Linode is one of the oldest names in developer cloud hosting, and since Akamai bought it in 2022 it sits inside a much larger company. If you are comparing Linode with PrivateByte for a VPS, this page puts the two side by side at the same vCPU and RAM: monthly price, included transfer and what happens past it, backups, DDoS protection, regions and managed services. All Linode figures come from Akamai's official pricing and documentation pages. Prices checked October 2026.
Linode is now Akamai Cloud
Akamai Technologies completed its acquisition of Linode on 21 March 2022, after announcing the deal that February. Since then the products have moved under the Akamai brand: linode.com/pricing now redirects to Akamai's cloud pricing pages, and the documentation lives on Akamai's techdocs site. The compute plans still carry the Linode names (Nanode 1 GB, Linode 2 GB and so on), so you will see both names used.
For buyers, the practical effect is that Linode is now part of an enterprise-scale network company. That brings a broad product catalogue and large-company support options. It also means pricing is set inside a company whose main customers are large enterprises.
Side-by-side: shared CPU plans
Linode's shared CPU plans are the direct counterpart to our VPS plans. Here they are matched on vCPU and RAM, using Linode's North America prices and our monthly prices.
| vCPU / RAM | Linode plan | Linode price | Linode disk | Linode transfer | PrivateByte plan | PrivateByte price | PrivateByte disk | PrivateByte transfer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 / 2 GB | Linode 2 GB | $12.00/mo | 50 GB | 2 TB | Flare | $5.99/mo | 25 GB | Unmetered, 100 Mbps |
| 2 / 4 GB | Linode 4 GB | $24.00/mo | 80 GB | 4 TB | Orbit | $7.99/mo | 50 GB | Unmetered, 250 Mbps |
| 4 / 8 GB | Linode 8 GB | $48.00/mo | 160 GB | 5 TB | Comet | $15.99/mo | 100 GB | Unmetered, 500 Mbps |
| 6 / 16 GB | Linode 16 GB | $96.00/mo | 320 GB | 8 TB | Pulsar | $27.99/mo | 200 GB | Unmetered, 1 Gbps |
| 8 / 32 GB | Linode 32 GB | $192.00/mo | 640 GB | 16 TB | Quasar | $49.99/mo | 400 GB | Unmetered, 1 Gbps |
Linode prices from akamai.com/cloud/pricing (North America). Prices checked October 2026. PrivateByte annual billing lowers ours further, for example Orbit is $6.39/mo billed yearly.
Two things stand out. At every matched tier, Linode costs roughly three times as much per month for the same vCPU and RAM: $24.00 against $7.99 at 2 vCPU / 4 GB, $96.00 against $27.99 at 6 vCPU / 16 GB. And Linode gives you more disk at every tier, typically 1.6 to 2 times ours. If your workload is mostly storage, read the disk column before the price column.
Linode also has an entry plan we do not match on RAM: the Nanode 1 GB at $5.00/mo with 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 25 GB disk and 1 TB transfer. Our smallest plan, Flare, is $5.99/mo with twice the RAM.
Transfer and overage
Every Linode plan includes a fixed monthly transfer allowance, from 1 TB on the Nanode up to 16 TB on the 32 GB plan. Akamai lists egress beyond that at US$0.005 per GB.
That rate is low by cloud standards, and most small sites will never reach their allowance. Where it matters is anything traffic-heavy: media, downloads, game servers, backups pushed off-box, scraping or proxy workloads. As a worked example, a Linode 4 GB that sends 7 TB in a month is 3 TB over its 4 TB allowance, which is about 3,000 GB at $0.005, or roughly $15 on top of the $24 plan.
PrivateByte bandwidth is unmetered with no overage on every plan. There is no allowance to track and no transfer line on the invoice; the limit is the port speed of the plan (100 Mbps on Flare up to 1 Gbps on Pulsar and above). The trade-off is the reverse of Linode's: you get predictable billing, and you size by port speed rather than by terabytes.
Backups and snapshots
On Linode, Backups is a paid add-on. Akamai's backups page says pricing starts at $2/month for a 1 GB shared instance, and the rate rises with plan size. The service keeps up to four backups: three automatic (daily, weekly and biweekly) plus one manual snapshot.
On PrivateByte, backups and snapshots are free on every plan. Nothing to enable at checkout and nothing added per month. If you would turn on backups anyway, that widens the price gap in the table above.
DDoS protection
Akamai describes DDoS protection as part of its compute services, and DDoS mitigation is one of Akamai's core businesses as a company. If your main worry is large, sophisticated attacks, that heritage is a real point in Linode's favour.
PrivateByte includes DDoS protection on every plan at no extra cost. For most VPS workloads, the question is whether protection is on by default without an extra line item, and on both providers you are not asked to buy it separately for a basic instance.
Regions
This is where Linode is clearly ahead. Akamai's pricing is split across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and South America, and its documentation names locations including Dallas, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Madrid, Stockholm, Mumbai, Chennai, Singapore, Jakarta, Sydney and São Paulo, with more beyond that list.
PrivateByte runs three locations: Dallas (US), Amsterdam (Europe) and London (UK). If your users are in North America or Europe, we cover them. If you need servers in Asia, Australia or South America, Linode can host you there and we cannot today.
Managed products
Linode is a full cloud platform, not only VPS. From Akamai's pricing page:
- LKE (managed Kubernetes): the standard control plane is not charged separately; you pay for the worker nodes. A high-availability control plane is US$60 per cluster per month, and an enterprise tier is US$300 per cluster per month.
- Managed databases: from $16.00/mo for a single shared 1 GB node.
- Object storage: $0.02/GB stored, with outbound transfer at $0.005/GB after the first 1 TB free each month.
Linodes deployed to core regions also come with Cloud Firewalls, VPCs and VLANs, DNS Manager, Placement Groups and StackScripts at no extra cost.
PrivateByte focuses on VPS. We do not sell managed Kubernetes, managed databases or object storage. You can run your own on a VPS (our Coolify guide shows a self-hosted platform layer), but that is your work to run, not a managed service.
Getting started and day-to-day use
Both providers deploy quickly and both give you full root access over SSH. On PrivateByte, a new VPS deploys in under 60 seconds and the dashboard gives you a browser VNC console, custom ISO uploads, a migration tool for moving an existing server in, and a Telegram bot for managing servers from your phone.
Linode's Cloud Manager, API, CLI and Terraform provider are mature and widely documented, and its long-running library of guides is a resource in its own right.
When Linode is the better choice
- You need regions we don't have. Asia-Pacific, Australia and South America are all on Linode's map.
- You want managed services. LKE, managed databases and object storage on the same bill and network as your servers save real operational work.
- You are storage-heavy. Linode includes more disk per plan at every matched tier.
- You want an enterprise vendor. Akamai's scale, security portfolio and enterprise support options matter to some procurement teams.
- You need a 1 GB plan. The Nanode 1 GB at $5.00/mo is smaller and cheaper than anything we sell.
When PrivateByte is the better choice
- Price per vCPU and RAM. At 2 vCPU / 4 GB it is $7.99 against $24.00; at 6 vCPU / 16 GB, $27.99 against $96.00.
- Unpredictable or heavy traffic. Unmetered bandwidth with no overage means no transfer bill, whatever a month brings.
- Backups you don't pay extra for. Backups and snapshots are included on every plan.
- You are in the US or Europe. Dallas, Amsterdam and London cover most North American and European audiences.
- Plain VPS workloads. Web apps (Node.js with HTTPS), game servers (Minecraft), VPNs (WireGuard) and self-hosted tools don't need a managed-services catalogue.
Comparing more providers? See DigitalOcean vs PrivateByte, Vultr vs PrivateByte, AWS Lightsail vs PrivateByte and the best DigitalOcean alternatives.
Try PrivateByte
If your workload fits a VPS in the US or Europe, the Orbit plan matches Linode's 4 GB plan on vCPU and RAM for about a third of the monthly price.
- Unmetered bandwidth, no overage
- Free DDoS protection
- Free backups and snapshots
- Browser console access
Common questions
Is Linode the same company as Akamai now? Yes. Akamai completed its acquisition of Linode in March 2022, and Linode's compute plans are now sold as part of Akamai Cloud.
Is Linode cheaper than PrivateByte? Not at matched vCPU and RAM. Linode's 2 vCPU / 4 GB plan is $24.00/mo against $7.99/mo for our Orbit, prices checked October 2026. Linode does include more disk per plan.
Does Linode charge for bandwidth? Each plan includes a monthly transfer allowance, from 1 TB to 16 TB on the plans above. Egress beyond it is billed at US$0.005 per GB. PrivateByte bandwidth is unmetered with no overage.
Are backups free on Linode? No. Backups is a paid add-on starting at $2/month for a 1 GB instance and rising with plan size. PrivateByte includes backups and snapshots on every plan.
Does PrivateByte offer managed Kubernetes or databases? No. We focus on VPS. If you need managed Kubernetes, managed databases or object storage from one provider, Linode offers all three.
How do I move from Linode to PrivateByte? Deploy a VPS, then use the migration tool in the dashboard or copy your data over SSH. Keep the Linode running until you have switched DNS and checked the new server.