How RackRadar compares hosting offers

Where do the offers come from?

Collectors read provider product pages and public catalogs. Each offer retains its source URL and observation dates; changed terms are stored as separate observations. The displayed collection date is an observation, not a live stock check or a guaranteed refresh schedule. Confirm availability, renewal prices and terms with the provider.

The Providers page starts with providers whose collected offers can be compared. A separate provider backlog holds research candidates without collected offers; it is not a promised integration schedule. Account-free provider requests are saved separately for review. Evidence labels distinguish reviewed product pages, observed websites, directory or forum leads, and unconfirmed leads. Research groupings do not establish datacenter locations. RackRadar does not buy instances or run benchmarks.

How is recurring monthly cost calculated?

For an upfront period price, divide the original amount by the billing months. A published monthly rate for a qualifying longer contract stays a monthly rate. Convert that recurring rate to USD. A setup fee is a separate one-time charge and does not change monthly cost or value calculations.

Hypothetical example: $60 paid for 12 months plus a $12 setup fee is The recurring rate is $5 per month, plus $12 once. The initial payment is $72. A different renewal price or a paid addon would change the comparison.

USD comparisons use a fixed currency reference snapshot dated 2026-10-16 (European Central Bank reference rates (EUR base) via frankfurter.dev). These are comparison rates, not a live exchange-rate feed. Prices retain the provider’s published tax basis; included, excluded and unknown tax treatment are not normalized to one tax rate. Check original currency, tax and contract terms in offer details before choosing.

What does the advertised-value index score?

The index divides a weighted resource score by recurring monthly USD. Unknown specifications contribute no points. Offers with no scored resources are unscored. The editorial weights below express a comparison preference, not measured performance.

Hypothetical example: 2 sold cores, 4 GB RAM and 40 GB NVMe, with all other resources unknown, score 276 points. At $6 recurring monthly, the index is 46.0. An offer with missing specifications can score lower because less is known. Compare the separate per-core, per-GB RAM and per-GB disk prices as well.

Can shared VPS, dedicated cores and bare metal be compared directly?

Equal core counts do not imply equal performance. Shared VPS cores, dedicated-core VDS allocations and a full bare-metal server differ in resource sharing. CPU generation, contention, storage and provider terms also matter. Use the allocation filters to narrow the comparison, then inspect source evidence for your workload. Advertised port speed is not measured throughput, and host hardware is not a guarantee of an exact VM configuration.

Container-based plans can also be sold as VPSs. VPSDime’s Linux line publishes LXC virtualization, which is why it appears in Container VPS / NAT. Container virtualization does not establish NAT networking; IP allowances stay unknown without offer-specific evidence. Read about VPS, containers and NAT.

How can I verify or question a comparison?

Open offer details for original prices, billing terms, tax basis, published specifications and source links. The collection and scoring documentation and open-source repository let you inspect the implementation or report an issue with the offer name and supporting source. Provider pages remain the place to confirm the purchase terms.