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ProvidersVPS · Checked 2026-10-30

HostUp

Seven cheap fixed-size KVM servers in Stockholm on a monthly or yearly plan, with an unusually complete API and MCP server for the price.

Short answer: One always-on personal agent (2 vCPU / 4 GiB / 20 GiB) costs about $5.72 a month here, the cheapest of the 16 providers that run it as described. The AI model adds about $1.88 a month on top (DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (1017), 30 requests a day at 40k tokens each, median zero-retention price; from $0.46 at the cheapest host). Fits well: One always-on agent on a normal Linux box: VPS XS gives 2 vCPU, 4 GB, 50 GB, root and a public IPv4 for $5.72 a month, in Sweden.

hostup.se/en/vps/21 providersSources linked

HostUp sells KVM virtual private servers in seven fixed sizes: VPS Nano (1 vCPU / 2 GB / 25 GB), XS (2 / 4 / 50), SM (4 / 8 / 100), MED (8 / 16 / 200), LG (16 / 32 / 400), XL (16 / 64 / 800) and XXL (32 / 128 / 1,600). Every plan includes root, a public IPv4, NVMe storage mirrored across several servers, 1–32 TB of monthly bandwidth, weekly backups and a browser VNC console. All servers run in one data hall in Älvsjö, Stockholm, in two availability zones.

It is a general-purpose VPS, not a sandbox API. You buy a server for one month or one year, paid in advance; stopping it does not stop the bill, there is no pause that keeps memory, no fork and no per-task machine. You manage the operating system, updates and TLS yourself.

The unusual part for the price is the control surface: a documented REST API with about 380 endpoints, an OpenAPI spec and a hosted MCP server, so Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or Codex can create servers, take backups and change DNS for you. There is no CLI and no official SDK, and no application templates on the VPS — the one-click catalogue of 250+ apps belongs to HostUp's cPanel web hosting. A separate pay-as-you-go Cloud VM bills CPU and memory by the hour, but a new account cannot buy it: it needs identity verification and SEK 2,000 of prior payments.

At a glance

Who it is forReaders who want one cheap, predictable, always-on Linux box in the EU and are comfortable with a terminal — and who value being able to script the account through an API or an AI assistant. Not for anyone who needs per-task sandboxes, pause/resume, forks, GPUs, several regions or a one-click agent install.
IsolationA KVM virtual machine with its own kernel, root, Docker and a public IPv4, on HostUp's own hardware in Stockholm. The vCPUs are allocated to the guest, but they are not a permanently dedicated core: a server that has run at full load for several days is capped at half its vCPUs, and heavy disk I/O can be throttled temporarily.
SizesSeven fixed plans from 1 vCPU / 2 GB / 25 GB to 32 vCPU / 128 GB / 1,600 GB. Disk can be raised to 5,000 GB on the order slider and to 32 TB on request; bandwidth to 500 TB. CPU and memory cannot be changed independently — you move to another plan, which restarts the server. Larger machines up to 1 TB of RAM are quoted on request. No GPU, and no second region.
A personal agent hereAbout $5.72 a month for one always-on 2 vCPU / 4 GiB machine (VPS XS: 2 vCPU / 4 GiB / 50 GiB), before the AI model. Change the numbers
Recommended inNot one of the picks in any use-case guide.

Fits well, fits badly

Our reading of the sourced material on this page, not a provider claim.

Fits well

  • One always-on agent on a normal Linux box: VPS XS gives 2 vCPU, 4 GB, 50 GB, root and a public IPv4 for $5.72 a month, in Sweden.
  • A budget Discord or Slack bot, MCP server or n8n instance that must stay awake: nothing sleeps it and 1–32 TB of transfer is included.
  • Scripting the account: a documented REST API, an OpenAPI spec and a hosted MCP server that Claude or ChatGPT can drive, with purchases confirmed in the browser.
  • EU data residency on a small budget, with a Swedish company, its own hardware, a DPA that applies automatically and a public status page.

Fits badly

  • Many short-lived tasks or one machine per user: there is no cheap per-task meter a new customer can use, and the plan bills through idle hours.
  • Pause, resume or fork: a stop is a power-off that loses memory, and a clone is a cold restore from a backup.
  • A build server or inference box that pegs every vCPU for days: sustained CPU is capped at 50% of the vCPUs.
  • A team that needs SSO, a hard spend cap or scoped roles beyond per-service visibility; or a buyer who needs a GPU, several regions or a SOC 2 report.

How it bills

ModelOne month or one year, paid in advance. The annual option is 10% cheaper per month and the whole year is charged upfront.
MeterA flat price per plan per month. There is no per-second or per-hour meter on a standard VPS and no usage overage on the machine.
While stoppedA stopped VPS keeps billing in full: the plan covers the period and the disk stays. Stopping is a power-off, so memory and running processes are lost. Only cancelling ends the charge.
Plan feeThe plan price is the whole charge; there is no separate platform fee. Backups, DDoS scrubbing, IPv6 and the primary IPv4 are included.
MinimumOne month of VPS Nano at $4.08 (49 SEK, €3.50). There is no free tier and no starting credit; the first invoice is paid before the server is created, and a 14-day money-back guarantee is the exit.

How HostUp lets you try before paying is on Trials and free tiers.

Where it stands out

  • A full Linux VM with root, Docker, a public IPv4 and 50 GB of NVMe for $5.72 a month, in the EU.
  • About 380 documented API endpoints, an OpenAPI spec and a hosted MCP server that Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or Codex can drive, with purchases confirmed in the browser.
  • Weekly backups, DDoS scrubbing, IPv6 (/48 routed on request) and a browser console included at no extra cost.
  • Swedish ownership, own hardware in Stockholm, a DPA that applies automatically, and a public status page showing 99.992% over 90 days.
  • Predictable billing: the plan price is the whole machine charge, and 1–32 TB of transfer is included.

Using it without writing code

DashboardYes: a client area with server graphs, a browser VNC console, remote commands, firewall and firewall groups, snapshots, backups, DNS, API keys, cost management and an audit log.
Without codeNo. Ordering a server is click-through, but everything after it — installing the agent, opening ports, issuing a certificate — is terminal work. There are no VPS application templates, and the AI assistant and MCP server still need someone who can describe the change they want.
SignupAn email address, or Swedish BankID, then an invoice. No card is required to open an account or to pay (Bankgiro, Swish and SEPA work), but the server is created only once the invoice is paid. No free tier; the exit is a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Docs and supportA large support knowledge base with about 33 VPS guides, each dated 'Checked against the client area 29 October 2026', plus a separate API site with an OpenAPI spec, an llms.txt and per-endpoint pages.

Capability checklist

Every capability the guide checks, with the catch where HostUp's version falls short. Compare all providers

Isolation

Sizes and regions

Lifecycle

Snapshots and forks

Storage

Idle and waking

Reaching it

Custom domains

Outbound network

Keys and secrets

Ways to drive it

Built-in agents

Teams and accounts

Billing models

Trials and free tiers

The company

The company

From the profile's company section: the legal entity, who funds it, and what a buyer can check before signing.

Legal entity

Hostup AB, registered in Sweden as 559290-1325, at Mässvägen 4, 125 30 Älvsjö.

“Hostup AB, reg. no. 559290-1325, Mässvägen 4, 125 30 Älvsjö, Sweden.” hostup.se docs-confirmed

Founded

2019, by David Berndtsson, who is still CEO and principal owner.

“The company was founded in 2019 by David Berndtsson, who is still CEO and principal owner.” hostup.se docs-confirmed

Ownership

100% Swedish-owned, with no venture capital and no foreign owners.

“Hostup AB is a 100% Swedish-owned internet company with our own hardware and network in Älvsjö, Stockholm. No venture capital funding, no foreign owners.” hostup.se docs-confirmed

Infrastructure

Its own servers and network in one data hall in Älvsjö, Stockholm, with two availability zones since November 2025. All VPS and backups stay in Sweden.

“All our VPS servers are located in Sweden and are owned by us at Hostup AB.” hostup.se docs-confirmed

Uptime promise

99.9% availability per calendar month, with 10%, 25% or 50% service credits below it. The SLA applies to Business Customers only; a private customer gets no credit.

“Hostup's target is 99.9% availability per calendar month.” hostup.se docs-confirmed

Status page

A public status page with incidents, maintenance and a 90-day uptime figure, which read 99.992% on 2026-10-30.

“99.992% uptime over 90 days” status.hostup.se docs-confirmed

Data processing agreement

A DPA covering all services, applied automatically with no signature.

“Yes. The Data Processing Agreement covers all our services and applies to every customer automatically, with no signature” hostup.se docs-confirmed

Physical security

The Stockholm data hall is rated Larmklass 3 and Skyddsklass 3, the highest Swedish classes for alarm and premises protection.

“Certified physical security - burglary protection to Larmklass 3 and Skyddsklass 3 (Swedish standard).” hostup.se docs-confirmed

Certification

No SOC 2 report or ISO 27001 certificate is claimed. The security page lists GDPR, the Swedish physical-security classes and a DPA instead.

“GDPR - data in Sweden/EU” hostup.se not-published

People and funding

Headcount, revenue and valuation are not published. The company describes itself as bootstrapped and Swedish-owned since 2019.

“No venture capital funding, no foreign owners.” hostup.se not-published

Caveats and contradictions

Shown as the research found them. A contradiction means the provider's own pages disagree; an open question means the answer is not published.

  1. 01

    HostUp's pages disagree on whether the plan price includes VAT Contradiction

    The price calculator shows a subtotal marked "excl. VAT" with a 25% VAT line under it; the cart labels the same €4.90 total "inc. VAT". The terms make the display a customer choice, so both modes exist. The card follows the calculator and calls its figures ex-VAT: a private customer in Sweden would then pay 25% more (VPS XS $5.72 becomes $7.15). If the cart's label is the literal one, the €4.90 already includes VAT, the ex-VAT price is €3.92 ($4.58), and the card overstates a business buyer's cost by 25% while a Swedish private buyer pays the same either way. Settle this with HostUp before publication.

    “Subtotal (excl. VAT) VAT (25%) (for private individuals in the EU)”
    HostUppricing-page
    “VPS XS · Total (inc. VAT)”
    HostUppricing-page
  2. 02

    Three currencies, two fixed conversions, no published FX policy Open question

    HostUp bills in SEK, EUR or USD. The English page shows EUR by default, and the EUR figure is the SEK list price divided by ten while the USD figure is the EUR figure times 7/6. The card uses HostUp's own USD display on 2026-10-30; anyone reconciling against a Swedish invoice should use the SEK figures, and a card issuer will convert at its own rate.

  3. 03

    The hourly meter is real but closed to new customers Open question

    The pay-as-you-go Cloud VM bills CPU and memory only while the server runs and the disk always, which would suit bursty work far better than a monthly plan. It needs identity verification and at least SEK 2,000 of paid invoices first, and its per-hour rates are visible only inside an eligible account, so the card cannot price it.

  4. 04

    Stopping does not stop the bill Open question

    A standard VPS is a subscription for the period. Powering it off keeps the disk and the invoice, and loses memory and running processes. There is no pause and no cheaper stopped rate on this product.

  5. 05

    "Its own resources" sits beside a 50% sustained CPU cap Open question

    The VPS page sells each guest as its own KVM machine with its own resources, while the support guide caps a server that has run at full load for several days at half its vCPUs, and throttles heavy disk I/O. The vCPUs are allocated rather than shared, but they are not a permanently dedicated core. A, B and C sit far below the cap.

  6. 06

    HostUp's own pages give four different endpoint counts Contradiction

    The home page says 336 documented endpoints, the VPS page says over 300, the developer page says 383 and the support index says 300+. The model says 300+ and quotes 383 where a figure is needed; no verdict depends on the count.

    “336 documented endpoints with typed IDs and stable error codes”
    HostUpdocs-confirmed
    “383 documented endpoints cover the things you manage in the HostUp dashboard.”
    HostUpdocs-confirmed
  7. 07

    The only snapshot expires after a day Open question

    A snapshot captures the disk, and every snapshot is deleted automatically after 24 hours. The number of slots is set by the plan. Weekly backups are the longer-lived protection, and restoring either overwrites the current server.

  8. 08

    Bandwidth is a hard cap, not an overage bill Open question

    Inbound and outbound traffic count together against 1–32 TB a month. When the allowance is gone the server cannot be started until you buy more capacity at 10 SEK per TB a month or the next period begins. That is cheap, but it is an outage, not an invoice.

  9. 09

    HostUp quotes GB, the calculator uses GiB Open question

    Plans are labelled in GB (2, 4, 8 … 128 GB of memory; 25–1,600 GB of disk). The card maps those figures 1:1 to the site's GiB fields. If they are decimal GB, 128 GB is 119.2 GiB and the top plan is just under the 128 GiB mark. A/B/C asks are smaller and unaffected.

Sources

The three shared workloads

List-price illustrations from the calculator, not quotes. Prices checked 30 October 2026.

  • Bills while switched offA stopped machine is charged like a running one; only deleting it ends the bill.
  • Whole months onlySold as monthly plans, with no hourly price.
  • Data out price unpublishedThere is no per-GiB overage rate. The monthly allowance is a hard cap: when it is used up the server cannot be started or restarted until you buy more capacity or the next period begins. Extra capacity is sold in 1 TB steps at 10 SEK (about $1.17) per TB per month, up to 500 TB. Not priced by the calculator.

A · 1,000 short tasks

$5.72

VPS XS: 2 vCPU / 4 GiB / 50 GiB (plan: Monthly plan)

  • Monthly plan (VPS XS)1 × $5.72 a month, running 166.67 h of tasks back to back$5.72
  • One plan per server per month. The same plan can be paid for 12 months at 10% off, in which case the whole year is charged upfront.
  • Currency: HostUp bills in SEK, EUR or USD. These USD figures are HostUp's own USD display on 2026-10-30, not a market rate: the chain is the SEK list price divided by 10 for EUR (49 SEK to 4.90 EUR) and that EUR figure times 7/6 for USD (4.90 EUR to $5.72). The SEK list prices are 35, 49, 99, 199, 399, 749 and 1,499 a month.
  • VAT: HostUp's own pages disagree. Its price calculator shows a subtotal marked excl. VAT with a 25% VAT line under it; its cart labels the same total inc. VAT. The card follows the calculator and treats these figures as ex-VAT: a private customer in Sweden would then add 25% (VPS XS $5.72 becomes $7.15), a private customer elsewhere in the EU their own rate, while a VAT-registered business in another EU country and a customer outside the EU pay the figure shown. If the cart label is the literal one, the published figure already includes VAT and every total here is 25% too high for a business buyer.
  • Annual term: 10% off the monthly price, paid for the whole year upfront. In USD that is $44.10, $61.72, $124.72, $250.72, $502.72, $943.72 and $1,888.72 a year, or $3.68 to $157.39 a month. The monthly price is the ongoing month-to-month price, not an introductory rate.
  • A stopped standard VPS keeps billing in full: the plan is a subscription for the period and the disk stays. Stopping is a power-off, so memory and running processes are lost. There is no pause and no cheaper stopped rate on this product.
  • Hourly pay-as-you-go Cloud VMs exist but are gated: the account needs identity verification (passport, ID card or Swedish BankID) and at least SEK 2,000 of paid invoices first. Their per-hour rates are shown only inside the client area, so they are not modelled here.
  • Disk and bandwidth can be raised on any plan: extra NVMe at 0.55 SEK (about $0.06) per GB a month up to 5,000 GB on the slider, extra bandwidth at 10 SEK (about $1.17) per TB a month. CPU and memory only change by moving to another plan, which restarts the server. The calculator charges extra disk as disk.extraMonthly at $0.0642 per GiB a month (0.55 SEK at the same display conversion); HostUp bills it as more disk on the same server, not as a separate volume, and it is bought for a whole month.
  • CPU is allocated to the guest but not permanently dedicated: a server that has run at full load for several days is capped at 50% of its vCPUs, and heavy disk I/O can be throttled temporarily. A, B and C sit far below that.
  • The primary public IPv4 is included. Extra IPv4 addresses, kept reserved addresses and the one-time private-network fee are charged, but their prices appear only in the client area and are not modelled.
  • Snapshots are included in plan slots and deleted after 24 hours. Backups are included, weekly by default, with seven slots on the smallest plan; extra slots cost 1 SEK (about $0.12) a month each. Neither has a separate storage rate.
  • Windows Server is bring-your-own-licence; the licence is not in the price.

B · One always-on box

$11.55

VPS SM: 4 vCPU / 8 GiB / 100 GiB (plan: Monthly plan)

  • Monthly plan (VPS SM)1 × $11.55 a month$11.55
  • One plan per server per month. The same plan can be paid for 12 months at 10% off, in which case the whole year is charged upfront.
  • Currency: HostUp bills in SEK, EUR or USD. These USD figures are HostUp's own USD display on 2026-10-30, not a market rate: the chain is the SEK list price divided by 10 for EUR (49 SEK to 4.90 EUR) and that EUR figure times 7/6 for USD (4.90 EUR to $5.72). The SEK list prices are 35, 49, 99, 199, 399, 749 and 1,499 a month.
  • VAT: HostUp's own pages disagree. Its price calculator shows a subtotal marked excl. VAT with a 25% VAT line under it; its cart labels the same total inc. VAT. The card follows the calculator and treats these figures as ex-VAT: a private customer in Sweden would then add 25% (VPS XS $5.72 becomes $7.15), a private customer elsewhere in the EU their own rate, while a VAT-registered business in another EU country and a customer outside the EU pay the figure shown. If the cart label is the literal one, the published figure already includes VAT and every total here is 25% too high for a business buyer.
  • Annual term: 10% off the monthly price, paid for the whole year upfront. In USD that is $44.10, $61.72, $124.72, $250.72, $502.72, $943.72 and $1,888.72 a year, or $3.68 to $157.39 a month. The monthly price is the ongoing month-to-month price, not an introductory rate.
  • A stopped standard VPS keeps billing in full: the plan is a subscription for the period and the disk stays. Stopping is a power-off, so memory and running processes are lost. There is no pause and no cheaper stopped rate on this product.
  • Hourly pay-as-you-go Cloud VMs exist but are gated: the account needs identity verification (passport, ID card or Swedish BankID) and at least SEK 2,000 of paid invoices first. Their per-hour rates are shown only inside the client area, so they are not modelled here.
  • Disk and bandwidth can be raised on any plan: extra NVMe at 0.55 SEK (about $0.06) per GB a month up to 5,000 GB on the slider, extra bandwidth at 10 SEK (about $1.17) per TB a month. CPU and memory only change by moving to another plan, which restarts the server. The calculator charges extra disk as disk.extraMonthly at $0.0642 per GiB a month (0.55 SEK at the same display conversion); HostUp bills it as more disk on the same server, not as a separate volume, and it is bought for a whole month.
  • CPU is allocated to the guest but not permanently dedicated: a server that has run at full load for several days is capped at 50% of its vCPUs, and heavy disk I/O can be throttled temporarily. A, B and C sit far below that.
  • The primary public IPv4 is included. Extra IPv4 addresses, kept reserved addresses and the one-time private-network fee are charged, but their prices appear only in the client area and are not modelled.
  • Snapshots are included in plan slots and deleted after 24 hours. Backups are included, weekly by default, with seven slots on the smallest plan; extra slots cost 1 SEK (about $0.12) a month each. Neither has a separate storage rate.
  • Windows Server is bring-your-own-licence; the licence is not in the price.

C · Three hours a day

$5.72

VPS XS: 2 vCPU / 4 GiB / 50 GiB (plan: Monthly plan)

  • Monthly plan (VPS XS)1 × $5.72 a month$5.72
  • One plan per server per month. The same plan can be paid for 12 months at 10% off, in which case the whole year is charged upfront.
  • Currency: HostUp bills in SEK, EUR or USD. These USD figures are HostUp's own USD display on 2026-10-30, not a market rate: the chain is the SEK list price divided by 10 for EUR (49 SEK to 4.90 EUR) and that EUR figure times 7/6 for USD (4.90 EUR to $5.72). The SEK list prices are 35, 49, 99, 199, 399, 749 and 1,499 a month.
  • VAT: HostUp's own pages disagree. Its price calculator shows a subtotal marked excl. VAT with a 25% VAT line under it; its cart labels the same total inc. VAT. The card follows the calculator and treats these figures as ex-VAT: a private customer in Sweden would then add 25% (VPS XS $5.72 becomes $7.15), a private customer elsewhere in the EU their own rate, while a VAT-registered business in another EU country and a customer outside the EU pay the figure shown. If the cart label is the literal one, the published figure already includes VAT and every total here is 25% too high for a business buyer.
  • Annual term: 10% off the monthly price, paid for the whole year upfront. In USD that is $44.10, $61.72, $124.72, $250.72, $502.72, $943.72 and $1,888.72 a year, or $3.68 to $157.39 a month. The monthly price is the ongoing month-to-month price, not an introductory rate.
  • A stopped standard VPS keeps billing in full: the plan is a subscription for the period and the disk stays. Stopping is a power-off, so memory and running processes are lost. There is no pause and no cheaper stopped rate on this product.
  • Hourly pay-as-you-go Cloud VMs exist but are gated: the account needs identity verification (passport, ID card or Swedish BankID) and at least SEK 2,000 of paid invoices first. Their per-hour rates are shown only inside the client area, so they are not modelled here.
  • Disk and bandwidth can be raised on any plan: extra NVMe at 0.55 SEK (about $0.06) per GB a month up to 5,000 GB on the slider, extra bandwidth at 10 SEK (about $1.17) per TB a month. CPU and memory only change by moving to another plan, which restarts the server. The calculator charges extra disk as disk.extraMonthly at $0.0642 per GiB a month (0.55 SEK at the same display conversion); HostUp bills it as more disk on the same server, not as a separate volume, and it is bought for a whole month.
  • CPU is allocated to the guest but not permanently dedicated: a server that has run at full load for several days is capped at 50% of its vCPUs, and heavy disk I/O can be throttled temporarily. A, B and C sit far below that.
  • The primary public IPv4 is included. Extra IPv4 addresses, kept reserved addresses and the one-time private-network fee are charged, but their prices appear only in the client area and are not modelled.
  • Snapshots are included in plan slots and deleted after 24 hours. Backups are included, weekly by default, with seven slots on the smallest plan; extra slots cost 1 SEK (about $0.12) a month each. Neither has a separate storage rate.
  • Windows Server is bring-your-own-licence; the licence is not in the price.