How to Host a Website on Your VPS (Nginx)

Hosting your own website on a VPS gives you full control over the web server, PHP and configuration. This guide covers a simple Nginx setup on Ubuntu and pointing your domain at your server.

Install Nginx

Connect over SSH and run sudo apt update && sudo apt install nginx. Once it’s running, visit http://YOUR_SERVER_IP in a browser and you’ll see the default Nginx welcome page.

Point your domain to the VPS

At your domain’s DNS, create an A record pointing to your VPS IPv4 address (and an AAAA record for IPv6). Allow a little time for DNS to propagate, then your domain will load your server.

Add your site and HTTPS

Upload your site files to /var/www/ and create an Nginx server block for your domain
Open ports 80 and 443 in the VPS firewall
Install a free Let’s Encrypt certificate with Certbot for HTTPS

JetHost Experts Tip

Prefer a control panel? You can install a free panel like CyberPanel or Webmin on your VPS for a graphical way to manage sites – remember the VPS itself doesn’t include cPanel/WHM.

Need More Help?

With Nginx and a DNS record, your VPS is ready to serve your website over HTTPS. If you get stuck, the JetHost team is available 24/7 and usually answers in under five minutes – just contact us and we’ll help you sort it out. Explore our other VPS tutorials to get the most out of your server.