Skip to content
[email protected] +44 7529 457798 @vpsforlife London, United Kingdom
Deploy a VPS
Unmanaged VPS · Every Plan

Root access from second one. And the responsibility that comes with it.

Every VPS For Life plan is unmanaged by design: the root account is yours the moment the server deploys, with no control panel imposed on you. This page is the honest version of what that means — including the 5 layers that become your problem, not ours.

  • Full root, all 21 plans
  • KVM, own kernel
  • ~60s deploy
  • 7-day money back
See the Responsibility Split Real Pricing
Layers you own

5 of 10

From $4.95/mo · unmanaged means unmanaged

  • No control panel forced on you
  • Install anything, remove anything
  • No backups held on our side
  • No server administration by us

Unmanaged VPS Hosting, in One Paragraph

An unmanaged VPS gives you full root access to a virtual server and makes you responsible for its ongoing administration — installing software, applying security updates, configuring the firewall and taking your own backups. In exchange it costs considerably less than managed hosting, because nobody is being paid to do those things for you. Every VPS For Life plan is unmanaged: 21 plans across five ranges from $4.95 to $49.95 a month, each with the root account, a dedicated IPv4 address and outbound Port 25 open by default.

  • You control: operating system, patching, firewall, applications, backups.
  • We control: hardware, KVM hypervisor, network, datacenter power, your resource allocation.
  • Backups: none held by us, on any plan, at any price.
  • Support scope: deployment, network and platform questions — not server administration.
  • Right for you if: you can SSH in, install a package, edit a config file and read a log.
  • Wrong for you if: you need someone else to keep the server patched and running.

Related: Managed vs unmanaged · Full root access · VPS vs VDS · Who owns which layer

Diagram of a server stack split horizontally: the lower layers marked as the provider's responsibility, the upper layers marked as the customer's.
The same split at a glance. Everything below the line is what you are paying us for; everything above it is what you are taking on.

Who Is Responsible for What

Ten layers between the mains socket and your visitor's browser. We operate the bottom 5. The top 5 are yours — and that is the whole difference between unmanaged and managed hosting.

  1. Your backups We hold no copy of your data. None. This is the single most important line on the page. You
  2. Your applications Web server, database, mail software, whatever you install and however you configure it. You
  3. Firewall & access control UFW, firewalld, SSH keys, fail2ban. Yours to set, and yours to lock yourself out of. You
  4. Patching & updates Security updates for the OS and everything on it. Nobody applies them for you. You
  5. Operating system Install it from the panel, then it is yours down to the kernel. You
  6. Allocated CPU, RAM, disk Allocated to your instance under KVM rather than drawn from a shared pool. VPS For Life
  7. KVM hypervisor The virtualization layer, kept patched and running underneath your kernel. VPS For Life
  8. Physical host node The hardware, and monitoring of it around the clock. VPS For Life
  9. Network & your IPv4 Routing, upstream connectivity, volumetric DDoS filtering, your dedicated address. VPS For Life
  10. Datacenter power & cooling Redundant power and network feeds at the facility. VPS For Life
The backup row is the one that catches people. We hold no copy of your data on any plan — not as an upsell, not on the expensive tiers, not at all. A backup stored on the same VPS is not a backup; set up an off-site copy before you put anything you care about on the server.

Is Unmanaged Right for You?

We would rather talk you out of it now than refund you in a week.

You can SSH in and read a log

Connect, install a package, edit a config file, read an error. Those four skills are the entire entry requirement.

You want a specific stack

A particular kernel, an unusual database, software a panel would refuse to install. Unmanaged is the only way to get it.

You are learning deliberately

A real server you can break and reinstall is the fastest way to learn server administration. Start on the cheapest plan.

You are paying attention to cost

Unmanaged is cheaper because nobody is administering it for you — not because the hardware underneath is worse.

You need someone on call

If a server going down at 3am needs somebody other than you to fix it, this is the wrong product. We answer questions; we do not operate your server.

You expect backups to just exist

They do not. This is the assumption that ends projects, so it is worth reading twice.

It is a client project and you are new

Learn on your own server first. A production deadline is a bad place to discover what a firewall rule does.

You want a control panel included

None is bundled. You can install cPanel or DirectAdmin yourself, with their licensing, on a plan with enough memory.

Your First Hour on a New Server

Ten steps, in order. Work through them before anything real depends on the box — on a public IPv4 the scanning starts within hours of deployment.

0 of 10 done

Unmanaged Pricing

Every plan we sell is unmanaged, so this is simply our price list. The entry plan of each range is below, generated from the same data as the pricing page.

Classic VPS

5 plans · from $4.95/mo

Affordable Budget VPS Hosting

Entry plan

Starter Budget VPS

1 Core · 1 GB DDR3 RAM
15 GB HDD Storage · 1 Gbps Port

$4.95/mo

+ $3.00 one-time setup

Compare Classic VPS

SSD VPS

4 plans · from $8.95/mo

Reliable SSD VPS Hosting

Entry plan

Starter SSD VPS

1 Core · 2 GB DDR3 RAM
15 GB Enterprise SSD · 10 Gbps Port

$8.95/mo

+ $2.00 one-time setup

Compare SSD VPS

NVMe VPS

4 plans · from $9.95/mo

Enterprise NVMe VPS Hosting

Entry plan

Starter NVMe VPS

1 Core · 2 GB DDR4 RAM
20 GB Enterprise NVMe SSD · 10 Gbps Port

$9.95/mo

+ $1.00 one-time setup

Compare NVMe VPS

Cloud VPS

4 plans · from $16.95/mo

Scalable Cloud VPS Solutions

Entry plan

Starter Cloud VPS

2 Cores · 4 GB DDR4 RAM
35 GB Enterprise SSD Storage · 10 Gbps Port

$16.95/mo

Compare Cloud VPS

VDS

4 plans · from $29.95/mo

Dedicated Resources, Maximum Performance

Entry plan

Starter VDS (Xeon E3)

4 Cores · 4 GB Dedicated RAM
40 GB NVMe or 100 GB HDD · 10 Gbps Port

$29.95/mo

Compare VDS

Every plan includes full root access, a dedicated IPv4 address and open Port 25. No plan includes backups. See all 21 plans · first-month totals including setup fees.

Unmanaged VPS Questions

Your server, your rules, your responsibility.

From $4.95 a month with root access from the first second — and a 7-day money-back guarantee if you decide administering it yourself is not the job you wanted.

See All 21 Plans Ask Before You Order