Best VPS for Indie Hackers in 2026 (Real Prices)

Short answer: For most indie hackers the best VPS is a cheap European server with 4 GB of RAM: Hetzner's CX23 at €5.99/mo or OVHcloud's VPS-1 at $4.54/mo. Pay about $12/mo at DigitalOcean, Akamai Linode or AWS Lightsail when you want more regions, a polished console and a huge tutorial ecosystem. Use Oracle's Always Free tier for experiments, not as the only server behind paying customers.

Every price and limit below comes from each provider's own page, checked on 9 Nov 2026. The picks and opinions in between are ours and are marked as such.

TL;DR#

• Best value in the EU: Hetzner CX23, 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB NVMe, €5.99/mo excl. VAT including IPv4, at least 20 TB of traffic (Hetzner cost-optimized). Catch: it showed "currently unavailable" today.
• Cheapest 4 GB box in stock: OVHcloud VPS-1 from $4.54/mo with unlimited traffic at 500 Mbps outside Asia-Pacific (OVHcloud VPS).
• Best ecosystem: DigitalOcean Basic Droplet, 2 GiB for $12/mo, per-second billing with a monthly cap, 13 datacenters (DigitalOcean pricing).
• Best if you already live in AWS: Lightsail, $12/mo for 2 GB with IPv4 or $10/mo IPv6-only (Lightsail pricing).
• Best free option: Oracle Always Free, Ampere capacity equal to 2 OCPUs and 12 GB of RAM, with an idle reclamation policy (Oracle docs).

Disclosure: ZeroRaised is a launch site for bootstrapped products. We have no affiliate or commercial relationship with any provider in this post and earn nothing if you sign up. Facts come from the linked sources as checked on 9 Nov 2026.

Do you need a VPS at all?#

A VPS is the cheapest way to run an app, a database and a worker on one bill, and the most work: you own patching, backups and uptime. For a static site or a few serverless functions, see our guide to free hosting for commercial use. For git-push deploys without Linux, compare our Deno Deploy alternatives first.

Our read: reach for a VPS when you have a persistent backend (workers, websockets, a self-hosted database) or when platform bills grow faster than revenue.

VPS comparison table#

We picked the cheapest plan from each provider with at least 2 GB of RAM, because that is the realistic floor for an app plus a database. Prices are monthly list prices as shown on each page.

We could not verify Vultr's prices today because its pricing pages refused our requests, so Vultr is left out of the table rather than quoted from memory.

The picks, provider by provider#

Hetzner: most hardware per euro, if you can get it#

The CX23 has 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM and 40 GB NVMe for €5.99/mo or €0.0096/h excl. VAT, with prices labelled "incl. IPv4" (Hetzner cost-optimized). The Arm CAX11 is €6.49/mo. EU servers include "at least 20 TB of included traffic", and the bill "will never exceed its monthly price cap."

The catches: every cost-optimized plan showed "This product is currently unavailable. Please check back later." today, Hetzner says "the number of available servers is limited", and the line runs only in Germany and Finland. The Regular Performance line starts "from € 6.49 per month, excl. VAT" (Hetzner Cloud), but Asia-Pacific servers include as little as 0.5 TB of traffic (Hetzner Regular Performance). A separate primary IPv4 costs €0.50 / $0.60 per month excl. VAT; IPv6 is free (Hetzner Primary IPs). Hetzner raised cloud prices during 2026; its official price-adjustment page did not load for us, so we quote only the live prices.

Our read: if a CX23 is in stock, take it. Nothing else here gives 4 GB and 20 TB at that price with hourly billing.

OVHcloud: the cheap 4 GB box that is in stock#

OVHcloud's VPS-1 starts at $4.54/mo for 2 vCores, 4 GB RAM and 40 GB NVMe, with unlimited traffic at 500 Mbps public bandwidth. VPS-2 is $8.50/mo for 4 vCores, 8 GB and 75 GB (OVHcloud VPS). Every plan includes a backup of the previous 24 hours, and the premium rolling 7-day backup starts at $1.40/mo. VPS in Mumbai, Singapore and Sydney have a 1 TB monthly quota on VPS-1 and VPS-2, then drop to 10 Mbps.

Our read: the best price-to-RAM deal you can actually order today. Billing is monthly rather than hourly, so it is less suited to spinning servers up for an afternoon.

DigitalOcean: you pay for polish#

Basic Droplets run $4/mo (512 MiB), $6/mo (1 GiB), $12/mo (2 GiB) and $24/mo (2 vCPU, 4 GiB) (DigitalOcean pricing). Since 1 January 2026 Droplets bill per second with a 60-second minimum, capped monthly, across 13 datacenters.

Our read: $12 buys half the RAM of Hetzner or OVHcloud. You pay for US and Asia regions, managed databases next door and the tutorials you will read anyway.

Akamai Linode: same price, clear overage#

Linode, now Akamai Cloud, charges $5/mo for the Nanode 1 GB, $12/mo for 2 GB and $24/mo for 4 GB, with egress overage at $0.005 per GB (Akamai pricing). Some plan prices differ by region. Our read: a solid DigitalOcean alternative; pick whichever has a region nearer your users.

AWS Lightsail: VPS pricing inside AWS#

Lightsail bundles with IPv4 cost $5 (0.5 GB), $7 (1 GB), $12 (2 GB) and $24 (4 GB); IPv6-only bundles are $3.50, $5, $10 and $20 (Lightsail pricing). Inbound and outbound transfer both count toward the allowance.

Our read: worth it if you already use other AWS services. IPv6-only saves $2/mo, but some users and APIs cannot reach you without IPv4, so put a CDN in front.

Contabo and Hostinger: big specs, read the terms#

Contabo's €5.50/mo Cloud VPS 4 (8 GB RAM) is "the effective monthly rate for a 24-month subscription", and monthly contracts carry a setup fee whose amount the page does not state (Contabo VPS). Hostinger's $6.49/mo KVM 1 is a Black Friday promo paid as $155.76 upfront for 24 months, renewing at $11.99/mo (Hostinger VPS).

Our read: the long upfront terms are the real price. Only commit two years to a project you are sure about.

Oracle Always Free: free, with strings#

Oracle gives 1,500 OCPU hours and 9,000 GB hours of Ampere A1 per month, which it says "is equivalent to 2 OCPUs and 12 GB of memory", plus 200 GB of block storage and 10 TB of outbound data (Oracle docs). But "Idle Always Free compute instances may be reclaimed by Oracle" when CPU, network and (for A1) memory stay under 20% for 7 days.

Our read: great for staging or a bot. A quiet early SaaS can look idle, so do not make it your only production server.

Our picks by situation#

Add a self-hosted PaaS layer#

• Coolify is open source and "free forever" to self-host; Coolify Cloud is $5/mo for 2 servers plus $3/mo per extra server (Coolify pricing). It "needs 2 CPU cores, 2 GB RAM, and 10 GB disk space to run" (Coolify installation).
• Dokploy Cloud starts at $4.50/mo per server (Dokploy pricing) and needs "at least 2GB of RAM and 30GB of disk space" (Dokploy installation).
• Kamal, from 37signals, "offers zero-downtime deploys, rolling restarts, asset bridging, remote builds, accessory service management, and everything else you need to deploy and manage your web app in production with Docker" (Kamal).

Our read: Coolify for a dashboard, Kamal for config in your repo. The RAM minimums are why we skipped 1 GB plans. For the rest of the stack, see our SaaS tech stack for solo founders.

30-minute setup checklist#

1. Create the server with an SSH key, not a password. Pick the region closest to most of your users.
2. Create a non-root user with sudo, then set PermitRootLogin no and PasswordAuthentication no in /etc/ssh/sshd_config and restart SSH.
3. Turn on a firewall. Allow ports 22, 80 and 443 only (Dokploy also needs 3000 during setup). Use ufw or your provider's cloud firewall.
4. Enable automatic security updates. On Debian or Ubuntu: sudo apt install unattended-upgrades then sudo dpkg-reconfigure unattended-upgrades.
5. Install Docker and your deploy tool (Coolify, Dokploy or Kamal).
6. Put a TLS proxy in front. Coolify and Dokploy ship one; with Kamal, use its built-in proxy.
7. Turn on provider backups and test a restore. Hetzner charges 20% of the server price for 7 backup slots (Hetzner billing FAQ). DigitalOcean charges 20% (weekly) or 30% (every day) of the Droplet cost (DigitalOcean backups). Linode is $2.50/mo on 2 GB (Akamai backups). Lightsail snapshots are $0.05 per GB per month. OVHcloud includes a last-24-hour backup.
8. Back up the database off the box, for example a nightly pg_dump to object storage, in case the account itself is the problem.
9. Add uptime monitoring so you hear about downtime before customers do.

Worked example: monthly cost of a small SaaS#

This is an illustrative example built from the prices above, not a quote. Imagine a SaaS with one app, Postgres and a worker on a single 4 GB server, deployed with self-hosted Coolify.

OVHcloud VPS-1 at $4.54 with its included backup would come in under $5. Coolify Cloud adds $5/mo. Our read: the region and a tested restore matter more than this gap.

Frequently asked questions#

What is the cheapest good VPS for a side project in 2026?#

On prices checked 9 Nov 2026, OVHcloud VPS-1 starts at $4.54/mo for 2 vCores, 4 GB RAM and 40 GB NVMe, and Hetzner's CX23 lists at €5.99/mo excl. VAT for 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM and 40 GB NVMe including IPv4. Hetzner's cost-optimized plans showed as currently unavailable that day, so check stock before you plan around it.

Is Oracle Cloud Always Free good enough to host a SaaS?#

It is generous on paper: Ampere A1 capacity equivalent to 2 OCPUs and 12 GB of memory, 200 GB of block storage and 10 TB of outbound data per month. But Oracle says idle Always Free instances may be reclaimed, and capacity errors can happen. It suits experiments and staging better than the only server behind a paying product.

Should I pick DigitalOcean or Hetzner?#

Hetzner gives you far more hardware per euro and 20 TB of traffic in the EU, but its cheapest plans are EU-only and were showing as unavailable. DigitalOcean costs $12/mo for a 1 vCPU, 2 GiB Droplet, but it has 13 datacenters, per-second billing with a monthly cap and a large library of tutorials. Pick Hetzner for price, DigitalOcean for US or Asia regions and convenience.

How much RAM does an indie SaaS need on a VPS?#

Our read: 2 GB is the practical floor if you run an app, a Postgres database and a reverse proxy on one box, and 4 GB is comfortable. If you add Coolify, its docs say it needs 2 CPU cores, 2 GB RAM and 10 GB of disk on its own, so 4 GB is the sensible starting point.

Do I need Coolify, Dokploy or Kamal on a VPS?#

No, but they save time. Coolify is open source and free to self-host, with a cloud option from $5/mo. Dokploy Cloud starts at $4.50/mo per server. Kamal from 37signals deploys Docker apps with zero-downtime deploys from your own machine. If you deploy once a month, plain Docker Compose is fine.

Ship it, then launch it#

Once your app is live on a $5 server, launch it on ZeroRaised, the launch directory for products built without VC money. For more cost-conscious guides like this one, join the ZeroRaised newsletter.

Sources#

• Hetzner Cloud overview, last checked 9 Nov 2026
• Hetzner Cloud cost-optimized plans, last checked 9 Nov 2026
• Hetzner Cloud Regular Performance plans, last checked 9 Nov 2026
• Hetzner Primary IPs docs, last checked 9 Nov 2026
• Hetzner Cloud billing FAQ, last checked 9 Nov 2026
• OVHcloud VPS, last checked 9 Nov 2026
• Contabo Cloud VPS, last checked 9 Nov 2026
• Hostinger VPS hosting, last checked 9 Nov 2026
• DigitalOcean Droplet pricing, last checked 9 Nov 2026
• DigitalOcean backups pricing, last checked 9 Nov 2026
• Akamai Cloud compute pricing, last checked 9 Nov 2026
• Akamai Cloud backups pricing, last checked 9 Nov 2026
• AWS Lightsail pricing, last checked 9 Nov 2026
• Oracle Cloud Always Free resources, last checked 9 Nov 2026
• Coolify pricing, last checked 9 Nov 2026
• Coolify installation docs, last checked 9 Nov 2026
• Dokploy pricing, last checked 9 Nov 2026
• Dokploy installation docs, last checked 9 Nov 2026
• Kamal, last checked 9 Nov 2026