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Free VPS for Open Source Developers
msatt
Member, Host Rep
Free VPS for Open Source Developers
Now that the Black Friday Frenzy is over settle down with a Free **Open Source Software Virtual Private Server.
Absolutely FREE, no catches, no credits, no price bumps.
Server locations and end dates are always on our website at https://fossvps.org and are currently :-
- UK Fareham courtesy of Onlyservers till 25th January 2026
- US Buffalo Courtesy of MSATT till 22nd November 2026
- Romania Bucharest courtesy of Hosteroid till 6th March 2026
- Moldova Chisinau courtesy of Alexhost till 30th January 2026
Rules for a free VPS
Free and open source software developers only.
White hat only, Not for commercial use, No service level agreement but we are good. Ephemeral. Could disappear at any moment! Don't be a dick rules, No excessive high cpu, disk or bandwidth
Clueless™ Administrator!
If you would like a VPS, just complete this form asking what you are developing and preferably some links to your previous developments.
Warnings
- Multiple registrations will get you banned
- Good reputation on this forum (no history, no server - sorry)
- Failing to accept the verification email will lock you out from re-applying
- Email address (purely for admin emails), don't make a request if you wish to be anonymous
Acceptance will give you 2 VCPU, 4GiB Ram, 64GiB hdd and provide NAT + IPv6 /96 access with either Ubuntu, Debian or Alpine in your preferred location. The servers won't last forever (check website) but we will always give you as much notice as possible, it all depends on our fantastic donors.
Comments
We genuinely want to support the community, so want to hear your views as to what we could be doing better.
This is a great opportunity for anyone not experienced with IPv6 to start playing. Don't worry you still have NAT IPv4 so have access to the server.
For my use, I install zerotier inside the vm which gives it a v4 address on my private network. Then all the vms at other locations are able to communicate with each other securely. They could of course be doing this using v6 but its all about creating secure networks etc.
I am also considering building a FOSSVPS reverse proxy to map to your vm port 80 / 443.
Also considering providing free domain name mapped to vm.
But without your support and feedback none of this is going to happen and our great donors will also lose interest.
My key point anyone registering needs to trust us and we need to trust you so this is not an anonymous service.
I wonder how big the demand is. Even though your offer is generous everyone and their mother is loaded with some $7-10/year cheap deals based on Black Friday and similar threads. Perhaps the ephemeral nature is less attractive. Or the actual FOSS practicing students who would like to learn and can't afford to buy their own VPS don't visit LET.
Fair points.
However that was why I just introduced our US server which I am personally paying for. I paid for a year in advance to make things easier for people but did not want to make a song and dance about it
✅ Service Update — Backend & DNS Improvements Completed Yesterday
Here’s a summary of the backend and DNS development work completed yesterday for int.yt:
🛠️ Backend Improvements
1️⃣ Migrated backend to a new PostgreSQL setup
Installed and configured PostgreSQL 16
Created new database + role for the backend
Fixed schema ownership and permissions
Imported existing tables (users, sessions, subdomains)
Added missing columns (created_at, updated_at)
Verified full database connectivity from the backend
Result:
✔️ Database migrations clean
✔️ All backend features functioning normally
2️⃣ PowerDNS & DNS Management Enhancements
PowerDNS configuration
Reconfigured PowerDNS authoritative server
Updated API authentication
Verified all DNS zone operations via dnsedit.py
Zone & record updates
Added/replaced:
MX records for ImprovMX
SPF TXT record
Verification TXT record
Confirmed zone propagation and correct formatting for TXT/MX entries
Ensured backend → PDNS sync works for subdomain creation
Result:
✔️ DNS updates apply instantly
✔️ Email forwarding integrations work with proper MX/SPF
✔️ DNS scripting and API communication stable
3️⃣ Backend API environment updates
Updated .env with:
New DATABASE_URL
PowerDNS API URL + key
Correct server IPs for A/NS records
Verified:
/health endpoint
Login + signup
Subdomain creation flow
Session handling
Result:
✔️ Backend is running with clean config
✔️ DNS + DB features validated end-to-end
4️⃣ General stability improvements
Cleaned up database permissions
Standardized DNS record formatting
Tested dynamic subdomain creation end-to-end
Over all FOSSVPS is great for non-profit VPS performance is very good
THX to FOSSVPS
INTENT FREE DOMAIN
https://int.yt/
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
THX to FOSSVPS
Great to hear your comment. Thank you for joining and hopefully your project will keep on growing which is what we are here for.
Mike
Have had a number of requests without any reputation. We really want to have as many clients as possible benefitting from these free VMs but this rule is important.
@hottyrespect Viewing your (great) website, the things you are doing are of benefit to the community (thank you). I wonder if it is worth considering some collaboration between FOSSVPS and int.yt?
I mentioned earlier
Would this sort of thing be of interest to your project and our community?
Yeah sure
We are open for collaboration
Can you please explain clearly what type of collaboration in detail
Lets see what we can sort out together. @hottyrespect sent you an email
Anyone else have suggestions for improvements, sponsorship or help please let us know, we really want your views.
Mike
yeah sure
Beautiful to see a collab on the first page of the thread haha.
My Alexhost VPS has been working flawlessly both before and after the Proxmox migration; better than some other paid VPS actually.
Eternally grateful for this service, I hope the runtime will be extended
Thank you for your kind comments. Your feedback really encourage us to continue the work.
Though I am a volunteer in this project, my comments would not be fair to you guys, but I think that is true, FOSSVPS just works flawlessly.
Thank you @zejjnt, @Alexhost / FOSSVPS
We hope they will keep their sponsorship as it really is appreciated.
This is a community and the more we work together the better it becomes for everyone.
Registrations are still open.
Been having some 'internal' discussions and interested in your views.
Thanks for your time, your comments will shape how we move forward.
Mike
As I am behind CGNAT at home the odds are against me from the start -.-
It would be nice if I had to stop doing that some time during my life lol; snapshots are awesome
Comments I have received (elsewhere) say -
Get rid of 'Ephemeral. Could disappear at any moment!' - now that I am paying for a server this statement is no longer completely true. We have this statement as we don't know what our other very kind donors will decide for the future. One thing for certain is when we know, you will know.
Get rid of 'Clueless™ Administrator!' - This is a remnant from when Tom was running the service and I know that he is certainly not clueless and nor am I. So going forward it won't be mentioned.
Another comment was 'There is nothing free. You either pay with money or with your data' - this is something I STRONGLY disagree with. This is free and your data is your own. We / I have no interest. We trust you are Open Source and your data / projects are your own.
I want the community to benefit from this, I can only afford one server so we really need our very kind donors and plenty of support.
Thanks
Mike
Thanks for the comments they are appreciated
1 - Trust is important, which is why I am being as open as possible. Not sure most companies would be the same.
2 - Coincidentally I am also behind a CGNAT at home. (Please excuse me if you are already doing this or similar) - my main router runs OpenWRT and has zerotier installed. All of my VPSs have zerotier installed so I can access everything over a VPN. It does not matter if the VPS is IPv6, static IPv4 or NAT as long as it can talk to the internet the VPN works. Also any firewall blocks don't matter as zerotier is on the VPS. It really is a good solution.
Of course I appreciate things like web access so I use NPM (nginx proxy manager) which also has the VPN so NPM proxies all of my sites e.g. Proxmox etc providing ssl and acl controls.
3 - Totally understand about low cost / free and limited service. However I do have the storage and like you understand how to backup. As we are using Proxmox it has PBS (Proxmox Backup Server) which makes it extremely simple to automate the backup system. I was thinking that perhaps having a backup taken every two days. PBS only records changes on backup, so keeping a weekly and monthly backup does not create a big overhead.
I would really like to create a dashboard to allow snapshot control (using Proxmox API) but I simply don't have the time or enough expertise. So afraid that option would be 'soon'
HTH all the best
Mike
Hi @msatt
Thanks for your great help. I got the VPS located at Moldova from you.
I think I made a wrong request about Ip config. I should pick Static IP4 instead, given that KiwiPanel is a web-based VPS manager.
Could you please assign a static IP4 to the VPS.
Project https://github.com/kiwipanel/kiwipanel
Cheer
Vuong ([email protected])
Much quicker to re-register and choose the correct option. I have removed the lockout (allowing re-registration) and everything will be built correctly.
Have fun with your panel.
Mike
Thanks Mike, got the updated one with ip4.
I have been busy and wanted to say, we are getting into alpha testing of a big new feature at FOSSVPS giving our NAT users some great benefits.... Won't say more apart from you should have it 'soon' (New Year or earlier).
Happy Christmas / Holidays everyone.
Mike
Unable to access your website.
Error code: SEC_ERROR_REVOKED_CERTIFICATE
Browser blocked your visit to this site because the certificate provided for fossvps has been revoked and isn't trusted anymore.
Thanks @DewlanceVPS - I am puzzled. I can only assume there is some caching issue. The cert is fine and checked locally and externally. There have been some re-issuing recently so a stale cache seems the most likely problem.
Mike
Found this: https://certificate.revocationcheck.com/fossvps.org
@cmeerw Thanks - need some help. Not really sure I understand what that link is saying - is it a Cloudflare problem (which we don't use)?
http://e8.c.lencr.org/6.crl contains a revocation record (use
openssl crl -in 6.crl -text -noouton that file):(and that's the fossvps.org certificate)
but not sure why it got revoked.
@cmeerw Thanks again.
Perhaps me being stupid - if I had two sites both containing *.fossvps.org certs could that create a revocation?
If you generated a new wildcard when you setup the 2nd site, perhaps you revoked the one in use on the 1st site. Should be easy to compare them and see.
Not being stupid, none of us were born knowing this stuff man.
Very kind / polite
Only requested creation of cert (done by Nginx Proxy Manager) - no idea about revocation.
As the certs are on different VMs they would not be the same but I would assume they should both be valid? Or does letsencrypt only allow the latest cert to be valid and revokes others?
Honestly I haven't touched LetsEncrypt in a while, but I have a vague memory that there was a switch or flag when you wanted to use a duplicate of an existing cert vs. generating a new one (and .. I'd think? would revoke the existing?). I'm old and my memory is suspect and you're probably not even using the tooling I was at the time, so grain of salt etc.
I'm surprised and vaguely annoyed that people who might have a better idea aren't chiming in.
If nothing else look at the certs on both servers (even via browser, whatever) and compare in case I'm babbling nonsense in my old age and wasting your time.