Cheapest small VM / VPS comparison
For the most compute per dollar, Hetzner leads: the CX22 (2 vCPU / 4 GB RAM) is about EUR3.79/mo (~$4.15). On flat USD pricing, the lowest sticker prices are AWS Lightsail $3.50 (512 MB) and Azure B1ls ~$3.80 (0.5 GB), while DigitalOcean ($4), Vultr ($5) and Linode Nanode ($5) are the popular 1 GB picks. Google Cloud gives a free e2-micro on its always-free tier. Cheapest sticker isn't always cheapest value — check the RAM column.
Data as of June 2026.
Cheapest small VM, ranked by price
| Provider | Cheapest small VM | vCPU | RAM | Price / mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GCP | e2-micro 0.25-1 GB (always-free, 1 region) | 2 | 1 GB | $0 (free tier) |
| AWS | Lightsail 512 MB / 2 vCPU | 2 | 0.5 GB | $3.50/mo |
| Azure | B1ls 1 vCPU / 0.5 GB | 1 | 0.5 GB | $3.80/mo |
| DigitalOcean | Basic Droplet 512 MB / 1 vCPU | 1 | 0.5 GB | $4.00/mo |
| Hetzner | CX22 2 vCPU / 4 GB (~EUR3.79) | 2 | 4 GB | $4.15/mo |
| Vultr | Cloud Compute 1 GB / 1 vCPU | 1 | 1 GB | $5.00/mo |
| Linode | Nanode 1 GB / 1 vCPU | 1 | 1 GB | $5.00/mo |
Source: Vendor pricing pages. Data as of June 2026.
Vendor pricing as of June 2026 — estimate, verify on the provider pricing page. List prices change frequently and vary by region. Hetzner bills in EUR; its USD figure is an approximate conversion (~1.09 USD/EUR) for comparison only. "Cheapest small VM" is each provider's entry plan; larger sizes scale roughly linearly.
How to read these
- Sticker vs value — the lowest monthly price often has the least RAM. Hetzner's ~EUR3.79 plan has 8× the RAM of a $4 Droplet.
- Bandwidth — most VPS plans include a monthly transfer pool (Hetzner cloud servers include 20 TB; DigitalOcean/Vultr/Linode ~1 TB on the small tiers). See egress pricing for overage.
- Shared vs dedicated vCPU — the cheapest tiers use shared (burstable) CPUs, fine for light workloads but throttled under sustained load.
- Regions — the hyperscalers and DigitalOcean have the widest global coverage; Hetzner is mostly EU plus limited US/APAC.
Per-provider detail
e2-micro (free tier) / e2-small · from $0 (free tier)
Amazon Web ServicesAWS Lightsail / t4g.nano · from $3.50/mo
Microsoft AzureB1ls / B1s burstable · from $3.80/mo
DigitalOceanBasic Droplet · from $4.00/mo
HetznerCX22 (shared vCPU) · from $4.15/mo
VultrCloud Compute (regular) · from $5.00/mo
Linode (Akamai)Nanode 1 GB (shared) · from $5.00/mo
Related
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest VPS / small cloud server in 2026?
By raw specs, Hetzner is the cheapest: the CX22 gives 2 vCPU and 4 GB RAM for about EUR3.79/mo (~$4.15). Among always-flat dollar plans, AWS Lightsail ($3.50, 512 MB) and Azure B1ls (~$3.80, 0.5 GB) are the lowest sticker price, while DigitalOcean ($4, 512 MB), Vultr ($5, 1 GB) and Linode Nanode ($5, 1 GB) are popular flat-rate options. Google Cloud's e2-micro is free on the always-free tier in three US regions.
Is Hetzner really cheaper than DigitalOcean and AWS?
For RAM per dollar, yes by a wide margin: Hetzner's ~EUR3.79 CX22 has 4 GB RAM versus 512 MB on a $4 DigitalOcean Droplet or AWS Lightsail $3.50 plan. The trade-offs are fewer global regions (mainly EU plus a couple of US/APAC locations), euro billing, and a smaller managed-service catalog. AWS/GCP/Azure justify higher prices with breadth of services and regions.
Does any cloud give a free VM?
Google Cloud offers a genuinely always-free e2-micro VM (2 vCPU shared, 1 GB) in us-west1, us-central1 and us-east1, plus 30 GB disk and 1 GB egress/month. AWS and Azure give 12-month free trials of a micro instance but not a permanent free VM. Oracle Cloud (not tracked here) also has a notable always-free tier.
What is the difference between a VPS and serverless?
A VPS (or cloud VM) is a server you rent by the month and run continuously — predictable cost, you manage the OS. Serverless (Cloudflare Workers, AWS Lambda) runs code on demand and bills per request/CPU-time, which is cheaper for spiky or low-traffic workloads but harder to predict. Cloudflare, for example, sells Workers rather than a $/mo VM.
Source
Prices are each vendor's published entry-tier VM price, captured June 2026. Prices vary by region and change often; confirm on the provider's pricing page. Hetzner figures are converted from EUR and are approximate. See our methodology. All figures are estimates.
Last updated: 2026-06-18