RAW — Cheap Cloud Servers. Deploy in 30 Seconds.

Bare metal. Bare prices. The cheapest way to deploy cloud servers. 90% cheaper than AWS EC2, Fly.io, Render, Heroku, and Vercel.

Free forever tier. No credit card. No egress fees. No bandwidth metering.

A modern CLI alternative to AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Fly.io, Render, Vercel, DigitalOcean, Railway, Heroku, Hetzner, Linode, Vultr, OVH, and Equinix Metal.

npm install -g rawhq
raw init
raw deploy --type raw-free --region eu
# → Server live in 30 seconds. SSH ready. $0/mo.

Quickstart

# 1. Sign up (free, no credit card required)
raw init

# 2. Deploy a free server (2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB SSD)
raw deploy --type raw-free --region eu

# 3. List your servers
raw ls

# 4. SSH into your server
raw ssh my-server

# 5. Destroy when done
raw rm my-server

# 6. See your savings vs AWS
raw status

Your free server is a real Linux VM with root access, a public IPv4, and full SSH. Not a container. Not a sandbox. A real server.

Pricing — RAW vs AWS vs Fly.io vs Render vs DigitalOcean vs Heroku

| Specs | RAW | AWS EC2 | Fly.io | Render | DigitalOcean | Heroku | |-------|-----|---------|--------|--------|--------------|--------| | 2 vCPU · 4 GB · 40 GB SSD | $0/mo (free) | $34/mo | $62/mo | $85/mo | $24/mo | $250/mo | | 2 vCPU · 4 GB · 40 GB ARM | $6/mo | $28/mo | $62/mo | $85/mo | $24/mo | — | | 4 vCPU · 8 GB · 80 GB ARM | $11/mo | $105/mo | $124/mo | $175/mo | $48/mo | $500/mo | | 8 vCPU · 16 GB · 160 GB ARM | $21/mo | $209/mo | $248/mo | $450/mo | $96/mo | — | | 16 vCPU · 32 GB · 320 GB SSD | $42/mo | $522/mo | $496/mo | — | $192/mo | — |

AWS: t3/t4g on-demand + gp3 EBS (us-east-1). Fly.io: performance Machines (iad). Render: Web Services. DigitalOcean: Basic Droplets. Heroku: Cedar Performance dynos. April 2026.

No egress fees. No bandwidth metering. No per-request billing. Flat monthly rate.

How is RAW this cheap?

We source commodity and auction hardware from tier-1 datacenters, automate provisioning end-to-end, and cut out the middlemen. No VC burn rate. No billion-dollar datacenters. No sales team. Think Costco for cloud — high volume, low overhead, savings passed to you.

AWS operates at 60%+ gross margins. Fly.io charges 10x the underlying hardware cost for managed Postgres. Heroku charges $50/mo for what costs $4 in hardware. You deserve better economics.

Server Types

| Type | Specs | Price | vs AWS | vs Fly.io | |------|-------|-------|--------|-----------| | raw-2 | 2 vCPU · 4 GB · 40 GB | $6/mo | Save $22/mo | Save $56/mo | | raw-4 | 4 vCPU · 8 GB · 80 GB | $11/mo | Save $94/mo | Save $113/mo | | raw-8 | 8 vCPU · 16 GB · 160 GB | $21/mo | Save $188/mo | Save $227/mo | | raw-16 | 16 vCPU · 32 GB · 320 GB | $36/mo | Save $486/mo | Save $460/mo | | raw-free | 2 vCPU · 4 GB · 40 GB (x86) | $0/mo (free) | Save $34/mo | Save $62/mo | | raw-4x | 4 vCPU · 8 GB · 80 GB (x86) | $9/mo | Save $96/mo | Save $115/mo | | raw-8x | 8 vCPU · 16 GB · 160 GB (x86) | $15/mo | Save $194/mo | Save $233/mo | | raw-16x | 16 vCPU · 32 GB · 320 GB (x86) | $42/mo | Save $480/mo | Save $454/mo | | raw-2d | 2 vCPU · 8 GB · 80 GB dedicated | $19/mo | Save $53/mo | — | | raw-4d | 4 vCPU · 16 GB · 160 GB dedicated | $36/mo | Save $108/mo | — | | raw-8d | 8 vCPU · 32 GB · 240 GB dedicated | $69/mo | Save $219/mo | — | | raw-16d | 16 vCPU · 64 GB · 360 GB dedicated | $139/mo | Save $437/mo | — | | raw-32d | 32 vCPU · 128 GB · 480 GB dedicated | $279/mo | Save $873/mo | — | | raw-48d | 48 vCPU · 192 GB · 600 GB dedicated | $449/mo | Save $1,279/mo | — |

Regions

eu (Nuremberg) · eu-fi (Helsinki) · us (Ashburn) · us-west (Hillsboro) · sg (Singapore)

What You Get

• Real Linux VMs — Ubuntu 24.04 with root access. Not containers, not sandboxes.
• Public IPv4 + IPv6 — Every server gets a dedicated IP address.
• SSH ready — Your local SSH key is injected automatically. raw ssh my-server and you're in.
• SSD storage included — 40-600 GB NVMe SSD depending on server type.
• No egress fees — Transfer as much data as you want. $0 bandwidth charges.
• No lock-in — Standard Linux. Your code runs anywhere. Leave anytime.
• 5 regions — EU (Nuremberg), EU (Helsinki), US East (Ashburn), US West (Hillsboro), Singapore.

Why switch to RAW?

Best AWS Alternative — Cheap EC2 Replacement

Stop paying 60%+ margins. Same Linux servers, fraction of the price. No egress fees ($0.09/GB on AWS adds up fast). Deploy in 30 seconds instead of clicking through the AWS console for 15 minutes. RAW is the cheapest AWS EC2 alternative for startups, indie hackers, and side projects.

Best Fly.io Alternative — Lower Prices, Same DX

We migrated from Fly.io ourselves — $4,044/mo to $380/mo. Same workload. Same uptime. Fly is great developer experience with painful pricing. RAW gives you both. If you're looking for a Fly.io alternative with better pricing, this is it.

Best Render Alternative — Real Compute, Lower Cost

Render's simplicity is great until you need real compute. RAW gives you dedicated resources at a fraction of Render's shared-CPU pricing. Looking for a cheap Render alternative? Get 4 vCPU / 8 GB for $11/mo instead of $175/mo.

Best Vercel Alternative for Backend / Self-Hosting

Vercel is perfect for frontends, but serverless bills explode at scale. Our own Vercel bill was $3,326/mo. Self-host your backend on RAW for $0-42/mo. The best Vercel alternative for API servers, databases, and background workers.

Best Heroku Alternative — 1/10th the Price

Heroku pioneered developer experience, then priced everyone out. RAW brings that simplicity back at 1/10th the cost. One command to deploy, one command to destroy. The cheapest Heroku alternative for production apps.

Best DigitalOcean Alternative — Even Cheaper Droplets

Similar simplicity, better pricing. RAW's ARM servers (raw-2, raw-4, raw-8) offer the best price/performance ratio in the industry. A cheaper DigitalOcean alternative with ARM support.

Equinix Metal Migration

Equinix Metal shuts down June 30, 2026. RAW supports Terraform migration — change 3 lines in your config and you're running. Migration guide →

Google Cloud / Azure Alternative

Enterprise clouds with enterprise pricing. If you don't need 200+ managed services and a compliance matrix, you're overpaying. RAW gives you the compute without the overhead.

Best Cheap VPS Hosting

RAW is the cheapest VPS hosting for developers. Better than Linode, Vultr, OVH, and Hetzner direct — we handle provisioning, SSH key injection, and server management through a single CLI. No control panel to learn. No web dashboard required.

FAQ

Is RAW free?

Yes. The raw-free tier (2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB SSD) is free forever. No credit card required. No trial period.

What OS do servers run?

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS by default. Custom images coming soon.

How fast is provisioning?

~30 seconds from raw deploy to SSH-ready server with a public IP.

Where are the servers located?

EU (Nuremberg, Germany), US East (Ashburn, VA), US West (Hillsboro, OR), and Singapore. More regions coming.

Is there vendor lock-in?

No. RAW servers are standard Linux VMs. Anything that runs on Ubuntu runs on RAW. Your code isn't locked to any proprietary runtime.

Can I use RAW for production?

Yes. We run our own production infrastructure (financial data platform, millions of requests/day) on the same servers.

CLI Reference

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | raw init | Sign up or log in | | raw deploy --type raw-free --region eu | Deploy a server | | raw ls | List all servers | | raw ssh <name> | SSH into a server | | raw rm <name> | Destroy a server | | raw status | Account overview & savings | | raw import --from aws | Analyze spend & estimate savings |

Environment Variables

| Variable | Description | |----------|-------------| | RAW_API_TOKEN | API token (from raw init) | | RAW_API_URL | API endpoint (default: https://api.rawhq.io) |

Links

• Website: rawhq.io
• Docs: rawhq.io/docs
• Pricing: rawhq.io/#pricing
• Migration story: rawhq.io/blog/launch — How we saved $82,920/year migrating from Fly.io

Keywords

cheap cloud hosting, cheap VPS, cheap server hosting, AWS alternative, Fly.io alternative, Render alternative, Heroku alternative, Vercel alternative, DigitalOcean alternative, Equinix Metal migration, bare metal server, deploy server CLI, free cloud server, free VPS, ARM server hosting, self-host, cheap dedicated server

License

MIT