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College Student Looking for a Dirt-Cheap VPS to Learn & Experiment
Hey LET community,
I’m a college student just getting into messing around with VPSs. I’m mainly looking for something super cheap to learn on, and maybe host a small website or run a few experiments.
I did some research, and Racknerd keeps popping up as a reliable and affordable option (especially based on Reddit reviews), but before I spend any money, I wanted to get the opinions of folks here.
Is Racknerd a solid choice for a beginner looking to tinker and learn, or are there better low-cost options I should consider? I'd prefer to stay away from Google and Oracle due to privacy and data collection reasons, but I read that they have good free-tiers.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Comments
Why spend money if you can spin up virtual machine locally at your computer?
Yeah Racknerd is a solid choice
I have a chunkserve VPS which is idling. If you want, I can transfer it for free.
Spec:
I don't know the transfer price of @Chunkserve (if it isn't free, then fee will have to be paid by you).
Next renewal date: Jan 2026.
Yearly price: $20.99
P.S. The server is not for production as it struggles in high volume traffic but for learning, experiment and small sites, it is overkill.
and this offer is for OP only.
its free afaik
then it is even better!
I remember my struggling days in Uni when I was very short on money yet wanted any server to learn, to build.... Only if I could get hold of one at that time.
@Not_Oles has given out some free VPS to students
Check his threads here and on lowendspirit
https://fossvps.org/
Wow, thanks! I'll be happy to take you up on the offer! I have some money saved up, so I'll happily cover the transfer fee if there is one.
I want to learn about running a VPS, setting up firewalls, and managing server configurations, but I’d rather not mess with forwarding ports or exposing services on my home network. I'm still very new, so I don't want to irreversibly damage something.
But the tasks you omit would be very useful to understand both networking and system administration way deeper, why would you pay someone else to not have an opportunity to gain some valuable knowledge?
I understand that setting up things like port forwarding at home would be a great learning opportunity, but I live with my parents and I don’t want to risk messing up the home network or causing issues for them. A VPS lets me experiment freely with firewalls, server configurations, bots, etc. without touching their network. Also, I think it’s closer to a “real-world” server environment, since I’ll be working on a remote system that I don’t physically control, which I believe is useful knowledge too. Correct me if I'm wrong though, I'm always looking to improve my understanding of this stuff.
@VicVega
WHERE are you located? Because you should try to find a free or cheap VPS that's at least in your continent or region.
@VicVega
Welcome to LET!
https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/208497/new-free-vps-location-alexhost-chisinau-moldova-via-fossvps/p1
Please check out the FOSSVPS website. We still have a few slots in London thanks to @dan_onlyservers!
There are a few more free offers at MetalVPS.com too.
Best wishes! Have fun!
Student + Experiments, we got you covered! DM me and share spec you looking to start with.
If you're computing student and good with web techs, join our Discord too, we usually give out some small projects to students to help them earn some extra money
I’m in the NYC metro area, which is why I was initially looking at Racknerd. That said, I don’t mind a bit of latency since this is just for learning and experimenting. I’m not planning on running anything commercial anytime soon.
Thanks, I'll be sure to check it out! Best wishes to you too.
FOSSVPS could use a US East server node.
In a few days, on the 25th, FOSSVPS will be one month old.
Right now FOSSVPS already has 26 VPSes assigned on nodes kindly donated by @fmxm (Los Angeles), OnlyServers (London), and Alexhost (Chisinau).
I have one with same spec. Mine were occasionally restarting & once vew days ago had to start it manually. Had no other complain. In other thread there's complain about support which in my experience so far they are a bit slow but always responding. Good luck on your journey.
When I was a student looking for dirt cheap VPS, I could get $1.50/year NAT offers from DeepNetSolutions. A great era for this.
There are a few efforts on this form to provide free servers in this situation, but they require more engagement on the form to prevent abuse.
I wouldn't worry about privacy on Oracle's product if you're just messing around. Are you really looking to store something sensitive on your cheap VPS?
u need approval from Dr. @emgh ---- he has to test your balls then from @yoursunny to test your study grades and makes sure your not retarded.
Hello - we've some deals at https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/206617/kvm-vps-eu-usa-free-upgrades-ipv4-64-ipv6-virtfusion-instant-setup/p1
Pricing can be as low as $2.25/mo on our 1 GB plan by pre-paying for 3 years. I understand if that's not convenient, however. Worth having a look nevertheless and feel free to reach out with any questions
At most, I’ll be hosting my own email, a simple personal website, and maybe a small project or two. Nothing sensitive like business data, this is mainly just for me to learn how all the pieces fit together (mail setup, DNS, SSL, firewalls, etc.)
I’m not too worried about providers snooping, but I do find most of the free tiers offered by these big tech firms a bit suspicious. They ask for a lot of personal info, and since nothing in the world is truly free, I figure they probably make it back by selling data to advertisers or similar.
Haha, I’m starting my first year this fall, majoring in Econ with a CS minor (so yeah, probably a bit retarded until I figure things out). Hopefully I pass both tests eventually, though I have to ask what, what exactly does the ‘ball test’ entail?
What happened when you browsed the offers sub? Maybe you could list for us what was wrong with each offer so we can better suggest something tailored to your specific need.
I was mainly trying to get a sense of which offers were best value according to the community. Based on the info I read over on Lowendbox and what I saw on Reddit, Racknerd looked like the strongest choice for the money and had the most praise. I wanted to ask here before making a final decision since I have to pay tuition and would rather pick something that works than switch providers multiple times and risk wasting money I don’t really have. I also figured that maybe someone here would know something better for less, so I figured it didn't hurt to ask.
That said, @Kuroit offered me a deal I honestly couldn’t refuse, so I’ll be thanking them for that.
Can't be put into words.
But was put in your profile picture
I want to put something into something else but I won't say what.
😅
flip burgers and pay the bill.