Comparing prices across every provider we track...
CloudHosting.ioCloudHosting.io
Virtual Servers · $3.5/mo (512 MB RAM, 2 vCPU, 20 GB SSD, 1000 GB transfer)
AWS Lightsail's $3.5/mo entry tier is competitively priced but faces real renewal and overage risks. IONOS and Namecheap offer better raw specs (1GB RAM vs 512MB) at lower or equal cost with more generous transfer allowances, though both have aggressive renewal pricing traps. Vultr matches Lightsail's price with identical specs, making it a safer lateral move if you want to avoid AWS lock-in.
Double the RAM (1GB vs 512MB), same vCPU count, 10GB NVMe storage, and unlimited traffic up to 1 Gbit/s for $1.50/mo less.
Caveat: Intro pricing is a 3-month or 1-year promotional rate; renewal pricing after contract ends is 2-6x higher (expect $6-12/mo on renewal).
1GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 20GB SSD, and 1TB transfer (vs Lightsail's 512MB RAM and 1000GB transfer) for only $0.38/mo more.
Caveat: Unmanaged by default; renewal pricing is substantially higher than first-term promo; management add-ons cost $10-25/mo extra.
Identical price and specs (512MB RAM, 1 vCPU, 10GB NVMe, 512GB transfer) with a published 100% network uptime SLA and no AWS region-based overage variance.
Caveat: Bandwidth overage rate varies by data center location; Windows licensing not included.
Same price as Lightsail but with 1GB RAM (vs 512MB), 10GB SSD, and an industry-leading 99.999% SLA.
Caveat: Backups are a separate add-on (10-60% surcharge depending on frequency); data transfer overages can apply despite 'free egress' marketing.
1GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 20GB NVMe, and 5TB transfer (5x Lightsail's allowance) for only $0.50/mo more.
Caveat: Non-dedicated CPU thread with no guaranteed resources; Windows/SQL licensing surcharges only shown at checkout; powered-off servers may still accrue charges.
Before you switch
| Provider | Plan | Price | Specs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scaleway | Virtual Instances · STARDUST1-S | $0.43/mo | 1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU | Visit |
| IONOS | Cloud VPS (Linux) · Cloud VPS XS | $2/mo | 1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 10 GB NVMe | Visit |
| Fly.io | Machines (Shared CPU) · shared-cpu-1x - 256MB | $2.02/mo | 256 MB RAM, 1 vCPU | Visit |
| InMotion Hosting | Shared Hosting · Core | $2.99/mo | 512 MB RAM, 100 GB SSD | Visit |
| Vultr | Cloud Compute · Regular 1vCPU/0.5GB | $3.5/mo | 512 MB RAM, 1 vCPU, 10 GB NVMe SSD | Visit |
| UpCloud | Cloud Servers - Starter · STARTER-1xCPU-1GB | $3.5/mo | 1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 10 GB Standard SSD | Visit |
| Microsoft Azure | Virtual Machines · B1ls | $3.8/mo | 512 MB RAM, 1 vCPU | Visit |
| Namecheap | VPS Hosting · Spark | $3.88/mo | 1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 20 GB SSD | Visit |
| DigitalOcean | Droplets · Basic 512MB | $4/mo | 512 MB RAM, 1 vCPU, 10 GB SSD | Visit |
| Kamatera | Cloud VMs · Type A base (Availability, 1 vCPU/1GB) | $4/mo | 1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 20 GB NVMe SSD | Visit |
| Alibaba Cloud | Simple Application Server · economy-e-2c-0.5g | $4.55/mo | 512 MB RAM, 2 vCPU, 40 GB SSD | Visit |
| Liquid Web | VPS Hosting · Compute 1 | $5/mo | 1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 30 GB SSD | Visit |
| Linode (Akamai) | Shared CPU Compute · Nanode 1 GB | $5/mo | 1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 25 GB SSD | Visit |
| Civo | Compute Instances · xSmall | $5.43/mo | 1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 25 GB NVMe | Visit |
| Exoscale | Standard Instances · Micro | $5.75/mo | 512 MB RAM, 1 vCPU, 200 GB SSD | Visit |
IONOS
Namecheap
Vultr
UpCloud
Kamatera
View AWS Lightsail's plan