Compute
vCPU
A virtual CPU is a share of a physical processor core assigned to your server, usually one hardware thread.
A vCPU is a slice of physical processing power, usually one thread of a real CPU core. When a plan advertises "2 vCPUs," you're getting scheduled time on two threads of the underlying hardware. How much of that thread is actually yours depends on whether the CPU is shared or dedicated.
The catch is that not all vCPUs are equal. A vCPU on a modern Hetzner or Vultr high-frequency box outruns a vCPU on an older, oversubscribed shared plan, even at the same count. Clock speed, generation, and how many neighbors compete for the same physical core all move the number that matters, which is real throughput.
For most web workloads, two to four vCPUs handle a surprising amount of traffic. Databases and video processing are the exceptions that actually eat cores. Benchmark your own workload before buying more.