How to read hosting plans: the hidden limits

A plan card shows cores, memory, disk and a monthly price. Yet two plans with identical numbers can cost different amounts a year later and behave differently under load. The difference lies in terms printed in small type, in the acceptable use policy, or only in the contract. Below are eight places worth checking before you pay.

Updated 02.11.2026 · Find a VPS for your needs →

Hosts rarely lie outright: everything covered here is usually written down somewhere. The advertised figure is simply calculated for the most favourable scenario — paying three years upfront, ignoring setup, and assuming a load most customers never reach. The buyer's job is to recalculate the plan for their own scenario. In order: the CPU, "unlimited", traffic, one-off fees, renewal, minimum term and the IP address.

CPU: not all cores are equal

"2 vCPU" on a plan card almost never means two physical cores reserved for you. On a VPS, a virtual core is a share of the host's processor, which dozens of customers split between them. The usual arrangement has no hard cap: the core is yours as long as the neighbours do not load the host at the same moment. But some plans spell out a ceiling in their rules — for example, sustained load no higher than a certain percentage, or a clock-speed cap on "budget" lines. Look for these rules under the words "fair use", "CPU limit", "sustained load" and "burst".

If the server will run under constant load — building code, transcoding video, number crunching — look for plans with dedicated cores (dedicated vCPU) or take a physical server. For a website, a bot or a control panel an ordinary shared core is enough: they use the CPU in short bursts. How to check real performance on the first day is covered in How to test VPS ping and speed before you pay, and how many cores a site actually needs in How much RAM and how many cores a website needs.

"Unlimited" and fair use

The word "unlimited" on a plan almost always refers to the volume of traffic, not the speed. Traffic is not counted in gigabytes, but the connection is capped by the port speed — 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps or more. A 100 Mbps port can physically move no more than 32 TB in a month, so "unlimited" on such a port is a ceiling of about 32 TB, just expressed differently.

The second limit is the fair use rule (fair use, AUP). In it the host reserves the right to cut the speed or ask you to move to another plan if the server saturates the link for a long time. Such rules often contain no specific figures. Before buying for file or video distribution, read this section in full and, if in doubt, ask support in writing: "what average monthly throughput do you consider normal on this plan?" More on what port speed and unlimited mean in Bandwidth and traffic: what 1 Gbps and unlimited really mean.

In the accsly catalog as of 2 November 2026, unlimited traffic is listed for 43% of VPS plans whose traffic terms are known, and for 54% of dedicated servers. Collections: VPS with unlimited traffic and dedicated servers with unlimited traffic.

What happens after the traffic quota

If a plan says "5 TB of traffic", what matters is not only the number but what happens when it runs out. There are three variants:

The speed is reduced until the end of the month, to the value stated in the terms. The server keeps working, only slowly; for a website this is usually unnoticeable, for file distribution it is noticeable.
Each additional terabyte is billed separately at the price-list rate. That is fair, but the bill for a month with a traffic spike can come as a surprise.
The server is cut off until the next month or until you buy an extra package. The worst option for a production project.

Also check how traffic is counted: outbound only or inbound too, and whether traffic inside the data centre — to backup storage, for example — counts towards the quota. The median quota for VPS plans with metered traffic in the catalog is 5 TB a month; for dedicated servers it is 15 TB. For a website that is a lot; for video distribution it is little.

Setup fee

A one-off setup fee is rare on a VPS but common on dedicated servers: the host assembles and installs a machine for you. In the accsly catalog a setup fee is listed for 2% of VPS plans (median about $10) and for 10% of dedicated servers (median about $169). On a dedicated server you take for two or three months, that amount noticeably changes the total price. Hosts often waive the setup fee for annual payment or on promotional configurations — it is worth asking.

First-term price and renewal price

The most common surprise is the bill for the second year. Adverts show the monthly price when paying 12, 24 or 36 months ahead, and sometimes a promotional price for new customers only. 6,406 VPS plans in the catalog have a separate price for long-term payment, and at the median it is 20% lower than the monthly rate. The discount is real, but you pay for the whole term at once.

The second case is a promotional first-term price. Of the 1,224 hosts whose promotion terms are in the catalog, 275 give a discount on the first month, the first year or to new customers only. After that, renewal follows the regular price list, and the gap with the advertised price can be large. How to check:

find the phrase "renewal price" or "regular price" in the price list or terms;
work out the two-year total: first term plus renewal, not the advertised price multiplied by 24;
check whether you can renew at the same price by paying for a new long term in advance.

Minimum term and prepayment

Monthly billing does not always mean "you can cancel after a month". Some plans state a minimum contract term in their conditions — a quarter, six months or a year — and some lines can only be ordered with prepayment. In the accsly catalog, prepayment for several months is mandatory for 791 VPS plans from 176 hosts, most often for 12 months. Separately, check the cancellation notice period: on dedicated servers "30 days before the end of the period" is not unusual.

Related terms are refunds and hourly billing. If you are unsure about a host, pick a plan with a money-back guarantee (VPS with a money-back guarantee) or with hourly billing, where the server can be deleted at any moment; see Hourly billing: when it pays off. Keep in mind that refunds often do not cover setup, licences and dedicated servers — that is also written in the terms.

Your own IPv4 or NAT

The cheapest plans sometimes come without a public IPv4 address of their own. There are two variants. A NAT VPS shares one external address among several customers, and you get a small range of ports; the standard ports 80 and 443 are not yours, and you cannot run a website on such a server without an intermediary. An IPv6-only server has IPv6 addresses only, and visitors without IPv6 will not reach it. In the accsly catalog, 349 VPS plans from 31 hosts come without IPv4.

An extra IPv4 address is almost always paid. Across 140 hosts that state the price unambiguously, the median is about $2.2 a month per address (180 ₽ at the 2 November 2026 rate), and half of the prices fall between about $1.9 and $3.4. Why that is and when IPv6 is enough is explained in IPv4 and IPv6 on a server.

A short checklist before you pay

CPU: shared or dedicated cores, and whether the rules limit sustained load.
Traffic: the quota, what happens after it, whether inbound counts; for unlimited plans, the port speed and the fair use rule.
One-off fees: setup, a control panel or Windows licence, an extra IP.
Price: what renewal costs and the two-year total.
Term: minimum contract term, prepayment, cancellation notice period, refund conditions.
Address: your own IPv4 or NAT, whether IPv6 is available, whether reverse DNS (PTR) can be set.

For the overall selection scheme — from virtualisation to disk — see How to choose a VPS: the 7 specs that matter.

FAQ

What does fair use mean in a hosting plan?

It is an acceptable use rule: the host may cut the speed or offer another plan if the server saturates the link or the CPU for a long time. Specific figures are often missing, so under heavy load it is worth confirming them with support in writing.

Is unlimited traffic really without limits?

The volume is not counted, but the speed is capped by the port. In a month a 100 Mbps port can move no more than 32 TB, a 1 Gbps port about 324 TB. On top of that, a fair use rule may restrict constant saturation of the link.

What happens when the plan traffic runs out?

It depends on the host: the speed is reduced until the end of the month, each additional terabyte is billed, or the server is cut off until you buy a package. This is written in the plan terms and should be checked before you pay.

Why is VPS renewal more expensive than the first payment?

The advertised price often applies only to the first term or only when paying for a year or more. Renewal follows the regular price list. Calculate the two-year total rather than the advertised price multiplied by 24 months.

What is a NAT VPS?

A server without its own public IPv4: several customers share one external address, and you get a range of ports. That is enough for a bot or tests, but not for a website on ports 80 and 443 or a mail server.

How much does an extra IPv4 address cost?

According to the accsly catalog as of 2 November 2026, the median across 140 hosts with an unambiguous price is about $2.2 a month per address, and half of the prices range from about $1.9 to $3.4.

Plans on this topic

Cheap VPS/VDS under 4 $ a month Web hosting with unlimited traffic Dedicated servers Best VPS hosting 2026

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