Sigh so it turns out my server CPU spikes are actually a RAM issue as kswapd0
frantically runs around shuffling stuff in and out of swap, and that in turn is because this little app is at any given point using up 20-30% of my RAM.
Admittedly this is because I only have 1GB of RAM, but 0.5-1GB is where pretty much all the cheap hosting starts. And CPU/disk/bandwidth is not generally a problem, just RAM (which is why I actually moved up from my original plan in the first place). So - anyone got any favorite budget hosting companies for unmanaged Linux VPSes?
I should add - I use Vultr right now, and I think the have the most rock-bottom prices if you don't need a ton of RAM - I was hosting all my stuff quite comfortably on their $2.50/mo plan up until I started trying stuff with heavier, always-on backends