How to set up a VPS: from sign-up to first login

This guide takes you from creating an account to a first login on a server that is updated, firewalled and backed by a snapshot. It covers VPS, Windows RDP, dedicated and GPU servers. In the commands below, replace SERVER_IP with the IPv4 address shown on your server's page in the client area.

Choose a plan and a location

We offer four kinds of servers. Each product page lists the plans and where each one is available.

The location decides which country's law applies to your server, and it sets your latency. The Netherlands, Romania and Bulgaria are EU members, where the EU Digital Services Act applies. Iceland, Switzerland, Moldova and Malaysia are outside the EU. US DMCA notices have no legal force in any of the seven, but local courts can always act. Compare them on the locations page and in our jurisdiction comparison, and check latency estimates on the network page.

You can pay monthly, quarterly (5% off) or yearly (12% off). New VPS and RDP services come with a 72-hour money-back window on their first period, refunded to your balance (see the terms). Dedicated and GPU servers are not refundable once delivered, so if you are unsure about a location, try it with a VPS first.

Create an account and add funds

Servers are paid from your account balance, so start by creating an account: an email address and a password, nothing else. We never ask for a name, postal address, phone number or ID. The address can be private or disposable: it is only your login, and we never send email to it. Replies and important notices appear in your client area.

Keep your password in a password manager: there is no email-based reset, so a lost password cannot be recovered. You can also turn on two-factor authentication with an authenticator app in Security.

The fastest way is the deploy page of the server you want: configure it, create your account in the same form, and if your balance does not cover the order, top up there. The server is then ordered automatically as soon as the payment is credited. You can also add funds first from Billing > Add funds: enter an amount from $100 to $10,000 and choose a coin. Every top-up earns a bonus, from +10% at $100 up to +50% from $1,000. The payment page shows the exact amount and the address; the amount is locked for 30 minutes, or 45 minutes for Bitcoin and Monero. Pay on-chain from any wallet, on the network the payment page names. If you pay from an exchange, make sure its withdrawal fee is not taken out of the amount you send: what arrives must match the payment page.

Your balance is credited automatically once the payment reaches these confirmations:

A Bitcoin block takes about 10 minutes on average, and Monero's 10 confirmations take about 20 minutes. More on coins and privacy: crypto payments, how to buy a VPS with crypto and how to pay for a VPS with Monero.

Order from your balance

On the order page, choose the plan, the location, the billing cycle and the system, then confirm. The order is paid instantly from your balance, and provisioning starts right away.

Renewals are taken from your balance on the due date, with no invoice to pay. Keep enough funds to cover them: the client area shows your upcoming renewals and warns you when your balance is short. A service whose renewal is not paid is suspended 3 days after the due date and deleted later, as set out in the terms.

Where your login details appear

When your server is ready, its IP address, username and password appear on its page in the client area, under Services; they are not sent by email. Dedicated servers also come with the address and credentials of their IPMI console. If nothing appears within the expected time, check the status page for an incident at that location; the server's page shows where your order stands. Change the password at your first login.

First login to a Linux VPS

macOS, Linux and Windows 10 or 11 all include an SSH client. Open a terminal (PowerShell on Windows) and run:

ssh root@SERVER_IP

On the first connection, SSH shows the server's key fingerprint and asks you to confirm it. To be sure you are talking to your own server, compare it with the fingerprint printed on the server itself: on a dedicated server, log in through the IPMI console (its address is on your server's page in the client area) and run:

ssh-keygen -lf /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key.pub

If they match, type yes and enter the password shown in the client area.

First login to a Windows RDP server

On Windows, press Win+R and run the command below. Sign in as Administrator with the password shown in the client area; on a shared seat, use the username shown there instead.

mstsc /v:SERVER_IP

Windows warns that the server's certificate is not trusted, because each server uses its own self-signed certificate. That is expected. On macOS, iOS and Android, use Microsoft's Windows App; on Linux, Remmina or FreeRDP. How to connect to a Windows RDP server has step-by-step instructions for every device.

First login to a dedicated or GPU server

Log in over SSH exactly as for a VPS, with the details from your server's page in the client area. On a dedicated server, the IPMI console gives you the screen, keyboard and power control even when the operating system is down. Access to it is restricted to IP addresses you ask us to allow: request yours under Server actions on your server's page, then open the IPMI address shown there in your browser. Using IPMI and the KVM console covers the details. GPU servers have the NVIDIA driver and CUDA pre-installed on the Linux images; the GPU images guide shows how to check them.

Change the password and add an SSH key

On Linux, set a new root password first:

passwd

Then create a key pair on your own computer, if you do not have one yet, and copy the public key to the server:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "my-laptop"
ssh-copy-id root@SERVER_IP

Windows has no ssh-copy-id. In PowerShell, use this instead:

type $env:USERPROFILE\.ssh\id_ed25519.pub | ssh root@SERVER_IP "mkdir -p ~/.ssh && chmod 700 ~/.ssh && cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys && chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"

Log out and back in: SSH should now use the key. Keep password login enabled until you have worked through the first-hour hardening guide, which moves you to a sudo user and then switches passwords off.

On a Windows server, press Ctrl+Alt+End inside the Remote Desktop session and choose Change a password.

Update the system

Templates are built ahead of time, so install pending updates before anything else. On Debian and Ubuntu:

apt update
apt full-upgrade -y

On AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux:

dnf upgrade --refresh -y

On Arch Linux:

pacman -Syu

On Alpine Linux:

apk update
apk upgrade

On FreeBSD:

freebsd-update fetch install
pkg upgrade

Reboot if the kernel was updated. On Windows, open Settings, run Windows Update and restart when it asks.

Turn on a basic firewall

On Debian and Ubuntu, ufw is the simplest option. Allow SSH before you enable it:

apt install -y ufw
ufw allow 22/tcp
ufw enable
ufw status verbose

AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux run firewalld by default with SSH allowed; review its rules with:

firewall-cmd --list-all

Windows Firewall is on by default. Restrict Remote Desktop to your own IP as described in Secure RDP. Outbound SMTP (port 25) is closed by default on our network; for accounts in good standing, request Open port 25 under Server actions on the server's page.

Take a first snapshot

Once a VPS is updated and configured, request a snapshot under Server actions on your server's page in the client area; it shows as done there once taken. It gives you a clean point to roll back to after a failed upgrade or a configuration mistake. VPS plans include 2 to 5 snapshots, depending on the plan. A snapshot is not a backup, though: whatever the product, keep encrypted copies of your data somewhere else. VPS snapshots and off-site backups explains both.

Next steps

• Linux server hardening: a sudo user, SSH keys, fail2ban and automatic updates.
• VPS operating systems: reinstall, boot your own ISO or switch templates.
• Windows versions for RDP: Server 2019, 2022 and 2025 compared with Windows 10 and 11.
• GPU server images: PyTorch, Ollama, vLLM and ComfyUI.
• WireGuard VPN on a VPS: your own VPN in about 15 minutes.
• Tor relay, bridge or onion service: relays, bridges, exits and .onion sites.
• Bitcoin or Monero node: pruned or full, verified installs and a remote node.
• BTCPay Server: accept Bitcoin payments with your own server.
• Offshore WordPress hosting: a website with Nginx, PHP, MariaDB and HTTPS.
• The rules and guarantees: acceptable use policy, SLA and the status page.