Comparing prices across every provider we track...
CloudHosting.ioCloudHosting.io
Virtual Machines · $3.8/mo (512 MB RAM, 1 vCPU)
Azure B1ls at $3.80/mo is moderately priced but carries significant hidden costs (Windows licensing, bandwidth overage, storage tiering penalties). Several providers offer better raw value for comparable specs, though most have their own renewal-price traps or regional/feature limitations.
1GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 10GB NVMe, and unlimited traffic (up to 1 Gbit/s) for $2/mo—nearly half Azure's price with more storage and no per-GB bandwidth overage risk.
Caveat: Intro pricing is a 3-month or 1-year promotional rate; renewal pricing is 2-6x higher, so lock in a multi-year term if committing.
512MB RAM, 1 vCPU, 10GB disk, 500GB transfer for $2.50/mo; straightforward pricing with 100% network uptime SLA and no surprise bandwidth tiers.
Caveat: Bandwidth overage rates vary by data center; Windows licensing is not included in base price.
Lowest sticker price at $2.02/mo with per-second billing, ideal for low-utilization or bursty workloads; Amsterdam region reference rate.
Caveat: Prices vary significantly by region; stopped machines still incur storage charges; extra RAM, snapshots, and dedicated IPs are billed separately; no published platform SLA.
1GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 10GB Standard SSD for $3.50/mo with industry-leading 99.999% SLA and transparent pricing; minimal hidden costs compared to Azure.
Caveat: Backups are a separate add-on (10-60% surcharge); data transfer beyond Fair Transfer Policy may incur overages despite 'free egress' marketing.
512MB RAM, 2 vCPU (better CPU allocation), 20GB SSD, 1000GB transfer for $3.50/mo; significantly more transfer allowance than Azure's 100GB free tier.
Caveat: Data transfer overage rates vary by AWS region ($0.09-$0.132/GB); Windows bundles cost 70-90% more.
Before you switch
| Vultr | Cloud Compute · Regular 1vCPU/0.5GB | $2.5/mo | 512 MB RAM, 1 vCPU, 10 GB | Visit |
| InMotion Hosting | Shared Hosting · Core | $2.99/mo | 512 MB RAM, 100 GB SSD | Visit |
| AWS Lightsail | Virtual Servers · GP 0.5GB (Linux, IPv6) | $3.5/mo | 512 MB RAM, 2 vCPU, 20 GB SSD | Visit |
| UpCloud | Cloud Servers - Starter · STARTER-1xCPU-1GB | $3.5/mo | 1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 10 GB Standard SSD | 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
Vultr
View Microsoft Azure's plan
Fly.io
UpCloud
AWS Lightsail