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Cheap VPS: standing-price picks with renewal prices stated
The bottom line: the Cheap section lists standing prices only — a standing plan page, no end date, and renewal terms stated or list-priced. 3 vendors are live: RackNerd (from $21.99/year, official FAQ promises lifetime same-rate renewal), HostEONS (from $21/year, renewal price not stated), and DigitalOcean (monthly cap from $4, list price). Plus 1 sold-out watch (Hetzner CX23, not on sale). Limited-time promos, first-term prices, and promo-code prices all belong in the Deals section and never appear here.
Plans are sorted by renewal annual total, not first-term price; every row states whether the renewal price is “stated same-rate”, “list price”, or “not stated” — unstated is never assumed. Looking for free? See Free VPS. Looking for trial credits and promos? See VPS Deals.
The Cheap section’s three rules
A plan enters the Cheap section only if it meets all three; failing any one sends it to the Deals section:
- Standing supply: on a standing catalog or specials page, with no stated end date.
- Standing price: same-rate renewal stated, or the price is itself a list price (e.g., monthly-capped cloud pricing with no first-term discount).
- Buyable any time: orderable outside Black Friday, Singles’ Day, anniversary, and other promo windows.
Group 1: Under $25/year (3 rows)
| Plan | Specs | List price | Renewal price | Locations | Notes | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RackNerd 1 GB KVM VPS | 1 vCPU / 1 GB / 20 GB SSD / 3 TB | $21.99/year | Same-rate renewal (official FAQ) | Multiple locations (choose at order) | Unmanaged; most one-click apps need 2 GB+ RAM | 2026-11-13 · Official page |
| HostEONS Gigabit VPS 1 Renewal price not stated | 1 fair-share core / 1 GB / 10 GB / 1 TB | $21/year | Not stated | 6 US cities | Confirm the renewal price on the checkout page before ordering | 2026-11-13 · Official page |
| HostEONS RYZEN 512 MB Renewal price not stated | 1 core 3.5GHz+ fair-share / 512 MB / 10 GB NVMe / 500 GB | $24/year | Not stated | 6 US cities | 512 MB only fits very light loads | 2026-11-13 · Official page |
Group 2: $25–$60/year (2 rows)
| Plan | Specs | List price | Renewal price | Locations | Notes | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RackNerd 2 GB KVM VPS | 2 vCPU / 2 GB / 35 GB SSD / 5 TB | $35.99/year | Same-rate renewal (official FAQ) | Multiple locations (choose at order) | n8n, Coolify start at 2 GB (official FAQ) | 2026-11-13 · Official page |
| RackNerd 4 GB KVM VPS | 3 vCPU / 4 GB / 60 GB SSD / 7 TB | $59.99/year | Same-rate renewal (official FAQ) | Multiple locations (choose at order) | Hermes, AnythingLLM, Ollama, LibreChat need 4 GB+ (official FAQ) | 2026-11-13 · Official page |
Group 3: $60–$120/year (2 rows)
| Plan | Specs | List price | Renewal price | Locations | Notes | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RackNerd 6 GB KVM VPS | 6 vCPU / 6 GB / 100 GB SSD / 12 TB | $89.99/year | Same-rate renewal (official FAQ) | Multiple locations (choose at order) | Unmanaged | 2026-11-13 · Official page |
| RackNerd 8 GB KVM VPS | 7 vCPU / 8 GB / 150 GB SSD / 20 TB | $119.99/year | Same-rate renewal (official FAQ) | Multiple locations (choose at order) | OpenClaw needs 8 GB RAM (official FAQ) | 2026-11-13 · Official page |
Group 4: Monthly-capped, under $6/month (2 rows)
Monthly-capped list prices: pay for what you use, never above the monthly cap. Annual totals are conversions from the monthly cap prices, labelled as such.
| Plan | Specs | List price | Renewal price | Locations | Notes | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DigitalOcean Basic 512MiB | 1 vCPU / 512 MiB / 10 GiB SSD / 500 GiB | $4.00/month (12-month conversion $48/year) | List price, monthly cap | Regions not stated on the pricing page | Shared CPU; backups and snapshots cost extra | 2026-11-13 · Official page |
| DigitalOcean Basic 1GiB | 1 vCPU / 1 GiB / 25 GiB SSD / 1,000 GiB | $6.00/month (12-month conversion $72/year) | List price, monthly cap | Regions not stated on the pricing page | Shared CPU; backups and snapshots cost extra | 2026-11-13 · Official page |
Sold-out watch (1 row, not on sale)
| Plan | Specs | List price | Renewal price | Locations | Notes | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hetzner CX23 Sold-out watch | Third-party reading, unverified on an official page | Third-party reading €5.49/month (unverified) | Not verified | Not verified | Sold out on every check Sep–Nov 2026 (third-party checks) | Third-party checks |
A note on routes
None of the 3 vendors’ plan pages state specific routes such as CN2 GIA: the RackNerd Specials page only says multiple locations, chosen at order time (its catalog page title mentions Los Angeles Asia Optimized — that is the catalog page, not the Specials page); the HostEONS plan tables list only 6 US cities; the DigitalOcean pricing page lists no regions. Route claims need live measurement — don’t judge by marketing words alone. BandwagonHost CN2 GIA-E is not in the list because its entry price claims conflict and were not verified on an official page; see below.
Services not in the list, and why
The following vendors or claims did not meet the Cheap section’s three rules when checked, so they are not in the list. The reasons are given below — not as recommendations.
- BandwagonHost entry price: third parties contradict each other on $49.99/year vs $99.99/year, and report plan removals around October 30, 2026; official-page verification was not completed.
- IONOS: the official page only gives a from-$2/month headline price (the page title says from $4/month); plan specs and renewal prices are not listed on the page and could not be verified; a 30-day refund guarantee is not free. (Checked 2026-11-13.)
- OVHcloud VPS 2027: the official page lists VPS-1 from $4.54/month (2 vCore / 4 GB / 40 GB NVMe) but does not say whether the from-price requires a prepayment commitment, and the renewal price is also unstated; third-party reviews say the from-price is a 12-month prepay price (unverified). The three standing-price rules are not met. (Checked 2026-11-13.)
- Contabo: the same plan appears at €4.40 / €5.24 / €5.28 / €5.50 across sources, and the pricing structure is term-length discounting (first-term 24-month promo price); no consistent current price and renewal price could be verified on the official pricing page.
- First-term prices and limited-time promos: all belong in the Deals section, never in the Cheap section.
Change log
- Sep–Nov 2026: Hetzner CX23 showed sold out on every third-party check — see the sold-out watch row above.
- 2026-11-13: Cheap section launched, 3 vendors live + 1 sold-out watch.
Machine-readable data: data/cheap-en.json (4 entries, English text, facts identical to the Chinese data file).