Table of Contents
Plans and prices: monthly vs 12-month
OVHcloud replaced its VPS line with a "2027" range that adds a new entry size and shifts the others; the VPS page itself warns existing customers that the model names no longer map to the old configurations. The four US sizes, with the no-commitment monthly price first and the 12-month price second, as returned by OVHcloud's US public catalog in September 2026:
| Plan | Monthly, no commitment | Per month on 12-month term | vCores | RAM | NVMe | Public port | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VPS-1 | $5.35 | $4.54 | 2 | 4 GB | 40 GB | 500 Mbps | Unlimited |
| VPS-2 | $10.00 | $8.50 | 4 | 8 GB | 75 GB | 1 Gbps | Unlimited |
| VPS-3 | $14.50 | $12.32 | 6 | 12 GB | 100 GB | 2 Gbps | Unlimited |
| VPS-4 | $27.50 | $23.37 | 8 | 24 GB | 200 GB | 3 Gbps | Unlimited |
Three things to read off that table. The "Starting at" price on OVHcloud's page is the 12-month figure, so the number you will pay month to month is about 18 percent higher. The 6-month term ($5.08 for VPS-1) is the middle option. And the specification jumps are large between sizes: VPS-2 doubles everything in VPS-1 for less than double the price, which makes it the better buy if 4 GB is borderline for you.
Unlimited traffic applies to the US datacenters. OVHcloud's own footnote gives Asia-Pacific regions a monthly quota (1 TB on VPS-1 and VPS-2) with a 10 Mbps cap beyond it, and says VPS ordered outside the US regions cannot be modified or upgraded after delivery. Neither restriction applies to Virginia or Oregon.
What is included, and what costs extra
Included on every US plan: anti-DDoS protection on OVHcloud's own network; a daily automatic backup of the system disk with the seven most recent backups kept on a rolling basis (additional attached disks are not covered); a choice of AlmaLinux 8 to 10, Rocky Linux 8 to 10, Debian 11 to 13, Ubuntu 22.04 to 26.04, Fedora, CloudLinux and FreeBSD images, plus preconfigured Docker, Plesk, cPanel and n8n images on Debian and AlmaLinux; and the two US datacenters at the same price.
Paid options (US catalog, September 2026):
- Windows: $9.00 a month on VPS-1, $9.60 on VPS-2, $20.30 on VPS-3, $33.40 on VPS-4.
- Snapshot: $0.60 a month on VPS-1 and VPS-2, $0.90 on VPS-3, $1.70 on VPS-4. One manual snapshot you take before a risky change, separate from the automatic daily backup.
- Additional disk: $6.30 a month for 50 GB, $12.40 for 100 GB, $18.70 for 200 GB, $37.30 for 500 GB.
- cPanel and Plesk licenses: priced by account count; cPanel starts at $89 a month for 200 accounts, which is aimed at resellers rather than a single site. Plesk Web Admin is the small-site option; check the configurator for the current figure.
Two things you will not find in the catalog: hourly billing (terms are 1, 6 or 12 months) and a money-back guarantee (the US VPS page does not state one). For a server you are not sure about, buy one month rather than a year.
US datacenters
OVHcloud US operates two datacenters, Vint Hill in Virginia and Hillsboro in Oregon; the company's own infrastructure page marks their fifth anniversary, and the VPS catalog exposes them as US-EAST-VA and US-WEST-OR. Every VPS size is available in both at the same price. Virginia serves the East Coast, the Midwest and Europe; Oregon serves the West Coast and Asia-Pacific. There is no Texas or Illinois location, so for users concentrated in the central US, InterServer's Dallas or Vultr's Dallas and Chicago will be closer. The US datacenter guide has the latency reasoning by city.
OVHcloud also lists a "VPS-2 Local Zone" product in more than 15 cities. It is priced like VPS-2 ($10.00 monthly) but is a separate line: the page says it cannot be migrated to or from a datacenter VPS, and some features are not available in Local Zones. If you want a specific city, read the Local Zone restrictions before assuming it behaves like the regular product.
Against InterServer, Vultr and Contabo
| Size | OVHcloud (monthly) | InterServer | Vultr | Contabo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 GB | No 2 GB plan | $3: 1 core, 40 GB, 2 TB | $10: vc2-1c-2gb | No 2 GB plan |
| 4 GB | $5.35: 2 vCores, 40 GB NVMe, unlimited | $6: 1 core, 80 GB, 4 TB | $20: vc2-2c-4gb | No 4 GB plan |
| 8 GB | $10.00: 4 vCores, 75 GB NVMe, unlimited | $12: 2 cores, 160 GB, 8 TB | $40: vc2-4c-8gb | $6.60: 4 vCPU, 100 GB, 200 Mbit/s |
| Billing | Monthly, 6 or 12 months | Monthly only | Hourly | Monthly, discounts for longer terms |
| Backups | Daily, included | Paid product | Paid add-on | Paid add-on |
| Snapshots | Paid, from $0.60 | Not advertised | Included | Included |
| US locations | Virginia, Oregon | New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas | Nine regions | Carlstadt NJ, St. Louis, Seattle |
| API | Yes (OVHcloud API) | Not advertised | Yes | Yes |
The pattern is clear at each size. At 2 GB, OVHcloud does not compete and InterServer's $3 slice is the buy. At 4 GB, OVHcloud VPS-1 is the cheapest monthly plan in a US datacenter that we track, with double InterServer's cores and unlimited traffic, and it includes a backup that costs extra everywhere else. At 8 GB, Contabo is far cheaper on paper but on a 200 Mbit/s port; OVHcloud VPS-2 at $10.00 is the middle ground with 1 Gbps. Vultr is never the price pick at these sizes; it is the pick for hourly billing, snapshots as a workflow, and regions the others do not have. The under-$10 page and the cheapest VPS page carry the full tables.
Ordering: how to avoid the two common mistakes
- Pick the term deliberately. The configurator opens on the 12-month term (the order links on the VPS page carry
pricing=upfront12). Switch it to monthly for a first server, or to 12 months only once the workload has run for a month. - Choose the US datacenter, not a Local Zone. The Local Zone product is listed alongside the regular plans and cannot be migrated later. For a normal VPS in Virginia or Oregon, select US-East or US-West in the configurator.
- Choose the image with the panel you want. The preinstalled cPanel and Plesk images set up the panel but the license is a separate paid option; if you only want a plain server, pick a bare Debian, Ubuntu or AlmaLinux image.
- Decide on the snapshot option at order time or later. It is cheap and it is the only point-in-time restore you control; the daily backup runs on OVHcloud's schedule, not yours.
- Windows buyers: add the Windows option on the plan page rather than trying to install your own image; the option carries the license.
First hour on the server
- Log in with the credentials OVHcloud emails, create a non-root user with sudo, add your SSH key, and disable password login for SSH.
- Enable the distribution's firewall (ufw on Ubuntu and Debian, firewalld on AlmaLinux and Rocky) allowing only SSH and the ports your application needs. OVHcloud's anti-DDoS handles volumetric attacks on the network side; it does not replace a host firewall.
- Check that the daily backup is active in the OVHcloud control panel and note the retention (seven days). Then set up your own off-site copy of application data anyway; the backup covers the system disk only and lives with the same provider.
- If you need a rescue path, take a snapshot (paid option) after the base setup so you can roll back a bad change without waiting for the next daily backup.
- Confirm the public port speed you paid for is enough: 500 Mbps on VPS-1 is generous for websites and VPNs, tight for a busy media server; VPS-2's 1 Gbps port is the step up.
Verdict and rating
OVHcloud VPS in the US is a straightforward product with one standout size. VPS-1 at $5.35 a month buys more at 4 GB than anyone else we track in a US datacenter, and the included daily backup and DDoS protection remove two add-ons that most competitors charge for. The 12-month price is a genuine discount rather than an introductory trick, because the monthly price is published in the same catalog.
What keeps it from a higher score: no hourly billing and no stated refund, so a wrong purchase costs a month; snapshots and Windows are paid options; only two US locations, both on the coasts; the smallest plan is 4 GB, so there is no answer to InterServer's $3 or Vultr's $5 at the very bottom; and the public port on VPS-1 is 500 Mbps. Rating for US buyers: 4.2 out of 5.
Choose OVHcloud if 4 to 8 GB in Virginia or Oregon is what you need, you pay monthly or yearly, and you value an included backup. Choose InterServer if 2 GB is enough, you want Dallas or New York City, or you want the cheapest Windows plan. Choose Vultr if you need hourly billing, an API-driven workflow or a region neither of the others has.