# Vultr vs Linode (Akamai Cloud)

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/vultr-vs-linode/

Every value below is read from Vultr's and Linode (Akamai Cloud)'s own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | Vultr | Linode (Akamai Cloud) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Entry paid plan | $2.50/month for vc2-1c-0.5gb-v6: 1 vCPU, 512 MB memory, 10 GB SSD, 512 GB bandwidth, IPv6 only — and available in two of Vultr's 33 regions, Newark and Atlanta. The first plan offered nearly everywhere is vc2-1c-1gb at $5.00, in 31 of them. | $5.00/month for g6-nanode-1, the Nanode 1GB shared-CPU plan. Two regions are priced above it: $6.00 in Jakarta and $7.00 in São Paulo. |
| Pricing model | Hourly billing; Cloud Compute is billed up to 672 hours per month, with a one-hour minimum billing unit | Hybrid hourly billing, invoiced monthly, with hourly usage capped at each service's monthly rate |
| Egress over allowance | $0.01 per GB | 0.005 for Network Transfer, with regional overrides of 0.015 in Jakarta and 0.007 in São Paulo, and 0.01 for Distributed Network Transfer. Published in Linode's API rather than in documentation: the techdocs page carried these as per-GB rates until it was edited on 14 September 2026 to remove them and point at a pricing page that refuses this checker. The API's price field is named "hourly", which transfer is not billed by, so no unit is asserted here. |
| When you exceed a cap | Billed automatically — bandwidth above the plan quota is charged at an overage rate of $0.01 per GB. | Billed automatically and by region: transfer over the monthly allotment is charged at the service region's rate, all transfer is billed where no allowance is included, and the charge lands at the end of the billing period. The rates themselves left this page on 14 September 2026 — see egress_overage_price for where they are now. |
| Storage (entry plan) | 10 GB SSD on the cheapest paid Cloud Compute plan ($2.50/month, 1 vCPU, 512 MB, IPv6 only). | 25 GB on the Nanode 1GB plan, the cheapest Linode at $5.00/month. The types API reports it as "disk": 25600. |
| Memory (entry plan) | 0.5 GB on the cheapest paid Cloud Compute plan ($2.50/month, IPv6 only). The plans API reports it as "ram":512 without naming a unit. | 1 GB on the Nanode 1GB plan, the cheapest Linode at $5.00/month. The types API reports it as "memory": 1024. |
| Included bandwidth | 2 TB of free bandwidth per account per month, plus each running instance's own monthly cap allocated hourly | 1 TB per month on the Nanode 1GB plan, the cheapest Linode; larger shared-CPU plans include more. |
| File, inode or volume limit | Up to 16 Vultr Block Storage volumes can be attached to the same Cloud Compute instance | 250 Block Storage volumes per account across all regions (default global quota; increases can be requested) |
| Managed connection pooling | Supported | Supported |
| Containers | Supported | Supported |
| Persistent storage | Supported | Supported |
| Managed databases | Supported | Supported |
| Scales to zero | Not supported | Not supported |
| Autoscaling | Limited | Limited |
| Regions | 33 regions across six continents: 11 in North America, 9 in Europe, 8 in Asia, 2 in Australia, 2 in South America and 1 in Africa. | 33 regions listed by the Linode API v4 /regions endpoint on 2026-09-13 (every entry returned has site_type core) |
| SOC 2 | To maintain a strong security posture, Vultr conducts quarterly penetration testing by certified ethical hackers (CEH/OSCP), real-time vulnerability scanning aligned with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, and annual SOC 2+ Type II audits. | Akamai cites its information security compliance with standards such as SOC 2 in the Akamai Cloud disk encryption documentation. Stated in passing in product docs; Akamai's Trust Center requires requesting access to see reports. |
| Encryption at rest | Vultr Block Storage and File Storage provide encryption for data in transit and at rest; OS-level encryption such as LUKS is advised in addition. | Local disk encryption is enabled by default on all Linodes, with the platform managing encryption and decryption. Same page notes backups are not encrypted even when taken from an encrypted disk. |
| Customer-managed keys | Object Storage supports SSE-C server-side encryption with a customer-provided key; the customer alone manages and safeguards those keys. Object Storage only; no platform key-management service found on the site. | Platform-managed only; docs state the platform manages disk and Block Storage volume encryption and decryption, and document no customer-supplied key option. No mention of BYOK, KMS, SSE-C or customer-managed keys in any of the 394 Akamai Cloud guides. |
| Role-based access control | IAM roles bundle policies for users or groups: assignable roles for permanent access, assumable roles for time-bound elevated sessions. | Identity and Access uses an RBAC model: fine-grained per-endpoint permissions combined into predefined roles assigned to users. Natively enabled for Linodes, Cloud Firewall, NodeBalancer, Volume, Image and VPC. |
| Private networking / VPC | VPC networks give instances a secure, isolated private IPv4 network, with auto-assigned or custom subnet ranges and optional custom static routes. | VPC traffic is walled off from the public internet and from other services in the same data center; VPCs cost nothing extra. |
| Dedicated infrastructure | Bare Metal instances offer direct, unvirtualized access to dedicated physical servers; Cloud Compute by contrast runs in a virtualized environment. | Dedicated CPU plans reserve each assigned vCPU core exclusively for your instance, with no contention from neighboring users. |

## Where they differ

### Entry paid plan

- Vultr: $2.50/month for vc2-1c-0.5gb-v6: 1 vCPU, 512 MB memory, 10 GB SSD, 512 GB bandwidth, IPv6 only — and available in two of Vultr's 33 regions, Newark and Atlanta. The first plan offered nearly everywhere is vc2-1c-1gb at $5.00, in 31 of them. ([source](https://api.vultr.com/v2/plans?per_page=500))
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): $5.00/month for g6-nanode-1, the Nanode 1GB shared-CPU plan. Two regions are priced above it: $6.00 in Jakarta and $7.00 in São Paulo. ([source](https://api.linode.com/v4/linode/types?page_size=200))
- Lean: 67% Vultr / 33% Linode (Akamai Cloud) — inversely proportional to the documented price. inetGeek's own reading, computed from the two values above by the rules at https://inetgeek.com/methodology/, not a provider claim.

### Pricing model

- Vultr: Hourly billing; Cloud Compute is billed up to 672 hours per month, with a one-hour minimum billing unit ([source](https://docs.vultr.com/support/platform/billing/how-am-i-billed-for-my-servers))
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): Hybrid hourly billing, invoiced monthly, with hourly usage capped at each service's monthly rate ([source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/understanding-how-billing-works))
- Lean: none. No documented basis to lean either way on this criterion.

### Egress over allowance

- Vultr: $0.01 per GB ([source](https://docs.vultr.com/support/platform/billing/what-is-the-bandwidth-overage-rate))
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): 0.005 for Network Transfer, with regional overrides of 0.015 in Jakarta and 0.007 in São Paulo, and 0.01 for Distributed Network Transfer. Published in Linode's API rather than in documentation: the techdocs page carried these as per-GB rates until it was edited on 14 September 2026 to remove them and point at a pricing page that refuses this checker. The API's price field is named "hourly", which transfer is not billed by, so no unit is asserted here. ([source](https://api.linode.com/v4/network-transfer/prices))
- Lean: none. No documented basis to lean either way on this criterion.

### When you exceed a cap

- Vultr: Billed automatically — bandwidth above the plan quota is charged at an overage rate of $0.01 per GB. ([source](https://docs.vultr.com/support/platform/billing/what-is-the-bandwidth-overage-rate))
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): Billed automatically and by region: transfer over the monthly allotment is charged at the service region's rate, all transfer is billed where no allowance is included, and the charge lands at the end of the billing period. The rates themselves left this page on 14 September 2026 — see egress_overage_price for where they are now. ([source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/network-transfer-usage-and-costs))
- Lean: neither leads — both document the same answer.

### Storage (entry plan)

- Vultr: 10 GB SSD on the cheapest paid Cloud Compute plan ($2.50/month, 1 vCPU, 512 MB, IPv6 only). ([source](https://api.vultr.com/v2/plans?per_page=500))
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): 25 GB on the Nanode 1GB plan, the cheapest Linode at $5.00/month. The types API reports it as "disk": 25600. ([source](https://api.linode.com/v4/linode/types?page_size=200))
- Lean: 27% Vultr / 73% Linode (Akamai Cloud) — proportional to the documented capacity. inetGeek's own reading, computed from the two values above by the rules at https://inetgeek.com/methodology/, not a provider claim.

### Memory (entry plan)

- Vultr: 0.5 GB on the cheapest paid Cloud Compute plan ($2.50/month, IPv6 only). The plans API reports it as "ram":512 without naming a unit. ([source](https://api.vultr.com/v2/plans?per_page=500))
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): 1 GB on the Nanode 1GB plan, the cheapest Linode at $5.00/month. The types API reports it as "memory": 1024. ([source](https://api.linode.com/v4/linode/types?page_size=200))
- Lean: 33% Vultr / 67% Linode (Akamai Cloud) — proportional to the documented capacity. inetGeek's own reading, computed from the two values above by the rules at https://inetgeek.com/methodology/, not a provider claim.

### Included bandwidth

- Vultr: 2 TB of free bandwidth per account per month, plus each running instance's own monthly cap allocated hourly ([source](https://docs.vultr.com/support/platform/billing/how-are-bandwidth-caps-calculated))
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): 1 TB per month on the Nanode 1GB plan, the cheapest Linode; larger shared-CPU plans include more. ([source](https://api.linode.com/v4/linode/types?page_size=200))
- Lean: none. No documented basis to lean either way on this criterion.

### File, inode or volume limit

- Vultr: Up to 16 Vultr Block Storage volumes can be attached to the same Cloud Compute instance ([source](https://docs.vultr.com/products/storage/block-storage/faq))
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): 250 Block Storage volumes per account across all regions (default global quota; increases can be requested) ([source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/block-storage-quotas))
- Lean: 6% Vultr / 94% Linode (Akamai Cloud) — proportional to the documented capacity. inetGeek's own reading, computed from the two values above by the rules at https://inetgeek.com/methodology/, not a provider claim.

### Regions

- Vultr: 33 regions across six continents: 11 in North America, 9 in Europe, 8 in Asia, 2 in Australia, 2 in South America and 1 in Africa. ([source](https://api.vultr.com/v2/regions?per_page=500))
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): 33 regions listed by the Linode API v4 /regions endpoint on 2026-09-13 (every entry returned has site_type core) ([source](https://api.linode.com/v4/regions))
- Lean: 50% Vultr / 50% Linode (Akamai Cloud) — proportional to the documented capacity. inetGeek's own reading, computed from the two values above by the rules at https://inetgeek.com/methodology/, not a provider claim.

### SOC 2

- Vultr: To maintain a strong security posture, Vultr conducts quarterly penetration testing by certified ethical hackers (CEH/OSCP), real-time vulnerability scanning aligned with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, and annual SOC 2+ Type II audits. ([source](https://www.vultr.com/trust-center/))
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): Akamai cites its information security compliance with standards such as SOC 2 in the Akamai Cloud disk encryption documentation. Stated in passing in product docs; Akamai's Trust Center requires requesting access to see reports. ([source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/local-disk-encryption))
- Lean: neither leads — both document the same answer.

### Encryption at rest

- Vultr: Vultr Block Storage and File Storage provide encryption for data in transit and at rest; OS-level encryption such as LUKS is advised in addition. ([source](https://docs.vultr.com/platform/security-best-practices/vbs-vfs))
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): Local disk encryption is enabled by default on all Linodes, with the platform managing encryption and decryption. Same page notes backups are not encrypted even when taken from an encrypted disk. ([source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/local-disk-encryption))
- Lean: neither leads — both document the same answer.

### Customer-managed keys

- Vultr: Object Storage supports SSE-C server-side encryption with a customer-provided key; the customer alone manages and safeguards those keys. Object Storage only; no platform key-management service found on the site. ([source](https://docs.vultr.com/how-to-use-server-side-encryption-sse-c-with-s3-object-storage-on-vultr))
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): Platform-managed only; docs state the platform manages disk and Block Storage volume encryption and decryption, and document no customer-supplied key option. No mention of BYOK, KMS, SSE-C or customer-managed keys in any of the 394 Akamai Cloud guides. ([source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/local-disk-encryption.md))
- Lean: neither leads — both document the same answer.

### Role-based access control

- Vultr: IAM roles bundle policies for users or groups: assignable roles for permanent access, assumable roles for time-bound elevated sessions. ([source](https://docs.vultr.com/platform/iam/roles/how-to-create-a-role))
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): Identity and Access uses an RBAC model: fine-grained per-endpoint permissions combined into predefined roles assigned to users. Natively enabled for Linodes, Cloud Firewall, NodeBalancer, Volume, Image and VPC. ([source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/identity-and-access-cm))
- Lean: neither leads — both document the same answer.

### Private networking / VPC

- Vultr: VPC networks give instances a secure, isolated private IPv4 network, with auto-assigned or custom subnet ranges and optional custom static routes. ([source](https://docs.vultr.com/products/network/vpc-networks/provisioning))
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): VPC traffic is walled off from the public internet and from other services in the same data center; VPCs cost nothing extra. ([source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/vpc))
- Lean: neither leads — both document the same answer.

### Dedicated infrastructure

- Vultr: Bare Metal instances offer direct, unvirtualized access to dedicated physical servers; Cloud Compute by contrast runs in a virtualized environment. ([source](https://docs.vultr.com/products/compute/instances/bare-metal/faq))
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): Dedicated CPU plans reserve each assigned vCPU core exclusively for your instance, with no contention from neighboring users. ([source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/dedicated-cpu-compute-instances))
- Lean: neither leads — both document the same answer.

## Which should you choose?

Pick Vultr if Teams that want cheap virtual machines with generous included transfer — 2 TB a month per account — and overage at a cent per gigabyte. Block storage and managed databases sit alongside.

Pick Linode (Akamai Cloud) if Akamai Cloud virtual machines from $5 a month in North America, with 1 TB of transfer included and egress at half a cent per gigabyte in core data centres.

Consider something else: Vultr — The $2.50 entry plan is IPv6-only; the equivalent machine with IPv4 starts at $3.50, and stopped instances are still billed.

Consider something else: Linode (Akamai Cloud) — Pricing varies by region, so the North American rate is not what you will pay everywhere, and stopped instances continue to bill.

## Documented by only one

One side documents these and the other does not. An absence is a missing source, not a stated "no" — except where a line says the other page was READ on a date and does not mention it, which is a sourced observation and the only one-sided case this site leans on.

- Free tier: Linode (Akamai Cloud): No — Only free offer published is a US$100 credit for new customers, not an ongoing free plan.
- Kind of free offer: Linode (Akamai Cloud): Free credit
- Sites or apps included: Vultr: An account-wide maximum-instances limit applies; the number is shown only in the Vultr Console under Billing > Limits and is not published (increases can be requested)
- Edge network: Vultr: Supported
- HIPAA: Linode (Akamai Cloud): Akamai lists Compute (Dedicated/Shared CPU, High Memory, GPU, LKE), Storage, NodeBalancers and Cloud Manager among the services in scope for HIPAA/HITECH. Read from a failover copy of the compliance-programs page on 13 September 2026. As of 15 September both that copy and www.akamai.com/legal/compliance answer 403 to this checker, so neither can be re-read.
  - Vultr: not stated on https://www.vultr.com/, read 2026-09-21. Corrections: https://inetgeek.com/contact/
  - Lean: 22% Vultr / 78% Linode (Akamai Cloud) — documented, against a vendor page that does not state it (checked 2026-09-21).
- GDPR / data residency: Linode (Akamai Cloud): Workloads can be placed in specific geographies, across core and distributed sites, to meet data residency and regulatory requirements. Page describes region placement for residency; it does not mention GDPR.
  - Vultr: not stated on https://www.vultr.com/trust-center/, read 2026-09-22. Corrections: https://inetgeek.com/contact/
  - Lean: 22% Vultr / 78% Linode (Akamai Cloud) — documented, against a vendor page that does not state it (checked 2026-09-22).

## Questions this comparison answers

**Entry paid plan: Vultr or Linode (Akamai Cloud)?**

Vultr: $2.50/month for vc2-1c-0.5gb-v6: 1 vCPU, 512 MB memory, 10 GB SSD, 512 GB bandwidth, IPv6 only — and available in two of Vultr's 33 regions, Newark and Atlanta. The first plan offered nearly everywhere is vc2-1c-1gb at $5.00, in 31 of them.
Linode (Akamai Cloud): $5.00/month for g6-nanode-1, the Nanode 1GB shared-CPU plan. Two regions are priced above it: $6.00 in Jakarta and $7.00 in São Paulo.

**Egress over allowance: Vultr or Linode (Akamai Cloud)?**

Vultr: $0.01 per GB
Linode (Akamai Cloud): 0.005 for Network Transfer, with regional overrides of 0.015 in Jakarta and 0.007 in São Paulo, and 0.01 for Distributed Network Transfer. Published in Linode's API rather than in documentation: the techdocs page carried these as per-GB rates until it was edited on 14 September 2026 to remove them and point at a pricing page that refuses this checker. The API's price field is named "hourly", which transfer is not billed by, so no unit is asserted here.

**When you exceed a cap: Vultr or Linode (Akamai Cloud)?**

Vultr: Billed automatically — bandwidth above the plan quota is charged at an overage rate of $0.01 per GB.
Linode (Akamai Cloud): Billed automatically and by region: transfer over the monthly allotment is charged at the service region's rate, all transfer is billed where no allowance is included, and the charge lands at the end of the billing period. The rates themselves left this page on 14 September 2026 — see egress_overage_price for where they are now.

**Should I choose Vultr or Linode (Akamai Cloud)?**

Pick Vultr if Teams that want cheap virtual machines with generous included transfer — 2 TB a month per account — and overage at a cent per gigabyte. Block storage and managed databases sit alongside.
Pick Linode (Akamai Cloud) if Akamai Cloud virtual machines from $5 a month in North America, with 1 TB of transfer included and egress at half a cent per gigabyte in core data centres.