How to host multiple websites on one VPS

One of the best things about a VPS is that a single server can host many websites at once — each with its own domain, files and SSL certificate. The mechanism is name-based virtual hosting, called server blocks in Nginx. Here's how to set it up cleanly.

How it works

When a browser requests a page, it sends the domain name in the request's Host header. Nginx reads that header and routes the request to the matching site configuration. So site-a.com and site-b.com can share one IP, one Nginx, and one VPS, yet serve completely separate content.

Step 1: Install Nginx

On a fresh Ubuntu or Debian VPS:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx -y

Open the firewall for web traffic:

sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full'

Step 2: Create a folder for each site

Give every website its own document root:

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/site-a.com/html
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/site-b.com/html
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/site-a.com/html /var/www/site-b.com/html

Drop a test page in each:

echo "<h1>Site A</h1>" > /var/www/site-a.com/html/index.html
echo "<h1>Site B</h1>" > /var/www/site-b.com/html/index.html

Step 3: Write a server block per site

Create /etc/nginx/sites-available/site-a.com:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name site-a.com www.site-a.com;
    root /var/www/site-a.com/html;
    index index.html;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
}

Make a matching file for site-b.com, changing the domain and root path. Keeping one file per site is what makes this tidy at scale.

Step 4: Enable the sites

Nginx serves any config symlinked into sites-enabled:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/site-a.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/site-b.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Test the configuration and reload:

sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx

Step 5: Point the domains at your VPS

At your DNS provider, create an A record for each domain pointing to your VPS IP. Include www too. DNS can take a little while to propagate; once it does, each domain loads its own page.

Step 6: Add free SSL to every site

Certbot issues and configures Let's Encrypt certificates automatically:

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y
sudo certbot --nginx -d site-a.com -d www.site-a.com
sudo certbot --nginx -d site-b.com -d www.site-b.com

Certbot edits each server block to serve HTTPS and sets up automatic renewal. Run sudo certbot renew --dry-run to confirm renewals will work.

Scaling up

The same pattern extends to as many sites as your resources allow — just add a folder, a server block and a DNS record for each. Watch your RAM and CPU as you go; a modest VPS comfortably serves several small sites, and if you outgrow it you can resize the plan.

Prefer a control panel?

Doing this by hand is great for learning and for a handful of sites. If you'd rather point-and-click, a panel like CyberPanel or HestiaCP manages virtual hosts, databases and SSL for dozens of sites through a web UI — both available as one-click images on Nxeon. Under the hood they're doing exactly what you just did manually.

The takeaway

Multiple websites on one VPS comes down to one idea: a server block per domain, each with its own root and certificate. Set the pattern once and adding the next site takes two minutes.