Five providers people actually shortlist for a first self-hosting VPS, compared on what each one says about itself: prices, billing, and backup policies, with sources at the bottom. One of them is also the one I pay for every month, and I'll tell you which and why up front. Prices change; the fine print is what stays useful.
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Hostinger KVM 2
$8.99/mo on a 2-year term · renews at $14.99/mo · 2 vCPU · 8 GB RAM · 100 GB NVMe · 8 TB transfer
This is the plan this site runs on, along with eighteen other sites, my email, and a handful of Docker apps. Why I'd pick it again:
- 8 GB of RAM for under $10 a month. RAM is what self-hosting runs out of first, and this has been enough for my mix of sites and containers.
- Free weekly backups included. They're not a substitute for your own, but they're a useful extra layer.
- NVMe storage, which you notice on databases and Docker image pulls.
The honest catch: that price needs a 2-year term, and it renews about 67% higher. Budget for the renewal price, not the headline. And even 8 GB fills up. Mine runs high on swap with ten containers, so start lean.
See Hostinger VPS plansPrices side by side
Two tiers per provider: a small starter plan, and roughly what you'd want for running several apps.
| Provider & plan | Price | CPU · RAM · storage · transfer |
|---|---|---|
| Hostinger KVM 1 | $6.49/mo renews $11.99 | 1 vCPU · 4 GB · 50 GB NVMe · 4 TB 2-year term for this price |
| Hostinger KVM 2 what I run | $8.99/mo renews $14.99 | 2 vCPU · 8 GB · 100 GB NVMe · 8 TB 2-year term for this price |
| Contabo Cloud VPS 4 | €4.40/mo excludes VAT | 4 vCPU · 8 GB · 100 GB SSD · unlimited traffic* 24-month term; 200 Mbit/s port |
| Contabo Cloud VPS 8 | €11.20/mo excludes VAT | 8 vCPU · 24 GB · 300 GB SSD or 150 GB NVMe · unlimited traffic* 24-month term; 600 Mbit/s port |
| InterServer, 1 slice | $3/mo | 1 core · 2 GB · 40 GB SSD · 2 TB monthly |
| InterServer, 4 slices | $12/mo | 2 cores · 8 GB · 160 GB SSD · 8 TB monthly |
| DigitalOcean Basic | $6/mo | 1 vCPU · 1 GB · 25 GB SSD · 1,000 GiB billed per second |
| DigitalOcean Basic | $48/mo | 4 vCPU · 8 GB · 160 GB SSD · 5,000 GiB billed per second |
| RackNerd KVM 512 MB | $26.99/yr | 1 vCPU · 0.5 GB · 30 GB SSD · 500 GB yearly |
| RackNerd KVM 2 GB | $20.59/mo | 3 vCPU · 2 GB · 75 GB SSD · 2 TB monthly |
Prices are each provider's own listed prices before tax, checked October 15, 2026; Contabo prices were checked November 4 and are listed in euros. Hostinger's prices depend on term length. RackNerd also runs limited-time promos that aren't on its standard plan page. *Contabo's unlimited outgoing traffic is subject to its fair-use policy.
The quick version
- Hostinger: the provider I use; free weekly backups and NVMe storage; renewals cost noticeably more.
- Contabo: generous RAM, CPU and storage for the price; a strong fit for several apps, with a 24-month term for the listed rate.
- RackNerd: aggressive promotional pricing on annual plans; best value if you're comfortable with a smaller provider's tooling.
- InterServer: the Price Lock promise on VPS slices; a middle ground between budget hosts and hyperscalers.
- DigitalOcean: the polished platform experience: docs, one-click images, managed extras; you pay for it.
Contabo: the low-cost, high-resources option
Contabo's Cloud VPS 4 starts with 8 GB RAM and four vCPUs, while Cloud VPS 8 steps up to 24 GB RAM and eight vCPUs. Every plan includes DDoS protection, a firewall, dedicated IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, and unlimited traffic subject to fair use. Auto Backup is a paid add-on rather than part of the headline price.
The honest catch: the prices above require a 24-month subscription. Cloud VPS 4 has a one-time setup fee on monthly contracts, and outgoing traffic can be throttled under exceptionally high or disruptive usage. Compare the full term cost and your actual bandwidth needs.
See Contabo VPS plansAffiliate link. Check the final currency, tax, term and add-ons at checkout.
Billing: read this before you compare headline prices
These providers do not bill the same way, and the difference changes the real cost of a server you turn off for a week.
| Hostinger | RackNerd | InterServer | DigitalOcean | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Typical entry plan | KVM plans; the advertised price needs a 24-month term | Annual promo plans (~1 GB RAM class) | Linux VPS slices, monthly billing | Regular Droplets, hourly-billed, monthly cap |
| Metering | Prepaid term | Prepaid term | Prepaid month | Per-second while the Droplet exists (60-second/$0.01 minimum), capped at 672 hours/month on bundled plans |
| Powered-off server | Prepaid, so no refund for downtime you choose | Prepaid — no refund for downtime you choose | Prepaid — no refund for downtime you choose | Still billed. A powered-off Droplet keeps accruing charges; destroying it is what stops billing |
| Price changes | Renews at the higher regular rate (KVM 2: $8.99 → $14.99/mo) | Renewal at then-current rates | Price Lock: the slice's price at provisioning is locked — but only for that slice's configuration; upgrades and new slices re-price at current rates | Plan prices can change; existing Droplets billed at current rates |
Contabo billing: the minimum initial contract is one month, but the effective rates listed above are for a 24-month subscription. A one-time setup fee applies to new Cloud VPS 4 instances on monthly contracts; longer contracts avoid that fee.
Backups: assume nothing
Providers' backup habits differ sharply, and this is the fine print that hurts most:
- Hostinger includes free weekly backups on its VPS plans. That's handy, but it's the same provider and the same failure domain as your server.
- Contabo includes a limited number of snapshots by plan and offers daily off-server Auto Backup as a paid add-on. Neither replaces your own separate backup.
- DigitalOcean offers an optional backups add-on (20% of the Droplet's price for weekly, 30% for daily): snapshots with a 4-week retention window. It's off by default — you enable it per Droplet.
- InterServer's terms state that VPS and dedicated servers do not include backups by default. If you want snapshots, arrange them yourself — the backups guide shows how.
- RackNerd backup offerings vary by plan and promotion — check the specific plan's page rather than assuming.
In every case, provider snapshots complement rather than replace your own backup routine: a snapshot taken by the same provider lives in the same failure domain as the server.
Shared CPU vs. dedicated CPU (DigitalOcean)
DigitalOcean's regular Droplets are shared-CPU: vCPUs are hyperthreaded host cores shared with other tenants, with burstable performance. For a personal server running a few apps, that's fine and it's the cheap option. CPU-optimized and dedicated-CPU Droplets reserve physical cores — worth it for sustained compute (video transcoding, build servers), unnecessary for a first status page and photo library. InterServer and RackNerd's entry plans are likewise shared-CPU products at these tiers.
Which one for a first server?
- Want the plan this site already uses: Hostinger. Its 8 GB plan leaves room to grow into every app guide on this site, and its included weekly backups are useful.
- Want the most resources for several apps: Contabo's 8 GB and 24 GB tiers offer generous headroom. Choose it with the 24-month commitment and fair-use policy in mind.
- Lowest cash outlay, don't mind smaller tooling: RackNerd's annual promos are hard to beat on price per GB of RAM. Trade-off: you're pre-committing a year to learn whether self-hosting is for you.
- Want to tinker without renewal surprise: InterServer's slice model with monthly billing and the (scoped) Price Lock is the predictable middle ground.
- Value docs, community answers, and managed extras: DigitalOcean's documentation and ecosystem are genuinely the most extensive here — you're paying the premium for polish and per-second flexibility, not raw hardware.
Sources
- Contabo Cloud VPS plans, resources, traffic and backup options: contabo.com/en/vps (checked November 4, 2026)
- Hostinger VPS plans, terms and renewal prices: hostinger.com/vps-hosting (checked October 15, 2026)
- DigitalOcean Droplet prices: digitalocean.com/pricing/droplets (checked October 15, 2026)
- InterServer VPS slices: interserver.net/vps (checked October 15, 2026)
- RackNerd standard KVM plans: racknerd.com/kvm-vps (checked October 15, 2026)
- DigitalOcean Droplet pricing & billing: docs.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/details/pricing/ (per-second billing, 672-hour monthly cap, powered-off Droplets billed)
- DigitalOcean backups add-on: docs.digitalocean.com/products/backups/
- InterServer Price Lock scope: interserver.net/tips/kb/what-is-price-lock/ and VPS terms: interserver.net/terms-of-service.html
- RackNerd plans and promos: racknerd.com (plan-specific; verify current offers)