Disclosure: we may earn a commission or referral reward from CloudCone, Contabo, DigitalOcean (account credit, not cash), Hostwinds, InterServer, RackNerd, VPSDime and Vultr if you sign up through our links. It does not change the price you pay. Every other provider pays us nothing.
BuyVM vs RackNerd
BuyVM starts $10.99 per month cheaper at the entry tier. RackNerd lists more regions, which matters if latency to a specific city is your constraint. RackNerd is the better pick for buyers who want a US location close to their users and plan to take an annual or promotional offer.
BuyVM
$7.00/mo entry
Small always-on projects that need a lot of bandwidth on a tight budget, if the size you want is in stock.
RackNerd
$17.99/mo entry
Buyers who want a US location close to their users and plan to take an annual or promotional offer.
Specification differences
Entry plans compared line by line. Rows marked with a dash are preferences rather than measurable wins, so we do not pick a side on them.
| Attribute | BuyVM | RackNerd | Better |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry plan price / month | $7.00 | $17.99 | BuyVM |
| Entry plan vCPU | 1 | 2 | RackNerd |
| Entry plan RAM | 2 GB | 1 GB | BuyVM |
| Entry plan storage | 40 GB | 50 GB | RackNerd |
| Listed regions | 4 | 12 | RackNerd |
| Management model | Unmanaged (you run the OS) | Unmanaged (you run the OS) | |
| Support | See BuyVM for its support terms. | Support is staffed 24x7, according to its VPS page. | |
| Billing | Monthly; the 512 MB slice is billed yearly. | Monthly on the listed plans; the smallest plan is sold per year. | |
| Free tier | No free tier. | No free tier. |
Same size, side by side
The cheapest plan from each provider that meets each size, so the comparison is between equal servers rather than two entry plans. Prices include a separately-billed IPv4 address where the provider charges for one.
| Size | BuyVM | RackNerd | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 vCPU / 1 GB | $7.00Slice 2048 · 1 vCPU · 2 GB · 40 GBUnmetered bandwidth and one IPv4 address. | $17.99KVM 1GB · 2 vCPU · 1 GB · 50 GBRegular monthly price. Includes one IPv4 address and a 1 Gbps port. | BuyVM cheaper by $10.99 |
| 2 vCPU / 4 GB | $30.00Slice 8192 · 2 vCPU · 8 GB · 160 GBHigh Volume line: unmetered bandwidth on a 1 Gbps port and one IPv4 address. | $24.59KVM 4GB · 4 vCPU · 4 GB · 130 GBRegular monthly price. Includes one IPv4 address and a 1 Gbps port. | RackNerd cheaper by $5.41 |
| 4 vCPU / 8 GB | $60.00Slice 16384 · 4 vCPU · 16 GB · 320 GBHigh Volume line: unmetered bandwidth on a 1 Gbps port and one IPv4 address. | $36.59KVM 8GB · 6 vCPU · 8 GB · 220 GBRegular monthly price. Includes one IPv4 address and a 1 Gbps port. | RackNerd cheaper by $23.41 |
Not in the table because they are sold out on the provider's own site today: BuyVM Slice 1024 (1 vCPU, 1 GB, $3.50/mo). We check stock every day, and a plan returns to the table once it can be ordered again.
Every provider at these sizes, ranked: 1 GB RAM · 4 GB RAM · 8 GB RAM
Where each one wins and loses
BuyVM
BuyVM, run by Frantech, sells KVM servers it calls slices from Las Vegas, New York, Miami and Luxembourg. Every plan includes unmetered bandwidth and an IPv4 address. Stock is limited: BuyVM’s own order data says which plans can be ordered in which location, and we read it every day, so a plan that is sold out everywhere drops out of the rankings until it is back.
Strengths
- Unmetered bandwidth and an IPv4 address on every plan
- Low monthly prices for the small slices
- Block storage at $1.25 a month per 256 GB
Weaknesses
- Plans are often sold out in some or all locations
- The 512 MB slice is sold by the year only
- DDoS protection costs $3 a month per IP address
- Four locations, three of them in the US
Support: See BuyVM for its support terms.
Billing: Monthly; the 512 MB slice is billed yearly.
Free tier: No free tier.
RackNerd
RackNerd sells KVM virtual servers from twelve listed locations, most of them in the United States, on RAID-10 SSD storage with a 1 Gbps port and one IPv4 address included on every plan. The regular monthly prices listed here are the like-for-like figure; the company also runs time-limited promotions, which belong on the deals page, not in a price index.
Strengths
- Twelve listed locations, including Amsterdam, Dublin, France and Toronto
- A free IPv4 address and a 1 Gbps port come with every plan
- Storage is RAID-10 SSD, so a single disk failure does not take the server down
Weaknesses
- The regular monthly list price is higher than the same-size plans at DigitalOcean, Vultr and Akamai Cloud
- Unmanaged: you run the operating system, security updates and backups yourself
- Cheapest plans are sold per year, so a monthly comparison needs the 1 GB plan and up
Support: Support is staffed 24x7, according to its VPS page.
Billing: Monthly on the listed plans; the smallest plan is sold per year.
Free tier: No free tier.
The full cost stack
What a server costs beyond its sticker price, shown for 2 vCPU / 4 GB. Only figures read from each provider's own documentation appear; a gap says “not captured yet”.
| Item | BuyVM | RackNerd |
|---|---|---|
| Plan (2 vCPU / 4 GB) | $30.00 | $24.59 |
| Automatic backups | not captured yet | not captured yet |
| Outbound traffic beyond the allowance | not captured yet | not captured yet |
| Smallest managed load balancer | not captured yet | not captured yet |
Sources: none captured yet for this pair.
Price changes we have logged
No tracked price change for either provider yet.
Full record at the change log.
Every plan
The complete plan ladders, with the date and source of every price, are on each provider's page: BuyVM and RackNerd.
All figures are the providers' own published list prices in USD, on-demand monthly. The index was last refreshed 2026-10-14, and every row shows the date its own price was read. Nothing here is live or negotiated pricing. Where a provider bills a public IPv4 address on top, it is added to the monthly price, the ranking and every cost per vCPU or per GB, and the row shows the parts: the server, any disk priced apart, and the IPv4 charge. Some prices exclude VAT or need a commitment; the plan notes say which. Check the provider's pricing page before you commit.
Related comparisons
Where both sell
BuyVM and RackNerd both have data centres in these places. Each page ranks every provider there at the price charged in that location.
BuyVM vs RackNerd — frequently asked
Every answer is computed from this pair's own prices and costs.
- Which is cheaper for 1 vCPU / 1 GB, BuyVM or RackNerd?
- BuyVM Slice 2048 at $7.00/mo, which is $10.99 (61%) less than RackNerd KVM 1GB at $17.99/mo.
- How many datacentre locations do BuyVM and RackNerd have?
- BuyVM lists 4 and RackNerd lists 12.