DoRoyal offers VPS plans on ARM (aarch64/ARM64) architecture alongside traditional x86_64 (Intel/AMD) servers. This article explains what ARM is, why it can be a great choice, and what to check before ordering.

What Is an ARM VPS?

ARM is a CPU architecture, the same family of processors that powers modern smartphones, Apple Silicon Macs, and AWS Graviton servers. An ARM VPS runs the ARM64 (aarch64) instruction set instead of the x86_64 instruction set used by Intel and AMD processors. Your operating system, kernel, and every piece of software on the server run natively on ARM64.

Advantages of ARM

• Excellent price-to-performance: ARM cores are highly efficient, so you typically get more real-world compute per dollar than comparable x86 plans.
• Strong per-core performance: Modern server ARM CPUs (Ampere Altra class) use full physical cores rather than shared hyperthreads. A "core" on ARM is often a dedicated physical core, not half of one.
• Energy efficiency: Lower power draw per core means denser, cooler, more sustainable infrastructure and stable clocks under sustained load.
• Great for modern open-source stacks: Linux, Nginx, Apache, MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Redis, PHP, Python, Node.js, Go, Rust, Java, Docker, and most popular software have mature, first-class ARM64 builds.
• Consistent performance: Without hyperthreading contention, performance under load tends to be more predictable.

Limitations of ARM

• No x86-only binaries: Software distributed only as compiled x86_64 binaries will not run natively. Common examples:
  • Some closed-source/proprietary applications and license servers
  • Game servers built only for x86 (many Steam-based dedicated servers, e.g. source engine games)
  • Older commercial control panels or antivirus agents without ARM builds
• Docker images must be multi-arch: Most official images on Docker Hub support linux/arm64, but some smaller community images are x86-only. Check the image's supported architectures before relying on it.
• Emulation is slow: You can run x86 binaries through emulation (qemu-user, box64), but expect a heavy performance penalty. Emulation is a workaround, not a solution.
• Control panel support varies: Check ARM64 compatibility before installing hosting panels. Support has improved (e.g. some panels now ship ARM builds) but is not universal.
• Prebuilt third-party repos: Occasionally a vendor's APT/YUM repository only publishes x86_64 packages. The software itself may still be installable from source or an alternative repo.

What Runs Great on ARM

• Web servers and reverse proxies (Nginx, Apache, Caddy)
• Websites and applications: WordPress, PHP apps, Node.js, Python/Django, Ruby on Rails
• Databases: MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Redis, MongoDB
• Docker/Podman container workloads (with arm64 images)
• VPNs (WireGuard, OpenVPN), DNS servers, mail servers
• CI runners, build agents, and development environments
• Minecraft Java Edition servers (Java runs natively on ARM64)

What to Check Before Choosing ARM

1. List the key software you plan to run.
2. Confirm each has an ARM64/aarch64 build (check the project's downloads page or Docker Hub architecture list).
3. If anything is x86-only and critical to you, choose one of our x86_64 plans instead.

How to Tell Which Architecture Your VPS Uses

Run this on your server:

uname -m

• aarch64 = ARM64
• x86_64 = Intel/AMD

Still Unsure?

Architecture choice is about software compatibility, which falls on the customer side of an unmanaged service, but if you are unsure which plan type fits your use case before ordering, feel free to ask our team and we will point you in the right direction.