Low-Cost Cloud Provider Favorites

WARNING: Only use these providers if you can afford to lose your money if they abruptly go out of business or operation. Many have! If you use them, always set up a redundant server with another provider in another location. Incredible Backup is your friend. We recommend avoiding OpenVZ platforms. KVM platforms are much more robust and provide additional security through ipset add-on to IPtables firewall. Never sign up with these providers for more than a year. Always fund these services using a mechanism such as PayPal which provides a six-month window for refunds if things ever come unglued. With PayPal, you also can (and should) disable recurring payments which seems to be a favorite trick of low-cost providers. You’ve been warned!

NOTE: The KVM/OVZ7 platform providers below are from better established companies and should provide an improved long-term solution. They also provide better security for publicly-exposed servers like OpenSIPS, IncrediblePBX-PUBLIC, and 3CX.

Our recommended KVM providers include Digital Ocean, Vultr, OVH, and CrownCloud ($25/yr. sites in L.A., Atlanta, Germany, and the Netherlands). You may also wish to consider the LowEndBoxes WhiteList which is screened by many of the regulars on LowEndTalk.com.