Cheapest 256mb VPS running on SSD? (any virt type - world wide)

InceptionHosting · December 2020

Good After Morning!

Inspired by @vyas latest blog post: https://lowendspirit.com/how-to-host-your-wordpress-website-for-less-than-10-us-dollars-per-year I have decided to take another look at WordPress after about 5 - 6 years.

But as usual, it's not interesting without a twist, finding 128MB none NAT VPS these days is hard and with modern kernels a bit more impractical than it used to be so I am looking for the cheapest 256MB none NAT SSD based vps around.

I don't care what virt type it is, vmware, openvz, lxc, kvm, xen, anything is fine.

Minimum Specs:

1 vCPU
256MB ram (no higher)
5 GB SSD disk
1 x IPv4 (100mbit is fine)
100 GB monthly transfer.

I should also add a caveat, this should be available for general purchase, not a special limited-time offer in response to this post.

We all know you can go cheaper with NAT however as this may be used as a general guide when I finish publishing the results I would rather take that layer of complexity out at the first stage.

_MS_ · December 2020

FDCservers.

angstrom · December 2020

MS said:
FDCservers.

You might try to be more specific.

The said plan (for $0.99 / month) includes only a 5Mbps connection.

InceptionHosting · December 2020

MS said:
FDCservers.

Cheapest works out at $11.88 /year but is limited to 5mbit.

chocolateshirt · December 2020

VirMach? They offer KVM virt for 256 MB plan
HostSailor also offer OVZ, Xen, and KVM for their 256 MB plans

vyas · December 2020

This is interesting..

Littlevz @cam has HDD

Tinykvm also has HDD not SSD.

Vserver pricing was BF special so might not qualify as per OP

this should be available for general purchase

angstrom · December 2020

If I were looking for those specs, I would go with tinykvm.com for $15 / year. The compromise is that the (7 GB) disk is only SSD-cached.

I've had a couple of these KVMs in the past, and they perform really well.

_MS_ · December 2020

@angstrom said:

MS said:
FDCservers.

You might try to be more specific.

The said plan (for $0.99 / month) includes only a 5Mbps connection.

@AnthonySmith said:

MS said:
FDCservers.

Cheapest works out at $11.88 /year but is limited to 5mbit.

Yes, I was going to post full specs. with the plan name. I posted the provider's name because I knew that they provide a 256 MB RAM VPS. Sorry for the confusion.

The best option is @terrahost's LXC 256MB 30GB.

There's also VirMach's KVM Lite, but with 192 MB RAM.

And, @cam's LittleVZ, but with 5 GB Disk.

InceptionHosting · December 2020

@chocolateshirt said: VirMach? They offer KVM virt for 256 MB plan

only 512mb plan is generally available

@chocolateshirt said: HostSailor also offer OVZ, Xen, and KVM for their 256 MB plans

I would like to check, but:

edit: hostsailor loaded eventually, maybe getting attacked I guess, their 256MB plan is $35.88 /year

vyas · December 2020

@angstrom said:
If I were looking for those specs, I would go with tinykvm.com for $15 / year. The compromise is that the (7 GB) disk is only SSD-cached.

I've had a couple of these KVMs in the past, and they perform really well.

+1 for tinykvm -
Edit: thanks @angstrom corrected the error you have pointed below. Ghosts of the (ignorant) past.. will update some of the images as well.

@AnthonySmith its Dallas location

chocolateshirt · December 2020

Yes, Cam have $6 / yr for 256 MB OVZ7 plan om their BF

InceptionHosting · December 2020

Checked out @cam 's littlevz, it is $12 /year on general availability and on HDD not SSD.

InceptionHosting · December 2020

/me starts to think he should be launching an SSD based 256mb VZ plan...

InceptionHosting · December 2020

@angstrom said:
If I were looking for those specs, I would go with tinykvm.com for $15 / year. The compromise is that the (7 GB) disk is only SSD-cached.

I've had a couple of these KVMs in the past, and they perform really well.

Yeah that could work, is that by ramhost? only small Issue I have with initially using that one myself is that it is west coast USA and latency for me personally will suck a monkey.

FAT32 · December 2020

MS said:
FDCservers.

Probably one of the most reliable ones, given that their company size also, but ya downside is 5Mbps

@chocolateshirt said:
VirMach? They offer KVM virt for 256 MB plan
HostSailor also offer OVZ, Xen, and KVM for their 256 MB plans

VirMach 256MB is only at $12.5/yr (in about 6-8 locations)
HostSailor $6.6/yr 256MB is limited special and not ordinary plan

@vyas said:
Littlevz cam has HDD
Tinykvm also has HDD not SSD.
Vserver pricing was BF special so might not qualify as per OP

LittleVZ and TinyKVM could be good options too but sadly in HDD

VServer should have LXC but is in 512MB HDD @ €5.88/yr, 1GB KVM @ €18/yr which is on the high side

chocolateshirt · December 2020

Offers below $7 / yr:

HostSailor 256 MB OVZ SSD - https://clients.hostsailor.com/cart.php?a=add&pid=459
VirMach 512 MB KVM SSD - https://billing.virmach.com/cart.php?a=add&pid=120

EDIT: Ah, I missed the "general purchase" part.. sorry..

FAT32 · December 2020

It is not hard to find < $12/yr 256MB SSD VPS during occasions / events / sales, but not so much for all-day long

FAT32 · December 2020

@chocolateshirt said:
Offers below $7 / yr:

HostSailor 256 MB OVZ SSD - https://clients.hostsailor.com/cart.php?a=add&pid=459
HostSailor 256 MB OVZ HDD - https://clients.hostsailor.com/cart.php?a=add&pid=437
HostSailor 256 MB KVM HDD - https://clients.hostsailor.com/cart.php?a=add&pid=447
HostSailor 256 MB XEN HDD - https://clients.hostsailor.com/cart.php?a=add&pid=453
VirMach 512 MB KVM SSD - https://billing.virmach.com/cart.php?a=add&pid=120

Sadly none of them is all-day long, HostSailor usually limits to 10 each, and VirMach special is only for BF/CM.

Freek · December 2020

MicroLXC.net by @Neoon is $0: https://microlxc.net/index.php?p=deploy
Obviously while supplies last, but isn't this the case with all providers ?

vyas · December 2020

@FAT32 said:
It is not hard to find < $12/yr 256MB SSD VPS during occasions / events / sales, but not so much for all-day long

Wasn’t there a guy on LET who was trying to replicate Tinykvm but in Germany (Hetzner?) Europe.

I think his minimum was 512 MB but I do recall 256 MB RAM option with 10 GB SSD or so.

Update: Minikvm by Novos.

https://novos.be/

and Link to discussion on HB about this.

Update: Securedragon, but pricey at 30 US dollars a year!

Update2: Random serach< i might have heard about them but no first hand experience. The wise and the knowledgeable might be able to shed light.

Noez.de

vServer (VPS) SSD - VPS Builder SSD
1 CPU Core
256MB RAM
10 GB SSD

FAT32 · December 2020

ImpactVPS - VDR Yearly

1 CPU Cores
512MB RAM
10GB SSD
512GB Bandwidth
1 IPv4 Limit
/64 IPv6 Limit
OVZ
$15/yr
https://impactvps.com/billing/cart.php?gid=5

InceptionHosting · December 2020

@Freek said:
MicroLXC.net by @Neoon is $0: https://microlxc.net/index.php?p=deploy
Obviously while supplies last, but isn't this the case with all providers ?

Not really considered general availability

@FAT32 said:
ImpactVPS - VDR Yearly

1 CPU Cores

512MB RAM

10GB SSD

512GB Bandwidth

1 IPv4 Limit

/64 IPv6 Limit

OVZ

$15/yr

https://impactvps.com/billing/cart.php?gid=5

to much ram

chocolateshirt · December 2020

HostEONS $12/yr 256 MB / SSD / OVZ - https://my.hosteons.com/cart.php?a=add&pid=47

FAT32 · December 2020

@AnthonySmith said:
to much ram

Well at least the brand is trustable

angstrom · December 2020

@AnthonySmith said:

@angstrom said:
If I were looking for those specs, I would go with tinykvm.com for $15 / year. The compromise is that the (7 GB) disk is only SSD-cached.

I've had a couple of these KVMs in the past, and they perform really well.

Yeah that could work, is that by ramhost? only small Issue I have with initially using that one myself is that it is west coast USA and latency for me personally will suck a monkey.

Yes, it's Ram Host.

They have two locations, Dallas and Los Angeles. If you have a preference, you can choose one via a ticket.

chocolateshirt · December 2020

@vyas said:

@FAT32 said:
It is not hard to find < $12/yr 256MB SSD VPS during occasions / events / sales, but not so much for all-day long

Wasn’t there a guy on LET who was trying to replicate Tinykvm but in Germany (Hetzner?) Europe.

I think his minimum was 512 MB but I do recall 256 MB RAM option with 10 GB SSD or so.

Update: Minikvm by Novos

https://novos.be/

I believe it is minikvm.com, but they are sold out.

angstrom · December 2020

@vyas said:

@angstrom said:
If I were looking for those specs, I would go with tinykvm.com for $15 / year. The compromise is that the (7 GB) disk is only SSD-cached.

I've had a couple of these KVMs in the past, and they perform really well.

+1 for tinykvm

If I may, there's an error on that page. You write:

This is an offering from Ramnode,

It's Ram Host, which is different from RamNode.

angstrom · December 2020

I think that as of the end of 2020, non-NAT 256 MB RAM VPSes are generally viewed as antiquated.

I agree that such VPSes can still be useful, but if you can get 512 MB RAM for not much more (and not to mention have much more choice), it seems less rational to insist on 256 MB, special cases/uses aside.

(This is just my take on the matter.)

InceptionHosting · December 2020

@angstrom said:
I think that as of the end of 2020, non-NAT 256 MB RAM VPSes are generally viewed as antiquated.

I agree that such VPSes can still be useful, but if you can get 512 MB RAM for not much more (and not to mention have much more choice), it seems less rational to insist on 256 MB, special cases/uses aside.

(This is just my take on the matter.)

You might well be right

512mb seems to be the new LE standard when talking small.

alwyzon · December 2020

@angstrom said:
I agree that such VPSes can still be useful, but if you can get 512 MB RAM for not much more (and not to mention have much more choice), it seems less rational to insist on 256 MB, special cases/uses aside.

If you look at it from the view of a provider, it should quickly makes sense why there is little reason in offering such small VPSes in 2020:

Support: the cost for support in your calculation will likely stay the same (independent of whether it has 256, 512 or even 1024 MB)
Transaction Fees & Accounting: same as above
IPv4 Address: IPv4 is getting expensive these days, and you will always need at least one without NAT (thus, again, same as above)
CPU: will most likely still require the same load on a single core, you can’t expect the user to use less computing performance just because it has less RAM (actually, heavy swapping could increase the load)
Storage: yes, you will need to allocate less disk space per VM; but again, actual bandwidth/IOps will stay the same (wouldn’t expect users to read/write only half as much, just because they get less storage space; actually, again, swapping might increase usage and heavily reduce lifetime of the disk; especially with SSDs swapping might be tempting)

So, I wouldn’t expect that providers jump too easily on the ship of providing such small VPSes. At least in my view, RAM already takes a too little part in that calculation that it would make sense to offer such small configurations. They wouldn’t be cheaper than 1GB VPSes anyhow.

daffy · December 2020

Virtono has a €15 plan if paid yearly, but "sadly" 512MB.

Cheapest 256mb VPS running on SSD? (any virt type - world wide)

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