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Homelab vs cloud cost calculator

Enter the hardware, its average power draw and how long you will use it, what it adds to your internet bill and the time it takes, and pick a VPS to compare with. You get the cost per month and over the period, the month the homelab pays off, and what a change in the electricity price does to it.

Currency and period
Homelab hardware
The machine with its disks and a UPS if you count one, in the currency above.
Until you replace it. The hardware is bought again after this.
Only what the server adds: a fixed IP, a faster upload plan. 0 if your line stays the same.
Electricity
At the wall, averaged over the day: a smart plug or a power meter shows it. Not the power supply's rating.
Cloud (VPS)
Upkeep time
Updates, backups checks, hardware faults, in hours a month.
A VPS still needs its OS and apps kept up, but no hardware.
What an hour of your time is worth. Leave 0 to compare money only.

Result

Homelab per month
$19.01/month
Cloud per month
$24/month
Homelab over the period
$1,140.59
Cloud over the period
$1,440
Cloud minus homelab over the period
$299.41
Homelab pays off after
41 months
Homelab per month at the tariff ± the change
$18.01/month to $20.01/month
Electricity price at which both cost the same
$0.411/kWh
Breakdown
LineValueAssumptions used
Hardware, spread over its life$10/month
    Energy used21.9 kWh/month
    • Hours in a month (Assumption)
    Electricity$4.01/month
    • Hours in a month (Assumption)
    • Electricity price, United States (residential, 2026-07)
    Internet and fixed IP$5/month
      Homelab upkeep time$0/month
        VPS plan$24/month
        • DigitalOcean Basic Droplet (Regular) 4 GiB
        VPS upkeep time$0/month
          Homelab per month at the tariff ± the change$18.01/month to $20.01/month
          • Hours in a month (Assumption)
          • Electricity price, United States (residential, 2026-07)
          • Tariff change to test (Assumption)

          Calculator homelab-vs-cloud-tco 1.0.0 · engine @anaroq/calc 1.4.0 · data snapshot 2026.10.4 · How the calculators work

          Assumptions

          Every number the result uses that you didn't enter. Change any of them to match your case.

          • Assumption
            hours/month

            A server at home runs all month: 8,760 hours a year divided by 12, the month cloud providers bill by too.

            No source: this is our own assumption. Change it if you know your case.
          • Assumption
            %

            Electricity prices move with fuel costs and regulation; ±25% is the swing to check the result against.

            No source: this is our own assumption. Change it if you know your case.
          • USD/kWh

            U.S. Energy Information Administration: the residential price per kWh for 2026-07, as read from its own publication. Change it to your own tariff.

            Source · · data 2026.10.4
          • USD/month

            2 vCPU (shared), 4 GiB RAM, 80 GiB disk: the monthly price as the provider lists it.

            Source · · data 2026.10.4

          What you enter and the assumptions you change are kept in this page's link, after the #.

          What the money does not show

          • Availability: a home server stops with a power cut, an internet outage or a broken part, and you are the one who fixes it. A VPS provider has redundant power and network and replaces failed hardware, under its terms of service.
          • Backups: a homelab needs a copy somewhere else (another disk is not enough against fire or theft). Many VPS plans sell snapshots or backups; check what is included.
          • Noise, heat and space: fans and disks are heard in a quiet room, and the heat adds to cooling in summer.
          • Network: a home upload speed, a dynamic IP or CGNAT can limit what you can serve; some ISPs do not allow servers at all.
          • What you gain: full control of the hardware and the data, local speed for things at home, and what you learn by running it.

          Take the result with you

          The result as a Markdown file: what you entered, the breakdown, every assumption with its source and date, and the link that reproduces it.

          homelab-vs-cloud-tco.md
          # Homelab vs cloud cost calculator

An estimate from the assumptions listed below, not a measurement or a guarantee.

No source: this is our own assumption. Change it if you know your case.

## What you entered

- Currency: USD
- Hardware price: 600 USD
- Used for (months): 60
- Average power draw (W): 30
- Electricity price: United States, residential (2026-07)
- Internet and fixed IP, per month: 5 USD
- VPS plan: DigitalOcean Basic Droplet (Regular) 4 GiB
- Homelab hours a month: 2
- VPS hours a month: 1
- Cost of an hour (0 = not counted): 0 USD
- Period to compare (months): 60

## Result

- Homelab per month: $19.01/month
- Cloud per month: $24/month
- Homelab over the period: $1,140.59
- Cloud over the period: $1,440
- Cloud minus homelab over the period: $299.41
- Homelab pays off after: 41 months
- Homelab per month at the tariff ± the change: $18.01/month to $20.01/month
- Electricity price at which both cost the same: $0.411/kWh

## What the money does not show

- Availability: a home server stops with a power cut, an internet outage or a broken part, and you are the one who fixes it. A VPS provider has redundant power and network and replaces failed hardware, under its terms of service.
- Backups: a homelab needs a copy somewhere else (another disk is not enough against fire or theft). Many VPS plans sell snapshots or backups; check what is included.
- Noise, heat and space: fans and disks are heard in a quiet room, and the heat adds to cooling in summer.
- Network: a home upload speed, a dynamic IP or CGNAT can limit what you can serve; some ISPs do not allow servers at all.
- What you gain: full control of the hardware and the data, local speed for things at home, and what you learn by running it.

## Breakdown

| Line | Value | Assumptions used |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Hardware, spread over its life | $10/month | – |
| Energy used | 21.9 kWh/month | Hours in a month |
| Electricity | $4.01/month | Hours in a month, Electricity price, United States (residential, 2026-07) |
| Internet and fixed IP | $5/month | – |
| Homelab upkeep time | $0/month | – |
| VPS plan | $24/month | DigitalOcean Basic Droplet (Regular) 4 GiB |
| VPS upkeep time | $0/month | – |
| Homelab per month at the tariff ± the change | $18.01/month to $20.01/month | Hours in a month, Electricity price, United States (residential, 2026-07), Tariff change to test |

## Assumptions

- Hours in a month: 730 hours/month. A server at home runs all month: 8,760 hours a year divided by 12, the month cloud providers bill by too. **Assumption**
- Tariff change to test: 25%. Electricity prices move with fuel costs and regulation; ±25% is the swing to check the result against. **Assumption**
- Electricity price, United States (residential, 2026-07): $0.1831/kWh. U.S. Energy Information Administration: the residential price per kWh for 2026-07, as read from its own publication. Change it to your own tariff. Source: https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=epmt_5_6_a (read 13 Oct 2026)
- DigitalOcean Basic Droplet (Regular) 4 GiB: $24/month. 2 vCPU (shared), 4 GiB RAM, 80 GiB disk: the monthly price as the provider lists it. Source: https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/droplets (read 13 Oct 2026)

Calculator homelab-vs-cloud-tco 1.0.0 · engine @anaroq/calc 1.4.0 · data snapshot 2026.10.4

Open this calculation: https://anaroq.com/tools/homelab-vs-cloud-tco#k=eyJhc3N1bXB0aW9ucyI6e30sImNhbGMiOiJob21lbGFiLXZzLWNsb3VkLXRjbyIsImlucHV0Ijp7ImF2ZXJhZ2VXYXR0cyI6MzAsImNsb3VkSG91cnMiOjEsImNsb3VkUGxhbiI6InZwcy1kaWdpdGFsb2NlYW4tYmFzaWMtMnZjcHUtNGdiIiwiY3VycmVuY3kiOiJVU0QiLCJoYXJkd2FyZVByaWNlIjo2MDAsImhvbWVIb3VycyI6MiwiaG9yaXpvbk1vbnRocyI6NjAsImhvdXJseVJhdGUiOjAsImludGVybmV0TW9udGhseSI6NSwibGlmZXRpbWVNb250aHMiOjYwLCJtYW51YWxDbG91ZE1vbnRobHkiOjIwLCJtYW51YWxUYXJpZmYiOjAuMiwidGFyaWZmIjoicG93ZXItdXMtcmVzaWRlbnRpYWwtMjAyNi0wNyJ9LCJ2IjoxfQ
How the calculators work: https://anaroq.com/methodology#calculators

          What it does

          It adds up what a server at home costs a month (the hardware spread over the months you use it, the electricity it draws, what it adds to your internet bill and, if you want, the time it takes) and sets it against a VPS. Then it follows both month by month: the cumulative cost, the month the homelab has paid for itself, and how much a higher or lower electricity price moves the result.

          How it works

          1. Hardware per month: the price divided by the months you use it. Over the period the hardware is bought at the start and again each time its life ends.
          2. Electricity: average watts × hours in the month (730 by default) ÷ 1000 = kWh a month, × the price per kWh. Dataset prices come from the source shown next to them with the date they were read; a price over 90 days old is marked stale.
          3. Homelab per month: hardware + electricity + internet + homelab hours × the cost of an hour. Cloud per month: the VPS price + VPS hours × the cost of an hour.
          4. Break-even: the first month at which the homelab's cumulative cost is no higher than the cloud's, within the hardware's life. There is none when the cloud does not cost more each month than running the homelab without its hardware, or when the homelab pays off only after the hardware's life.
          5. Sensitivity: the homelab per month at the electricity price minus and plus the change (25% by default), and the price per kWh at which both cost the same per month.
          6. Prices in another currency are converted with the ECB euro reference rates of the day they were published, listed under Assumptions with their date.

          Example

          A 600 USD mini PC drawing 30 W on average, used for 5 years, at the U.S. average residential electricity price, adding 5 USD a month to the internet bill, against a 2 vCPU / 4 GiB VPS, with time not counted:

          600 USD · 30 W · 60 months · U.S. residential tariff · 2 vCPU / 4 GiB VPS

          Homelab per month
          $19.01/month
          Cloud per month
          $24/month
          Homelab over the period
          $1,140.59
          Cloud over the period
          $1,440
          Cloud minus homelab over the period
          $299.41
          Homelab pays off after
          41 months
          Homelab per month at the tariff ± the change
          $18.01/month to $20.01/month
          Electricity price at which both cost the same
          $0.411/kWh

          Limits

          • One server against one VPS of your choice. It does not check that the VPS is as fast as your hardware; size it first with the server size calculator.
          • The electricity price is the average per kWh: fixed meter charges, time-of-use or tiered tariffs and VAT are as the source states them, so enter your own bill's price when you know it.
          • No resale value, no repairs and no price changes over time: the hardware is worth nothing at the end of its life and every month costs the same.
          • No hardware recommendation and no provider ranking. The VPS plans are dated examples from the dataset; any plan can be entered by hand.

          Methodology: how the numbers are worked out

          Sources

          1. ANAROQ calculator methodology: assumptions, units and rounding
          2. U.S. EIA Electric Power Monthly, table 5.6.A: average price of electricity
          3. Israel Electricity Authority: tariff book, January 2026
          4. European Central Bank: euro foreign exchange reference rates

          Updated

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