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Run your business lean

Where to host a small business site without overpaying

Ten hosts, three realistic scenarios, one monthly bill each. Every price was read on the vendor's own page on 10 November 2026.

English page · this comparison has not been translated yet.

The short answer

Start on Cloudflare Pages for a website and Railway for an app. Move to a plain server when bandwidth or always-on servers become most of your bill and someone will patch it every month.

A brochure website costs $0 a month on Cloudflare Pages. A small app with a Postgres database costs about $16.75 a month on Railway.

A plain server (VPS) from $4.54 a month runs the same app, but it needs about 8 hours to set up and 2 hours a month to keep patched and backed up. That only pays off when your managed bill is regularly over about $50 a month, mostly from bandwidth or servers that run all the time, and there is a person who will do the upkeep.

The rule of thumb is our judgement from the numbers below, not a vendor claim.

  • Brochure site with a contact form

    Use a free static host. Cloudflare Pages and Netlify Free both cost $0. A VPS costs $4.54 to $11.99 a month plus upkeep, and Vercel's free plan is not allowed for business use, so Vercel starts at $20.

  • Small SaaS or booking app with Postgres

    Start on Railway ($16.75) or Cloudflare Workers with Supabase ($30.12). A VPS is cheaper in cash ($4.54 on OVHcloud VPS) but costs about 8 hours to set up and 2 hours a month. The most expensive option here is Fly.io at $47.30.

  • A site that went viral

    Bandwidth decides this one. Cloudflare charges nothing for egress, so the spike costs $5.20. A VPS with included traffic costs $8.50 to $24. Platforms that bill per GB go to $323.21 (Vercel), $440 (Netlify) and $474.25 (Render).

Scenario

Brochure site with a contact form

A five-page business website, a contact form and about 5,000 visits a month.

Assumptions

  • 5,000 visits a month, about 400 KB each: 2 GB of outbound data
  • 50,000 requests a month, almost all static files
  • 100 contact-form posts a month, each 5 ms of CPU
  • 4 site updates (deploys) a month
  • No database

Verdict: Use a free static host. Cloudflare Pages and Netlify Free both cost $0. A VPS costs $4.54 to $11.99 a month plus upkeep, and Vercel's free plan is not allowed for business use, so Vercel starts at $20.

Brochure site with a contact form: monthly cost

US dollars a month, cheapest first. Linear scale from $0.

Plain server (VPS): add your own time Managed platform

  1. Cloudflare Workers & Pages, managed platform$0
  2. Netlify, managed platform$0
  3. Fly.io, managed platform$2.23
  4. OVHcloud VPS, plain server$4.54
  5. Railway, managed platform$5
  6. DigitalOcean, plain server$6
  7. Hetzner Cloud, plain server$6.72
  8. Render, managed platform$7
  9. Hostinger VPS, plain server$11.99
  10. Vercel, managed platform$20
How each total is made up

  • Cloudflare Workers & Pages: $0 (Free)

    Free plan (static files free and unlimited) $0

    Your time: about 1 h to set up, 0.25 h a month. Static files and egress are not charged; only requests that run code count.

  • Netlify: $0 (Free)

    Free plan (300 credits) $0

    Your time: about 1 h to set up, 0.25 h a month. About 111 credits a month at Netlify's published credit rates. Free has a hard cap: if a busy month uses up the credits, the site goes offline until the next month.

  • Fly.io: $2.23 (shared-cpu-1x, 256 MB)

    shared-cpu-1x, 256 MB $2.19 · Outbound data (North America / Europe) $0.04

    Your time: about 2 h to set up, 0.25 h a month. Fly runs your app as a container you configure, so expect a little more setup than a push-to-deploy platform.

  • OVHcloud VPS: $4.54 (VPS-1)

    VPS-1 $4.54

    Your time: about 3 h to set up, 1 h a month. Shown as a "from" price.

  • Railway: $5 (Hobby)

    Hobby plan $5 · App CPU $0.40 · App memory $1 · Egress $0.10 · Included $5 of usage −$1.50

    Your time: about 1 h to set up, 0.25 h a month. Usage is an estimate of average load; Railway bills what the containers really use, per second.

  • DigitalOcean: $6 (Basic Droplet, 1 vCPU / 1 GiB)

    Basic Droplet, 1 vCPU / 1 GiB $6

    Your time: about 3 h to set up, 1 h a month.

  • Hetzner Cloud: $6.72 (CX23 (Cost-Optimized, EU))

    CX23 (Cost-Optimized, EU) $6.72

    Your time: about 3 h to set up, 1 h a month. EU locations only (Nuremberg, Helsinki, Falkenstein). Shown as "currently unavailable" on 2026-11-10.

  • Render: $7 (Starter web service)

    Starter web service (Hobby workspace) $7

    Your time: about 1 h to set up, 0.25 h a month. The Hobby workspace includes only 5 GB of bandwidth; the rest is billed at $0.15/GB.

  • Hostinger VPS: $11.99 (KVM 1)

    KVM 1 $11.99

    Your time: about 3 h to set up, 1 h a month. $6.49/month only when you pay 24 months upfront ($155.76); renews at $11.99/month. We use the renewal price.

  • Vercel: $20 (Pro)

    Pro plan, 1 seat $20

    Your time: about 1 h to set up, 0.25 h a month. The free Hobby plan is for non-commercial use only, so a business needs Pro.

Scenario

Small SaaS or booking app with Postgres

A booking or subscription app with about 10,000 monthly users and a 2 GB Postgres database.

Assumptions

  • 10,000 monthly users, 300,000 page views: 60 GB of outbound data
  • 1.5 million requests a month, 1 million of them hitting server code
  • 36 ms of CPU per server request (10 CPU-hours a month)
  • 2 GB of Postgres data on a 5 GB disk; 40 deploys a month
  • One developer seat

Verdict: Start on Railway ($16.75) or Cloudflare Workers with Supabase ($30.12). A VPS is cheaper in cash ($4.54 on OVHcloud VPS) but costs about 8 hours to set up and 2 hours a month. The most expensive option here is Fly.io at $47.30.

Small SaaS or booking app with Postgres: monthly cost

US dollars a month, cheapest first. Linear scale from $0.

Plain server (VPS): add your own time Managed platform

  1. OVHcloud VPS, plain server$4.54
  2. Hetzner Cloud, plain server$8.06
  3. Hostinger VPS, plain server$11.99
  4. Railway, managed platform$16.75
  5. DigitalOcean, plain server$28.80
  6. Cloudflare Workers & Pages, managed platform$30.12
  7. Render, managed platform$35.75
  8. Netlify, managed platform$45
  9. Vercel, managed platform$45
  10. Fly.io, managed platform$47.30
How each total is made up

  • OVHcloud VPS: $4.54 (VPS-1)

    VPS-1 $4.54

    Your time: about 8 h to set up, 2 h a month. Postgres runs on the same server; you install, update and back it up. Shown as a "from" price.

  • Hetzner Cloud: $8.06 (CX23 (Cost-Optimized, EU))

    CX23 (Cost-Optimized, EU) $6.72 · Automatic backups $1.34

    Your time: about 8 h to set up, 2 h a month. Postgres runs on the same server; you install, update and back it up. EU locations only (Nuremberg, Helsinki, Falkenstein). Shown as "currently unavailable" on 2026-11-10.

  • Hostinger VPS: $11.99 (KVM 1)

    KVM 1 $11.99

    Your time: about 8 h to set up, 2 h a month. Postgres runs on the same server; you install, update and back it up. $6.49/month only when you pay 24 months upfront ($155.76); renews at $11.99/month. We use the renewal price.

  • Railway: $16.75 (Hobby, app + Postgres)

    Hobby plan $5 · App CPU $2 · App memory $5 · Postgres CPU $1 · Postgres memory $5 · Postgres volume $0.75 · Egress $3 · Included $5 of usage −$5

    Your time: about 3 h to set up, 0.5 h a month. Usage is an estimate of average load; Railway bills what the containers really use, per second.

  • DigitalOcean: $28.80 (Basic Droplet, 2 vCPU / 4 GiB)

    Basic Droplet, 2 vCPU / 4 GiB $24 · Weekly backups $4.80

    Your time: about 8 h to set up, 2 h a month. Postgres runs on the same server; you install, update and back it up.

  • Cloudflare Workers & Pages: $30.12 (Workers Paid + Supabase Pro (Micro compute))

    Workers Paid $5 · CPU time over 30M ms $0.12 · Supabase Pro (Micro compute) $25

    Your time: about 3 h to set up, 0.5 h a month. Static files and egress are not charged; only requests that run code count. The database is Supabase Pro (Micro compute): 2 GB of data is over the Free plan's 500 MB, and Free projects pause after a week idle.

  • Render: $35.75 (Starter web service + Postgres Basic-1gb)

    Starter web service (Hobby workspace) $7 · Postgres Basic-1gb $19 · Postgres storage $1.50 · Bandwidth over the included amount $8.25

    Your time: about 3 h to set up, 0.5 h a month. The Hobby workspace includes only 5 GB of bandwidth; the rest is billed at $0.15/GB.

  • Netlify: $45 (Pro + Supabase Pro (Micro compute))

    Pro plan (3,000 credits) $20 · Supabase Pro (Micro compute) $25

    Your time: about 3 h to set up, 0.5 h a month. About 2,600 credits a month at Netlify's published credit rates. The database is Supabase Pro (Micro compute): 2 GB of data is over the Free plan's 500 MB, and Free projects pause after a week idle.

  • Vercel: $45 (Pro + Supabase Pro (Micro compute))

    Pro plan, 1 seat $20 · Function invocations $0.60 · Active CPU $1.28 · Provisioned memory $0.53 · Included $20 usage credit −$2.41 · Supabase Pro (Micro compute) $25

    Your time: about 3 h to set up, 0.5 h a month. The free Hobby plan is for non-commercial use only, so a business needs Pro. The database is Supabase Pro (Micro compute): 2 GB of data is over the Free plan's 500 MB, and Free projects pause after a week idle.

  • Fly.io: $47.30 (shared-cpu-1x, 1 GB + Managed Postgres)

    shared-cpu-1x, 1 GB $6.70 · Managed Postgres Basic $38 · Postgres storage $1.40 · Outbound data (North America / Europe) $1.20

    Your time: about 4 h to set up, 0.5 h a month. Fly runs your app as a container you configure, so expect a little more setup than a push-to-deploy platform.

Scenario

A site that went viral

A marketing site that gets 2 million visits in one month: 3 TB of outbound data.

Assumptions

  • 2 million visits in the month, about 1.5 MB each: 3 TB of outbound data
  • 20 million requests, 2 million of them hitting server code
  • 20 ms of CPU per server request
  • No database; the spike lasts the whole month (worst case)

Verdict: Bandwidth decides this one. Cloudflare charges nothing for egress, so the spike costs $5.20. A VPS with included traffic costs $8.50 to $24. Platforms that bill per GB go to $323.21 (Vercel), $440 (Netlify) and $474.25 (Render).

A site that went viral: monthly cost

US dollars a month, cheapest first. Log scale: each gridline is ten times the one before, so big gaps look smaller than they are.

Plain server (VPS): add your own time Managed platform

  1. Cloudflare Workers & Pages, managed platform$5.20
  2. OVHcloud VPS, plain server$8.50
  3. Hetzner Cloud, plain server$10.08
  4. Hostinger VPS, plain server$14.99
  5. DigitalOcean, plain server$24
  6. Fly.io, managed platform$73.40
  7. Railway, managed platform$180
  8. Vercel, managed platform$323.21
  9. Netlify, managed platform$440
  10. Render, managed platform$474.25
How each total is made up

  • Cloudflare Workers & Pages: $5.20 (Workers Paid)

    Workers Paid $5 · CPU time over 30M ms $0.20

    Your time: about 1 h to set up, 0.5 h a month. Static files and egress are not charged; only requests that run code count.

  • OVHcloud VPS: $8.50 (VPS-2)

    VPS-2 $8.50

    Your time: about 3 h to set up, 3 h a month. Shown as a "from" price.

  • Hetzner Cloud: $10.08 (CX33 (Cost-Optimized, EU))

    CX33 (Cost-Optimized, EU) $10.08

    Your time: about 3 h to set up, 3 h a month. EU locations only. Shown as "currently unavailable" on 2026-11-10.

  • Hostinger VPS: $14.99 (KVM 2)

    KVM 2 $14.99

    Your time: about 3 h to set up, 3 h a month. $8.79/month only when you pay 24 months upfront ($210.96); renews at $14.99/month. We use the renewal price.

  • DigitalOcean: $24 (Basic Droplet, 2 vCPU / 4 GiB)

    Basic Droplet, 2 vCPU / 4 GiB $24

    Your time: about 3 h to set up, 3 h a month.

  • Fly.io: $73.40 (2 × shared-cpu-1x, 1 GB)

    2 × shared-cpu-1x, 1 GB $13.40 · Outbound data (North America / Europe) $60

    Your time: about 2 h to set up, 0.5 h a month. Fly runs your app as a container you configure, so expect a little more setup than a push-to-deploy platform.

  • Railway: $180 (Hobby)

    Hobby plan $5 · App CPU $20 · App memory $10 · Egress $150 · Included $5 of usage −$5

    Your time: about 1 h to set up, 0.5 h a month. Usage is an estimate of average load; Railway bills what the containers really use, per second.

  • Vercel: $323.21 (Pro)

    Pro plan, 1 seat $20 · Data transfer over 1 TB $300 · CDN requests over 10M $20 · Function invocations $1.20 · Active CPU $1.42 · Provisioned memory $0.59 · Included $20 usage credit −$20

    Your time: about 1 h to set up, 0.5 h a month. The free Hobby plan is for non-commercial use only, so a business needs Pro.

  • Netlify: $440 (Pro)

    Pro plan (3,000 credits) $20 · 42 × 1,500-credit packs $420

    Your time: about 1 h to set up, 0.5 h a month. About 64,706 credits a month at Netlify's published credit rates.

  • Render: $474.25 (Standard web service)

    Standard web service (Hobby workspace) $25 · Bandwidth over the included amount $449.25

    Your time: about 1 h to set up, 0.5 h a month. The Hobby workspace includes only 5 GB of bandwidth; the rest is billed at $0.15/GB.

Every host, every scenario

Monthly US dollars, excluding tax. Hours are our estimate of the owner's own time in the app scenario: a plain server needs patching, database updates and backup checks that a managed platform does for you. We state hours, not dollars, because your time is worth what you say it is.

Monthly hosting cost by provider and scenario, in US dollars. Select a column heading to sort.
OVHcloud VPSPlain server$4.54$4.54$8.502
Hetzner CloudPlain server$6.72$8.06$10.082
Hostinger VPSPlain server$11.99$11.99$14.992
RailwayManaged$5$16.75$1800.5
DigitalOceanPlain server$6$28.80$242
Cloudflare Workers & PagesManaged$0$30.12$5.200.5
RenderManaged$7$35.75$474.250.5
NetlifyManaged$0$45$4400.5
VercelManaged$20$45$323.210.5
Fly.ioManaged$2.23$47.30$73.400.5

Hidden costs to check before you sign up

Egress (outbound data)

This is the usual cause of a surprise bill. Vercel charges from $0.15/GB after 1 TB, Render $0.15/GB after 5 GB on the Hobby workspace, Railway $0.05/GB, Fly.io $0.02/GB in North America and Europe, and Netlify 20 credits per GB. Cloudflare does not charge for egress on Workers Paid, and Hetzner's EU servers include 20 TB.

Seats

Vercel Pro is $20 a month per deploying seat, so a second developer doubles the base price. Railway Pro, Render Pro and Netlify Pro include unlimited members.

Builds and deploys

Netlify charges 15 credits for every production deploy. Render's Hobby workspace includes 500 build minutes, then $5 per 1,000.

Free plans that stop

Netlify Free takes the site offline when its 300 monthly credits run out. Supabase Free pauses a project after a week without activity. Render's free web service sleeps after 15 minutes idle, and its free Postgres expires after 30 days.

Promotional prices

Hostinger's headline VPS price needs 24 months paid upfront; it renews at $11.99 a month for KVM 1. Hetzner's US servers cost about three times its EU servers ($20.17 for 2 vCPU / 2 GB) and include 1 TB of traffic instead of 20 TB.

When not to run your own server

  • Nobody on the team will log in every month to install security updates. An unpatched server is an open door, and on a VPS nobody else will close it.
  • You handle card data, health records or other regulated data and need a provider's compliance paperwork (PCI DSS, HIPAA BAA, SOC 2). On a VPS, most of that becomes your job.
  • The site must stay up while you are on holiday. A managed platform restarts and scales for you; a single server does neither.
  • Your bill is already under $50 a month. The few dollars a VPS saves are worth less than the hours it takes to run.
  • You do not have tested backups. On a VPS, backing up the database and practising a restore is your responsibility.

How this fits your Dapols plan

Every Dapols plan tells you which tools to buy at each budget. Plans that involve a website or an app now carry a short “keep hosting lean” note built from these numbers, so the hosting line of your budget starts at the free tier and only grows when your traffic does.

Find my planSolo SaaS founder plan

Related: Cloudflare in our tool directory, all plans, price index.

Questions

What is the cheapest way to host a small business website?

For a site without a database, a free static host. On Cloudflare Pages or Netlify Free a brochure site with about 5,000 visits a month costs $0. Prices checked on 10 November 2026.

Is a VPS cheaper than Vercel or Netlify?

In cash, usually yes: the app in our second scenario costs $4.54 a month on OVHcloud VPS against $45 on Vercel with Supabase. But a VPS needs about 8 hours to set up and 2 hours a month of upkeep, which a managed platform does for you.

Can I use Vercel's free plan for my business?

No. Vercel's Hobby plan is for personal, non-commercial use only, so a business site needs Pro, which is $20 a month per deploying seat.

What happens to my bill if my site goes viral?

It depends on how the host charges for bandwidth. In our viral scenario (3 TB in a month) Cloudflare costs $5.20, a Hetzner VPS $10.08, Vercel $323.21 and Render $474.25. Set a spend alert on any host that bills per GB.

Where do these prices come from?

Every price was read on the vendor's own pricing page or documentation on 10 November 2026, and each one links to its source on this page. Euro prices are converted at the European Central Bank rate of that day. Traffic and usage are our stated assumptions, not measurements of a real site.

Sources

All read on 10 November 2026. Euro prices converted at 1 EUR = 1.1214 USD, the European Central Bank reference rate of 2026-11-10. Prices exclude VAT and sales tax.