Windows VPS in 2026: Cheapest Plans and What the Licence Costs

How this was checked

Every figure below was read on October 15, 2026 from the vendor's own pricing or documentation page, listed in the sources block. Contabo, Vultr, Kamatera, AWS Lightsail and the Hetzner price list were read in a browser sitting in Pakistan, with the price shown in US dollars. Hostinger, DigitalOcean and Hetzner's Windows documentation were read through a US network location. Contabo, Vultr and Lightsail can show different prices by region or currency, so confirm the number at checkout.

We did not deploy a Windows server on any of these hosts for this page, so there are no boot-time, RDP-latency or disk-speed figures. Kamatera's totals come from its own calculator, run for each configuration and matched against the price data the page ships. The prices on this page are what each vendor published, not what a checkout produced.

Who sells Windows Server VPS today

Four hosts sell a Windows Server VPS with the licence included, and we priced all four: Contabo, Kamatera, Vultr and AWS Lightsail. OVHcloud also lists a Windows VPS page, but its "starting at" prices ($4.54 to $23.37 on the US page) did not separate out a Windows licence charge, so it is left out of the tables rather than guessed at. Hetzner lets you install your own licensed copy, with caveats covered below. Hostinger and DigitalOcean cannot run Windows.

Cheapest Windows Server VPS plans, October 15, 2026

Sorted by monthly price, licence included, monthly billing at the list rate. Plans under 2 vCPU or 2 GB are left out: Kamatera's configurator will not build a Windows Server below 2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM and 30 GB disk, and Vultr's Windows table starts at 1 vCPU and 2 GB.

Prices in USD, read October 15, 2026, from contabo.com/en/windows-servers-vps/, aws.amazon.com/lightsail/pricing/ (public IPv4 bundles, Windows tab), vultr.com/servers/windows and the plan list on vultr.com, and kamatera.com/pricing/. Kamatera Type A is its budget tier; its Type B tier, described as having reserved CPU threads, costs more (see the next section). Contabo's 24-month figure needs a 24-month term. Contabo's 4 vCPU plan lists a 200 Mbit/s port; the other hosts' network limits are not compared here.

The row that jumps out is Contabo Cloud VPS 4: twice the cores and four times the RAM of the Lightsail 2 GB bundle for $5.80 less a month. Matching a 2 vCPU / 4 GB shape on the other three hosts costs $38 (Kamatera Type A), $44 (Lightsail) or $52 (Vultr), and Contabo has no plan that small. If your workload scales with cores and tolerates a slower disk, Contabo wins on price. If it needs a small box, Kamatera or Lightsail does.

Contabo's own licence page still carries the line "Windows license for €4.99 a month". The plan tiles on the same page do not agree with it: Cloud VPS 4 costs $9.60 more with Windows than without, and Cloud VPS 6 costs $20.40 more. We could not reproduce a €4.99 licence in any price Contabo shows, so this page uses the tile prices.

The licence cost against the same Linux plan

The licence is the entire price gap between a Windows plan and its Linux twin, since the hardware is the same. These pairs use the same host, same vCPU, RAM and disk, one with Linux and one with Windows Server. Prices are monthly list prices read October 15, 2026.

Contabo Linux and Windows prices from its Cloud VPS and Windows VPS pages (the Linux $6.60 and the Windows $16.20 are both the list price before the 24-month discount; the gap is $9.60 on both rates). Kamatera pairs are Ubuntu Server 24.04 against Windows Server 2022 Standard in its calculator; it charged the same $19 for Windows Server 2025 and for the Datacenter editions. Vultr and Lightsail gaps come from the vendors' own Linux and Windows tables.

How each host charges for the licence as the server grows

The pricing logic is different at each host, and that decides which one is cheap at your size.

A worked example for a 4 vCPU / 8 GB server you keep for three years, using list prices. On Contabo the licence is $9.60 a month, $345.60 over 36 months. On Kamatera Type A it is $19 a month, $684. On Vultr it is $64 a month, $2,304. Run the same Contabo box on Linux and the 36-month bill is $237.60 instead of $583.20. The licence is 59% of the Windows price at Contabo, 31% at Kamatera and 62% at Vultr.

Two consequences follow. Flat per-server pricing makes Kamatera's licence cheapest as a share of the bill once you buy a large server: the same $19 is under 9% of the Windows price on an 8 vCPU Type B server. Per-vCPU pricing makes Vultr the costly choice for exactly the multi-core boxes Windows workloads like to use.

Licensing basics, as far as the vendors state them

Kamatera's licensing page puts it plainly: software it licenses is added to the monthly bill with no separate registration. That is the pass-through model all four hosts use: the host holds the Microsoft licence, and its share of the cost is in your monthly price. None of the vendor pages we read name the programme behind it, so treat the mechanism as background rather than something each vendor documents.

Two limits matter before you order.

• Remote Desktop for several people costs extra. Microsoft's pricing page says client access licences are required for every user or device accessing a server. Kamatera lists a Remote Desktop CAL at $8 per user per month as an add-on. The other hosts' pages we read were silent on CAL terms, so ask before you put more than administrators on the server.
• The licence stays with the plan. Contabo's help centre says that if you remove the Windows licence, support must reinstall the server with a Linux operating system.

Bringing your own licence

Microsoft's reference price for Windows Server 2025 Standard is $1,176 for a 16-core licence (Datacenter $6,771), with CALs on top, per Microsoft's pricing page read October 15, 2026. Owning that licence only pays if your host lets you use it, and the vendors disagree.

The Hetzner contradiction is worth stating carefully. The Windows on Cloud page was last changed on 2022-05-17 and describes mounting an ISO from the "ISO images" tab in the console. The custom ISO FAQ, which explains how to send Hetzner a link to your own ISO by support ticket, says Windows ISOs are not supported there. We did not try to install Windows on Hetzner, so we cannot say which document describes what works today. Hetzner also states that Windows 10 and 11 cannot be used on its servers because Microsoft's licence forbids server use; Windows Server editions are the route it names.

If you do have a Hetzner-eligible licence, the server side is cheap. Hetzner's June 15, 2026 price list (page changed 2026-07-08, Germany and Finland, excluding IPv4, in dollars) shows CX23 at $6.49/mo for 2 vCPU and 4 GB, CX33 at $9.99/mo for 4 vCPU and 8 GB, and the dedicated-vCPU CCX13 at $50.49/mo. Hetzner's CX product page showed those CX plans as currently unavailable when we looked, so check availability before planning around them.

When owning the licence beats renting it

Dividing the $1,176 reference price by each host's monthly licence charge gives the break-even point, before any CALs: Vultr at 4 vCPU ($64) takes about 18 months, Vultr at 2 vCPU ($32) about 37 months, Lightsail 4 GB ($20) about 59 months, Kamatera ($19) about 62 months, and Contabo ($9.60) about 122 months, which is moot because Contabo does not allow it on a VPS. Owning only pays quickly on per-vCPU hosts with larger servers. We did not read Microsoft's licence-mobility terms for third-party hosts, so confirm eligibility with your Microsoft reseller before buying a licence for this.

Which one to pick: a plain rule

1. Does the software have a Linux version? If yes, use Linux. At 4 vCPU the saving is $9.60 a month at Contabo, $19 at Kamatera, $40 at Lightsail and $64 at Vultr.
2. Windows-only, 4 or more vCPU, always on, and you can live with an SSD rather than NVMe? Contabo Cloud VPS 4 at $16.20. No other host we priced gives 4 vCPU and 8 GB with Windows for under $61.
3. Windows-only and a small server, or it runs for hours and not months? Kamatera. Type A is $31 or $38 a month, and billing by the hour means an 80-hour project on the 2 vCPU / 4 GB build costs $4.16. Its monthly figure equals about 730 hours at the hourly rate.
4. Need exactly 2 vCPU and 2 GB, always on, cheapest? AWS Lightsail at $22, if you can use an AWS account.
5. Need Vultr's locations? Vultr lists 33 regions on its Windows page against Kamatera's 21, and the per-vCPU licence is what you pay for that map. Use it when a region only Vultr serves is the requirement.
6. Own a Windows Server licence? Ask Contabo about a dedicated server (its help page allows your own licence there), or ask Kamatera and Hetzner for their written policy first. A VPS plan with a rented licence is the wrong place to spend a licence you already paid for.

On a Windows box you will live inside all day, disk speed matters more than the table suggests. Contabo's Cloud VPS 4 lists SSD only, while its larger plans list an NVMe option. We have not benchmarked any of these disks. See Contabo vs Hetzner for how the two compare on Linux, and the VPS hosting guide for the wider picture.

Skip this if

• The remote machine only has to be a desktop you can reach. Hostinger's own support page says Ubuntu with Desktop is its RDP-compatible alternative to Windows. KVM 2 (2 vCPU, 8 GB, 100 GB NVMe) was $8.99/mo on its US page October 15, 2026, renewing at $14.99/mo. It cannot run Windows-only programs. Hostinger VPS is an affiliate link and the only one on this page; it points to a Linux plan, not a Windows one.
• You only need a Windows build step. A CI runner or a short-lived Windows machine can be cheaper billed by the hour than a monthly plan.
• Your organisation already holds volume licences with mobility rights. The rented licences here can cost more than what you already own. Check with your reseller first.

Windows VPS FAQ

What is the cheapest Windows VPS?

Of the hosts we priced on October 15, 2026, Contabo Cloud VPS 4 is the cheapest at $16.20/mo for 4 vCPU, 8 GB and 100 GB SSD with Windows Server included, or $14.88/mo on a 24-month term. For a 2 vCPU server the cheapest is AWS Lightsail's 2 GB bundle at $22/mo, then Kamatera at $31 to $38/mo.

Does Hostinger sell a Windows VPS?

No. Hostinger's support page says it offers only Linux-based operating system templates for VPS and that a Windows VPS is not available. It also does not allow uploads of your own OS image, so you cannot install Windows yourself. Its stated alternative is Ubuntu with a desktop.

Does DigitalOcean have Windows Droplets?

No. DigitalOcean's support page, last verified July 13, 2026, says you cannot use Windows on a Droplet, with no Windows images and no support for Windows custom images. Its Droplet image list is Linux only.

How much does the Windows licence add to a VPS?

On the same hardware, the licence adds $9.60/mo to a 4 vCPU Contabo plan, $19/mo flat to any Kamatera server, and $16 per vCPU per month at Vultr ($64 for 4 vCPU). On AWS Lightsail it adds $10 to $40 depending on the bundle.

Can I bring my own Windows Server licence to a VPS?

Not on Contabo VPS or VDS, which require its rented licence. Hetzner's documentation allows a manual install subject to Microsoft's terms, while its ISO FAQ says Windows ISOs are unsupported. For Vultr and Kamatera we found no confirmed policy, so ask before you buy a licence.

Can I run Windows 10 or 11 on a VPS?

Hetzner's FAQ says no: it reads Microsoft's licence terms as forbidding Windows 10 and 11 on server hardware and points to Windows Server editions instead. Whether another host's desktop image is allowed for your use is a Microsoft licensing question to settle before you build on it.

Bottom line

If you need Windows and nothing else will do, start from Contabo Cloud VPS 4 at $16.20/mo for four vCPUs, and move to Kamatera when you need a smaller machine, hourly billing or a licence that stays at $19 as the server grows. Use Vultr for its locations and accept the $16-per-vCPU licence. Everyone else should check whether the software runs on Linux, which removes the line item entirely.