Most people do not delay launching a VM because they lack ambition.
They delay because too many infrastructure products make the first step feel heavier than it should.
That has always bothered me.
If you are a developer, founder, freelancer, or small team, your first server should feel like momentum. It should feel like progress. It should not feel like you just enrolled in a part-time course on legacy hosting terminology, pricing traps, and unnecessary setup friction.
That frustration is one of the reasons we built Raff the way we did.
The real problem was never the virtual machine
A virtual machine is not a hard concept.
You choose a configuration. You pick an operating system. You launch it. You connect. You start building.
That is the basic promise.
But in practice, many traditional VPS experiences wrap that simple workflow in too much friction. Confusing dashboards. Pricing that feels low until you start adding the basics. Platform language written for people who already know the system. Product decisions that make sense internally, but not from the customer’s side.
For experienced infrastructure teams, some of that complexity is tolerable.
For everyone else, it creates drag.
And drag matters more than many cloud companies admit.
If your first infrastructure decision costs you an extra afternoon, interrupts a project sprint, or makes a founder postpone testing an idea until “later,” that is not a small UX issue. That is lost momentum.
What small teams actually need from a first VM
When I think about the teams we want to help at Raff, I do not start with the question, “How many features can we stack onto a VM page?”
I start with a simpler question:
What does someone actually need to get moving without second-guessing the platform?
Usually, it comes down to a few things:
- fast provisioning
- clear resource choices
- predictable pricing
- full control once the machine is live
- confidence that the platform can still grow with them later
That is a very different mindset from building a product page around maximum complexity.
Most small teams do not need the broadest possible infrastructure catalog on day one. They need a clean starting point.
That is why I think the first VM experience matters more than many providers realize. It is the moment where a product either feels like an enabler or another obstacle.
Why we wanted Raff to feel simpler
We built Raff for builders.
That means we care about the time between “I need a machine” and “I’m working.”
Not in a marketing way. In a very practical way.
If someone wants to launch a Linux server, test a product idea, host an internal tool, run a development environment, or give a team member a clean cloud workspace, they should be able to do that without feeling punished for not being a full-time infrastructure specialist.
That is also why simplicity cannot just mean “fewer buttons.”
Real simplicity means the product still gives you the things that matter:
- root access
- current operating systems
- useful storage
- network and security basics
- pricing you can understand before you commit
- enough flexibility to keep building after the first launch
In other words, the goal is not to make cloud infrastructure look smaller than it is.
The goal is to remove the parts that make people hesitate for the wrong reasons.
Fast does not just mean technical speed
When people talk about speed in cloud infrastructure, they often mean raw performance.
That matters, of course.
But there is another kind of speed that I think matters just as much, especially for smaller teams:
decision speed.
Can you understand the offer quickly? Can you choose without overthinking? Can you launch without opening six tabs first? Can you tell what your next step is once the machine is live?
That kind of speed is underrated.
A platform can be technically powerful and still slow the user down.
And for a lot of early-stage teams, that kind of slowdown is more expensive than people think. It delays experiments. It delays deployments. It delays learning. It makes infrastructure feel like homework instead of leverage.
That is not the feeling we want Raff to create.
Simple should not mean limited
This is the trap some infrastructure companies fall into.
They assume that if you make the first step easier, the product will look less serious.
I think the opposite is true.
A serious infrastructure product should be able to do both:
- feel approachable at the beginning
- stay useful as the workload grows
That is how I think about Raff.
Yes, we want the first launch to feel straightforward. Yes, we want the platform to feel cleaner than traditional VPS experiences.
But that does not mean we want people to outgrow it immediately.
It means the platform should meet teams where they are and give them a path forward.
That is why the broader structure matters.
A VM is not just a VM decision forever. Teams eventually care about backups, networking, storage, access patterns, and how everything fits together once the first machine becomes two, then five, then something more operationally real.
The first experience still matters. But the long-term shape matters too.
What I think traditional VPS products still get wrong
I think many traditional VPS products still assume that friction communicates seriousness.
That if the dashboard feels dense enough, the platform will look more professional. That if pricing is fragmented enough, the offer will look more customizable. That if the setup takes longer, the buyer will assume they are dealing with something more “enterprise.”
I do not believe that.
I think clarity is more professional than clutter. I think understandable pricing is more credible than a cheap-looking number followed by five caveats. And I think a fast first deployment is not a shortcut — it is respect for the customer’s time.
The teams we care about are not asking for less control.
They are asking for less unnecessary friction between intent and execution.
That is a very different problem to solve.
The business side of this matters too
There is also a business reason I care about this so much.
Small teams do not just buy infrastructure with money. They buy it with attention.
If your team spends too much time navigating the platform instead of using it, the infrastructure has already become more expensive than it looked on the pricing page.
That is why simplicity is not just a design preference. It is an economic advantage.
A VM that launches quickly, feels understandable, and gives you control without making every step heavier than necessary creates a different kind of value. It saves setup time. It reduces hesitation. It helps teams move from idea to execution faster.
And for startups, builders, and lean operators, that speed of execution matters a lot.
What this means for you
If you are evaluating cloud infrastructure right now, I would suggest asking a different question.
Not: “Which provider has the longest feature list?”
Ask: “Which provider will let my team start cleanly and still make sense when we grow?”
That is a more useful filter.
If what you need today is a clear place to launch a server, get control quickly, and avoid unnecessary friction, start there. Do not overbuy complexity just because it looks impressive on a comparison table.
And if that is the lens you want to use on Raff, begin with the basics: Linux VMs, Windows VMs, and the public pricing page. Then explore the rest of the platform once the first deployment is already doing useful work.
That is how I think infrastructure should feel.
Not intimidating. Not bloated. Not artificially complicated.
Just ready when you are.