@niclas yeah, i also use hetzner vms currently, they are pretty good. i've used the smallest scaleway bare metal arm servers back when they still had them, it's a shame they aren't available anymore.
i still have the nagging feeling that i'd be better off with a cheap dedicated server, or maybe two for redundancy.
i will take a look at server4you. if only the _names_ of the discounters wouldn't be so shitty.. kimsufi, server4you.. who comes up with those :D
thanks for the reply!