Table of Contents
How this page ranks
One rule, fixed before the prices were read: the monthly price of the smallest plan with at least 2 GB of memory, in a datacenter the provider itself labels as Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle or Oregon. Where a provider's smallest plan is larger than 2 GB (OVHcloud's is 4 GB, Contabo's is 8 GB), that plan is used and the size is shown. List prices are used; sale prices are noted but not ranked. Location comes from the provider's own location page or its region API; nothing is inferred from IP addresses or traceroutes. An earlier version of this page reported latency, jitter and CPU benchmark numbers with a testing narrative; none of it could be sourced and it has been removed.
Who is in which metro
| Metro | Providers with a datacenter there (their label) |
|---|---|
| Los Angeles | InterServer (Los Angeles), Vultr (lax, Los Angeles), Linode (us-lax, Los Angeles, CA), RackNerd (Los Angeles), Kamatera (Los Angeles), Google Cloud (us-west2) |
| San Francisco Bay Area | DigitalOcean (SFO3, San Francisco; SFO2 also listed), Vultr (sjc, Silicon Valley), Linode (us-west, Fremont, CA), Kamatera (Santa Clara), RackNerd (San Jose), Oracle Cloud (US West, San Jose) |
| Seattle | Vultr (sea, Seattle), Linode (us-sea, Seattle, WA), Hostwinds (Seattle), Contabo (US West, Seattle), RackNerd (Seattle), Kamatera (Seattle) |
| Oregon | Hetzner (Hillsboro, OR), OVHcloud (US-West, Hillsboro), Google Cloud (us-west1, The Dalles), AWS Lightsail (Oregon) |
Two absences worth knowing before you shop. DigitalOcean has no Los Angeles or Seattle region; its West Coast is San Francisco only. InterServer, OVHcloud, Hostwinds and Contabo each have one West Coast city, so with those four the city is decided for you.
West Coast VPS ranked by price at 2 GB
| Provider | West Coast location | Plan | Specs | Monthly | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| InterServer | Los Angeles | 1 slice | 1 vCPU / 2 GB / 40 GB SSD / 2 TB | $3 | Monthly, no contract; same price in NJ and Dallas |
| OVHcloud | Hillsboro, OR | VPS-1 | 2 vCPU / 4 GB / 40 GB / unmetered | $5.35 | $4.54 a month if paid yearly; no 2 GB plan |
| Contabo | Seattle | Cloud VPS 4 | 4 vCPU / 8 GB / 100 GB / unlimited | $6.60 | Introductory price for 24 months; check configurator for a location fee |
| Hostwinds | Seattle | Unmanaged Linux 2 GB | 1 vCPU / 2 GB / 50 GB / 2 TB | $9.99 | Monthly; managed line costs more |
| Vultr | Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, Seattle | vc2-1c-2gb | 1 vCPU / 2 GB / 55 GB / 2 TB | $10 | Hourly; API; Windows images |
| Linode | Los Angeles, Fremont, Seattle | Linode 2GB | 1 vCPU / 2 GB / 50 GB / 2 TB | $12 | Hourly; API |
| DigitalOcean | San Francisco (SFO3) | Basic 2 GiB | 1 vCPU / 2 GiB / 50 GB / 2 TB | $12 | Hourly; platform products (databases, Kubernetes) with per-region availability |
| AWS Lightsail | Oregon | 2 GB bundle | 2 vCPU / 2 GB / 60 GB / 3 TB | $12 | Fixed bundle inside AWS; burstable CPU |
| Hetzner | Hillsboro, OR | CPX11 | 2 vCPU / 2 GB / 40 GB NVMe / 1 TB | $20.49 | US price since June 15, 2026; IPv4 extra |
| RackNerd | Los Angeles, San Jose, Seattle | 2 GB KVM | 3 vCPU / 2 GB / 75 GB / 2 TB | $20.59 list | Sale prices are lower and change; 512 MB is $26.99 a year |
Kamatera is in the metro table but not the ranking: its pricing page shows a $4 Basic configuration (1 vCPU, 1 GB, 20 GB NVMe, 5 TB) available in Santa Clara and Seattle, and a Standard sample at $25 (2 vCPU on its General purpose type, 2 GB, 20 GB NVMe, 5 TB); it is left out of the ranking because its prices are sample configurations rather than a plan ladder, and at $25 it would sit last. Prices for Vultr, Linode, DigitalOcean, Hostwinds, InterServer and Hetzner are the same in every US region on their pages and APIs; the West Coast carries no surcharge at any provider in the table.
Provider by provider
InterServer, Los Angeles
InterServer's VPS page lists three US locations, New York City (Secaucus, NJ), Dallas and Los Angeles, on one price ladder: $3 a month per slice, where a slice is 1 vCPU, 2 GB, 40 GB SSD and 2 TB of transfer, and plans scale by adding slices ($6 for 4 GB, $12 for 8 GB, $24 for 16 GB). Billing is monthly with no term. That makes it the lowest 2 GB price in any West Coast datacenter on this site by a wide margin; the next fixed-price option at 2 GB is Hostwinds at $9.99. The trade-offs are the ones in the review: no hourly billing, no API or snapshots advertised, and backups as a paid add-on. If your users are in Southern California or the Southwest and you want a cheap always-on server, it is the obvious buy.
OVHcloud, Hillsboro
OVHcloud US runs two datacenters, Vint Hill (Virginia) and Hillsboro (Oregon). Its VPS-1 is 2 vCPU, 4 GB, 40 GB and unmetered transfer at $5.35 a month, or $4.54 a month on a yearly commitment, per the US order catalog API. There is no 2 GB plan, so its entry point costs more than InterServer's but includes twice the memory and a second vCPU. Hillsboro is in the Portland metro, so it serves the Pacific Northwest directly and the rest of the West Coast at one remove. The OVHcloud review covers the catalog and what the "unmetered" line means.
Contabo, Seattle
Contabo's location page offers three US regions, US East (Carlstadt NJ), US Central (St. Louis) and US West (Seattle). Its Cloud VPS 4 is 4 vCPU, 8 GB and 100 GB SSD at $6.60 a month as an introductory price for 24 months, on a 200 Mbit/s port with traffic the plan page calls unlimited. Contabo's help pages say a location fee can apply to some datacenters, and in September 2026 its site carries a "No Location Fees in the US" promotion string; the configurator total for Seattle, at your term length, is the number to trust. Details, including renewal pricing and the terms on withdrawal, are in the Contabo review.
Hostwinds, Seattle
Hostwinds operates its own facilities in Seattle and Dallas (its datacenter page lists those two US locations plus Amsterdam). Unmanaged Linux VPS starts at $4.99 for 1 GB and $9.99 for 2 GB (1 vCPU, 50 GB, 2 TB), monthly, with a managed line and Windows line priced higher. It is the only provider in the table with a fixed monthly price and a Seattle address of its own, which matters if you want the Pacific Northwest specifically and do not want hourly billing. The Hostwinds review has the full ladder.
Vultr, three cities
Vultr's regions API lists lax (Los Angeles), sjc (Silicon Valley) and sea (Seattle), and its plans API confirms the vc2 line is available in all three at the same price: $5 for 1 GB, $10 for 2 GB (vc2-1c-2gb: 1 vCPU, 55 GB, 2 TB), $20 for 4 GB. Its High Frequency and High Performance lines start at $6 in the same regions, and its bare-metal endpoint lists dedicated servers in Silicon Valley. Billing is hourly, the API is complete, and Windows images are on the list. Vultr is the only provider here that lets you put a server in each of the three coastal metros on one account, which is the practical answer to "which city" if you cannot decide: run both for a day and see. Details in the Vultr review.
Linode (Akamai), three cities
Linode's regions API lists us-lax (Los Angeles, CA), us-west (Fremont, CA) and us-sea (Seattle, WA), and its types API shows no regional price override for any of them: Nanode 1 GB $5, Linode 2 GB $12 (1 vCPU, 50 GB, 2 TB), Linode 4 GB $24. Hourly billing, an API, and inbound transfer that Linode's page describes as unmetered. Linode costs $2 more than Vultr at 2 GB and $4 more at 4 GB in the same three metros; what you get for it is a longer-running platform and Akamai's network behind it, which the Linode review discusses without claiming to have measured.
DigitalOcean, San Francisco
DigitalOcean's regional availability page lists SFO3 as its current San Francisco region, with SFO2 also shown; there is no Los Angeles or Seattle region. Basic Droplets are $4 for 512 MiB, $6 for 1 GiB and $12 for 2 GiB (1 vCPU, 50 GB, 2 TB), hourly. The reason to pay $12 rather than Vultr's $10 is the platform around the Droplet: managed databases, Kubernetes, App Platform and object storage, with per-region availability on the same regional availability page. If the server is one piece of a stack you would rather not administer, SFO3 is the West Coast region to build it in. See the DigitalOcean review.
Hetzner, Hillsboro
Hetzner's US locations are Ashburn and Hillsboro, cloud products only. Since June 15, 2026 its US prices are set separately from Europe: CPX11 (2 vCPU AMD, 2 GB, 40 GB NVMe) is $20.49 a month in Hillsboro, CPX21 (3 vCPU, 4 GB) $37.49 and CPX31 (4 vCPU, 8 GB) $73.49, all before the IPv4 add-on, with at least 1 TB of transfer included in the US against 20 TB in the EU. At those numbers Hetzner is the second most expensive 2 GB in the table, and this page does not recommend it on price for a West Coast server. The Hetzner review and specs page have the full US ladder from Hetzner's price API and the wording of the price change.
RackNerd, three cities
RackNerd's KVM VPS page lists Los Angeles, San Jose and Seattle among its locations, and its page title in September 2026 reads "KVM VPS Los Angeles - Asia Optimized Network". List prices in September 2026: 512 MB for $26.99 a year (annual only), 1 GB $17.99 a month, 2 GB $20.59 (3 vCPU, 75 GB, 2 TB), 4 GB $24.59. RackNerd's business model is the sale, not the list price: promotional prices on its deal pages are much lower and change often, and this page ranks list prices only, so RackNerd sits at the bottom of the table while frequently being the cheapest annual box in practice. The RackNerd review explains how to read its promotions and what the terms say about refunds.
Kamatera, three cities
Kamatera's pricing page lists Los Angeles, Santa Clara and Seattle among its US datacenters, alongside Atlanta, Miami, Chicago, New York and Dallas. Its Basic configuration is $4 a month for 1 vCPU, 1 GB, 20 GB NVMe and 5 TB, and larger sizes are priced in the configurator. It is the smallest and most adjustable West Coast server on the site, available in all three coastal metros, and unranked because its 2 GB price is not on a list. See the Kamatera review.
Which metro for which audience
| Your users are mostly in | Metro to pick | Cheapest at 2 GB there |
|---|---|---|
| Southern California, Arizona, Nevada, Mexico | Los Angeles | InterServer $3 |
| San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento | Bay Area (SFO, Silicon Valley, Fremont, San Jose, Santa Clara) | Vultr $10 (Kamatera $4 at 1 GB) |
| Pacific Northwest, British Columbia, Alaska | Seattle or Hillsboro | OVHcloud $5.35 at 4 GB in Hillsboro; Hostwinds $9.99 in Seattle |
| Spread across the West | Any of the three; pick by provider | InterServer $3 (LA) or Vultr $10 (any) |
| Spread across the US | East or Central instead, or two servers | See the East Coast page and datacenter guide |
The distances involved are small compared with a transatlantic or transpacific hop, so the second column is a preference, not a requirement. The one firm rule is the opposite one: if your users are on the East Coast or in Europe, the West Coast is the wrong side of the country and no provider choice fixes that. The low-latency page covers picking a region for a national audience.
Google Cloud, Lightsail and Oracle on the West Coast
The hyperscalers have West Coast regions too, and they are the right buy when the server is one part of a larger cloud estate. Google Cloud Compute Engine has us-west1 (The Dalles, Oregon), us-west2 (Los Angeles), us-west3 (Salt Lake City) and us-west4 (Las Vegas); pricing is metered per machine type and region, and the Always Free e2-micro is available in us-west1. AWS Lightsail sells fixed bundles in Oregon ($5 for 512 MB, $7 for 1 GB, $12 for 2 GB, $24 for 4 GB, transfer included); N. California is an AWS region but not on Lightsail's list. Oracle Cloud's region page lists US West (San Jose) and US West (Phoenix). The Google Cloud vs Lightsail comparison and the Google Cloud, Lightsail and Oracle Cloud reviews have the details. For a standalone VPS, every fixed-price provider in the table above is cheaper at 2 GB than Lightsail's $12 except Hetzner and RackNerd's list price.
What this page could not verify
- Contabo's location fee for Seattle, if any: its help page says fees apply to some datacenters and its site shows a "No Location Fees in the US" promotion; the checkout total is the source of truth.
- RackNerd's sale prices in each city: they are promotional and change; only list prices are quoted.
- Kamatera's prices beyond its three printed sample configurations: set in its configurator.
- Which Bay Area city each provider's facility is physically in: the labels are the providers' own (San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Fremont, San Jose, Santa Clara) and this page does not resolve them further.
- Any latency, jitter, throughput or CPU figure: none was measured for this page and none is quoted.