We don't sell managed VPS. Here's how to tell if you need it.
Every plan here is unmanaged: full root access, and the administration is yours. Most people searching for “managed VPS” have not actually established that they need one — and some genuinely do. Six questions below will tell you which group you are in, and if the answer is that you need managed, we would rather you bought it somewhere else than bought the wrong thing here.
- Unmanaged, all 21 plans
- Deployment & setup support
- 305 how-to articles
- 7-day money-back
$4.95/mo
No management fee, because there is no management
- Full root access on every plan
- 1 dedicated IPv4 included
- Deployment help by email or WhatsApp
- No ongoing administration by us
Managed vs Unmanaged, in One Paragraph
The hardware is not the difference. The labour is. A managed VPS is the same virtual machine with a person attached: the provider patches the operating system, monitors it, configures software and responds when something breaks at the server level, and bills for that time. An unmanaged VPS hands you the root password and stops there. Everything on this site is the second kind — all 21 plans across 5 ranges. That is why it starts at $4.95, and it is also why it is the wrong purchase for some people. Working out which you are is what the rest of this page is for.
- What we run: the hypervisor, hardware, network and your IP.
- What we answer: deployment and setup questions, by email or WhatsApp.
- What we document: 305 articles across 24 categories.
- What you run: the OS, the patching, the firewall, the applications.
- Storage: HDD on the entry range, Enterprise SSD and NVMe further up.
- Safety net: 7-day money-back on a first order.
Related: Unmanaged VPS in detail · Full root access · Compare the 5 ranges · Terms of Service
Six Questions That Decide It
Answer these honestly rather than optimistically. Two “buy managed” verdicts and you should be shopping for a managed host, not for us — and we would rather say so now than process a refund later.
| Ask yourself | If the answer is no | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Are you comfortable connecting to a server over SSH and running commands? | If this sentence is unfamiliar, unmanaged hosting will be a frustrating purchase. That is not a judgement, it is a fit question. | Fine |
| Will you apply operating system security updates yourself, regularly? | This is the single biggest difference. An unmanaged server that nobody patches becomes a liability — to you first, and then to your account under the acceptable use policy. | Fine |
| Is someone available if the server goes down at an inconvenient hour? | We keep the hypervisor, the hardware and the network running. What is running inside your server at 3am is yours. If your business cannot absorb that, price a managed provider. | Think |
| Do you need someone else to configure your applications for you? | We answer deployment and setup questions, which is not the same as administering your stack on an ongoing basis. If you need the latter, you need a managed host. | Buy managed |
| Do you have a compliance obligation that requires documented, provider-side patching? | Unmanaged hosting cannot satisfy that, and no amount of good intentions changes it. Buy managed, or buy managed services on top of unmanaged infrastructure. | Buy managed |
| Do you mostly want a server that boots fast, keeps its IP, and gets out of the way? | Then unmanaged is what you are looking for, and you are paying a managed premium for nothing if you buy elsewhere. | Fine |
What Is Actually Covered, and What Is Not
Three columns, no overlap. The middle one is the part that surprises people: unmanaged does not mean undocumented.
What support covers
- Deployment questions — getting the server up and reachable.
- Initial configuration guidance by email or WhatsApp.
- Anything to do with the hypervisor, the network or the IP address.
- rDNS / PTR records on request.
What the knowledgebase covers
- 305 step-by-step articles across 24 categories.
- Hardening, firewalls, fail2ban, SSH keys and 2FA.
- Nginx, Apache, databases, Docker, Node, PHP, Python.
- Backups, monitoring, DNS, SSL and mail deliverability.
What stays with you
- Applying OS and application security updates.
- Firewall rules, user accounts and SSH policy.
- Installing, configuring and monitoring your software.
- Backups of your own data, kept off the server.
Where the Money Actually Goes
The reason to be clear about this: a managed plan is not a better server. It is the same server with labour bundled in.
What a managed plan buys
Someone else's time: patching on a schedule, monitoring, incident response, and software configuration. That is real work and it is reasonable to charge for it. If you need it, it is worth the premium and you should pay it — to whoever offers it properly.
What our plans buy
The infrastructure and nothing bundled on top: KVM virtualization, a dedicated IPv4, storage from HDD to Enterprise NVMe depending on range, and datacenters in 56 countries. From $4.95, because the administration line item is not on the invoice. See the locations →
If unmanaged is the right answer, start here: Compare the ranges · Linux VPS · Windows VPS · Cheapest entry plan · KVM virtualization · Uptime guarantee
Managed VPS Questions
If unmanaged suits you, it starts at $4.95.
Full root access on all 21 plans, a dedicated IPv4 on every one, and a 7-day money-back guarantee on your first order if the six questions turned out to be harder in practice than on paper.