Why I Still Run a VPS in 2026

Every year we get new zero-config deployment platforms, edge databases, and serverless magic. Yet here I am at 2 AM, SSHing into a bare Linux box to fix a storage symlink permission issue.

And honestly? I wouldn't have it any other way.

Serverless is cool until you get a massive surprise bill because an infinite loop ran overnight. On a cheap VPS, the worst that happens is the server runs out of memory, crashes, and you reboot it. It's a hard limit. It keeps you honest.

There is a certain beauty in knowing exactly where your files are on disk and manually running artisan storage:link instead of letting some platform abstract it away.

Simple, predictable, and fully under control.