VPS True-Cost Calculator (2026)
Prices verified 2026-09-10 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.
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.
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