Backup terms compared: percentage, fixed add-on and included
DigitalOcean, Linode, Hostinger and BuyVM backup terms compared on price structure, retention and what you still need to add.
Recorded data: 2026-10-25 · Comparison question: Which backup model fits a small production service, and what does each one leave out?
Current recorded data
Rows are generated from the verified catalog snapshot at build time. Unknown means the provider did not publish the field; it is not zero.
| Plan | Listed monthly price | Renewal monthly price | Planning figure | Setup fee | vCPU | RAM | Storage | Traffic | IPv6 | Backups | regions | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DigitalOcean Basic 2 GBDigitalOcean | 12.00 USD ($12.00) | 12.00 USD ($12.00) | $12.00 | $0.00 | 1 | 2048 MB | 50 GB ssd | 2000 GB | yes | yes ($2.40/mo) | 10 | 2026-10-24 |
| Linode 2 GBAkamai Cloud (Linode) | 12.00 USD ($12.00) | 12.00 USD ($12.00) | $12.00 | $0.00 | 1 | 2048 MB | 50 GB ssd | 2000 GB | yes | yes ($2.50/mo) | 11 | 2026-10-24 |
| Hostinger KVM 1Hostinger | 19.49 USD ($19.49) | 11.99 USD ($11.99) | $11.99 | $0.00 | 1 | 4096 MB | 50 GB nvme | 4000 GB | unknown | yes ($0.00/mo) | 2 | 2026-10-24 |
| BuyVM Slice 1024BuyVM | 3.50 USD ($3.50) | 3.50 USD ($3.50) | $3.50 | $0.00 | 1 | 1024 MB | 20 GB ssd | unknown | yes | yes (price unknown) | 3 | 2026-10-24 |
Scope: Backup terms captured on 2026-10-24/25; retention and price only where the provider states them.
Three pricing models
DigitalOcean charges a percentage of the Droplet price for weekly or daily backups. Linode publishes a fixed monthly add-on per plan size. Hostinger includes weekly backups in the plan. BuyVM charges a percentage of the base price with a monthly minimum.
Percentage models scale with the plan; fixed models do not. At entry prices the differences are small, but the structure matters when you resize.
Retention is the hidden variable
A weekly backup with short retention is not equivalent to a daily backup with longer retention. The captured sources state schedules where published but not always retention windows; where retention is unstated, it is recorded as unknown.
Decide the longest recovery window you need before comparing prices; a cheaper add-on with a shorter window may not meet it.
What none of them replace
Provider backups live inside the provider account. An account suspension or a ransomware event that compromises the account can take them with it. An off-provider copy and a tested restore drill remain necessary for data you cannot rebuild.
This comparison covers price and published terms only; it does not measure restore speed or reliability.
Choosing a model
For a small site with a rebuildable stack, an included weekly backup plus source-controlled configuration may be enough. For a store or a database, choose the plan whose backup product you can afford monthly and add an encrypted off-provider copy on the same schedule.
Test a restore on a staging instance before relying on any of these options in production.
Limits of this comparison
- Retention windows were unstated for several providers in the captured pages.
- No restore-time or restore-success measurements are published in this dataset.
- Backup prices can change with the plan size; the table shows the recorded observation date.
Facts come from provider-published sources recorded in the catalog. Independent performance, support and reliability measurements are not available, so this comparison does not rank those dimensions.
Sources behind the table
- DigitalOcean Backups pricinghttps://docs.digitalocean.com/products/backups/details/pricing/
- DigitalOcean Droplet pricinghttps://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/droplets
- How to enable IPv6 on Dropletshttps://docs.digitalocean.com/products/networking/ipv6/how-to/enable/
- DigitalOcean regional availabilityhttps://docs.digitalocean.com/platform/regional-availability/
- Manage IP addresses on a Linodehttps://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/managing-ip-addresses-on-a-compute-instance
- Linode API — List regionshttps://api.linode.com/v4/regions
- Linode API — List Linode typeshttps://api.linode.com/v4/linode/types
- Hostinger VPS hosting — KVM planshttps://www.hostinger.com/vps-hosting
- BuyVM - Dedicated KVM Slice Servershttps://buyvm.net/kvm-dedicated-server-slices/
- Frantech/BuyVM Wiki - KVM networkinghttps://wiki.buyvm.net/doku.php/kvm
Table values come from these recorded provider sources; the editorial analysis above adds no facts beyond them. Unknown means the field was not published.