The cheapest VPS in the researched.xyz catalog costs 129 ₽ a month: 1 vCPU and 0.75 GB of RAM at Firstbyte. A typical entry-level server with 1–2 cores and 1–2 GB of RAM costs a median of $8.35, about 705 ₽. By region: Russia $7.39, Europe $7.02, US $10.16.
The sample covers 603 plans from 25 hosts. Prices were checked between Aug 30 and Sep 24, 2026. Below you get the numbers by region, by task (VPN, Telegram bot, website) and by payment method for buyers in Russia, then a list of questions to ask before you pay.
Entry-level VPS by region
We define an entry-level server as 1–2 full vCPUs and 1–2 GB of RAM. There are 146 such plans from 22 hosts. Go by the median. The record-low plans are roughly 3–4 times cheaper than it, but there are few of them.
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| Region | Plans | Median, $ | Median, ₽ | Middle half, $ | Cheapest, $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Russia | 66 | 7.39 | 624 | 4.92–13.79 | 1.78 |
| Europe | 64 | 7.02 | 592 | 5.06–11.17 | 1.77* |
| US | 26 | 10.16 | 857 | 6.00–17.25 | 3.44 |
| Asia (Singapore, Japan, South Korea, India) | 18 | 10.16 | 857 | 6.00–14.25 | 3.44 |
| All regions | 146 | 8.35 | 705 | 5.12–14.74 | 1.77* |
* The Xorek DE-PROMO plan. The host itself puts PROMO in the plan name, so this price may be temporary. Without it, the cheapest entry plan in Europe is netcup at $2.11.
A server in Europe costs no more than one in Russia, while the US median is 37% higher ($10.16 vs $7.39). For single countries: Finland $5.24, Poland $6.70, Sweden $6.99, Germany $7.19, Netherlands $7.91, France $9.08. If you need a server in one specific country, see VPS in Russia, in Germany or in the US.
What a VPS costs for each task
Our thresholds are simple. They are a floor, not a recommendation. Bot: at least 1 vCPU, 1 GB of RAM and 20 GB of disk. VPN: at least 1 vCPU, 1 GB and 10 GB of disk, with the server outside Russia. Website: at least 2 vCPU, 2 GB and 40 GB. For each host we take the cheapest plan that qualifies, then calculate the median across hosts.
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| Task | Minimum hardware | Hosts | Cheapest, $ | Median, $ | Median, ₽ | Middle half, $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VPN outside Russia | 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 10 GB disk | 20 of 25 | 1.77* | 5.39 | 455 | 3.97–6.82 |
| Telegram bot | 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB disk | 25 of 25 | 2.11 | 5.50 | 464 | 4.36–7.11 |
| Website | 2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 40 GB disk | 24 of 25 | 3.53 | 11.31 | 955 | 5.21–14.22 |
* Xorek DE-PROMO. Without PROMO in the name, the cheapest VPN plan is netcup at $2.11.
About $5.50 a month covers a bot or a VPN. The record-low bot plan costs $2.11 (netcup, 178 ₽). That is about $3.40 under the median, or roughly $41 a year. A website needs twice the resources, so the price is about twice as high: $11.31 at the median, with a minimum of $3.53 at netcup and HOSTKEY.
Each task has a ready-made filter: VPS for VPN, VPS for a Telegram bot, VPS for WordPress. For more on servers for automation, read the guide to VPS for bots.
Paying from Russia
17 of the 25 hosts (68%) accept Mir, SBP or SberPay. Mir is Russia's domestic bank card system, SBP is its fast-payment system, and SberPay is Sberbank's payment service. 13 hosts (52%) take crypto, and only 10 (40%) take both. Another 7 accept only Russian bank cards and 3 accept only crypto. For three hosts, the known payment methods include neither Mir/SBP nor crypto. WAICORE and 1cent.host have no payment methods listed in the catalog, so they are left out of the count.
The share changes a lot with the server region:
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| Server location | Hosts | Mir, SBP, SberPay | Crypto |
|---|---|---|---|
| Russia | 13 | 13 (100%) | 6 (46%) |
| Europe | 20 | 12 (60%) | 12 (60%) |
| US | 9 | 5 (56%) | 5 (56%) |
| Asia | 4 | 1 (25%) | 2 (50%) |
| All hosts | 25 | 17 (68%) | 13 (52%) |
A host with servers in several regions counts in each of them, so the rows do not add up to 25. For Russian servers there is no payment problem: all 13 hosts accept Mir or SBP. Abroad the choice narrows: 12 of the 20 hosts with European servers do, and 5 of the 9 with US servers.
So the cheapest plan is often not the most accessible one. netcup has known payment methods, and Mir, SBP and crypto are not among them, yet it holds the record for a bot: $2.11. The closest plan you can pay for from Russia is Firstbyte at $2.24 (189 ₽). That is only 13 cents more, but the server is in Moscow. For crypto payments there is a VPS filter and a separate guide.
How to choose a VPS
- Task. Bot, VPN or website, and whether the server must be outside Russia. This sets the hardware minimum.
- Payment. Decide how you will pay before you compare prices. First keep the hosts that accept your method, then look for the minimum among them.
- Median, not the record. Treat a plan with PROMO in its name as temporary and do not build a long-term budget on it.
- Hardware. Do not take the minimum if you do not know your load: our thresholds were not tested under load.
- Term. Pay for the shortest term until you are sure about the network and support.
Check before paying: how long the price applies, the payment method, the server country and the operating system. The "from" price in a table and the total in your cart can differ, especially on plans with PROMO in the name.
To see every option by parameter, open the VPS catalog and filter by country, task and payment.
A yearly budget
If you do not want to overpay for headroom you do not need, work out a yearly figure from the medians in the tables above:
- Bot: about $5.50 a month, that is roughly 464 ₽ and about $66 a year.
- VPN: about $5.39, that is 455 ₽ a month and about $65 a year.
- Website: about $11.31, that is 955 ₽ a month and about $136 a year.
If you pay in rubles, use the rate on the day of payment. The tables use the Bank of Russia rate for Sep 24, 2026. Discounts and promo codes are not included in these sums.
Limits of the data
- This is a snapshot, not a live quote. Prices change, and the exchange rate is fixed to a single date.
- It is not the whole market. The sample has 25 hosts, mostly aimed at Russian-speaking buyers. Hetzner, AWS and DigitalOcean are not in it.
- Payment methods come from the hosts' own pages and were not re-checked. There is no data for WAICORE and 1cent.host.
- Quality (network speed, support, stability) was not measured. "Cheapest" does not mean "best fit."
- The task thresholds are our own and were not tested under load.
- The regional samples range from 18 to 66 plans, so one unusual plan moves the minimum noticeably, and in small groups the median too.
Methodology
- Source. The working researched.xyz catalog: 984 plans from 25 hosts. On the site they are folded into 603 cards: copies for different regions, and Linux and Windows versions with the same specs and price, count as one card. The default filters do not hide any plans.
- Dates. Prices come from the hosts' official pages. For 23 hosts the check was on Aug 30, 2026, for HOSTKEY on Sep 24, 2026, and for Selectel on Sep 22, 2026.
- Exchange rate. Rubles and euros were converted to dollars at the Bank of Russia rate for Sep 24, 2026: 84.3969 ₽ per $1. It is a single yardstick for comparison, not the currency you pay in. In the ruble column, dollars are multiplied by the same rate.
- Entry-level VPS. 1–2 full vCPUs and 1–2 GB of RAM, monthly price. The region is set by the server's country.
- Statistics. Median and quartiles are calculated across cards. "Middle half" means the 25th to the 75th percentile. For tasks we take each host's cheapest qualifying plan, then the median across hosts.
- Open data. The prices are published on GitHub: Simpix/researched-prices. Dataset DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23266602.