Why every provider is raising prices at the same time
The increase isn't the result of an isolated commercial strategy: it's structural. Demand for RAM (DRAM) and NVMe flash storage has surged with the wave of AI model deployments in datacenters. OVHcloud itself put a number on this pressure: RAM costs could rise 250 to 300% by the end of 2026 compared to September 2025 (OVHcloud official blog, March 2026). Mid-sized European providers, buying at volumes too small to negotiate long-term contracts with memory manufacturers, absorb this pressure head-on. The outcome is mechanical: margins on entry-level plans collapse, and catalog revisions follow. This isn't a coincidence of timing — it's the same market signal being read simultaneously by all players in the industry.
What this increase actually changes for you
- Your bill goes up without your server changing — the spec stays the same, only the renewal price changes.
- Promotional entry prices no longer reflect real costs — the gap between launch price and renewal price has widened at several providers, Hostinger being a leading example (KVM 1: $6.49 promo vs $11.99 at renewal).
- Comparing list prices is no longer enough — you need to look at the renewal rate and the provider's contractual pricing policy.
- Legacy ranges are sometimes ring-fenced — OVHcloud protected its Eco ranges (Kimsufi, So You Start) during the April 2026 increase, offering a stability window for existing customers.
- The resources-to-price ratio needs reassessing — a provider offering 4 GB RAM for €5 is no longer competitive if that same server now costs €8.
- Migration has hidden costs — switchover time, DNS reconfiguration, potential service interruption, and TLS certificate updates all factor into the equation.
- Contractual price stability becomes a selection criterion — some providers guarantee their prices for 12 or 24 months.
The confirmed numbers: what actually changed
Three major moves marked the first half of 2026. On 1 April 2026, Hetzner (for new orders and existing contracts alike) and OVHcloud raised their price grids: OVHcloud's VPS-1 went from €4.49 to €6.49/month excl. VAT, an increase of about 45%. Higher-tier VPS plans followed the same trajectory — the VPS-4 went from €24.99 to €36.99/month excl. VAT. Hetzner applied a second revision on 15 June 2026, to new orders and rescales: in Germany and Finland, the CX and CAX cloud ranges increased 30 to 38%, while the CPX (+144 to +175%) and CCX (+113 to +173%) ranges saw much larger jumps (the CCX13 went from €15.99 to €42.99/month excl. VAT). Hostinger, for its part, lists a renewal rate well above its entry price. These three movements are enough to characterize the phenomenon: this is not a one-off adjustment by an isolated player. Several comparison articles were published on third-party sites in 2026 to list alternatives (including Eldernode and NoackHosting), signalling measurable editorial momentum on the topic.
VPS provider comparison after the 2026 price increases
Scroll the table
| Provider | 2026 pricing movement | Key watch points |
|---|---|---|
| Hetzner | +30 to +38% on CX and CAX, +144 to +175% on CPX (15 June 2026, DE/FI) · dedicated CCX range up to +173% | Still among the lowest prices in Europe after the increase · no managed options · limited geo coverage (DE, FI, US, SG) |
| OVHcloud | VPS-1: €4.49 → €6.49/month excl. VAT (+45%) on 1 April 2026 · Eco range protected | Eco range (Kimsufi, So You Start) untouched · global network · support varies by plan |
| Hostinger | Renewal well above the entry price (KVM 1: $6.49 → $11.99/month, 24-month term) | Check the renewal price, not the launch price · EU datacenter available · proprietary panel |
| Contabo | Setup fee on some plans with a one-month term (new orders since 3 November 2026), attributed to the cost of RAM | Strong RAM-to-price ratio for memory-intensive workloads · shared CPU · less documented SLA |
| DigitalOcean / Vultr | Check base-plan grids by region · no general increase quantified here | USD pricing · global network · mature API · integrated snapshots and firewalls |
| ServOrbit VPS Cloud | Contractually stable pricing · transparent range from 99 DH/month | Full root access · dedicated IPv4 · OS choice · Marketplace templates · human support included |
The method for comparing without being misled
When faced with a pricing grid, three habits help avoid misleading comparisons. First, always look at the renewal price, not the launch price: a €2/month offer renewed at €12/month is more expensive over a year than a stable €6/month plan. Second, normalize each price per vCPU and per GB of RAM allocated — entry-level offerings vary from 512 MB to 4 GB at similar price points. Finally, check the contractual policy: some providers guarantee a price for the full subscription period, others reserve the right to revise the grid at any time with 30 days' notice. For a production project, that last clause fundamentally changes the level of budget risk.
Evaluating a provider switch in 6 steps
Calculate the real cost over 24 months
Multiply the renewal rate (not the launch rate) by 24. Add the estimated migration cost: configuration time, potential double billing during the switchover, and the cost of a dedicated IP if you change provider.
Inventory your stack
List everything running: applications, databases, mail services, TLS certificates. Identify dependencies on a fixed IP (DNS records, client firewall rules, third-party API authorizations).
Test the new provider in parallel
Provision a test server at the candidate provider. Deploy your stack with
docker compose up -dor your usual tooling. Benchmark network performance withiperf3 -c <test-server-ip>and disk I/O withdd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/test bs=1M count=1024 oflag=dsync.Validate network coverage to your users
Run
traceroute <new-ip>from multiple geographic points. A less well-connected datacenter can increase latency beyond what the price increase was costing you.Plan the DNS migration with a short TTL
48 hours before the cutover, lower the TTL on your A/AAAA records to
300seconds. On switchover night, update the records. For the next 24 hours, keep the old server active in read-only mode to absorb requests from slow resolvers.Check TLS certificates and firewall rules
After migration, test each entry point with
curl -I https://your-domain.com. Reviewufworiptablesrules — they often contain IP allowlists from the old datacenter that need updating.
If your workload is predictable and you don't need immediate scalability, an annual plan with a guaranteed rate is almost always cheaper than a monthly plan, even after a price increase. Explicitly ask your provider whether the subscribed rate is guaranteed until renewal or whether it can be revised mid-period.
When staying put is the right decision
The most common objection to a price increase is a fair one: if all providers are raising prices, migrating saves nothing on cost. But it deserves qualification. Migrating to escape a 20% increase rarely makes sense if the migration itself costs two weeks of work. Staying is rational in three situations: your current provider remains competitive after the increase relative to alternatives, you have a guaranteed rate until the end of your contract period, or your stack depends on a feature specific to that datacenter (network peering, dedicated range, geolocated IP for a regulatory requirement). Staying out of inertia, however — without having compared — exposes you to a silent drift in your server budget over several years.
Troubleshooting: common errors during a VPS migration
A rushed migration produces predictable incidents. Here are the most common, with their symptoms and fixes.
What the price hikes reveal about choosing a provider
The 2026 increases have made visible two criteria that often went unnoticed in price comparisons: contractual pricing stability and transparency about structural costs. A provider that explains why its prices are rising — and that protects certain ranges during the transition — behaves differently from one that sends a notification email 30 days before the renewal deadline. At equal specs, these behaviors are signals about the quality of the relationship over time. Next time you evaluate a VPS, add a 'pricing policy' column to your comparison grid, alongside the vCPU/RAM/price ratio.
