hosting · roundup
The best VPS under $10 — including the one that pays me nothing.
verdict
DigitalOcean is the best all-round pick under $10: predictable pricing, excellent docs, free credit to start. Hetzner is the raw price-performance king (and pays me no commission — it's just true). Cloudways if you want managed and can stretch slightly past $10.
A side project needs three things from a server: it stays up, it doesn't surprise you on the bill, and when something breaks at 11pm there's a doc or forum thread that fixes it. That third one is where the cheap-VPS field separates.
The shortlist
| Provider | From | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| DigitalOcean | ~$4–6/mo | Best docs in the business, free credit for new users |
| Hetzner | ~€4/mo | Most CPU/RAM per euro, EU data centers |
| Cloudways | ~$11/mo | Managed — worth it if SSH isn't your happy place |
Why DigitalOcean wins for most people
Not because it's the absolute cheapest — Hetzner beats it on specs, and I run Hetzner myself. DigitalOcean wins because when you search any error message plus "digitalocean", a well-written tutorial appears. For a solo dev, documentation coverage is a feature you can't buy separately, and the free new-user credit means your first months can cost nothing while you find out if the project has legs.
Full walkthrough: launching a project for $0 on the free credit.
Claim DigitalOcean free credit
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