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Editorial transparency - This guide is written by the OuiHeberg team, VPS hosting provider. The prices mentioned come from the public pricing grids of the hosts, checked in July 2026 - introductory prices AND renewal prices. Our recommendations are based on measurable criteria: NVMe storage, 24/7 FR support, renewal price identical to the displayed price.
Written by Arthur G. - OuiHeberg team
Many "cheap VPS" advertise €1 to €2/month for the first year, then charge 2 to 3× more at renewal. The real price of a cheap Linux VPS is its renewal price, not the promotional rate on the homepage. This comparison shows both columns. Always check before subscribing: the surprise comes at D+365, not D+1.
The real price of a cheap VPS: introductory price vs renewal
This is the blind spot of all market comparisons: none of the players positioned on "cheapest vps" explicitly display the renewal price next to the introductory price. Here is the consolidated public data.
| Host | Introductory price | Renewal price | Storage | FR Support | NVMe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VPS Linux NVMe OuiHeberg | €1.80/month incl. VAT | €1.80/month incl. VAT (identical) | NVMe | 24/7 FR | ✓ |
| OVHcloud VPS-1 | €4.57 incl. VAT/month | ~€9.35 incl. VAT/month (+45%, source: Next.ink) | SSD NVMe | Not 24/7 | ✓ |
| LWS LC1 | €2.99 excl. VAT/month (€3.59 incl. VAT) | €2.99 excl. VAT/month (no commitment) | SSD RAID 5 | Not 24/7 | ✗ (SATA) |
| IONOS entry VPS | ~€3/month | To check (frequent promos) | SSD | Not 24/7 | Variable |
| VPS1Euro | From €1/month | To check | SSD | No | Variable |
Note: The "to check" boxes indicate hosts whose renewal conditions are not clearly displayed at the time of order - always check before subscribing.
The OVHcloud case is documented: the VPS-1 went from €5.39 to €7.79 excl. VAT/month (excluding commitment discount) on April 1, 2026, about a 45% increase according to Next.ink - far from the "+2% to +6%" initially announced by management. In our complete comparison of the best VPS France, these renewal gaps are the first elimination criterion.
Field feedback - Why we do not display a different introductory price from the renewal price: a customer who discovers +45% on their bill at D+365 is a customer who migrates. Price stability costs margin the first year, and pays off in loyalty afterwards. It's an economic choice, not a stance.
What "cheap" really means for a VPS
The displayed price says nothing about real performance. Two VPS at €3/month can deliver radically different experiences depending on three technical variables.
NVMe or SATA SSD: the difference you will feel
NVMe: 3,500 MB/s in sequential read. SATA SSD: 500 MB/s. The ratio is 7:1. On a cheap VPS with SATA SSD, disk I/O is always the bottleneck - not the CPU, not the RAM.
- WordPress on SATA SSD (VPS 2 GB RAM): average response time 3.5-4 s under moderate load
- WordPress on NVMe (same config): response time 0.6-0.9 s
- MySQL, PHP sessions, cache files: all depend on disk I/O
- In 2026, refusing SATA SSD is a prerequisite, not a premium option
LWS LC1 at €2.99 excl. VAT displays "SSD RAID 5" - that's SATA. RAID redundancy protects against disk failure, not slowness. The cheapest VPS is not necessarily the one that costs the least to use.
Shared vCPU: what it means in practice
On a shared node, your VM neighbor can saturate the physical cores. This is the "noisy neighbor": your VPS suffers CPU degradation through no fault of your own.
- Quick diagnosis:
toporvmstat 1 10- if steal time exceeds 5-10%, the node is overloaded - Steal time indicator in
top:%stcolumn - Serious hosts limit density per node and use recent processors (AMD Ryzen, EPYC) with strict CPU isolation
- A cheaper VPS on an old-generation server CPU delivers lower performance than a VPS on a recent AMD EPYC or Ryzen, even with equal RAM
Support: the real difference between €2/month and €8/month
The monthly price gap between an entry-level VPS and a VPS with 24/7 FR support is €4 to €6. One hour of downtime on an e-commerce site with 50 orders/day easily represents €200 to €500 in lost revenue.
- At €2/month without premium support: ticket, 48-72 h SLA, frequent response in English
- At €6-8/month with 24/7 FR support: chat, response < 5 min, French-speaking contact
- Recommended test before subscribing: send a pre-sales ticket and measure the real response time
- The cost of support is calculated in minutes of avoided downtime, not euros per month
For what use is a cheap VPS really enough?
A cheap VPS covers most common needs - provided you choose the right specs. Here is the field decision matrix. For projects that exceed these thresholds, the question of VPS or dedicated server arises directly.
| Use case | Entry VPS (< €5/month) enough? | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Showcase WordPress site (< 5,000 visits/month) | ✓ Yes | VPS 2 GB RAM, NVMe |
| High-traffic blog (> 30,000 visits/month) | ✗ No | VPS 4-8 GB RAM minimum |
| Light game server (Minecraft 5-10 players) | ✓ Yes | VPS 4 GB RAM, NVMe |
| Production SaaS application | ✗ No | VPS 8 GB RAM + backups |
| Dev/staging environment | ✓ Yes | VPS 2 GB RAM |
| WooCommerce e-commerce (< 500 orders/month) | ✓ Yes with Redis | VPS 4 GB RAM, NVMe |
| Personal VPN server | ✓ Yes | VPS 1 GB RAM |
For WooCommerce, Redis is non-negotiable: without object cache, every request hits MySQL. With Redis on NVMe, response time drops below 200 ms even under load. Without Redis on SATA, expect timeouts from 20 simultaneous users.
Field feedback - Who we do not recommend the €1.80 VPS for: production shop, large database, or any project where 1 GB RAM forces continuous swap. It's an excellent development, VPN, or showcase site VPS - not a production e-commerce server. Under-sizing to save €5/month always ends up costing more in incidents.
The 4 criteria to choose a cheap VPS without getting trapped
These four points filter out 80% of bad surprises. The OuiHeberg VPS offers are built around these criteria - not the other way around.
- Renewal price displayed before ordering (not in the T&Cs). If the renewal price is not visible on the order page, it's a red flag. Look for the explicit mention "identical renewal price" or compare the monthly price without commitment with the promo price. The 45% OVHcloud increase on the VPS-1 in April 2026 illustrates exactly this risk for customers who did not check.
- NVMe mandatory (refuse SATA SSD in 2026). The performance gap is too significant to ignore. A cheaper VPS with SATA will be slower than a slightly more expensive NVMe VPS - and the difference is immediately visible on load times, database queries, and compilations. In 2026, NVMe is the minimum standard, not an option.
- Reachable FR support (test before subscribing). Send a pre-sales ticket before ordering. Measure the response time and quality. A support that replies in 48 h in English to a sales ticket will not do better at 3 a.m. when your site is down. 24/7 French support is not a luxury for a production site.
- Datacenter in France or Europe (latency < 20 ms for your FR users). A datacenter in France guarantees 5 to 15 ms latency for your French visitors. A datacenter in the US or Asia adds 80 to 200 ms - visible on TTFB, penalizing for SEO and user experience. Check the actual datacenter location, not just the host's headquarters.
FAQ
What is the cheapest VPS with NVMe in France?
In July 2026, OuiHeberg offers the NVMe Linux VPS from €1.80/month incl. VAT, identical renewal price, datacenter in France. It is the lowest entry-level NVMe on the French market with a stable price over time. LWS LC1 at €2.99 excl. VAT is still on SATA SSD, OVHcloud VPS-1 starts at €4.57 incl. VAT with renewal at ~€9.35 incl. VAT after April 2026.
Can a €2/month VPS run WordPress?
Yes, for a showcase site or a blog with moderate traffic (less than 5,000 visits/month). Conditions: NVMe mandatory, PHP-FPM configured, page cache enabled (WP Rocket, LiteSpeed Cache). With a SATA SSD at this price, performance will be insufficient as soon as traffic increases. RAM (2 GB minimum) and storage type are the two critical variables.
What is the difference between a cheap VPS and shared hosting?
On shared hosting, CPU, RAM, and I/O resources are shared among hundreds of clients without isolation. A VPS allocates dedicated resources: guaranteed RAM, reserved CPU, isolated storage. The VPS also gives full root access to install any software. Shared hosting is easier to manage; cheap Linux VPS is more powerful and flexible from €2/month.
How do I know if my VPS is a victim of the noisy neighbor?
Run top and look at the %st (steal time) column. Above 5%, your node is under pressure. Confirm with vmstat 1 10: the st column shows CPU cycles stolen by the hypervisor for other VMs. If steal time regularly exceeds 10%, contact your host or migrate to a less loaded node. Good hosts limit density per node and publish their metrics.
Cheap VPS or premium shared hosting: which to choose for e-commerce?
For a WooCommerce with less than 500 orders/month, a VPS 4 GB RAM NVMe with Redis is more powerful and often cheaper than premium shared hosting. Premium shared hosting charges for management simplicity; VPS charges for raw performance. As soon as you need Redis, Elasticsearch, or a custom PHP configuration, VPS is essential. Shared hosting is suitable for static catalogs without server customization.
Price alone does not settle it: our guide on VPS versus shared hosting breaks down what each option actually includes.