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Quick recommendation

• Best overall: Hetzner CX22 (€4.51/month)
• Best for maximum RAM: Contabo VPS S ($6.99/month)
• Best for Asia-Pacific: Vultr Tokyo or Singapore ($6/month)
• Best for DigitalOcean fans: DigitalOcean Basic 2GB ($12/month)
• Best free option: Oracle Always Free (Ampere A1)

Ranked by value for Paperclip

1. Hetzner CX22 — €4.51/month (Best Overall)

Specs: 2 AMD vCPU / 4 GB RAM / 40 GB NVMe SSD / 20 TB traffic

Hetzner consistently wins on price-to-performance for European and US users. The CX22 gives you more than enough specs for a serious Paperclip deployment — 4 GB RAM handles 5+ concurrent agents. Hetzner's network is fast and reliable. Locations: Nuremberg, Falkenstein (DE), Helsinki (FI), Hillsboro (US).

Cons: Fewer locations than AWS/DigitalOcean. Support is email-based.

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2. Contabo VPS S — $6.99/month (Best Specs per Dollar)

Specs: 4 vCPU / 8 GB RAM / 100 GB NVMe SSD / 32 TB traffic

The specs are absurd for the price. 8 GB RAM means you can run 10+ agents comfortably. 100 GB storage covers years of Paperclip data. Locations: Germany, US East/West, Singapore, UK.

Cons: Provisioning takes 1–4 hours. No hourly billing. Customer support is hit-or-miss. Interface less polished.

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3. Linode Nanode 1GB — $5/month

Specs: 1 vCPU / 1 GB RAM / 25 GB NVMe / 1 TB transfer

Linode (now Akamai Cloud) is one of the most established VPS providers. Reliable, good documentation, 11 global locations. The Nanode is the entry-level option — 1 GB RAM is tight for Paperclip. The 2 GB plan ($12/month) is more comfortable.

Cons: 1 GB RAM plan is the minimum; should upgrade for anything beyond light personal use.

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4. DigitalOcean Basic 1GB — $6/month

Specs: 1 vCPU / 1 GB RAM / 25 GB SSD / 1 TB transfer

DigitalOcean has the best developer documentation and ecosystem of any VPS provider. Extensive tutorials, active community, smooth UX. The $6/month plan works for light Paperclip use; upgrade to the $12/month 2 GB plan for more headroom.

Cons: More expensive per spec than Hetzner. 1 GB RAM plan is tight.

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5. Vultr Cloud Compute — $6/month

Specs: 1 vCPU / 1 GB RAM / 25 GB NVMe / 1 TB transfer

Vultr's main advantage: 32 global locations, including cities that other providers skip (Seoul, Osaka, São Paulo, Mumbai, Miami). If you need a VPS in a specific region that others don't offer, Vultr often has it.

Cons: Interface is functional but not as polished as DigitalOcean. Same tight 1 GB RAM situation at the base plan.

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6. DigitalOcean Basic 2GB — $12/month

Specs: 1 vCPU / 2 GB RAM / 50 GB SSD / 2 TB transfer

If you want the DigitalOcean ecosystem and need comfortable RAM, the 2 GB plan is the right choice. Extra headroom for agents running concurrently without memory pressure.

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7. Kamatera — $4/month (flexible)

Kamatera lets you configure your own VPS — choose exact vCPU, RAM, and storage. 1 vCPU + 2 GB RAM + 20 GB SSD starts around $4/month. 13 global locations.

Cons: Less documentation than DigitalOcean. Not as well-known.

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Factors that matter for Paperclip specifically

RAM: The most important factor. Prioritize RAM over CPU. 2 GB is the practical minimum; 4 GB is comfortable for multi-agent setups.

NVMe vs SSD: NVMe is faster but both work fine for Paperclip's SQLite database and workspace files.

Reliability/uptime: Hetzner and DigitalOcean have strong uptime records. Contabo and budget providers are generally reliable but less proven for 24/7 workloads.

Network latency: Matters if you're accessing the Paperclip UI frequently. Pick a datacenter close to you. Less critical for agent-only workloads.

Backup options: Look for providers with snapshot/backup add-ons. Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Linode, and Vultr all offer this for $1–2/month extra.

Comparison table

| Provider | Plan | RAM | Storage | Price | Best for | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | Hetzner | CX22 | 4 GB | 40 GB NVMe | €4.51/mo | Overall best value | | Contabo | VPS S | 8 GB | 100 GB NVMe | $6.99/mo | Maximum RAM | | Linode | Nanode | 1 GB | 25 GB NVMe | $5/mo | Established reliability | | DigitalOcean | Basic 1GB | 1 GB | 25 GB SSD | $6/mo | Best docs/community | | Vultr | Compute | 1 GB | 25 GB NVMe | $6/mo | Widest region coverage | | Oracle | A1 Free | 24 GB | 200 GB | Free | Zero cost | | Railway | Starter | 8 GB | Varies | ~$5–15/mo | Managed, no servers |

The managed alternative

Don't want to manage a VPS at all? Railway handles infrastructure, SSL, deployments, and updates. Start with $20 free credit — no credit card required.

This is an independent guide. Paperclip Hosting is not affiliated with the official Paperclip project. Guide steps are based on real deployments and are subject to change as the software evolves.