Your first server

Last updated 25 October 2026

1. Add credit

Servers are paid from a prepaid balance. Open Billing and add credit by card (after a free card check) or by SEPA bank transfer. A card payment is on your balance within a minute; a bank transfer takes 1 to 2 working days.

2. Deploy a server

1. Choose Deploy a server.
2. Pick a size. The bar height shows memory; hatched bars are Arm servers.
3. Pick a city. Germany and Finland are the cheapest and include 20 TB of traffic a month.
4. Choose the operating system (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora or Rocky Linux), and Docker or Kubernetes if you want them installed on first boot.
5. Paste your SSH public key, or leave it empty to get a root password shown once.
6. Deploy. The first month is paid from your balance, and the server is running in about a minute.

3. Log in

Copy the IPv4 address from the server's page and connect from a terminal (macOS, Linux, or PowerShell on Windows):

ssh root@203.0.113.10

Use your server's address instead of 203.0.113.10. Without an SSH key, log in with the root password shown once when you deployed, and change it with passwd.

4. First steps on the server

Install updates: apt update && apt upgrade on Ubuntu and Debian, dnf upgrade on Fedora and Rocky Linux.
Open only the ports you need in the server's Firewall section.
Turn on Backups on the server's page if the data matters to you.