Best Cheap Windows VPS Hosting in 2026

Cheap Linux VPS plans are everywhere. Cheap Windows VPS plans are harder to compare, because the number on the pricing page is rarely what you pay. Some providers bill the Windows Server licence separately, some only show their best price on a one or two-year commitment, and some sell entry plans with so little RAM that Windows Server can barely log you in.

We went through the pricing pages, order configurators and documentation of the main providers in October 2026 and compared what a working Windows VPS actually costs per month. Prices are list prices before tax at the time of writing; they move often, so check the configurator before you order.

What makes a Windows VPS cheap, or just look cheap

• The licence. Windows Server is not free. Contabo, OVHcloud, Vultr and Kamatera add a monthly licence fee on top of the server, and on small plans it can cost as much as the server itself. Others put Windows in the plan price. A few ship a trial licence or ask you to bring your own key. Ask which one you are getting before you compare prices.
• Microsoft lists 2 GB as the minimum for Windows Server with the Desktop Experience. In practice 4 GB is where a remote desktop with a browser and one or two applications feels usable. Plans with 0.5 or 1 GB are cheap for a reason.
• The commitment. A price shown “per month” on a 24-month term, or for the first three months only, is not the same as a monthly price. Check the renewal rate.
• A Windows VPS gives you a whole virtual machine with administrator rights. A shared RDP account gives you a user session on someone else’s server, with no admin rights and neighbours on the same Windows instance. Both are sold as “RDP”; only the first is a server.
• Network and location. Port speed, traffic limits and distance to your users or your broker matter more than raw CPU for most remote desktop work.

Quick comparison

Prices checked on each provider’s website in October 2026, before tax.

The providers

1. rdp.monster: the lowest monthly price for a usable Windows VPS

rdp.monster sells Windows VPS plans under the name most people search for, RDP, but each plan is a private KVM virtual machine with its own vCPU, RAM and IPv4 address, not a shared session. Its cheap Windows VPS plan costs $8.99 per month for 2 vCPU, 6 GB RAM and 40 GB NVMe, billed monthly with no setup fee, and Standard moves to 8 GB RAM and 70 GB NVMe for $16.99. Windows Server 2012 or 2022 comes preinstalled at no extra charge, with full administrator access from the first login. The image is Microsoft’s 180-day evaluation (trial) edition: it is fully functional during that period, and for longer-term use you activate it with your own Windows Server licence key.

Servers are delivered automatically in about 10 seconds, in Paris or New York, on 1 Gbps ports with unlimited bandwidth (fair use). Payment works by card, PayPal or more than ten cryptocurrencies, with no ID check, and prices are frozen until the end of 2027. It is a good fit if you want to buy RDP access that behaves like a real server, or run trading and automation bots around the clock.

Watch out for: the Windows licence is a 180-day trial, so budget for your own key if you keep the server longer; only two VPS locations; refunds are issued as account credit rather than cash.

2. InterServer: cheap 4 GB plan in the US

InterServer sells Windows VPS in “slices”. Two slices cost $10 per month, month to month, for 1 core, 4 GB RAM, 80 GB SSD and 4 TB of transfer on a 10 Gbps port, on Hyper-V. Servers are normally ready in under 20 minutes in New York, Dallas or Los Angeles. Watch out for: US locations only and a single core at that price.

3. Contabo: the most RAM per euro

Contabo’s entry Cloud VPS gives you 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM and 100 GB SSD, with Windows Server 2019, 2022 or 2025 added as a licence that scales with the plan size. With Windows, expect roughly €12 to €14 per month depending on the term, with no setup fee and locations across Europe, the US and Asia. Watch out for: a 200 Mbit/s port on the entry plan, region surcharges, and provisioning that takes a few minutes after payment clears.

4. OVHcloud: monthly billing with backups

OVHcloud’s VPS-1 (2 vCores, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB SSD, 500 Mbps, unlimited traffic, daily backup) costs $7.60 per month in the US, plus $9 for the Windows licence: $16.60 in total, or €13.99 in Europe. Watch out for: the licence costs more than the server, and the lowest advertised price requires prepaying a year.

5. IONOS: NVMe and licence in the price

IONOS Windows M+ offers 2 vCores, 4 GB RAM and 120 GB NVMe with unlimited traffic at 1 Gbps. It costs $16 per month for the first three months on a one-year term, then $25. The price shown is all-in, with no setup fee. Watch out for: the one-year commitment and a 56% jump after the introductory period.

6. Hostwinds: managed Windows at an entry price

Hostwinds includes the Windows licence in its plans and offers a managed tier from $14.94 per month on promotion ($22.99 regular), or $16.99 unmanaged, in Seattle, Dallas and Amsterdam. Watch out for: the entry plan has 1 GB RAM, which is tight for Windows Server.

7. AWS Lightsail: AWS reliability, small instances

Lightsail Windows bundles include the licence and start at $9.50 per month, but that bundle has 0.5 GB RAM on burstable CPU. A usable 2 GB instance costs $22 per month, across 15 regions. Watch out for: you pay for the AWS name more than for resources.

8. Vultr: the most regions, hourly billing

Vultr offers Windows Server 2016 to 2025 in 33 regions. A 1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 55 GB SSD plan costs $10 per month, and the Windows licence is billed hourly on top of it. Watch out for: the licence adds a large share to small plans, and custom Windows ISOs are not allowed.

9. Cloudzy: many regions and payment options

Cloudzy’s Windows VPS starts at $14.48 per month on its current promotion for 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM and 120 GB NVMe, with 13 locations and card, PayPal, Alipay or crypto payment. Watch out for: the price depends on the running discount (the list price is $28.95), and there is no plan below 4 GB RAM.

10. Kamatera: fully custom configurations

Kamatera lets you build any combination of CPU, RAM and storage, with shared or dedicated cores, monthly or hourly billing, and a 30-day free trial. Its Windows VPS page starts at $31 per month for 1 core, 2 GB RAM and 30 GB NVMe, and you can bring your own licence. Watch out for: the highest entry price on this list.

No ready Windows image: Hetzner, Hostinger, DigitalOcean

Three popular low-cost clouds are missing on purpose. Hetzner Cloud and Hostinger VPS only offer Linux images, and DigitalOcean does not support Windows images on its Droplets. They are excellent for Linux, but not for a cheap Windows server.

Which one should you pick?

• Lowest monthly price with enough RAM to work comfortably:monster.
• A US server with 4 GB RAM for about $10:
• As much RAM as possible for heavy applications:
• Backups and a big provider behind you: OVHcloud or IONOS.
• Many regions or hourly billing: Vultr, Cloudzy or Kamatera.

Five things to do on any new Windows VPS

• Change the Administrator password you received and enable Network Level Authentication for Remote Desktop.
• Restrict port 3389 in the Windows firewall to your own IP addresses if you can. Moving RDP to another port reduces log noise but is not protection on its own.
• Run Windows Update before you install anything else, and leave automatic updates on.
• Create a separate user account for daily work instead of logging in as Administrator.
• Keep a copy of important data off the server. A cheap VPS is not a backup.

Conclusion

The cheapest Windows VPS is the one whose real monthly cost, with Windows and enough RAM, fits your budget. Compare prices on the billing term you will actually use, check what the plan includes, and make sure you are buying a full virtual machine rather than a shared RDP account. Once that is done, a $9 to $16 Windows server is enough for remote work, trading platforms and 24/7 automation.