How we compare

Our job is to make hosting costs and responsibilities clear. These are the rules we follow.

Where prices come from

• Every price comes from the provider's public pricing page or documentation. We link the source on each plan page.
• Each price records its currency, billing term, upfront total, renewal price and the date we checked it.
• Prices marked pending review were collected from the source but haven't yet been confirmed by an editor. Prices marked verified have been.
• We never overwrite old prices. New prices are added as new records, so we keep a price history.
• Prices not re-checked within 14 days are flagged Price may have changed. This is an internal maintenance target, not a real-time guarantee.

Intro price, renewal price and upfront payment

The intro price is the monthly equivalent of the first billing term: the upfront total divided by the months it covers. The renewal price applies after that term. We never project the intro rate beyond its term.

“12-month cost” and “24-month cost” count the hosting service months inside that period. If a plan requires a 24-month prepayment, the 12-month cost is half the prepayment, but the cash you pay on day one is the full amount. We show both.

What “Not disclosed” means

If a provider doesn't publish a value, we show Not disclosed. We never treat an unknown as zero, free or unsupported. Plans with undisclosed prices are sorted after plans with known prices, and they never match a budget filter.

Hosting types

• Fully managed: the provider runs the agent for you.
• One-click VPS: a virtual server with root access and templates; you maintain it after setup.
• Self-managed VPS: a plain virtual server; you install and maintain everything.

When you compare plans of different types, we show a warning, because the responsibilities differ.

AI model costs

Hosting prices exclude AI model and API usage unless a plan says otherwise. Model costs depend on your usage, so our calculator treats them as your own estimate.

Compatibility claims

A plan is listed as supporting an agent only with evidence: the provider's official managed product, or the agent's own install documentation for a standard Linux server. Each claim links its source.

Ordering and recommendations

Lists are ordered by objective criteria, by default the lowest known 12-month hosting cost. Commission never affects order. We have no paid placements today; if we add any, they will be labelled Sponsored.

Testing

We only label a plan or guide as tested when we ran it ourselves, and we publish the test date, software versions and limitations. We don't publish benchmarks, ratings or reviews we haven't produced.

Corrections

Found an error? Contact us and we'll check it against the source.