Installing PostgreSQL on a VPS takes half an hour. Making sure the database doesn’t get lost, doesn’t go down because of one heavy query and doesn’t become an entry point for attackers takes months of work. Let’s do the math.
What “doing it yourself” includes
Installation, memory tuning for your workload, users and permissions, TLS, firewall, daily backups with verification, updates, monitoring of connections and slow queries, and responding at night when the database stops answering. Every item is either your time or a risk.
What a database as a service includes
- A dedicated database server in a private network with your VPS — traffic never leaves it.
- Daily backups; on the Medium plan, point-in-time recovery to any minute within 7 days using the transaction log.
- A monthly test restore — a backup that has actually been verified.
- Minor version updates on a schedule, major ones by agreement.
- Monitoring: connections, locks, slow queries, size — with alerts in Telegram.
- Tuning and index recommendations when the application starts to slow down.
Example: an online store
| Option | Per day | Per month | Who is responsible for backups and failures |
|---|---|---|---|
| PostgreSQL on a VPS 2 vCPU / 4 GB / 50 GB | 9 500 UZS | 285 000 UZS | you |
| Managed DB Small | 19 500 UZS | 585 000 UZS | MyCloud |
The difference is 300 000 UZS per month. One hour of online store downtime on a peak day, or one lost database without a fresh backup, costs more.
When your own database on a VPS is a sound choice
Test environments, internal tools without critical data, projects with their own DBA on the team. In all other cases the database is the most valuable thing your application has, and professional management is worth the money.
How to migrate
A dump, a restore on the new server and a connection string switch — usually one evening. For large databases we set up replication and switch over with no downtime. When you move to MyCloud, we advise and help with the migration.
Need help with the task from this article?
We’ll pick a configuration, calculate the cost and help with the move.