A VPS is the missing link in most IoT and industrial automation stacks: an always-on, publicly reachable server that hosts your MQTT broker, VPN endpoint, dashboards and automation logic. This directory covers ten of the most common applications, each with a dedicated setup guide.
Most IoT software runs fine on a small VPS costing £4-8 per month. The guides below cover each application’s specific requirements, from minimum specs to production configuration, so you can make an informed decision before you commit.
Why use a VPS rather than a cloud platform?
Cloud IoT platforms (AWS IoT Core, Azure IoT Hub, Google Cloud IoT) charge per message, per device, or per connection. At small scale this looks cheap; at a few hundred devices reporting every minute it becomes expensive and unpredictable. A VPS has a flat monthly cost that doesn’t change based on how active your devices are.
A VPS also gives you root access to run exactly the software you choose, with no vendor lock-in and no API changes you didn’t consent to.
The ten most common applications
📨 VPS for MQTT
Run Mosquitto as a reliable, always-on MQTT broker. The right choice for any device fleet reporting sensor data. From £4/month.
🔒 VPS for WireGuard
Use a VPS as the hub endpoint for WireGuard tunnels from routers, gateways and remote sites. Works behind CGNAT. From £4/month.
🏠 VPS for Home Assistant
Home Assistant runs locally. A VPS running WireGuard gives secure remote access to it without Nabu Casa or open ports.
🏭 VPS for SCADA
Connect multiple SCADA sites to one central VPS acting as a VPN concentrator. Teltonika, Milesight and InHand routers all support this natively.
🔴 VPS for Node-RED
Run Node-RED on a VPS as the automation and data-routing layer in an IoT stack. Connects MQTT, databases and external APIs.
📡 VPS for Teltonika Routers
Every RUTX, RUT and TRB router supports WireGuard natively. A VPS as the hub endpoint gives fleet-wide remote access without fixed-IP SIMs.
📹 VPS for CCTV
Frigate NVR and similar systems run on local hardware. A VPS with WireGuard provides secure remote viewing without exposing your network.
🌐 VPS for LoRaWAN
Run ChirpStack Network Server on a VPS. Your LoRa gateways connect to it over the internet; device data flows to your dashboards.
⚙️ VPS for Modbus
A VPS bridges Modbus TCP devices into MQTT and dashboards via Node-RED flows over a WireGuard tunnel. No direct Modbus exposure to the internet.
🐳 VPS for Docker IoT
Run the full IoT stack (MQTT, Node-RED, Grafana, InfluxDB) in Docker Compose on a single VPS. One file manages the whole stack.
Which VPS should I use?
The guides on this site use LumaDock for examples and benchmarks. LumaDock VPS plans start at £4.53/month for a KVM-based 2 vCPU / 2GB RAM / 30GB NVMe server hosted in the UK. KVM virtualisation is required for WireGuard; OpenVZ-based plans do not support it. Every application guide below includes a sizing table showing minimum and recommended specifications.
What makes a “VPS for X” guide different from a generic setup guide
Generic VPS documentation tells you how to install software. These guides tell you which VPS to buy, what size to get, how the software fits into an IoT architecture, and where it will cause problems if you get something wrong. The guides on this site are written from 25+ years of practical experience with cellular networking, industrial remote access and M2M deployments in the UK, not from reading documentation in an afternoon.
Each guide answers the questions that matter to practitioners: What VPS spec do I actually need, not the minimum that lets the software start? What does this break if the VPS goes down? How does this connect to MQTT, WireGuard or dashboards? What does this cost compared to the cloud alternative?
The IoT infrastructure stack explained
Most IoT projects need five things: connectivity (WireGuard/VPN), a message bus (MQTT), automation logic (Node-RED), storage (InfluxDB), and visualisation (Grafana). Each of the ten guides below covers one layer of this stack in depth. They are designed to be combined: the MQTT guide covers the message bus, the Node-RED guide covers automation, and the Docker IoT guide shows how to run all of them together on one server.
How to choose the right VPS size
Running a single service (MQTT only, or WireGuard only) requires the smallest VPS available – 1-2 vCPU and 1-2GB RAM. Running the full stack (MQTT, Node-RED, Grafana, InfluxDB, WireGuard) in Docker on one server requires 4 vCPU and 4GB RAM for up to 500 devices. For reference: a 4 vCPU / 8GB RAM LumaDock VPS costs £10.58/month annually – less than most commercial IoT platform subscriptions charge per 100 devices.
Start with one application, grow from there
The right way to approach this: pick the one guide most relevant to the problem you have right now, set it up, and expand from there. Most projects on this site start with either MQTT (for sensor data) or WireGuard (for remote access), then add dashboards and automation once the data collection foundation is solid.
Do I need one VPS per application or can I run everything on one?
One VPS runs all of it. The standard configuration for this site: one 4 vCPU / 4GB RAM VPS runs WireGuard (host service), MQTT via Mosquitto (Docker), Node-RED (Docker), InfluxDB (Docker), and Grafana (Docker) simultaneously. For up to 500 devices with moderate message rates, this is comfortable. You add a second VPS when you need either geographic redundancy or when the first server runs consistently above 70% CPU or 80% RAM during normal operation. Start with one; scale when the monitoring data tells you to.
For monitoring and uptime purposes, it is worth running Uptime Kuma on the same or a separate small VPS to alert you if any of the core services stop responding. The full monitoring setup is covered in VPS Uptime Monitoring.
Frequently asked questions about VPS for IoT
Is a VPS the same as a cloud server?
Broadly, yes. A VPS is a virtualised server on shared physical hardware. “Cloud server” often means the same thing but may imply dynamic scaling. For IoT, a traditional VPS with fixed resources is usually preferable to autoscaling cloud instances, because IoT traffic patterns are predictable and a fixed monthly cost is easier to budget.
What VPS providers are suitable for UK IoT deployments?
UK-hosted providers reduce latency for UK devices and keep data under UK jurisdiction. LumaDock, Krystal, 34SP and OVH (London) are UK-hosted KVM VPS options. The VPS Provider Comparison covers the options in detail.
Do I need Linux knowledge to run an IoT VPS?
Basic Linux command-line knowledge is required: SSH access, file editing, running systemctl commands. You do not need to be a Linux expert. All guides on this site include exact commands to copy and run.
Related reading
- VPS for IoT: The Complete Guide – sizing, provider comparison, security baseline
- VPS Security Hardening Checklist for IoT – SSH keys, firewall, fail2ban
- VPS vs AWS IoT Core: Cost Comparison – worked cost examples at 50, 500 and 5,000 devices