Switching guide, 2026
Looking for a Vultr alternative? Keep hourly billing, drop the add-ons.
Vultr made hourly cloud servers easy. Here’s the same model with a lower bill, fewer add-ons and fewer rules, and how to move this afternoon.
Vultr, 8 GB with protection and backups
- Cloud Compute4 vCPU, 8 GB, 160 GB SSD$40
- DDoS protectionPer server, per month+$10
- Automatic backups20% of the server+$8
$58 a month, as published on 3 November 2026.
LiteKeep Lite 8
$12
- 8 vCPU
- 8 GB
- 160 GB NVMe
- DDoS included
- Crypto
- No ID
Daily backups add $1.15 a month, priced per GB of disk.
The short answer
LiteKeep bills by the hour like Vultr, for a fraction of the price at the same RAM. At Vultr’s own published prices, 8 GB of Cloud Compute is $40 a month; a Lite 8 with 8 vCPU, 8 GB and 160 GB of NVMe is $12. DDoS protection, a $10 monthly add-on per server on Vultr, is included on every Lite.
You pay in Bitcoin, USDT, USDC or five other coins, sign up with an email and a password, and mining and outbound mail are allowed. The calculator below prices a full month on both.
Most “Vultr alternatives” pages are written by other cloud companies ranking themselves first, and none of them prices a real month.
A real month on Vultr is the plan, plus $10 if you want DDoS protection, plus 20% if you want automatic backups, plus $10 for every terabyte past your allowance.
So we added it up. At Vultr’s own published prices, matched on RAM, line by line, next to the Lite that replaces it.
In this guide you’ll learn
- A cost calculator: a full month on Vultr and on LiteKeep
- Matched plans from 2 GB to 32 GB
- The add-ons that change the bill
- The rules: mining, mail servers and payment
- How to move without downtime
Chapter 1
The short answer
Vultr’s cheapest regular Cloud Compute plan at each memory size, from its own price list on 3 November 2026, next to the Lite with at least that much RAM.
| RAM | Vultr Cloud Compute | LiteKeep |
|---|---|---|
| 2 GB | 1 vCPU, 55 GB SSD, 2 TB: $10 | Lite 2: 2 vCPU, 40 GB NVMe, 1 TB: $4 |
| 4 GB | 2 vCPU, 80 GB SSD, 3 TB: $20 | Lite 6: 6 vCPU, 6 GB, 100 GB NVMe, 2 TB: $8 |
| 8 GB | 4 vCPU, 160 GB SSD, 4 TB: $40 | Lite 8: 8 vCPU, 160 GB NVMe, 3 TB: $12 |
| 16 GB | 6 vCPU, 320 GB SSD, 5 TB: $80 | Lite 16: 16 vCPU, 320 GB NVMe, 4 TB: $20 |
| 32 GB | 8 vCPU, 640 GB SSD, 6 TB: $160 | Lite 32: 16 vCPU, 640 GB NVMe, 6 TB: $40 |
| Traffic past the allowance | $10 per TB | $2 per TB, pooled across your servers |
| DDoS protection | $10 a month per server | Included |
Chapter 2
Price a full month on both
Set the RAM you need and the traffic you send. Tick DDoS protection and backups if you’d buy them. Every charge is listed so you can check the sum.
A full month, side by side
Lite 8, $13.15 a month
Vultr: its cheapest plan with that RAM and its own add-on prices, as published on 3 November 2026, in US dollars. Both bill by the hour with a monthly cap. See every Lite
Chapter 3
Why people look for a Vultr alternative
Vultr is easy to start on. These are the things that send people looking.
1. The bill at the same RAM
Vultr’s cheapest 2 GB plan is $10 a month with one vCPU; its NVMe plans cost more. A Lite 2 is $4 with two vCPUs and NVMe, and a Lite 16 is $20 where Vultr’s 16 GB starts at $80.
2. Add-ons that change the price
On Vultr, DDoS protection is $10 a month per server, automatic backups add 20% to the server’s price, snapshots are $0.05 per GB a month, and traffic past the allowance is $10 per TB.
On LiteKeep, DDoS filtering is included on every server, daily backups are $0.0072 per GB of disk a month, snapshots $0.0072 per GB, and traffic past your pool is $2 per TB. All on the pricing page.
3. Mining and mail servers
Vultr’s Use Policy prohibits cryptocurrency mining, and outbound port 25 is blocked by default until you ask support to open it.
On LiteKeep, mining and crypto nodes are allowed, and outbound port 25 is open with reverse DNS you set yourself. See our acceptable use policy.
4. How you pay
Vultr takes cards and PayPal, and some coins through BitPay. USDT, Solana, BNB, XRP and Monero aren’t on its list.
On LiteKeep, crypto is how you pay: BTC, ETH, USDT, USDC, SOL, BNB, XRP or XMR, with an email address and a password and no ID. How paying for hosting with crypto works.
Chapter 4
What stays the same
Moving from Vultr isn’t learning a new way of working.
- Billing by the hour, capped monthly. A Lite bills per started hour at 0.15% of its monthly price, and a month never costs more than the monthly price.
- Stopped servers still bill on both, because the disk and IP stay reserved. Delete a server to stop paying.
- KVM with full root, Ubuntu, Debian, AlmaLinux and Rocky images, and one-click apps such as Docker, Coolify, WordPress and n8n.
- Snapshots, volumes and extra IPv4 as add-ons, priced on the pricing page.
Chapter 5
How to move from Vultr without downtime
Both bill by the hour, so you only pay for the overlap. Do it in this order and your users won’t notice.
- Lower your DNS TTL a day beforeHow to check: Set it to 300 seconds, so the switch spreads in minutes.
- Deploy your Lite and secure itHow to check: Same OS version if you can. Follow our VPS security guide first.
- Copy your filesHow to check: From the new server:
rsync -avz --progress root@old-server:/var/www/ /var/www/. Run it again just before the switch; the second pass copies only changes. - Dump and restore databasesHow to check: For example
mysqldumporpg_dumpon the old server, then import on the new one. - Test, then switch DNSHow to check: Point your own PC at the new IP with your hosts file, click through, then change DNS.
- Destroy the Vultr instanceHow to check: Stopping isn’t enough: a stopped instance still bills until you destroy it.
Chapter 6
Quick answers
The questions people ask before they switch.
Do you bill by the hour like Vultr? Yes. Per started hour, capped at the monthly price.
Is DDoS protection extra? No. Always-on filtering on our upstream network is included on every server.
Can I pay with USDT or Monero? Yes, and with BTC, ETH, USDC, SOL, BNB and XRP.
Do you ask for ID? No. An email address and a password open the account.
Can I mine or run a mail server? Yes. Mining and nodes are allowed, and outbound port 25 is open.
Is there an API? It’s being prepared. Today you deploy and manage servers in the console.
Can I run Windows? Yes: Windows Server on any Lite, for $4 a month extra.
Now it’s your move
If you like Vultr’s hourly billing but not the bill, a Lite gives you the same model with more cores, NVMe and DDoS filtering included, paid in crypto with no ID.
Deploy one next to your Vultr instance, move a site over this afternoon, then destroy the old one.