We sell two VPS lines that look similar on paper. Both are KVM with full root, both run on SSD storage, both have unmetered traffic and a free IPv4. Yet one starts at €4 a month and the other at €9.99. The difference is almost entirely about the network, and picking the right line depends on how much data your server pushes out at the same time.
This guide explains the difference in plain terms and shows which projects belong on which line.
The one difference that matters
On the regular VPS line, each plan has a port shaped to the plan, from 100 Mbps on size I to 300 Mbps on size VI, and the node uplink is shared between the servers on that node. That is plenty for websites, APIs, databases, bots and almost every self hosted app, because those send small amounts of data in short bursts.
On the streaming VPS line, servers have no per VM bandwidth ceiling and share a 1 Gbps node uplink. That is what you need when the server sends a continuous, heavy stream to many people at once: live video, large downloads, mirrors, game patch servers.
Traffic is unmetered on both lines. Neither has a monthly transfer quota or overage charge. The question is not how much data you send in a month, it is how much you send at the same moment.
Side by side
Prices for Romania, which carries no location fee.
| Size | Regular VPS | Regular price | Streaming VPS | Streaming price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | 1 vCPU, 2 GB, 20 GB | €4 | 1 vCPU, 2 GB, 20 GB | €9.99 |
| II | 2 vCPU, 4 GB, 40 GB | €6 | 2 vCPU, 4 GB, 40 GB | €18.99 |
| III | 2 vCPU, 8 GB, 60 GB | €10 | 4 vCPU, 8 GB, 60 GB | €34.99 |
| IV | 4 vCPU, 16 GB, 80 GB | €16 | 6 vCPU, 16 GB, 80 GB | €59.99 |
| V | 6 vCPU, 24 GB, 100 GB | €30 | 8 vCPU, 24 GB, 100 GB | €89.99 |
| VI | 8 vCPU, 32 GB, 120 GB | €58 | 12 vCPU, 32 GB, 120 GB | €139.99 |
From size III upwards the streaming plans also carry more vCPU, because media work tends to need it. Two more practical differences: the regular line can be billed by the hour, the streaming line is billed monthly, quarterly or yearly. Both are available in Romania, Poland, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and Ashburn in the United States.
Projects that belong on the regular line
- Websites, online shops and APIs, even busy ones. A typical page is a few hundred kilobytes.
- Self hosted apps: Nextcloud for a family, Vaultwarden, n8n, Matrix, Gitea, wikis, analytics.
- Databases, caches and queues.
- Bots, monitoring probes, VPN servers for a handful of people.
- CI runners, test environments and anything you create and destroy within hours, since only the regular line bills by the hour.
For help picking a size, read our VPS plan sizing guide.
Projects that belong on the streaming line
- Live streaming origins. An RTMP or SRT ingest that repackages to HLS for viewers. Every viewer pulls their own copy, so 100 viewers at 5 Mbps is 500 Mbps leaving the server at once. Our streaming sizing guide shows the arithmetic for your audience.
- Multistreaming relays. One stream in, several platforms out. See our guide to self hosted multistreaming.
- 24/7 channels that run OBS or FFmpeg around the clock. The OBS on a VPS guide covers the setup.
- Download and mirror servers for software releases, game mods or Linux packages, where many people pull large files at once.
- Media servers shared with many people. A Jellyfin or Plex style server for a large group, where several remote streams play at the same time.
A quick test to decide
Ask one question: at the busiest minute, how much data leaves the server per second?
- Estimate the number of people pulling data at that minute.
- Multiply by what each one pulls. A 1080p stream is about 5 Mbps, a 4K stream 15 to 25 Mbps, a web page visit a tiny fraction of that.
- If the answer is in the tens of megabits, the regular line is fine. If it is in the hundreds of megabits or more, and stays there for long stretches, choose the streaming line.
If you are somewhere in between, start on the regular line and watch the outgoing traffic graph during your busiest hour. If it flattens out at the top, it is time to move.
When neither VPS line is enough
If you need a guaranteed lane that is entirely yours, or more than one streaming VPS can transcode, a dedicated server gets its own unmetered port, from 1 Gbps up to 200 Gbps on the largest EPYC. Our post on dedicated origin servers for video covers that setup, and the dedicated price guide lists every port option.
How Noded Can Help
Choose the regular VPS checkout for apps and sites, or the streaming checkout for video and big downloads. Both show the full price for your location before you pay, and both are ready in about a minute. If you tell us in a ticket how many viewers or downloads you expect, we will tell you which line and size we would start with.
FAQ
Is traffic unlimited on both VPS lines?
Traffic is unmetered on both, with no monthly quota and no overage. The difference is the port speed and how much data the server can push at the same moment.
Can I pay for a streaming VPS by the hour?
No. Streaming plans are billed monthly, quarterly or yearly. Hourly billing is available on the regular VPS line.
Can I switch from a regular VPS to a streaming VPS?
They are separate product lines, so the usual path is to order a streaming VPS, move your setup across, and cancel the regular one. Capturing an image of your server first makes that quicker.
Which locations offer the streaming line?
Romania, Poland, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and Ashburn in the United States, the same as the regular line.