Best VPS with hourly billing
Hosts that bill a server by the hour, so a test box, a build runner or a weekend project costs cents and stops costing anything when you delete it.
Hetzner
Hetzner Cloud
Billed by the hour with a monthly cap, from €5.49 a month for 2 vCPU and 4 GB plus €0.50 for IPv4. It also sells ARM servers, and new customers get €50 in credit.
All Hetzner facts- Cheapest, with IPv4
- €5.99/mo
- CX23, 2 vCPU, 4 GB, 40 GB NVMe
- Hourly billing
- YesYes
- IPv4 in the price
- NoNo
DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean Droplets
The Basic 512 MiB Droplet is $4.00 a month with IPv4, billed by the hour, in 13 datacenters across four continents, with managed databases and Kubernetes when you need them.
All DigitalOcean facts- Cheapest, with IPv4
- $4.00/mo
- Basic 512 MiB, 1 vCPU, 0.5 GB, 10 GB SSD
- Hourly billing
- YesYes
- IPv4 in the price
- YesYes
Vultr
Vultr Cloud Compute
The 0.5 GB Regular Performance plan is $3.50 a month with IPv4 ($2.50 without it), billed by the hour, in 33 datacenters on every inhabited continent.
All Vultr facts- Cheapest, with IPv4
- $3.50/mo
- Regular Performance 0.5 GB, 1 vCPU, 0.5 GB, 10 GB SSD
- Hourly billing
- YesYes
- IPv4 in the price
- Not statedNot stated
UpCloud
UpCloud Cloud Servers
Starter 1 GB is €3.00 a month with IPv4, billed by the hour, in 14 datacenters. A 30-day trial with €500 in credit was on offer when checked.
All UpCloud facts- Cheapest, with IPv4
- €3.00/mo
- Starter 1 GB, 1 vCPU, 1 GB, 10 GB SSD
- Hourly billing
- YesYes
- IPv4 in the price
- YesYes
Every host that could fit, checked
19 hosts, grouped by the currency they bill in and cheapest first within each. Picks are outlined.
| Host | Cheapest with IPv4 | Hourly billing | IPv4 in the price | API |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Billed in US dollars | ||||
 Alibaba Cloud | $3.50/mo1 vCPU / 0.5 GB, 1 vCPU, 0.5 GB, 20 GB SSD | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Vultr | $3.50/moRegular Performance 0.5 GB, 1 vCPU, 0.5 GB, 10 GB SSD | Yes | Not stated | Yes |
| DigitalOcean | $4.00/moBasic 512 MiB, 1 vCPU, 0.5 GB, 10 GB SSD | Yes | Yes | Yes |
 Kamatera | $4.00/moBasic, 1 vCPU, 1 GB, 20 GB NVMe | Yes | Yes | Yes |
 Servers.com | $4.97/moSSD.30, 1 vCPU, 1 GB, 30 GB SSD | Yes | Yes | Yes |
 Hostwinds | $4.99/moUnmanaged 1 GB, 1 vCPU, 1 GB, 30 GB SSD | Yes | Yes | Yes |
 Amazon Lightsail | $5.00/moNano-0.5GB Linux with public IPv4, 2 vCPU, 0.5 GB, 20 GB SSD | Yes | Yes | Yes |
 Linode | $5.00/moNanode 1 GB, 1 vCPU, 1 GB, 25 GB SSD | Yes | Yes | Yes |
 Civo | $5.43/moxSmall, 1 vCPU, 1 GB, 25 GB NVMe | Yes | Yes | Yes |
 Google Cloud | $9.76/moe2-micro, 2 vCPU, 1 GB | Yes | No | Yes |
 Liquid Web | $11.00/moCompute 2 GB, 1 vCPU, 2 GB, 60 GB SSD | Yes | Yes | Yes |
 Microsoft Azure | $11.24/moB1s, 1 vCPU, 1 GB | Yes | No | Yes |
 Oracle Cloud | $13.87/moVM.Standard.A1.Flex, 1 OCPU, 6 GB, 1 vCPU, 6 GB | Yes | Yes | Yes |
 Cloudways | $14.00/moDigitalOcean 1GB, 1 vCPU, 1 GB, 25 GB NVMe | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Billed in euros | ||||
 HOSTKEY | €2.46/movm.pico, 1 vCPU, 1 GB, 40 GB SSD | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| UpCloud | €3.00/moStarter 1 GB, 1 vCPU, 1 GB, 10 GB SSD | Yes | Yes | Yes |
 Scaleway | €4.08/moSTARDUST1-S, 1 vCPU, 1 GB | Yes | No | Yes |
 Exoscale | €5.25/moStandard Micro, 1 vCPU, 0.5 GB | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Hetzner | €5.99/moCX23, 2 vCPU, 4 GB, 40 GB NVMe | Yes | No | Yes |
Worth knowing. Hourly billing runs for as long as the server exists. Hetzner, for one, states that it keeps charging while a server is powered off, so delete it rather than stopping it, and check whether snapshots and spare IPs are billed separately.
