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Hourly VPS in EU
Hi,
do you know if there is a provider that could bill a KVM VPS only for the time (mimum 1hr obviously) that it's powered on? I don't need a static IP, it could be dynamic too (but public).
I'll need it for 10Hrs/month maximum, maybe a bit more now due to Covid-19.
Nothing special, 1 core, 2GB, 25GB HDD, Windows (whatever version, even with custom ISO) and in Europe.
I know there is DigitalOcean, but because it will be used also by "non-tech" users, so I'd prefer something that just click start/stop without bother with snapshots.
Thanks!
Comments
Hetzner Cloud, RamNode. Few others like DO including Vultr, Linode
Hello @Gabri_91,
You can take a look at our Windows Cloud Servers with hourly billing, our servers are based at Paris (FR) and we're providing one-click install for Windows
Have you tried atlantic.net? If not yet, you can enjoy 1 year of their free VPS. They do have a DC in London.
Sorry, probably I haven't been so clear: the VPS disk should be kept because it has some configurations (I can pay for it obviously), I'd like to have instead resources (cpu, ram, IP) to be billed hourly.
I don't think i've come across any providers that do this as such without using snapshots generally.
What does hourly really mean?
You can pay just for the time you want (for example 8 hours per day), then stop the VPS and you don't have to pay for not using it, right? But what if you don't need to use it for about 1 month? Providers don't get money for downtime of your VPSes so they can erase it? How it really works, explain please
Providers like jiffybox.de or hostnet.de from Germany offer either the ability to scale different parts (memory, cpu, hdd/ssd space, etc.) by the hour or to "freeze" the vps and pay only half the price. But these providers are more expansive than your normal LET vps provider so do compare when you know what your monthly usage will look like.
In order to not be charged for the VPS you have to actually delete it - IE those resources are no longer allocated to it. If its just powered off those resources are allocated and therefore cannot be sold.
So that most users can power up as and when they need, you can create a snapshot of your server, destroy it and then when you next launch a server you can restore it from that snapshot and continue where you left off, essentially.
Thanks for the mention!
OP - industry standard is that the VPS is charged based on existence, not whether it's off or on. As @WSCallum suggested, your cheapest route is usually to take a snapshot and restore as needed.
@WSCallum
It depends on what you mean for "allocated", probably it's utopian but CPU/RAM (and IP if you don't need it static) are not allocated when the VPS it's off.
Let's say (to keep it simple) that such VPS costs 4 Euro:
1 Euro/Month = 0,002 Euro/Hour
So I was looking (but probably it doesn't exist) at something that I pay 1 Euro/month for the storage that it's fixed and reserved, plus 0,008 Euro/hour (but let's also double it to 0,015 Euro/hour, I understand that hourly billing could be more expensive).
Long story short anyway, I think @OhJohn it's right: there are providers that offer it, but a normal LET VPS could be cheaper anyway at the end..
This boils down to like you said, definition of the word 'allocated' - To most providers (who dont oversell) the resource is allocated once the product is sold - IE it cannot be allocated to another server. If you have a 32GB node with 32 x 1GB VPS that are powered off, for example. You shouldn't be spinning up another 32 x 1GB VPS on that node, because if you do what happens when those others power up?
Maybe allocated isn't the best word, reserved would work better for the scenario. But regardless in most cases unless the instance is 'destroyed' then you will be charged for those resources even if its powered off.
Just looked again, the "freeze" option at hostnet.de managed root cloud is just 0,01 Euro/hour (=7,2 a month) regardless of cpu and ram as long as the ssd is less than 200gb. So that would be half the price for the smallest vps (which is priced at 14,40 a month), but much more less for bigger machines.
Before you open a support ticket here at LET, please confirm with the provider if they don't charge you even if you have the vps exists in your account.
On our platform at LunaNode you can "shelve" a VM to de-allocate it from a hypervisor, and only pay for storage ($0.03/GB/mo) and IP ($1/mo) costs. If you don't need the IP address, you can de-associate that from your account too. Details at https://www.lunanode.com/guides/shelve
Our primary location is in Toronto but we have a secondary location with OVH in Roubaix, FR.
(Shelving is roughly equivalent to taking a snapshot and deleting the original VM, but it is automated so it's just a couple clicks.)
I'm glad that you mentioned this. Customers who don't delete their instances with us are often surprised when they receive an invoice. If you do not delete one of our cloud servers, we assume you must want to keep it. (We can't just go through customers' accounts and delete stuff if we think customers might not want it.) --Katie
You can have a look at Scaleway Elements, their offer is billed per hour, and you can deploy a cloud instance in AMS, and PAR.