Tools / VPS price calculator
What a VPS really costs
List price plus traffic overage and backups. Pick the memory you need and how much data the server sends.
| Provider | Plan | Traffic | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|
OVHcloud | VPS-1 2 vCPU · 4 GB · 40 GB disk | Unmetered · 500 Mbps | $5.35 plan $5.35 backups included |
PrivateByte | Orbit 2 vCPU · 4 GB · 50 GB disk | Unmetered · 250 Mbps | $7.99 plan $7.99 backups included |
Contabo | Cloud VPS 4 4 vCPU · 8 GB · 100 GB disk | Unmetered · 200 Mbps | $8.60 plan $6.60 + backups $2.00 |
UpCloud | Starter 4 GB 2 vCPU · 4 GB · 30 GB disk | Unmetered · 500 Mbps | $15.40 plan $14.00 + backups $1.40 |
Hostinger | KVM 1 1 vCPU · 4 GB · 50 GB disk | 4 TB included | $19.49 plan $19.49 + traffic, rate not published backups included |
Akamai (Linode) | Linode 4 GB 2 vCPU · 4 GB · 80 GB disk | 4 TB included | $34.00 plan $24.00 + traffic $5.00 + backups $5.00 |
DigitalOcean | Basic 2 vCPU / 4 GB 2 vCPU · 4 GB · 80 GB disk | 4 TB included | $38.80 plan $24.00 + traffic $10.00 + backups $4.80 |
Vultr | Cloud Compute 2 vCPU / 4 GB 2 vCPU · 4 GB · 80 GB disk | 3 TB included | $40.00 plan $20.00 + traffic $20.00 + backups, price varies |
Hetzner | CPX21 3 vCPU · 4 GB · 80 GB disk | 2 TB included | $49.31 plan $38.09 + traffic $3.60 + backups $7.62 |
AWS Lightsail | Linux 4 GB 2 vCPU · 4 GB · 80 GB disk | 4 TB included | $114.00 plan $24.00 + traffic $90.00 + backups, price varies |
List prices in USD, checked 7 October 2026. Sources: PrivateByte, DigitalOcean, Vultr, Akamai (Linode), Hetzner, AWS Lightsail, OVHcloud, Contabo, UpCloud, Hostinger.
Head-to-head comparisons
How to compare VPS prices fairly
List prices hide the costs that grow with use. Compare on what you will actually run.
- Start from memory
- RAM is the limit most workloads hit first. Pick the size your application needs with some headroom.
- Estimate your traffic
- Outbound traffic is what gets billed. A busy site, a proxy or a media server can move several terabytes a month.
- Count backups
- Most providers charge for automatic backups, often 20% of the plan price.
- Read the port speed
- Unmetered traffic is limited by port speed. A 100 Mbps port can move about 32 TB a month at most.
- Check the term
- Some headline prices need 12 to 24 months paid upfront. The calculator uses monthly prices with no commitment where providers publish them.
Questions
Why does the cheapest VPS end up costing more?
Most cloud providers include a fixed amount of outbound traffic and bill every gigabyte above it. Backups are usually an extra 20% of the plan price or a flat add-on. A $6 server that moves 5 TB a month can cost several times its list price.
What is bandwidth overage?
Traffic your server sends beyond its monthly allowance. DigitalOcean and Vultr charge $0.01 per GB, Akamai Linode $0.005, Hetzner $0.0012 and AWS Lightsail $0.09, so each extra terabyte adds anywhere from about $1 to $90.
What does unmetered mean?
No monthly traffic allowance and no overage bill. The limit is the port speed instead: a 100 Mbps port can move at most about 32 TB in a month running flat out, a 1 Gbps port about 324 TB.
How current are these prices?
List prices from each provider's own pricing page, documentation or public API, last checked on 7 October 2026. Taxes, promotions and regional surcharges are not included. Where a provider does not publish a figure we could confirm, the calculator says so instead of guessing.
Is vCPU the same everywhere?
No. A vCPU is a share of a physical core, and its speed varies with the processor generation and how busy the host is. Compare memory and traffic first, then benchmark the shortlist with your own workload.
PrivateByte servers include unmetered traffic, DDoS protection and backups in the price. See plans.