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LXC vs KVM

What are LXC and KVM?

When shared hosting is no longer enough for your current needs and a dedicated server is too expensive or too complex to maintain, a virtual private server becomes the obvious and go-to solution. Unfortunately, when choosing a VPS for your needs, the situation is not that black or white.

There are a few factors you need to take into consideration before you order a VPS such as the operating system, type of virtualization, flexibility and so on. We have created a few possible situations that might help and make your decision easier.

Choose your VPS package

LXC vs KVM

Disk Size Increase

Fast disk resize

Running on a host operating system, on a LXC container you can resize the virtual disk without an OS reboot and the changes will take place immediately.

linux containers
linux containers

Full disk resize

Because the KVM is a fully virtualized machine, the virtual disk can be resized with great ease, but a VPS reboot will be required in order for the changes to take place.

Rebootless Upgrades

Easy upgrades

Being able to upgrade your disk, memory or the number of cores on your VPS without any reboots needed, we strongly recommend this type of VPS when dealing with critical operations and downtime is not possible.

linux containers
linux containers

Reboots needed

When dealing with disk, CPU or memory upgrades on a KVM VPS, you have to take into consideration that a reboot will be needed in order for the upgrades to be seen by the system.

Overhead Size

Lower Overhead

Being a container that runs independently on a host operating system that handles most of the system functions, a LXC VPS has a very low overhead and can be booted very fast.

linux containers
linux containers

Dedicated OS

Because a KVM is a fully virtualized solution, a larger overhead and a bigger booting period is required in order to boot the operating system and run all the background services.

cPanel compatibility

Not compatible with cPanel

Because cPanel needs a system-wide integration with the host operating system, it can not be installed on LXC containers.

linux containers
linux containers

Manage websites with cPanel

You can install the cPanel Web Hosting control panel on this type of VPS, allowing you to manage all your websites from a web based graphical interface.

Automatic OS installation

Linux operating systems

By using image templates, you can automatically install any Linux OS from our offer, fast and with just one click.

linux containers
linux containers

Windows OS Support

In addition to all the Linux operating systems that can be installed on KVM, you can also install FreeBSD and multiple versions of Windows.

Encrypted full disk volumes

Full encryption is limited

For security reasons, on LXC containers, the access to the host resources is restricted and you can't encrypt the volume on which it runs because the container is isolated.

linux containers
linux containers

Encrypt the whole volume

If you want to encrypt the disk volume on which the VPS is running on, being a standalone virtual machine, a KVM VPS will do the job perfectly.

Better price

Great density

Because LXC achieves a density 10 times greater than KVM, we can host more containers on a single server allowing you to host your web applications at a great price.

linux containers
linux containers

Fully virtualized machine

You can have a virtual machine that has all the advantages of a dedicated server at a much lower price, on a cloud platform that gives your VPS redundancy.

Swap Space

Manual swap file

You can add and mount manually a swap file but you can't set it to start with your VPS because the access to the host resources is restricted.

linux containers
linux containers

Automatic swap file

Because KVM is a fully virtualized VM, you can add a swap partition and use a swap file just like on a dedicated server.

Dedicated Kernel

Shared Kernel

LXC is an isolated container on a host operating system with a shared kernel, providing a very lightweight solution with a greater density which doesn't allow for a custom kernel.

linux containers
linux containers

Dedicated Kernel

A fully virtualized operating system with dedicated resources which allow for a more stable platform with increased security and the ability to modify or load a custom kernel.

Tun / TAP Enabled

Virtual network devices are not enabled

In order to have the virtual network devices enabled on an LXC container, the host must enable it on all containers, which is not desired because it affects overall performance.

linux containers
linux containers

Make a VPN server

You can create a VPN server or enable the virtual network devices for routing purposes or as a network bridge, as the KVM is a fully virtualized dedicated machine.

What to choose?

When should I choose LXC?

In case you need a low price but very fast VPS on which to host your web applications or websites, without a lot of customization at the server level involved, on a shared kernel, we would recommend a LXC container. It has the main benefits of giving the user instant application portability without worring about setting up the VM, at a great price.

When should I choose KVM?

If you need the flexibility of a dedicated server but at a much lower cost, a KVM VPS has the added benefit of being a fully virtualized machine. You can install a full Linux operating system with a custom kernel just like on a dedicated server. You can also install FreeBSD or Windows operating systems, enabling a wide variety of uses. You can encrypt the entire disk volume or use it to create a VPN server, making sure that you have a secure fully private virtual machine.

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