What is the cheapest VPS that qualifies for media & backup?

Cloud VPS 6 · 6 vCPU · 12 GB at $8.72/mo (excl. VAT) meets the minimum requirements as of 5 Sept 2026.

How are these requirements chosen?

The minimums (2 GB RAM, 2 vCPU) reflect what the workload actually stresses — explained in the "what matters" section — and the ranking weights those dimensions rather than raw price.

How fresh is this list?

Prices are re-fetched from all 11 providers daily and this ranking recomputes automatically. Last refresh: 5 Sept 2026.

Best VPS for media & backups.

September 2026 · re-ranked daily · 114 qualifying plans

Jellyfin, Nextcloud and backup targets are storage-per-dollar problems with a bandwidth twist: the disk holds the library, the pipe streams it. We filter the index to plans with 2 GB+ RAM, 2+ vCPU, 150 GB+ disk — 114 of 280 qualify today, with the top pick at $46.83/mo. Ranked by how much of the hardware this workload actually stresses each dollar buys.

What actually matters here

Included storage rules: This ranking filters to 150 GB+ bundled disk and weights storage heavily — block-storage addons cost extra everywhere.
Bandwidth is the running cost: Streaming a 4 GB film to family is 4 GB of egress every time. Unmetered plans (flagged) remove the mental math.
Transcoding caveat: Without GPU passthrough, transcodes are CPU-bound: direct-play-friendly formats or a beefier CPU tier if clients need conversion.

1
netcup
VPS 8000 G12 · 16 vCore · 64 GB
16 vCPU · 64 GB RAM · 2048 GB NVME · value 100/100
✓ unmetered traffic
$46.83/mo
2
netcup
VPS 4000 G12 · 12 vCore · 32 GB
12 vCPU · 32 GB RAM · 1024 GB NVME · value 98/100
✓ unmetered traffic
$31.66/mo
vs #1 →
3
Contabo
Cloud VPS 6 · 6 vCPU · 12 GB
6 vCPU · 12 GB RAM · 200 GB SSD · value 99/100
✓ unmetered traffic
$8.72/mo
vs #1 →
4
netcup
VPS 2000 G12 · 8 vCore · 16 GB
8 vCPU · 16 GB RAM · 512 GB NVME · value 97/100
✓ unmetered traffic
$18.80/mo
vs #1 →
5
netcup
RS 8000 G12 · 16 dedicated cores · 64 GB
16 vCPU · 64 GB RAM · 2048 GB NVME · value 96/100
✓ unmetered traffic
$69.70/mo
vs #1 →
6
netcup
VPS 1000 G12 · 4 vCore · 8 GB
4 vCPU · 8 GB RAM · 256 GB NVME · value 97/100
✓ unmetered traffic
$10.12/mo
vs #1 →
7
netcup
RS 4000 G12 · 12 dedicated cores · 32 GB
12 vCPU · 32 GB RAM · 1024 GB NVME · value 95/100
✓ unmetered traffic
$38.99/mo
vs #1 →
8
netcup
RS 2000 G12 · 8 dedicated cores · 16 GB
8 vCPU · 16 GB RAM · 512 GB NVME · value 96/100
✓ unmetered traffic
$20.93/mo
vs #1 →
9
Contabo
Cloud VPS 8 · 8 vCPU · 24 GB
8 vCPU · 24 GB RAM · 300 GB SSD · value 99/100
✓ unmetered traffic
$16.27/mo
vs #1 →
10
netcup
RS 1000 G12 · 4 dedicated cores · 8 GB
4 vCPU · 8 GB RAM · 256 GB NVME · value 95/100
✓ unmetered traffic
$12.49/mo
vs #1 →

One-click stacks for this workload

Everything below runs on any VPS with manual setup — these providers ship it preinstalled from their official catalog (verified 20 Jul 2026).

Jellyfin: one-click on Hostinger
Nextcloud: one-click on Hetzner, Vultr, DigitalOcean, Linode, Scaleway, Contabo, Hostinger
Docker: one-click on Hetzner, Vultr, DigitalOcean, Linode, OVHcloud, Scaleway, Contabo, Hostinger, IONOS
WireGuard: one-click on Hetzner, Vultr, DigitalOcean, Linode, Contabo, Hostinger

Full stack-support matrix →

Frequently asked

What is the cheapest VPS that qualifies for media & backup?: Cloud VPS 6 · 6 vCPU · 12 GB at $8.72/mo (excl. VAT) meets the minimum requirements as of 5 Sept 2026.
How are these requirements chosen?: The minimums (2 GB RAM, 2 vCPU) reflect what the workload actually stresses — explained in the "what matters" section — and the ranking weights those dimensions rather than raw price.
How fresh is this list?: Prices are re-fetched from all 11 providers daily and this ranking recomputes automatically. Last refresh: 5 Sept 2026.