Searching for a trustworthy and cost-effective cloud hosting service?
I was in the same boat (I was looking for an affordable cloud server to deploy self-hosted software), and after tons of research, I found Vultr.
Only one issue: Vultr pricing plans are super confusing!
So, In my comprehensiveVultr Pricing Guide for 2023, I'll delve deep into Vultr's diverse pricing models to demystify their pricing for non-technical folks, review their standout features, and the steps to seamlessly deploy and oversee servers on their platform.
Let's go!
Advertising Disclosure:I may be an affiliate for the products I recommend. If you purchase a product through a link on this page, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.
First, What is Vultr?
In the ever-evolving digital landscape, 'Vultr' stands out as a superior cloud infrastructure choice with competitive pricing. Not only does it offer top-tier, scalable cloud compute, storage, and networking solutions, but it also does so at a compelling price point.
Bench marked against its competitors, Vultr consistently delivers unparalleled value, ensuring cost efficiencies without compromising performance. With a strategic array of data centers across the globe, it prioritizes rapidity and reliability, making it a preferred choice for developers and businesses seeking both quality and affordability.
With Vultr, you can deploy instances with a single click, choose your cloud infrastructure, and customize your server for your compute needs and budget needs.
Let's dive right into all the pricing plans available at Vultr.
Vultr Pricing Plans
When signing up, I found Vultr pricing insanely confusing, so I'll try and break it down as much as possible in this section.
Their pricing is transparent, and you can customize it for your needs so you're not overpaying, but a maze to navigate.
To start off, Vultr has multiple products to choose from, which will obviously effect your monthly costs.
Those are:Cloud Compute, Optimized Cloud Compute, Cloud GPU, Bare Metal, Direct Connect, Kubernetes Engine, Databases, Block Storage, Object Storage, Load Balancers, and multiple add-on services.
You'll need to start with one of these, then choose the number of vCPUs you need with the amount of memory, bandwidth, and storage you will need. You can always upgrade or downgrade as you go, but that's the baseline you'll need to figure out to get started.
Let's go through each option - you can set up a free Vultr account first to see your options inside the dashboard.
Vultr Free Account
To get started, signing up to Vultr is free. Once you create your account, you can choose the server of your choice and the compute power you'll need, and set up payments.
Vultr Cloud Compute Pricing
These are shared virtual machine services suitable for websites, blogs, small databases, and more. Vultr Cloud Compute pricing starts at $2.50/month, and goes up from there depending on your needs.
First, you need to determine what kind of power you're going to need:
Next, let's review how Vultr compute pricing breaks down for these options.
For the Regular Performance options, here's a breakdown:
Vultr High Performance Pricing:
These are premium virtual computer services suitable for higher-demand tasks. They utilize the latest processors from AMD and have ultra-fast storage. You can choose between AMD and Intel powered servers, and they start at $6.00/month.
AMD Powered Virtual Computers:
If you want a Vultr intel processor setup, here's your options:
Vultr High Performance Intel-Powered Virtual Computers:
Optimized Cloud Compute Pricing
Vultr's Optimized Cloud Compute pricing is based on the amount of CPU, RAM, and storage you require. With Vultr's Optimized Cloud, you get a dedicated vCPU, and pricing typically starts at $28.00 per month, and scales up from there depending on your needs. These are more suitable to larger scale apps, larger databases, etc.
With Optimized Cloud Compute, you have three options to start with: General Purpose, CPU Optimized, and Memory Optimized. Let's get into each.
General Purpose Cloud Compute
General Purpose virtual machines (VMs) are versatile and can be a great first choice for many. They offer a balanced combination of processing power (CPU), memory (RAM), and fast storage (NVMe SSD).
They're perfect for:
Here's a quick cost overview:
CPU Optimized
The CPU Optimized virtual machine are tailored for tasks that require more processing power compared to memory and storage. They give you more CPU power per unit of RAM and NVMe SSD.
Ideal for:
Here's a brief cost rundown:
Memory Optimized
For tasks that demand a lot of RAM, these VMs prioritize memory over CPU and storage. They are especially suited for:
Quick Pricing Overview:
Vultr Cloud GPU Pricing
Vultr offers cost-effective, user-friendly accelerated computing with NVIDIA GPUs.Quickly set up VMs with varying GPU capacities. First, you'll need to select the GPU model you'll need. Here's the breakdown:
GPU Models:
1. NVIDIA A100: Tailored for AI and HPC tasks, it boasts fourth-gen Tensor Cores and the Transformer Engine for enhanced speed using FP8 precision.
Pricing for the starts at $90/month (or $0.134/hour) for a configuration with 1/20 of a GPU, 4 GB GPU RAM, 1 vCPU, 6 GB RAM, and 70 GB storage. For those seeking peak performance, options scale up to 8 full GPUs, 640 GB GPU RAM, 96 vCPUs, 960 GB RAM, and 2200 GB storage for $14,000/month (or $20.833/hour). Each tier provides increasing storage and bandwidth capabilities, ensuring flexibility and scalability for diverse project needs.
2. NVIDIA A40: Merges professional graphics, robust compute, and AI capabilities, ideal for design, creativity, and scientific endeavors.
Pricing starts from $30/month (or $0.045/hour) for a model with 1/32 of a GPU, 1 GB GPU RAM, 1 vCPU, 3 GB RAM, and 40 GB storage. For professionals demanding higher capacity and performance, the offerings go up to a full 4 GPUs, 192 GB GPU RAM, 96 vCPUs, 480 GB RAM, and 1400 GB storage, priced at $5,000/month (or $7.440/hour). Each tier increments storage, bandwidth, and computational capabilities, ensuring that users can select the optimal setup for their specific requirements.
3. NVIDIA A16: Powers virtual desktops and workstations, ensuring optimal performance for remote projects.
Prices start from $22/month (or $0.032/hour) for a setup that includes 1/16 of a GPU, 1 GB GPU RAM, 2 vCPUs, 4 GB RAM, and 50 GB of storage. For users seeking the utmost performance and capability, options are available up to a robust 16 GPUs, boasting 256 GB GPU RAM, 96 vCPUs, 960 GB RAM, and 1700 GB storage at a rate of $5,500/month (or $8.185/hour). As configurations ascend, they incorporate greater storage, bandwidth, and computational prowess, allowing customers to pinpoint the best arrangement for their diverse projects.
Bare Metal Pricing
Vultr's "Bare Metal" offering provides users with direct and unhindered access to the raw power of a physical server, devoid of any virtualization layers.
Unlike traditional virtualized servers, which share resources with multiple tenants, these bare metal machines put users at the helm of an actual, physical server. The benefits extend beyond just raw power – these servers are single-tenant, ensuring exclusive access to all the server's resources without sharing.
Moreover, while you gain the performance and security advantages of a dedicated server, you don't sacrifice the ease of use; Vultr maintains the convenience of their standard automation, allowing for simple deployment and management.
Take a look at pricing for the top tiers which include NVIDIA GPUs + Intel CPU Compute:
For CPU Compute infrastructure, pricing gets a little murkier with tons of options:
Intel E3-1270:
Intel E-2286G:
Intel E-2288G:
Intel E-2388G:
AMD EPYC 7443P:
AMD EPYC 9254:
AMD EPYC 9354P:
2 x AMD EPYC 7713:
In addition to compute resources, Vultr also provides storage solutions at affordable prices. Whether you need SSD storage for high-performance applications or object storage for data backup and archiving, Vultr has you covered. Their storage pricing is competitive and allows you to store and retrieve your data with ease.
Vultr Direct Connect Pricing
"Direct Connect" is a service offered by Vultr, which allows users to establish a private connection between Vultr and other cloud service providers, colocation facilities, or their own on-premises data centers. This can be beneficial for securely transferring data or creating a seamless, multi-cloud environment. The service offers different speed levels, and the pricing depends on the chosen speed.
Vultr's Direct Connect service offers multiple speed tiers. The pricing for hosted connections ranges as follows:
For the 10 Gbps speed, there is both a hosted and a dedicated price option, each priced at $500/mo or $0.694/hr.
For even higher speeds:
Please note that some speeds don't offer a dedicated price option, and certain higher speeds are exclusively available in a dedicated format.
Kubernetes Pricing
Vultr's Kubernetes Engine offers a free control plane, while most major cloud providers charge around $70 monthly for a similar service. With Vultr, users only pay for worker nodes and related resources like Block Storage and Load Balancers.
Vultr Databases Pricing
With Vultr Databases, you can choose from these options: MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Redis. Each of these has a million different options.
Let's break down some of the popular MySQL options in simple terms:
For MySQL databases, pricing works as follows:
Optimized Cloud Compute - General Purpose
Pricing ranges from $90/month for basic configurations (4GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 30GB storage) to $26,880/month for high-end setups (256GB RAM, 96 vCPUs, 1280GB storage). The cost increases based on added resources and the number of replica nodes.
Storage Optimized
Vultr's storage-optimized instances range from configurations with 8GB RAM, 1 vCPU, and 150GB database storage priced at $225/month to setups with 256GB RAM, 32 vCPUs, and 12,525GB storage, for which you need to contact sales for pricing. The cost varies based on the resources chosen and the number of replica nodes.
High Performance
Vultr offers high-performance cloud compute instances, both AMD and Intel, with configurations starting from 1GB RAM, 1 vCPU, and 32GB storage at $18/month. The options scale up to 48GB RAM, 12 vCPUs, and 768GB storage at a rate of $768/month. Prices vary according to the selected resources and the number of replica nodes. Each configuration provides a monthly and hourly rate, with costs increasing for additional replica nodes.
Regular Performance
Vultr provides regular performance cloud compute options starting from 1GB RAM, 1 vCPU, and 25GB storage at $15/month. The configurations scale up to 96GB RAM, 24 vCPUs, and 1600GB storage for $1,920/month. The total cost varies based on selected resources and the number of replica nodes, with both monthly and hourly pricing available. As the resources and replica nodes increase, so does the price.
Block Storage Pricing
Block storage pricing starts at $1.00/month for 10 GB, and goes up to $1,000/month for 10,000 GB.
Object Storage Pricing
Object storage pricing at Vultr starts at $6.00/month and can go as high as $150.00/month depending on your storage and bandwidth needs.
Load Balancer Pricing
Load Balancers are only $10.00/month, which breaks down to about $0.015/hr. Easy.
Vultr Demo
If you want to see Vultr in action before committing to a plan, you can request a demo. Vultr offers demos to potential customers, allowing them to explore the features and capabilities of their platform firsthand. This is a great way to evaluate whether Vultr is the right fit for your hosting needs.
Benefits of Vultr
There are several benefits to choosing Vultr as your hosting provider.
First and foremost, Vultr offers competitive pricing, allowing you to get the resources you need at an unbeatable price.
Their cloud compute instances run atop the latest Intel and AMD CPUs with NVMe SSD storage, ensuring high-performance and speedy response times for your applications. Additionally, Vultr provides a user-friendly control panel that allows you to easily manage and monitor your servers.
Vultr Features
Vultr offers a range of features to enhance your hosting experience. With their platform, you can easily deploy and manage virtual machines, create snapshots for backup and replication purposes, and even deploy popular software like Wordpress with a single click. Furthermore, Vultr provides a reliable network infrastructure with high uptime and redundant network connections, ensuring the availability of your website or application.
Setting up a Vultr Account
Before you can start deploying servers on Vultr, you will need to set up an account. The process is simple and only requires a few steps and it's free - you only start paying for Vultr once you choose the servers you need. Once your account is set up, you will have access to Vultr's wide range of resources and features.
Deploying a Server
Deploying a server on Vultr is straightforward. Their platform allows you to select your desired server location, operating system, and resources. You can choose from various Linux distributions, including popular options like Ubuntu, CentOS, and Debian. Once your server is deployed, you can connect to it using SSH or by accessing the server console through Vultr's control panel.
Vultr Control Panel
Vultr's control panel is user-friendly and provides a comprehensive set of tools to manage your servers and resources. From the control panel, you can monitor server performance, view network statistics, create snapshots, set up firewalls, and much more. The control panel is designed to make server management easy and intuitive.
Conclusion -Are Vultr Pricing Plans Right For You?
Choosing the right hosting solution is crucial for the success of your website or application.
Vultr offers a great hosting solution for developers and businesses alike.
With their competitive pricing, high-performance infrastructure, and user-friendly control panel, Vultr provides everything you need to deploy and manage your servers effectively.
Here's why I like Vultr:
Peace of Mind
When you choose Vultr as your hosting provider, you can have peace of mind knowing that your website or application is in good hands. Vultr's reliable network infrastructure and excellent uptime guarantee ensures that your services are always available to your users.
Affordable/Customizable Prices and High Performance
Vultr's pricing structure allows you to get the resources you need at an affordable price and it's super easy to customize pricing to suite your needs, meaning you're not overpaying for your servers.
Their high-performance infrastructure ensures that your applications run smoothly and respond quickly to user requests. With Vultr, you can enjoy the best of both worlds - low prices and high performance.
Advertising Disclosure:I may be an affiliate for the products I recommend. If you purchase a product through a link on this page, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.
* $100 credit with Vultr - some terms and conditions apply, and not all users will be eligible for the credit: code available for a limited time. Duplicate accounts are not eligible. Unused portions of the credit expires after 14 days.
