A CheapServ VPS is a KVM virtual machine on NVMe storage with a dedicated IPv4 address, a /64 IPv6 block and DDoS protection included. This guide explains the three product lines, the images, how snapshots and backups work, and what to do when you need more resources or a rescue environment.
Product lines
| Line | Compute | Storage | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard (VPS-1 to VPS-32) | Shared AMD EPYC vCPUs with a guaranteed baseline | 40 GB to 1.2 TB NVMe | Web, APIs, containers, VPN, general workloads |
| High-frequency (HF-1 to HF-8) | Dedicated Ryzen 9 cores, 1 to 8 | 60 to 480 GB NVMe | Game servers, databases, trading bots, latency-sensitive apps |
| Storage (ST-1 to ST-8) | 2 to 8 shared vCPUs | 1 to 10 TB HDD with an NVMe cache | Backups, media, object storage, archives |
Memory and NVMe are never oversold on any line. Standard plans share physical cores between customers but each VM keeps a guaranteed CPU baseline and is never throttled for a noisy neighbour. High-frequency plans pin whole Ryzen 9 cores to your VM. Prices start at $3.29 for VPS-1, $6.69 for HF-1 and $8.09 for ST-1; the full grid is on the VPS page.
Availability differs by site: Standard VPS run everywhere, High-frequency in Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Helsinki and New York, Storage in Frankfurt, Helsinki and New York.
Images and one-click apps
Every VPS can be installed with Ubuntu 24.04 or 22.04, Debian 13 or 12, Rocky Linux 10 or 9, AlmaLinux 10 or 9, Fedora 42, Arch Linux (rolling) or FreeBSD 14. Cloud images are used unmodified apart from the root password and the network configuration, so what you get is what the distribution ships.
One-click apps install on top of Ubuntu 24.04 during provisioning: Docker, Kubernetes (k3s), WordPress, Nextcloud, GitLab, Coolify, WireGuard, Mastodon, Proxmox VE, Plesk, cPanel and TrueNAS. Licences for Plesk and cPanel are billed separately at the vendor's price. Windows is not offered on the VPS line; use a Windows RDP plan, where the licence is included.
To reinstall, open the server in the dashboard and choose Reinstall. The disk is wiped and the new image is written in about a minute; the IP addresses do not change.
Snapshots and backups
Two manual snapshots are included with every plan. A snapshot is a full copy of the disk at a point in time; you can restore it onto the same server, or use it as the image for a new server in the same or another location. Taking a snapshot does not pause the VM, but for consistent database files run sync or stop the service first.
Automatic daily backups can be enabled per server for 20% of the plan price. Backups run at night in the server's location, keep the last 7 days, and are stored on separate hardware. Restoring a backup replaces the current disk; restore into a fresh server if you want to keep the running system.
When a server is deleted — by you, or 14 days after a suspension for unpaid renewal — its snapshots and backups are deleted with it. Download anything you need beforehand.
Resizing a VPS
You can upgrade to any larger plan on the same line from the dashboard. The VM is rebooted once, the disk grows in place and the file system is extended automatically on our images. The price difference for the rest of the current month is taken from your balance pro rata, and the new price applies from the next renewal.
Downgrades are scheduled for the next renewal because a disk cannot shrink safely. Moving between lines (for example Standard to High-frequency) is done by creating a snapshot and restoring it onto a new server.
Traffic allowance
Each plan includes a monthly traffic allowance, from 4 TB on VPS-1 to 50 TB on VPS-32, on a 1 Gbps port. Only outbound traffic is counted. When the allowance is used up, the port is throttled to 100 Mbps until the next cycle. Nothing is ever billed on top of the plan price. Current usage is shown per server in the dashboard and in the API.
Traffic between your own servers in the same location goes over the private network and is not counted.
Rescue mode
If the server no longer boots, start the rescue system from the dashboard. The VM reboots into a Debian-based live environment with your disk attached but not mounted. Connect with the temporary password shown, then mount the root file system:
lsblk
mount /dev/vda1 /mnt
chroot /mnt /bin/bashFrom there you can fix /etc/fstab, reinstall the bootloader with grub-install /dev/vda && update-grub, or copy data out with rsync. Leave rescue mode from the dashboard to boot from disk again. The VNC console in the dashboard is available at all times if SSH is unreachable.
Custom ISO
Upload an ISO by URL from the dashboard (up to 8 GB, HTTP or HTTPS), attach it to the server and boot from it. The installer runs in the VNC console. Use VirtIO drivers for disk and network: our images already include them, and most current distributions detect them automatically. After installation, detach the ISO so the server boots from disk.
Custom ISO installs are not covered by automatic network configuration: set the IPv4 address, the /64 IPv6 prefix and the gateway shown in the dashboard manually.
Private network
All your servers in one location share a private VLAN on a second interface, typically eth1. Traffic on it is free, unmetered and isolated from other customers. Use it for database replication, backups between servers or a Kubernetes cluster. Assign addresses from any private range; we do not manage them for you.
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