A Docker host that is just a Linux box with root.
First month $1, then the normal monthly price. One per customer.
KVM, your own kernel, full root, NVMe RAID10, in Amsterdam or New York. Install Docker Engine from the official repository, write one compose file, stick Caddy or Traefik in front, and then run as many services as the RAM will hold. That's the whole setup. No container platform sitting in between, no per-container pricing, and traffic is unlimited, so nobody counts your image pulls.
Transparent pricing
Plans and prices
| Plan | vCPU | Memory | NVMe | Traffic | Monthly | 1 year | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | |||||||
| S-2Standard | 1vCPU | 2 GBMemory | 30 GBNVMe RAID10 | UnlimitedTraffic | $7.99/moFirst month $1 | $7.19/mo on 1 year | Start for $1 |
| S-4Standard | 2vCPU | 4 GBMemory | 60 GBNVMe RAID10 | UnlimitedTraffic | $13.99/moFirst month $1 | $12.59/mo on 1 year | Start for $1 |
| S-8Standard | 3vCPU | 8 GBMemory | 120 GBNVMe RAID10 | UnlimitedTraffic | $24.99/moFirst month $1 | $22.49/mo on 1 year | Start for $1 |
| S-16Standard | 4vCPU | 16 GBMemory | 240 GBNVMe RAID10 | UnlimitedTraffic | $44.99/moFirst month $1 | $40.49/mo on 1 year | Start for $1 |
| S-32Standard | 8vCPU | 32 GBMemory | 480 GBNVMe RAID10 | UnlimitedTraffic | $84.99/moFirst month $1 | $76.49/mo on 1 year | Start for $1 |
| S-64Standard | 16vCPU | 64 GBMemory | 720 GBNVMe RAID10 | UnlimitedTraffic | $159.99/moFirst month $1 | $143.99/mo on 1 year | Start for $1 |
| Dedicated CPU | |||||||
| D-4Dedicated | 1vCPU | 4 GBMemory | 45 GBNVMe RAID10 | UnlimitedTraffic | $37.00/moFirst month $1 | $31.45/mo on 1 year | Start for $1 |
| D-8Dedicated | 4vCPU | 8 GBMemory | 90 GBNVMe RAID10 | UnlimitedTraffic | $69.00/moFirst month $1 | $58.65/mo on 1 year | Start for $1 |
| D-16Dedicated | 4vCPU | 16 GBMemory | 160 GBNVMe RAID10 | UnlimitedTraffic | $118.00/moFirst month $1 | $100.30/mo on 1 year | Start for $1 |
| D-32Dedicated | 6vCPU | 32 GBMemory | 220 GBNVMe RAID10 | UnlimitedTraffic | $215.00/mo | $182.75/mo on 1 year | Deploy D-32 |
| D-64Dedicated | 10vCPU | 64 GBMemory | 400 GBNVMe RAID10 | UnlimitedTraffic | $377.00/mo | $320.45/mo on 1 year | Deploy D-64 |
| High Memory | |||||||
| H-64High Memory | 8vCPU | 64 GBMemory | 480 GBNVMe RAID10 | UnlimitedTraffic | $249.00/mo | $211.65/mo on 1 year | Deploy H-64 |
| H-128High Memory | 16vCPU | 128 GBMemory | 960 GBNVMe RAID10 | UnlimitedTraffic | $459.00/mo | $390.15/mo on 1 year | Deploy H-128 |
| H-192High Memory | 24vCPU | 192 GBMemory | 1.4 TBNVMe RAID10 | UnlimitedTraffic | $669.00/mo | $568.65/mo on 1 year | Deploy H-192 |
What a KVM VPS gives a Docker host that a shared container platform does not.
Docker wants a real kernel, with cgroups, namespaces and overlay filesystems underneath it. A KVM virtual machine has exactly that. The cheaper container-based hosts, quite a few of them, do not.
Your own kernel and modules
Docker Engine, overlay2, nftables and any kernel module you need work because the VM runs its own kernel. Upgrade it when you like, or boot a custom ISO if the stock images do not suit you.
NVMe for image layers and volumes
Pulling images, building layers and writing database volumes are small random IO. Our fio run on a 2 vCPU/4 GB dedicated instance measured 122,959 IOPS 4K random read and 87,730 write. Full numbers on the benchmarks page.
Unlimited traffic and a /64 IPv6
Pull images all night, serve media, sync backups while everyone sleeps. Nobody sends you a bandwidth bill. Each VPS comes with one IPv4 and a /64 IPv6 block, so if you like, every container gets a public IPv6 address of its own.
Resize in place, automate with the API
Need more RAM or vCPU? We add it without a reinstall. Data and IP stay put, and the price you pay is usually one short reboot. Because cloud-init and the REST API are there, a script can create and configure hosts for you.
Which plan for this workload.
Count the services first, then add up what they eat in memory. Docker itself costs almost nothing. The containers do, and that surprises people.
| Setup | Plan | Why |
|---|---|---|
| One service, say Uptime Kuma, a Discord bot, a small API or a WireGuard container | S-2 | A single container plus the engine fits on 1 vCPU and 2 GB. The 30 GB disk, not the RAM, is what you run out of first. |
| Three to five services, Postgres or MySQL among them, plus a reverse proxy | S-4 | With 2 vCPU and 4 GB each service gets a few hundred MB and the database gets a real cache. Images and data fit in 60 GB. |
| Eight to ten services, or building images on the host itself | S-8 | 3 vCPU and 8 GB take a build next to the running containers without a fight. 120 GB for layers, logs and volumes. |
| A CI runner, a pile of images, Elasticsearch or some JVM service | S-16 | 4 vCPU, 16 GB and 240 GB. The memory-hungry services stop fighting each other for RAM. |
| Services that feel latency, steady CPU under load | D-8 | Four cores pinned 1:1 on EPYC Genoa. Nobody else on your cores, and so p99 latency stays flat. |
One Docker service? The S-2 (1 vCPU, 2 GB, 30 GB NVMe) at €6.99 a month ($7.99) does it. The moment a database joins, we point people at the S-4 (2 vCPU, 4 GB, 60 GB NVMe) at €11.99 a month ($13.99), and we do it every time. Postgres wants a shared buffer, the reverse proxy wants a little, and every Node or Python service sits on 100 to 300 MB while doing nothing. Four gigabytes covers all of that without touching swap.
Disk fills faster than memory. Each image pull leaves layers behind, container logs grow without a limit by default, and volumes hold the real data. With 30 GB on the S-2 and 60 GB on the S-4, prune regularly and set log rotation on day one. When ten services and a build step share one host, the S-8 (3 vCPU, 8 GB, 120 GB NVMe) at €21.99 a month ($24.99) is the comfortable choice. Standard plans share vCPU at a 1:4 ratio, which is fine for web services; if a service needs steady CPU every second, look at Dedicated CPU on the plans page.
Setting it up on BuyVPS.
Step 1: order, log in, update
Choose Ubuntu 24.04 or Debian 13 at checkout. The VPS is ready 30 to 60 seconds after payment. Log in as root and update.
Step 2: install Docker Engine from the official repository
That's the Ubuntu variant straight from the Docker documentation. On Debian, replace both occurrences of ubuntu with debian and you're done.
Step 3: set log rotation before the first real container
The default json-file driver keeps every log line, forever. That's a disk-full ticket waiting to happen, and we get that one. Cap it now, restart the engine, and a chatty container will never take the disk down again.
Step 4: a deploy user and the firewall
Work as a normal user with SSH keys. But be aware that membership of the docker group is root-equivalent, so treat that account with the same care you'd give root. Open SSH, HTTP and HTTPS, nothing else.
Step 5: a compose stack with Caddy in front
Caddy terminates TLS and proxies to each service by its container name. Only Caddy publishes ports. The app itself never leaves the internal network. Simple.
Give every service a healthcheck, so a hung container restarts instead of sitting there green. And prune weekly, because images and stopped containers are what fill the 30 GB, not your data.
Point the A record at the VPS, then run docker compose up -d. Caddy fetches the certificate on the first request.
Step 6: Portainer, if you want a UI
Portainer is optional. If you want it, bind it to localhost and reach it through an SSH tunnel, or through Caddy with authentication in front. Never on a public port.
Pitfalls we see, and how to avoid them.
Logs eat the disk
A container that logs every request writes gigabytes into /var/lib/docker/containers. With no max-size in daemon.json, the 30 GB on an S-2 is gone in weeks. Set the rotation in step 3 and check with du -sh /var/lib/docker/containers now and then.
ufw does not see Docker's published ports
Docker inserts its own iptables rules ahead of ufw, so -p 5432:5432 is reachable from the internet even with ufw enabled. Publish internal services on 127.0.0.1 only, or put drop rules in the DOCKER-USER chain. Check from outside with a port scan.
Dangling images and build cache
Every pull and build leaves layers. Run docker system df to see the size and docker system prune -af --volumes when you are sure nothing in the list is needed. Keep volumes out of prune unless you mean it; that flag deletes data.
Everything runs as root
A container running as root that mounts the Docker socket owns the host. Add a user: line in compose, mount the socket only for tools that need it, and read the compose file of anything you copy from the internet before you start it.
Pick the region closest to your users.
Every HTTP request feels the round trip. Amsterdam sits next to AMS-IX, 8.5 ms from Frankfurt and 9.3 ms from Paris. New York lives in the Hudson Street carrier hotel, 4-7 ms from Philadelphia and 10-15 ms from Toronto. Image pulls from the registries are fast from either side. Pick the one nearest your users.
Questions about running Docker on a VPS.
Does Docker run on a KVM VPS without tricks?
Yes. KVM gives the VM its own kernel, so cgroups, namespaces and overlay2 behave the way they do on bare metal. Nothing to enable on our side. Install the engine from the official apt repository and it runs. That part is easy.
How many containers fit on the S-2?
Count memory, not containers. Small Go or static services take tens of megabytes, a Node app 100 to 300 MB, and Postgres wants a few hundred MB before it is useful at all. On 2 GB, one real service plus a proxy is comfortable and three small ones are possible. Then the 30 GB disk fills, which is usually the first limit.
Traefik or Caddy?
Caddy has the shorter config and gets TLS right without extra settings, which is why we show it above. Traefik reads labels from your containers, so the routes live next to the service definitions, and some people prefer that. Both are one container. Both are fine on the S-2 or the S-4.
Is Portainer necessary?
No. Compose files in Git are the more reproducible way to run a host, and they are what we run ourselves. Portainer earns its place as a read-only window on logs and containers. If you install it, bind it to 127.0.0.1 and reach it over an SSH tunnel.
Can I add disk without moving to a bigger plan?
Yes. Standard plans can add 100 GB NVMe for €11.00 a month, Dedicated for €16.00 a month. Resizing RAM and vCPU happens in place as well. Data and IP stay unchanged, and usually it costs one short reboot.
Which OS is best for a Docker host?
Ubuntu 24.04 and Debian 13 are the two we would pick, because Docker publishes packages for both and the kernels are current. Debian is a little leaner. Documentation for the engine is at docker.com.
Deploy a measured VPS
From $6.79/mo on a 2-year term. KVM on AMD EPYC, NVMe RAID10, ECC memory. No setup fee, cancel monthly.
30-day performance guarantee. Not satisfied? Full refund, no admin fee. How it works