Some links below are affiliate links. If you buy through one we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes our ratings or what we write.

What decides the real cost

RAM and vCPU per dollar. Contabo leads on RAM; Hetzner leads on balanced performance.

NVMe storage, which is standard on the good cheap VPS hosts and makes databases noticeably faster.

Whether it is managed or self-managed, and whether you are comfortable with that.

Datacenter locations near your visitors, and hourly or monthly billing with no lock-in.

Plans and renewal prices, side by side

Every price and spec below comes from our provider data, checked September 2026. Full detail is on each host’s review page.

HostFromRAMvCPUStorageRenews at
Hetzner€4.59/mo4 GB240 GB NVMe€4.59/mo
Contabo€4.50/mo8 GB4100 GB NVMe or 200 GB SSD€4.50/mo
Hostinger$2.99/mo25 GB SSD$10.99/mo
Cloudways$11/mo25 GB$11/mo
Cheap VPS Hosting (2026): More Server for Less Than Shared. Checked September 2026.

Our best-value picks, ranked

Our top pick
1

Hetzner

4.2 / 5

The best balanced price-to-performance in cloud VPS: 4 GB RAM, 2 vCPU and 40 GB NVMe from about €4.59/mo, billed hourly, with a clean API.

From €4.59/mo (pay hourly or monthly, no contract)4 GB RAM4 datacenter regions

Best for: Developers who want the fastest cheap VPS and are fine with EU-centric infrastructure

2

Contabo

3.9 / 5

The most resources per euro anywhere: 8 GB RAM, 4 vCPU and 100 GB NVMe from about €4.50/mo, if you accept slower support.

From €4.50/mo (pay monthly, no contract)8 GB RAM6 datacenter regions

Best for: Developers and self-hosters who want maximum resources for the money

3

Hostinger

4.2 / 5

The KVM 1 VPS is $6.49/mo for 4 GB RAM with a managed control panel and one-click installs, the easiest cheap VPS for someone new to servers.

From $2.99/mo (48-month term)renews $10.99/mo25 GB SSD9 datacenter regions

Best for: New blogs, small business sites and first WordPress installs

4

Cloudways

4.3 / 5

From $11/mo it is not the cheapest, but it is a fully managed VPS, so you get the performance without touching the command line.

From $11/mo (pay monthly, no contract)25 GB1 datacenter regions

Best for: Growing WordPress and WooCommerce sites, and freelancers running client sites

How we scored these hosts

We keep a data sheet of every provider in the comparison: current intro and renewal pricing, datacenter locations, storage, backups and money-back terms, each with the sources we checked it against. The ranking on this page is our judgement about which of those providers fits cheap VPS hosting best, weighted by the criteria above. A provider only appears once its current data is verified; where we could not confirm a number, that host is left off rather than guessed.

Learn the fundamentals behind this comparison

Plain-English guides to the parts of hosting that decide whether a plan performs for this use case or falls over.

All hosting guides →

← All cheap hosting guides · The full hosting hub

Frequently asked questions

What does 'unmanaged VPS' mean and can I handle it?

It means the host gives you a bare server and a root login, and everything after that is yours: installing a web server, securing SSH, applying updates, configuring backups. If you have set up a LAMP or LEMP stack before, you can handle it. If not, either use a managed VPS (Cloudways, Hostinger's managed panel) or budget a weekend to learn.

Is a cheap VPS faster than shared hosting?

Almost always, yes. On shared hosting your site competes for CPU with dozens of others on the same machine; on a VPS the RAM and vCPU are reserved for you. A €4.50 Contabo or Hetzner VPS will out-benchmark a $10 shared plan on database-heavy work like WordPress admin and WooCommerce.

Which is better, Hetzner or Contabo?

Hetzner for balanced performance, fast NVMe, a good API and hourly billing, if EU-centric datacenters work for you. Contabo for maximum RAM and storage per euro and more datacenter locations, if you can live with slower, ticket-only support. Both are self-managed.

Still deciding?

Our top pick for cheap VPS hosting is Hetzner. Read the full review, or start from the hosting hub to see how it compares across other needs.