VPS True-Cost Calculator (2026)
Prices verified 2026-10-20 against official pricing pages. Backups add +20% at most providers (free weekly at is*hosting).
The sticker price is not the real price. Pick a provider and term below to see what a VPS actually costs with backups, and what managed hosting would cost instead of your sysadmin time.
Real monthly cost: — · Break-even vs Cloudways managed ($11/mo): —
Managed cloud (Cloudways entry $11/mo) includes backups, staging, patches and 24/7 support. If managing the box yourself costs more than ~2h/month at your rate, managed is cheaper in real money.
Entry prices used (Sept 2026)
| Provider | Entry $/mo | Backups |
|---|---|---|
| Vultr (1GB IPv4) | 6.00 | +20% paid |
| Hetzner CX22 (4GB) | 3.60 | +20% paid |
| DigitalOcean (1GB) | 6.00 | +20% paid |
| Contabo (6GB) | 5.25 | +20% paid |
| is*hosting (1GB NVMe) | 5.94 | free weekly |
| Linode Nanode (1GB) | 5.00 | +20% paid |
| Cloudways managed (1GB) | 11.00 | included |
How to read the result
- Real monthly cost = entry price + backups (+20% at Vultr/Hetzner/DigitalOcean/Contabo/Linode; included at is*hosting and Cloudways).
- Break-even = how many hours/month of server management make a raw VPS more expensive than $11/mo managed Cloudways, at your hourly rate.
- Promo prices (Hostinger-style) are first-term only — always check the 24-month renewal price.
Disclosure: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on this site, at no extra cost to you. This does not affect our rankings — every comparison is based on published specs and pricing.