§01 · Hosting · Which VPS?
VPS and cloud servers
A virtual private server gives you a Linux machine with root access and a fixed monthly price. Prices for the same 2 vCPU / 4 GB box vary by five times between providers, and included transfer varies even more, so the table compares the cheapest general plan, regions and egress side by side.
Where we would start, by stage
Editorial picks from the data below, never paid. They change when prices or free tiers do; the full table is underneath.
The Always Free tier includes Arm capacity (2 OCPU, 12 GB RAM) and two micro VMs, if your region has capacity.
2 vCPU and 4 GB from €5.49/mo with 20 TB of EU traffic included; the cheapest plans often sell out.
From €5.49/mo (CX23, excl. IPv4 and VAT)
13 regions and per-second billing, with managed databases, Kubernetes and App Platform next door.
From $4/mo
26 regions, pooled transfer and $0.005/GB overage in most regions.
From $5/mo
Every AWS region and service, Savings Plans and Spot; egress over 100 GB a month is billed per GB.
t4g.small from about $0.0168/hour on demand (plus EBS storage and IPv4)
All 25 compared
A to Z · never paid placement25 tools
| Tool | From | Free option | Cheapest plan | Regions | Transfer | Billing | Stages |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Akamai Cloud (Linode) akamai.com · EU | $5/mo | 1 vCPU, 1 GB, 25 GB SSD: $5/mo (Nanode) | 25+ core regions (26 listed on pricing page) | 1 TB to 20 TB pooled; $0.005/GB over in most regions | Hourly, capped monthly | ||
| Amazon EC2 aws.amazon.com · EU | $0.017/hr | Trial | t4g.small 2 vCPU, 2 GiB: ~$0.0168/hr + storage | All AWS regions | 100 GB/mo free egress across AWS, then per-GB tiers | Per second (60 s min); Savings Plans, Spot | |
| Amazon Lightsail aws.amazon.com · EU | $5/mo | Trial | 2 vCPU (burstable), 0.5 GB, 20 GB SSD: $5/mo | Several AWS regions (plans vary by region) | 1 TB to 10 TB included, halved in some regions | Hourly, up to the monthly bundle price | |
| Azure Virtual Machines azure.microsoft.com · EU | $0.01/hr | Trial | B1s Linux: $0.0104/hr (~$7.59/mo) + disk | Azure regions worldwide | Standard egress charges per GB | Per hour/minute; reservations and spot | |
| BinaryLane Cloud Servers binarylane.com.au | A$4.90/mo | 1 vCPU, 1 GB, 20 GB NVMe: A$4.90/mo | 6: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Singapore | 1,000 GB+ included; A$0.01/GB extra | Hourly in arrears (720 h month) | ||
| BuyVM KVM Slices buyvm.net | $24/yr | 1 core, 1 GB, 20 GB SSD: $3.50/mo | Several locations (list not captured) | Unmetered bandwidth | Monthly (512 MB plan yearly) | ||
| Cherry Servers Cloud VPS cherryservers.com · EU | $3.51/mo | 1 vCore, 1 GB, 20 GB SSD: $3.51/mo | LT, NL, US, SG, SE, DE, JP | 1 TB/mo included; extra from $0.50/TB | Hourly, monthly, quarterly or yearly | ||
| Contabo Cloud VPS contabo.com · EU | $5.28/mo | 4 vCPU, 8 GB, 100 GB SSD: $5.28/mo excl. VAT | Data centers in Europe, US and Asia | Unlimited traffic, 200 Mbit/s to 1 Gbit/s port | Monthly; lower with longer terms | ||
| DigitalOcean Droplets digitalocean.com · EU | $4/mo | 1 vCPU, 512 MiB, 10 GiB SSD: $4/mo | 13 regions, 16 data centers | 500 GiB to 11,000 GiB pooled; $0.01/GiB over | Per second (60 s minimum), monthly cap | ||
| Exoscale Compute exoscale.com · EU | €5.25/mo | Standard Micro 1 core, 512 MB: €5.25/mo + disk | 7 zones in CH, AT, DE and BG | Egress pricing not captured | Per second, same rate in all zones | ||
| Google Compute Engine cloud.google.com · EU | $6.11/mo | Free tier | e2-micro (shared, 1 GB): ~$6.11/mo, one free | Google Cloud regions worldwide | Egress billed per GB; 1 GB/mo free on free tier | Per second after 1-minute minimum | |
| Hetzner Cloud hetzner.com · EU | €5.49/mo | 2 vCPU, 4 GB, 40 GB: €5.49/mo (CX23, often sold out) | 6: Falkenstein, Nuremberg, Helsinki, Ashburn, Hillsboro, Singapore | 20 TB in EU, 1 TB+ in US/Singapore; overage per TB | Hourly, capped at the monthly price | ||
| Hostinger VPS hostinger.com · EU | $6.49/mo | 1 vCPU, 4 GB, 50 GB NVMe: $6.49/mo prepaid | North America, Europe, Asia, South America | 4 TB to 32 TB per month, 1 Gbps | Prepaid terms; monthly rate shown per month | ||
| Infomaniak VPS infomaniak.com | CHF 2.70/mo | 1 vCPU, 2 GB, 20 GB: CHF 2.70/mo (VPS Lite) | Switzerland | Unlimited on VPS Cloud; Lite 500 Mbit/s | Monthly flat rate | ||
| IONOS VPS ionos.com · EU | $4/mo | 4 vCores, 4 GB, 120 GB NVMe: $4/mo intro (VPS M+) | 4 countries: US, UK, Germany, Spain | Unlimited traffic at up to 1 Gbps | Monthly with term; add-on VMs pay as you go | ||
| Kamatera Cloud Servers kamatera.com · EU | $4/mo | 1 vCPU, 1 GB, 20 GB NVMe: $4/mo (Type A) | Global data centers (list not captured) | 5 TB included; $0.01/GB extra | Monthly or hourly (billed per minute) | ||
| netcup VPS netcup.com · EU | €8.26/mo | 2 vCore, 4 GB, 64 GB SSD: €8.26/mo (12-mo term) | 5: Vienna, Nuremberg, Amsterdam, Manassas, Singapore | Traffic included | 1, 12 or 24-month terms; hourly option | ||
| Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Compute oracle.com · EU | Free tier | Always Free: 2 Arm OCPU, 12 GB RAM (A1 Flex) | All commercial OCI regions | Free-tier micro VMs capped at 50 Mbps | Per OCPU-hour and GB-hour, pay as you go | ||
| OVHcloud VPS ovhcloud.com · EU | $4.54/mo | 2 vCores, 4 GB, 40 GB NVMe: from $4.54/mo | Many locations in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific | Unlimited traffic, 500 Mbps to 3 Gbps port | Monthly (discounts with commitment) | ||
| RackNerd KVM VPS racknerd.com · EU | $26.99/yr | 1 vCore, 512 MB, 30 GB SSD: $26.99/yr | 12: US, Canada, Netherlands, France, Ireland | 500 GB to 6 TB per month at 1 Gbps | Monthly or yearly | ||
| Scaleway Instances scaleway.com · EU | €6.55/mo | DEV1-S 2 vCPU, 2 GB: ~€6.55/mo + storage | 3: Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw | No egress fees; bandwidth capped per type | Hourly; Savings Plans up to 25% off | ||
| Time4VPS Linux VPS time4vps.com · EU | €2.99/mo | 1 x 2.6 GHz, 1 GB, 10 GB: €2.99/mo | 1: Lithuania (central Europe data center) | 1 TB to 128 TB per month by plan | Prepaid 1, 12 or 24-month terms | ||
| UpCloud Cloud Servers upcloud.com · EU | €3/mo | 1 core, 1 GB, 10 GB SSD: €3/mo (Starter) | 15 data centers | Zero-cost egress, fair transfer policy | Hourly, max 28 days per month | ||
| Vultr Cloud Compute vultr.com · EU | $2.50/mo | 1 vCPU, 0.5 GB, 10 GB SSD: $2.50/mo (IPv6 only) | 33 regions on six continents | 0.5 TB to 15 TB included per plan | Hourly, capped monthly | ||
| Webdock VPS webdock.io · EU | €2.15/mo | 1 vCPU, 2 GB, 15 GB NVMe: €2.15/mo (Essential) | EU (Denmark), two locations | 1 TB to 7 TB outgoing per month; inbound unlimited | Monthly, no long-term commitment |
No tools match these filters.
How to choose a VPS
- Price the machine you actually need (vCPU, RAM, disk) on two or three providers; entry prices hide very different specs.
- Check included transfer and the overage price. The hyperscalers charge for almost all egress; Hetzner, OVHcloud and others include terabytes.
- Pick a region near your users and check it offers the plan you want: cheap plans are often limited to a few locations.
- Decide whether you want to run the server yourself. If not, a PaaS or a managed database may cost less than your time.
- Look at snapshots, backups, firewalls and IPv4 pricing: several providers now charge for IPv4 addresses and backups separately.
Questions
What is the cheapest reliable VPS?
For a small general-purpose server, European providers such as Hetzner and OVHcloud list 2 vCPU / 4 GB plans for around €4 to €6 a month with generous included transfer. The table on this page lists the cheapest plan of every provider with its specs and the date we checked it.
Is a VPS or a PaaS better for a side project?
A PaaS is less work: you push code and it runs. A VPS is cheaper per unit of CPU and RAM and runs anything, but you patch, secure and back it up yourself.
Why is egress so expensive on AWS, Google Cloud and Azure?
The hyperscalers charge per GB leaving their network after a small free allowance. Smaller VPS providers usually bundle terabytes of transfer into the monthly price, which makes them far cheaper for bandwidth-heavy workloads.
Comparisons and pricing changes
Head to head
Hetzner Cloud vs DigitalOcean Droplets DigitalOcean Droplets vs Vultr Cloud Compute Akamai Cloud (Linode) vs DigitalOcean Droplets Amazon Lightsail vs DigitalOcean DropletsRecent changes
-
Second 2026 Hetzner increase hits CPX and CCX plans
Hetzner Cloud · source ↗
-
Oracle halves Always Free Ampere A1 allowance
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Compute · source ↗
-
Hetzner raises cloud prices for all servers
Hetzner Cloud · source ↗
-
Droplets move to per-second billing
DigitalOcean Droplets · source ↗