the same language and tooling as the rest of the stack.
Leaving Windows hosting
The same application without a Windows Server licence.
Editor-friendly sites
A backoffice that non-technical editors get on with.
Custom applications
Umbraco as a content layer inside a larger .NET application.
Umbraco hosting questions
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Root access, your choice of size, and no container between you and the application.