Creating a secure, minimal VPS web server image

I'd like to create a secure, minimal VPS web server image that can be installed on cloud services like Digital Ocean, Vultr or Linode.

Does anyone have any advice or links on how to do this?

I'd like the VPS web server image be stripped of any uneeded features. Essentially, minimal base OS + web server + programming language. The idea is to give this VPS image to users for installation.

Any advice on creating a secure, minimal VPS web server image would be much appreciated. Thoughts on different OS or distributions (Linux, FreeBSD etc) also appreciated. Thank you.