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VPS vs VPN: what each one is, and when a VPS is the better VPN.

A VPN subscription is the simplest way to change where your traffic leaves from. A VPS is a server you can turn into your own VPN: one address that is yours alone, in the city you pick. C1-1-25 is $9.90 a month with 1 TB of transfer included, and renews at the same price. Here is what each one is, and which to choose.

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Side by side

A subscription and a server of your own, row by row.

Commercial VPNs are described here as a category, not by brand: what holds for the whole kind of service. Our column is read from the catalogue the cart charges from.

  • What it is

    VPN subscription
    A service you subscribe to. You install its app, sign in, and your traffic leaves from one of the provider's servers
    Your own VPS
    A server you rent. It becomes a VPN when you run VPN software on it, and then it is a VPN with exactly one exit: that server

  • Getting started

    VPN subscription
    Install an app and sign in. No server, no commands
    Your own VPS
    Order, wait for the server (under an hour), run an install script, then put a config on each device. The setup is yours

  • Exit locations

    VPN subscription
    Usually many countries, and you switch between them in the app
    Your own VPS
    One city per server, chosen by you from 66 cities in 42 countries. A second exit is a second server

  • The IP address

    VPN subscription
    Usually shared with other subscribers; some services sell a dedicated address as an extra
    Your own VPS
    Dedicated: one IPv4 address that only you use, for the life of the server

  • Address reputation

    VPN subscription
    Shared with strangers, so what other subscribers do from the address reaches you too
    Your own VPS
    Only your own traffic uses it. It is a data centre address, and some services treat those differently from a home connection

  • Upkeep

    VPN subscription
    None. The provider runs the servers and updates the app
    Your own VPS
    Yours: operating system updates, the firewall and the keys. A VPN server is a small, well-trodden job, but it is a job

  • Protocols and control

    VPN subscription
    Whatever the service offers in its app
    Your own VPS
    Your choice: WireGuard, OpenVPN, Xray or Outline, and your own rules on who connects

  • A team or a commercial VPN

    VPN subscription
    Seats, devices and limits are set by the service's plan
    Your own VPS
    Users, keys and limits are yours to set. The cost is one server and its transfer allowance

  • What it costs

    VPN subscription
    A subscription priced by the service
    Your own VPS
    One server price a month, the same at renewal: C1-1-25 is $9.90. By the hour in 55 of 66 cities, which suits a test

  • Data

    VPN subscription
    Terms vary by service; read them before you rely on them
    Your own VPS
    Metered plans carry an allowance, 1 TB on C1-1-25. The Unmetered line has none, from $6.90 a month in Istanbul

Choosing

Two short lists, and the subscription goes first.

A subscription is the right answer more often than a hosting company would like to admit. Start there, and move to a server when one of the second list's points is the reason.

A VPN subscription is the right answer when

  • You want the simplest thing that works: install an app, sign in, connect.
  • You want many exit countries and to switch between them whenever you like.
  • You do not want to administer anything: no updates, no firewall, no keys to look after.
  • You need it for a short while, on a phone or a laptop, and a server would sit idle the rest of the time.

Your own VPS is the right answer when

  • You want your own dedicated IP address, one that nobody else's traffic leaves from.
  • You need the exit in a particular city, and you choose which of our 66 it is.
  • You do not want to share an address, and the reputation that comes with it, with strangers.
  • You want to run WireGuard, Xray or Outline yourself, with your own configuration and your own rules.
  • You are building a VPN for a team, or a commercial VPN for your own customers.

A worked example

What a VPN server costs here, today.

A VPN is a transfer bill with a small machine attached, so we pick the small plan with the most transfer rather than the most cores. This is the same pick the VPN page makes, read from the catalogue at render time.

The cheapest VPN server

C1-1-25 in Washington: $9.90 a month for 1 vCPU, 1 GB and 1 TB of transfer, one IPv4 address included. Month two costs the same as month one.

Deploy C1-1-25

If you want no allowance at all

The Unmetered line has no transfer allowance. Its cheapest VPN pick is U1-1 in Istanbul: $6.90 a month, billed by the month.

Deploy U1-1

How to read it. Everything your devices download through the tunnel leaves the server again on its way to them, so it counts against the plan's allowance; that is why the allowance, not the core count, is the number to look at. One core and one gigabyte carry a WireGuard server for a household or a small team. Compare the monthly figure with what you pay for a subscription today, and weigh it against the one thing a server cannot do: give you a second country without a second server.

Questions

The ones that come up after the table.

Is a VPS the same thing as a VPN?
No. A VPS is a server you rent: it has an operating system, root access and one IPv4 address. A VPN is a way of sending your traffic through another machine. Put VPN software such as WireGuard on a VPS and the server becomes your own VPN, with exactly one exit: that server's address.
Is running my own VPN cheaper than a subscription?
That depends on what you need, and we will not quote another service's price. Our side is a fixed number: the cheapest VPN pick in the catalogue is C1-1-25 at $9.90 a month with 1 TB of transfer, and it renews at the same price. A subscription is priced by its service, usually per person or per device count, and gives you many countries; one server gives you one city. If you need a single exit for a household or a team, compare the two numbers. If you need many countries, a subscription covers that and a VPS does not.
Which VPN software can I run on a VPS?
Anything that runs on Linux and needs no special hardware. People most often run WireGuard, OpenVPN, Xray (VLESS) and Outline. You get root and a browser console from the first minute, and the install steps for WireGuard are on our WireGuard page.
Do I need technical skills to run my own VPN server?
You need to be comfortable pasting commands into a terminal. A WireGuard install is a short script plus one config file per device. What a subscription does for you and a server does not is the upkeep: you apply the updates, keep the firewall sensible and look after the keys. If that sounds like a chore you will not do, a subscription is the better choice.
Can I run a VPN service for other people on your servers?
Yes. VPN servers are welcome here, personal, team and commercial alike, including services that sell access to their own authenticated users. What is not allowed is an open proxy that anyone on the internet can use without signing in; the acceptable use policy says the same in full.
Can I get several countries from one VPS?
One server has one address in one city, so a second country is a second server. We sell in 66 cities across 42 countries, and in 55 of those cities a server can be billed by the hour, which makes a short test of a second location cheap. Each server is its own plan and its own price.

Keep reading

From the decision to a running VPN.