→ How to run a website on a self-managed VPS?

We first need a VPS. Why? Because we need a private piece of a powerful computer connected to the internet 24/7. We don't have the capacity to have this piece of computer ourselves, nor the infrastructure to keep it running all the time. That's why we rent it from providers like Hetzner monthly. Hetzner assures us that everything we install on the server will be online all the time.

But how do we control it if, let's say, I want to install a web server? The VPS is a virtual machine — not a physical computer — and it usually has no graphical interface by default. It’s just a black screen with text. We interact with it through the shell.

What is the shell? Shell in this context is a program that takes your input (commands) and tells the computer what to do. It’s the main way to communicate with the VPS remotely, usually through SSH.

But what can we install on this VPS? For the purpose of this article, we will solely be concerned with how to install a web server. The web server is software responsible for delivering your website to visitors. Popular options include Nginx, Apache, or others.

We will configure our website on this web server. To do so, we use the shell to connect to the VPS and install the web server software, such as Nginx

Easy, right?

But what does this method replace? If you have ever tried buying hosting from shared providers, you might have seen graphical control panels like cPanel. Using a VPS and shell replaces those panels by giving you full control over the server ^— but it requires you to use the command line and learn some technical skills.

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1.Buy Cheap VPS

Go to Hetzner and search for VPS. Here are the options.

Reference: First Steps: Technical SEO