Best Free VPS Virtual Private Server (Cloud) providers

Having briefly discussed how to choose a virtual private server (VPS), we have experimented with a number of (hosting?) providers, some providing limited-time free service, some providing rock-bottom prices, and we are now ready to make a recommendation. We started this overview in 2020 and finished it in 2022.

Evolution Host OS choices screenshotOur previous overview, dating back to 2014, mentioned a few providers and their prices. It is fascinating to see that 128MB of RAM may have been considered sufficient even for a “learning experience”. Today’s “beginner” offers tend to be much closer to 1GB.

We have tested a number of providers, some having gone belly-up. Here’s what we learned.

EUserv

EUserv is a German provider that has been offering free IPv6 VPSs for quite a while. When we first set up our own, back in 2019 or 2020, it was completely free but often unusable because of very high loads (likely run by rules-breakers). Today, it costs a couple of euros to set up but from then on it’s free, provided that you “renew” monthly in a 5-click process. There is no tech support apart from their forum, where any request must include the server IP.

Their server was advertised at one point as:

  • Processor : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1230 V2 @ 3.30GHz
  • CPU Cores : 1
  • Frequency : 1889.025 MHz
  • Memory : 976 MB
  • Swap : 976 MB

However, the free offer is a “Vserver” with the following:

  • Processor (vCPU)         AMD/Intel
  • Frequency         1 CPU 1 Core @ 1000 MHz
  • Virtualization Type         Linux Container
  • Architecture         64Bit
  • RAM         1024 MB DDR3-RAM
  • Harddisk Type         1x 10 GB SATA
  • BIOS Type: CSM
  • Network connection    connection speed to network    1x 1 GBit/s ¹
  • Connection speed         1 GBit/s ¹
  • Bandwidth         1 TB ¹
    1 - Peak bandwidth. All servers share the connection of the host system. If the inclusive traffic is exceeded, the connection becomes capped to 1Mbit/s, if no additional traffic is purchased by customer.

The following services are advertised:

  • remote Rescue-System    24x7 SSH access without booting from harddisk
  • Remote Reboot    reboot server 24x7 via customer control panel
  • Free Reinstall    reinstall server 24x7 via customer control panel    yes
  • Free OS-Change    change operating system via customer control panel    yes
  • Reverse DNS    personalize Reverse DNS-entries of IP-addresses    yes
  • IPv4-Addresses    not provided for Vserver FREE
  • additional IPv4    1.00  EUR per IP / mo    yes, optional up to 16
  • IPv6-Addresses    free of charge    1x /128
  • additional IPv6    1.00  EUR per IP / mo    yes, optional up to 16          

The forum seems to indicate that reboot or reinstall my need support manual intervention. Also, pay orders incur a 2 Euro setup charge.

The following OSs are currently supported:

  • CentOS 6.9 - 64bit - minimal v2
  • CentOS 7 - 64bit - minimal v4
  • CentOS 8 - 64bit - minimal v4
  • Debian 10 (Buster) - 64Bit - minimal v4
  • Debian 11 (Bullseye) - 64Bit - minimal v4
  • Debian 8.8 (Jessie) - 64Bit - minimal v2
  • Debian 9.0 (Stretch) - 64Bit - minimal v2
  • Fedora 30 - 64bit - minimal v4
  • OpenSuSE Leap 42.2 - 64Bit - minimal v3
  • RockyLinux 8 - 64bit - minimal v4
  • Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS (Xenial Xerus) - 64Bit - minimal v2
  • Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) - 64Bit - minimal v4
  • Ubuntu 19.04 (Disco Dingo) - 64Bit - minimal v4
  • Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) - 64Bit - minimal v4

Again, switching OSs requires tech support manual intervention and according to the forum, it takes about 10 days for forum requests to be serviced.

Such an IPv6 server requires some serious config Kung Fu in order to become useable, since we unfortunately still live IPv4 old skule.

First, to connect TO the EUserv server from an IPv4 Windows machine, (i.e., one that does not get an IPv6 address), you need to use Teredo (ms-teredo). This will only work if you have the Pro version of Windows or higher (it won’t work on Home). If you have Windows Home (or similar), you can install Linux in VirtualBox/VMware or WSL then install and enable Miredo.

You can also use tunnelbroker.net from he.net who also provides several certifications – here’s the first “certification” (he-v6cert). Once you register and create your tunnel, you will have to perform the following:

  • netsh interface teredo set state disabled
  • netsh interface ipv6 add v6v4tunnel interface=IP6Tunnel localaddress=***.***.***.***
  • remoteaddress=216.66.38.58
  • netsh interface ipv6 add address interface=IP6Tunnel address=2001:470:1c:3e::2
  • netsh interface ipv6 add route prefix=::/0 interface=IP6Tunnel nexthop=2001:470:1c:3e::1

***.***.***.*** is your IP address which you can use later to access the tunnel and eventually modify it. Additionally,

You may also need to set an IPv6 DNS server. You can do this under Network and Sharing Center / Change Adapter Settings, select your NIC and right click for Properties, double click Internet Protocol Version 6, and enter an IPv6 DNS server, such as 2001:470:20::2.

Secondly, to enable the EUserv IPv6 server to connect to IPv4 addresses, you have to add DNS64 servers (typically) to /etc/resolve.conf. Such servers are provided by trex (trx-dns64) and more can be found in mutin’s list (gh-mtndns). If using Trex, the two lines would be

  • nameserver 2001:67c:2b0::4
  • nameserver 2001:67c:2b0::6

This last solution has a few shortcomings, but it works in most cases.

UmaxHosting and PSK

I got a pretty good deal from these guys at around $7/year. I worked for a couple of years quite alright, but they folded after having charged me for the 3rd year, without providing a refund. Some forum posts accused them of being “another Colocrossing puppet host” based off Buffalo (LET-scam).

According to that post, other scams are: alavps.com, www.finalhosting.nl, freerdpserver.com, www.freeupload.net, ohosti.com, vpswala.org.

FreeCloud

It is possible to create a free account with a major provider and use their free but limited resources to create virtual hosts. Limitations vary with each one and you run the risk of using up what’s free and getting charged.

If you feel adventurous, they list their free offers, though the limits are not always clear (ibm-free, ocl-free, azr-free, gcp-free, aws-free). For most, you will need a credit card or, at the very least, a student email address (current student status).

Evolution

When tired of “free” or “nearly free” VPS hosts, one might want to look into paying for a real one. Here's one host with the most positive reviews and reasonable prices: Evolution. Their VPS Hosting Starter plan is typically 5 Euros monthly, with the following:

  • 1 CPU Core at 4Ghz+
  • 1GB DDR4 RAM
  • 20GB NVMe SSD Storage1
  • 1Gb/s Port2
  • 10TB Monthly Transfer3
  • Advanced DDoS Protection
  • Linux Distributions (Ubuntu 14.04* 16.04* 18.04* 20.04, CentOS 6.9* 7.7 8.0, Debian 8.7 9.4 10 11, Fedora 21 27, OpenSUSE 15.1, Scientific 7.4, Windows Server 2021R2 2016 2019; *x86)
  • Europe (Frankfurt, London, Warsaw, Helsinki, Roubaix, Strasbourg), US (Dallas, Virginia, Hillsboro), Canada (Montreal) and Asia (Singapore) locations

(As noted before, in low memory (RAM)/ low storage situations an x86 OS may perform better than its x64 version, though they are slowly disappearing; some small limitations in some locations.)

There are also more expensive plans and certain features are customizable - we could not try any of their plans nor have we been paid for mentioning them.

Whatever you choose, it is unlikely that you will be able to “mine crypto” or use TOR with a free or low cost VPS, but you can certainly use one for development or testing purposes.

Sources / More info: wiki-vps, eus-forum, vs2-free-euserv, ms-teredo, he-v6cert, trx-dns64, gh-mtndns, LET-scam, LET-vs2, ibm-free, ocl-free, azr-free, gcp-free, aws-free

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