Four US budget plans in the same price band
RackNerd, CloudCone, BuyVM and Hostwinds entry plans compared on price, transfer, IPv6 evidence and backup terms.
Recorded data: 2026-10-25 · Comparison question: What do US-focused entry plans actually differ on when the monthly price is similar?
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RackNerd 1 GB KVM VPSRackNerd | 17.99 USD ($17.99) | 17.99 USD ($17.99) | $17.99 | $0.00 | 2 | 1024 MB | 50 GB ssd | 1000 GB | yes | unknown | 1 | 2026-10-24 |
| CloudCone SC2 StarterCloudCone | 5.20 USD ($5.20) | 5.20 USD ($5.20) | $5.20 | $0.00 | 1 | 1024 MB | 20 GB ssd | 3000 GB | yes | yes (price unknown) | 1 | 2026-10-25 |
| 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 |
| Hostwinds 1 GB Unmanaged Linux VPSHostwinds | 4.99 USD ($4.99) | 4.99 USD ($4.99) | $4.99 | $0.00 | 1 | 1024 MB | 30 GB ssd | 1000 GB | unknown | yes (price unknown) | 3 | 2026-10-24 |
Scope: Entry plans recorded on 2026-10-24/25. Prices are listed monthly USD; backup and address fields only where the provider stated them.
Price and billing
All four plans sit in a narrow monthly price band, but billing terms differ. BuyVM's 1 GB slice is monthly at the recorded price; the smallest BuyVM slice is annual-only and is excluded here because it is not comparable. RackNerd, CloudCone and Hostwinds publish straightforward monthly prices.
Renewal prices are recorded separately where the provider states them. A near-identical listed price can hide a different renewal, so the 12-month planning column is the fairer comparison.
Transfer and port speed
CloudCone and RackNerd publish metered transfer allowances, Hostwinds publishes a transfer figure per plan, and BuyVM describes unmetered bandwidth without a published port speed for slices. Unlimited language is not evidence of a large usable allowance.
If your workload moves more than a few terabytes per month, confirm the port speed and the fair-use policy with the provider rather than relying on the plan card.
Addresses and IPv6
BuyVM documents an IPv6 /48 per KVM slice, CloudCone includes three IPv6 addresses, and Hostwinds does not state address assignment on the captured plan pages. RackNerd's captured pages also leave IPv6 unstated.
For a dual-stack requirement, only the documented providers can be treated as candidates; the others remain unknown rather than assumed.
Backups and add-ons
BuyVM sells backups at a percentage of the base price with a minimum; CloudCone sells backups at a percentage add-on and snapshots per gigabyte; Hostwinds sells backup as a separate product; RackNerd's captured pages do not state backup availability.
Add the published add-on price to the monthly cost before comparing. Where the price is unknown, record it as a gap rather than zero.
Limits of this comparison
- No independent performance measurement exists for any of these plans.
- RackNerd and Hostwinds address/backup fields were unpublished on the captured pages.
- Stock for budget plans can change quickly; the recorded observation date is shown with the table.
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
- Datacentershttps://www.racknerd.com/datacenters
- KVM VPS Planshttps://www.racknerd.com/kvm-vps
- CloudCone - Automated Backupshttps://cloudcone.com/backups/
- CloudCone - Scalable Cloud Compute (SC2)https://cloudcone.com/cloud-servers/
- CloudCone - Snapshotshttps://cloudcone.com/snapshots/
- BuyVM - Dedicated KVM Slice Servershttps://buyvm.net/kvm-dedicated-server-slices/
- Frantech/BuyVM Wiki - KVM networkinghttps://wiki.buyvm.net/doku.php/kvm
- Hostwinds Data Centershttps://www.hostwinds.com/company/datacenters
- Unmanaged Linux VPS Hostinghttps://www.hostwinds.com/vps/unmanaged-linux
Table values come from these recorded provider sources; the editorial analysis above adds no facts beyond them. Unknown means the field was not published.