These are two different questions, and people keep merging them.
“VPS” describes how the machine is virtualized. “Cloud VPS”, across most of the industry, describes how it is billed. Confusing the two is how people end up comparing a technology against a pricing model. And for the record: we do sell a Cloud range — 4 plans, flat monthly, from $13.95.
- Flat monthly, every range
- 4 Cloud plans here
- Port 25 guaranteed on Cloud
- KVM throughout
$13.95/mo
4 plans · flat monthly · up to 4 cores
- No usage meter, no hourly rate
- Port 25 open and guaranteed
- More cores than the VPS ranges
- No automatic scale-up-and-down
The Short Answer
“VPS” is a statement about virtualization. “Cloud VPS” is usually a statement about billing. Across the industry, a plan marketed as Cloud typically means hourly or usage-based pricing with on-demand resizing, running on the same KVM virtualization as any other VPS. Here, the Cloud range is a set of 4 plans billed at a flat monthly rate like everything else we sell, from $13.95 — what actually distinguishes it is more CPU cores than the VPS ranges and a Port 25 guarantee. So the real question is not “VPS or Cloud”. It is do you want a predictable bill or a metered one, and separately, which plan has the resources you need.
- Every plan here is flat monthly — Cloud included, no usage meter.
- Cloud range: 4 plans from $13.95, up to 4 cores.
- Port 25 guaranteed on the Cloud range, not just open.
- Storage: Cloud is Enterprise SSD — NVMe costs less and is faster on disk.
- KVM on all 16 plans — virtualization is not the difference.
- No instant auto-scaling — if you need that, buy a metered platform.
Related: All five ranges · VPS vs VDS · NVMe vs SSD · KVM VPS · Port 25
Which Billing Model Do You Actually Want?
This is the question the comparison is really about — and the right column is one where we are not the answer.
Choose flat monthly pricing
- Your load is reasonably steady, which covers most sites and applications.
- You want to know the bill before the month starts.
- A surprise invoice after a traffic spike would be a genuine problem.
- You are not going to use auto-scaling even if it is offered.
This is every plan on this site, including the Cloud range. From $4.95.
Choose a metered cloud platform
- Your load is genuinely spiky and idle most of the time.
- You need instances created and destroyed automatically under load.
- You are building around an API that expects to resize infrastructure.
- You would rather pay a variable bill than over-provision.
We do not offer that, and we would rather say so here than imply we do. A large metered platform is the right tool for it.
Side by Side, With Our Own Cloud Range in the Right Column
Read from the plan catalogue. Note the third row: it is the only one where our Cloud range behaves differently from the industry's usual meaning of the word.
| Factor | VPS ranges | Cloud range |
|---|---|---|
| What the word describes This is the confusion the whole page exists to clear up. | The virtualization model — an isolated virtual machine | Usually the billing and scaling model layered on top |
| Billing on our Cloud range Flat monthly, exactly like every other range here. | Flat monthly rate | Flat monthly rate |
| Billing elsewhere in the industry Where the term usually implies something different. | Flat monthly rate | Frequently hourly or usage-based |
| Cost predictability | Known every month | Known every month here; variable elsewhere |
| CPU cores The real difference between our ranges, and it is not the word "cloud". | Up to 4 on the VPS ranges | Up to 4 on the Cloud range |
| Port 25 for outbound mail | Open, not guaranteed | Open and guaranteed |
| Storage Worth knowing: Cloud costs more than NVMe but is Enterprise SSD. | HDD, SSD or NVMe by range | Enterprise SSD |
| Virtualization | KVM | KVM |
| Root access | Full | Full |
| Starting price | $4.95/mo | $13.95/mo |
Three Things Worth Knowing About the Word “Cloud”
“Cloud” is not a technology claim
Almost every provider selling a “cloud server” is running KVM or a close equivalent — the same thing running under a plain VPS plan. When the word carries real meaning it is about billing, orchestration and an API, not about the hypervisor.
Auto-scaling helps far fewer people than it sells to
It is a genuinely valuable feature for workloads that are idle most of the time and violent occasionally. For a website with a daily rhythm, over-provisioning slightly on a flat rate is simpler, cheaper and does not require you to build for it.
Metered billing moves the risk to you
A flat rate means we carry the risk of you having a busy month. A metered rate means you do. Neither is dishonest — but only one of them can produce an invoice you did not expect, and it is worth knowing which model you are buying.
VPS vs Cloud VPS Questions
A predictable bill, on every range.
Flat monthly pricing across all 16 plans from $4.95, including 4 Cloud plans from $13.95 with guaranteed Port 25 — and a 7-day money-back guarantee on a first order.