Best Cheap VPS Hosting in 2026: Vultr vs RackNerd vs Cherry Servers
Last updated: November 8, 2026. Prices and specs were checked on each provider’s official website on this date. Some links are affiliate links — see our Affiliate Disclosure.
A cheap VPS gives you root access, dedicated resources and the freedom to run anything from a WordPress site to a VPN, a game server or a staging environment — for the price of a coffee. But “cheap” can mean very different things: a yearly deal that never increases, hourly billing you can switch off, or a low price with expensive add-ons. We compared three popular budget providers — Vultr, RackNerd and Cherry Servers — on price, locations, billing, refunds and support.
Quick Picks
- Best for the lowest long-term cost: RackNerd — yearly KVM specials that renew at the same price.
- Best for developers and global reach: Vultr — hourly billing, API/Terraform and 33 locations.
- Best for performance and a bare-metal upgrade path: Cherry Servers — cloud VPS plus hourly bare metal and a 15-day refund window.
Comparison Table
| Vultr | RackNerd | Cherry Servers | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry plan | 1 vCPU, 1 GB, 25 GB SSD, 1 TB | 1 vCPU, 1 GB, 20 GB SSD, 3 TB (special) | 1 vCPU, 1 GB, 20 GB SSD, 1 TB |
| Entry price | $5.00/mo ($0.007/hr) | $21.99/year | ≈ $3.51/mo (excl. VAT) |
| Billing | Hourly, monthly cap | Yearly specials / monthly | Hourly (prepaid) or fixed terms |
| Locations | 33 cities | 20 data centers | 7 locations |
| Asia | Singapore, Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore | Singapore | Singapore, Tokyo |
| Refunds | None | None by default | 15 days |
| Support | Tickets | 24/7 phone, email, tickets | 24/7 chat, email, phone |
1. Vultr — Best for Developers Who Need Global Locations
Vultr is a self-serve cloud platform with compute instances in 33 cities, plus bare metal, GPU, managed Kubernetes and load balancers. Billing is hourly with a monthly cap, so you can spin up a server for a test and destroy it an hour later. Its smallest Regular Performance instance starts at $2.50/mo (0.5 GB RAM), while a more practical 1 GB plan costs $5/mo and NVMe-based High Performance or High Frequency plans start at $6/mo.
- Locations: 33 cities including Singapore, Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Mumbai, Delhi NCR and Bangalore in Asia.
- Payments: card, PayPal, crypto, Alipay, wire transfer and gift codes.
- Extras: automatic backups cost an additional 20% of the instance price; snapshots are billed per GB.
- Tooling: full API, Terraform provider and one-click Marketplace apps.
Watch out for: Vultr does not offer refunds — payments are final and account credit cannot be refunded — and stopped instances keep billing until you destroy them.
Visit Vultr.com2. RackNerd — Best Cheap Yearly VPS
RackNerd is a budget provider of KVM VPS, dedicated servers and shared hosting, known for its yearly specials. At the time of writing, its specials page lists a 1 vCPU / 1 GB RAM / 20 GB SSD / 3 TB transfer plan for $21.99 per year, a 2 GB plan for $35.99 per year and a 4 GB plan for $59.99 per year — and these specials renew at the same rate. Specials are offered “while available”, so check the page before you plan around one.
- Locations: 20 data centers — 12 in the US plus Montreal, Toronto, London, Amsterdam, Strasbourg, Frankfurt, Dublin and Singapore.
- Management: unmanaged, with a control panel and one-click apps; Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, Debian and AlmaLinux.
- Support: 24/7 via phone, email and tickets.
- Backups: not included — you are responsible for your own.
Watch out for: by default RackNerd does not provide refunds once payment is received, IPv6 is only available in selected locations on request, and the footprint is mostly US-based.
Visit Racknerd.com3. Cherry Servers — Best for a Performance Upgrade Path
Cherry Servers is a Lithuania-based provider of cloud VPS, dedicated-resource virtual servers and bare-metal servers aimed at performance-focused and DevOps users. Its entry Cloud VPS (1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB SSD, 1 TB traffic) is listed at about $3.51/mo excluding VAT in its official plan list, and bare-metal servers can be billed hourly — useful if a project outgrows a VPS.
- Locations: Lithuania, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Stockholm, Chicago, Singapore and Tokyo.
- Billing: hourly from a prepaid balance, or monthly, quarterly, semi-annual and annual terms; 20+ payment methods including cards, PayPal, bank transfer and crypto.
- Included: basic DDoS protection, REST API and CLI, root access via SSH or VNC.
- Support: free 24/7 support by live chat, email and phone.
Watch out for: stock of the cheapest plan varies by location, prices shown on different Cherry Servers pages are not always consistent, and running hourly for a full month costs more than a monthly plan.
Visit Cherryservers.comHow to Choose a Cheap VPS
- Pick a location close to your users. Latency matters more than small spec differences. For Southeast Asia, choose Singapore; for Europe, Amsterdam or Frankfurt.
- Compare total cost, not the headline price. Add backups, extra IPs and bandwidth overage.
- Check the refund policy. Two of these three providers do not refund by default.
- Be honest about management. All three plans are unmanaged — you handle updates, security and backups. If you do not want that, choose managed hosting such as ChemiCloud.
- Plan your backups. Use the provider’s paid backups or an off-site backup tool from day one.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest VPS provider in this comparison?
For a full year, RackNerd’s $21.99/year 1 GB special is the lowest cost. For short projects, Vultr’s hourly billing can be cheaper because you only pay while the server exists.
Which cheap VPS has servers in Asia?
Vultr has the most Asian locations (Singapore, Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Bangalore). Cherry Servers offers Singapore and Tokyo, and RackNerd offers Singapore.
Is a cheap VPS good for WordPress?
Yes, if you are comfortable managing a Linux server. A 1–2 GB VPS can run a small WordPress site well, but you are responsible for security updates and backups.
Our Verdict
Choose RackNerd if you want the lowest predictable yearly cost, Vultr if you need hourly billing, automation and the widest choice of locations, and Cherry Servers if you value a refund window, 24/7 human support and an upgrade path to bare metal. This comparison is based on official provider information checked on November 8, 2026; read how we evaluate products on our How We Review page.