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

InceptionHosting

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_

FDCservers.

angstrom

MS said:
FDCservers.

You might try to be more specific.

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

InceptionHosting

MS said:
FDCservers.

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

chocolateshirt

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

vyas

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

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_

@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

@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

@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

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

InceptionHosting

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

InceptionHosting

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

InceptionHosting

@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

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

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

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

FAT32

@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

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

@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

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

@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

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

FAT32

@AnthonySmith said:
to much ram

Well at least the brand is trustable

angstrom

@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

@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

@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

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

@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

@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

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

vyas

512 MB opens up lot more options as well- not just in terms of pricing, but also variety - geography, combination and specs.

Maybe the cap should be on the price instead?
or
maximum RAM at 152 which seems to be the consnsus or heading in that direction.

VPS

Years ago 128MB costs are around $15 USD.
Now I can get 512MB for $6-12 USD so there is no reason for 256MB anymore.

Neoon

512MB is more the sweet spot, 256MB was the old one.
I collected a ton of these on BF, otherwise deals on these are very rare.

When I am talking deals I mean 4-8$/y, with v4.

InceptionHosting

ok I am big enough and ugly enough to realise I made a booboo

I wanted to keep the ram tight to force myself into some extreme tweaking but I guess that is pointless if the majority of people would be looking for 512mb anyway and from a business perspective I have to agree a lot of what was said makes sense.

As it is simple to find a good 512mb deal it kind of makes this thread redundant so I have span one up myself on IH infrastructure but because I hate things being easy I am doing it on FreeBSD instead.

AlwaysSkint

@Ant You've got too much time on your hands. I need to find another awkward migration for ya!

vyas

Alpine Linux
+
Caddy
+
WordPress
+
Beer

Just because I borked it last time. The install not the beer. That would have been disastrous

InceptionHosting

@AlwaysSkint said:
@Ant You've got too much time on your hands. I need to find another awkward migration for ya!

lol, these are just side projects, unlike my VPS's I dont like idle time

yoursunny

@AnthonySmith said:

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

Linux will run happily with only 4 MB of RAM, including all of the trolls such as Windows 98, Vim, and push-ups. (M. Welsh & L. Kaufman, Running Linux, 2e, 1996, p. 32)

Therefore, 4MB should be the low end minimum.

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

I had a 64MB OpenVZ6 from SecureDragon for $4.99/year. They failed to upgrade to OpenVZ7 before EOL so I canceled that box. I just checked a 256MB at SecureDragon now costs $29.90/year.

---

The smallest SSD box I have is Virmach Buffalo 384MB for $4/year from Black Friday 2019.

Virmach sells 256MB still, at $12.50/year. They don't recommend it though.
50% vCPU, 10GB disk.

elliotc

I believe I saw many russian providers still offering 256.

AlwaysSkint

I want to see munin charts, if/when you get it running!

swat4

Saw this offer from "Another side"

Dedipath

512MB RAM SSD OpenVZ VPS
10GB SSD Disk Space
1 x CPU Cores
512MB RAM
1Gbps Unmetered
1 x IPv4
1Gbps DDoS Protection
Normally $20/Yr
Use Coupon Code: 12days5020
$10/Yr

dahartigan

1x vCPU Core
17 GB PURE SSD RAID-10 Storage
1 GB RAM
3000GB Monthly Premium Bandwidth
1Gbps Public Network Port
Full Root Admin Access
1 Dedicated IPv4 Address
KVM / SolusVM Control Panel - Reboot, Reinstall, Manage rDNS, & much more
LOCATION: San Jose, Seattle, Dallas, Chicago, New Jersey, New York, Atlanta, or Ashburn
JUST $10.98/YEAR - WOW!!

@AnthonySmith I'll show myself out..

vyas

Wow :-)

Is a giveaway.
@SmallWeb ? Lol

CamoYoshi

Maybe a better way to think about this would be to flip it on it's head. Set up a dedi and give yourself the resources you want running Proxmox or similar. It would cost a lot more money but it'll be exactly what you want/need.

willie

I thought most people use shared hosting for basic wordpress. Is that so terrible? BuyVM has that with a dedicated ipv4 for $8/year. Lots of other places have it cheaper with shared ipv4. If shared ipv4 is ok, then NAT seems worth the slight added complexity if you're trying to go super cheap.

chocolateshirt

@vyas said:
Wow :-)

Is a giveaway.
@SmallWeb ? Lol

Whenever I see a WOW!! post, I just close my browser tab...

elliotc

@willie said:
I thought most people use shared hosting for basic wordpress. Is that so terrible? BuyVM has that with a dedicated ipv4 for $8/year. Lots of other places have it cheaper with shared ipv4. If shared ipv4 is ok, then NAT seems worth the slight added complexity if you're trying to go super cheap.

Agree with that, for a 256MB VPS, how about play with some jamstack cms? You know, Cloudflare page in coming soon.

Fritz

@chocolateshirt said:

@vyas said:
Wow :-)

Is a giveaway.
@SmallWeb ? Lol

Whenever I see a WOW!! post, I just close my browser tab...

Then how can wrote this post? Lol.

vyas

Since the RAM threshold was upped to 512 MB,
I ended up using the 512 MB RAM Plan from Inception Hosting . this is the BF offer so does not quality per OP rules,
Installed WordOps (I have referenced it in Part II of the WordPress .. blog series) even though I had to clean up a lot of the additional (optional) applications such as the monitor below. Dashboards etc might work better at 1 GB RAM, not 512 MB . Kind of liked this one though!
Also, did a stock WordPress install and replaced it with ClassicPress.

Server Monitoring installed by WordOps

InceptionHosting

@vyas said:
Since the RAM threshold was upped to 512 MB,
I ended up using the 512 MB RAM Plan from Inception Hosting . this is the BF offer so does not quality per OP rules,
Installed WordOps (I have referenced it in Part II of the WordPress .. blog series) even though I had to clean up a lot of the additional (optional) applications such as the monitor below. Dashboards etc might work better at 1 GB RAM, not 512 MB . Kind of liked this one though!
Also, did a stock WordPress install and replaced it with ClassicPress.

Server Monitoring installed by WordOps

If you want to run a benchmark pre and post 1GB ram I can give you a temporary bump.