How much RAM does code-server (VS Code in the browser) need? We measured: 191 MB idle
code-server (VS Code in the browser) (cloud development environment) used 191 MB of RAM across 2 processes sitting idle with default configuration — measured by us, on real hardware, not copied from another blog. Runtime: Node.js / Electron-less VS Code server
Don't co-host with anything memory-hungry. The editor experience degrades sharply under memory pressure.
What the vendors say
Coder's own docs recommend at least 1 GB RAM and 2 cores.
What changes under load
This is the one app where idle numbers mislead: opening a workspace loads extensions and language servers. A TypeScript project with ESLint easily adds 500 MB–1 GB. Budget for what you code, not what idles.
Methodology
Each app was started with its default configuration and an empty data directory, left to settle for 25–30 seconds, and confirmed alive with an HTTP request to its web interface. We then recorded the resident set size (RSS) of the app's entire process tree via ps. Apps were run directly on the host (no Docker), so numbers exclude container overhead (~10–30 MB with Docker).
A fresh minimal Ubuntu 24.04 VPS typically idles at roughly 200–300 MB RSS (kernel, systemd, sshd, journald). All 'fits on' verdicts below assume ~300 MB reserved for the OS.
Where to run it
A 1 GB instance from Hetzner, Vultr or DigitalOcean covers this app with the OS overhead included. Don't pay for RAM the measurements say you won't use.
Other apps we measured
File Browser (16 MB), Gotify (20 MB), ntfy (27 MB), PocketBase (31 MB), Caddy (40 MB), Navidrome (47 MB), Syncthing (57 MB), Prometheus (70 MB), MinIO (132 MB), Uptime Kuma (136 MB), Gitea (158 MB), Forgejo (173 MB)