Elestio popularized "managed self-hosting" — provider choice, one-click open-source software, a real BYO tier. Freehold matches the model and changes the two things that cost the most: the price is flat, not a formula, and the BYO tier is on the front page, not a page nobody links to.
Elestio prices by the resource — $5 per core, $2.50 per GB RAM, $0.025 per GB disk — so every box is a different sum, even on hardware you already own. Freehold is $9/mo per machine, unlimited services, no arithmetic required.
Elestio's managed tiers require identity and business verification as you scale. Freehold never asks — not at signup, not at any size.
Elestio's bring-your-own-VM page isn't in their nav or footer — you have to find it through docs. Freehold's is the second option in onboarding, next to the managed one.
And this is their formula whether Elestio sets the box up for you or you bring your own. Bring-your-own doesn't mean flat — it means the same three-term sum, applied to a box you already paid for once.
You already pay for the box — directly, at your provider's price, or it's hardware you own.
→ $35/mo less than Elestio's formula, on the exact same spec, before counting that Elestio's number goes up with every core and gigabyte, and ours doesn't.
Elestio's rates as published on their bring-your-own-VM pricing calculator; DigitalOcean's 8 GB droplet price as publicly listed. Verify current numbers at elest.io and digitalocean.com — we'll keep this updated.
| Feature | Freehold | Elestio |
|---|---|---|
| Billing model | $9/mo flat per machine, unlimited services | $5/core + $2.5/GB RAM + $0.025/GB disk |
| Bring-your-own pricing | flat, same as managed | same formula, not flat |
| BYO tier reachable from nav/footer | ✓ | — |
| Identity check required | — | at scale |
| Tor .onion address | ✓ | — |
| One-click templates | 300+ | 400+ |
| Docker Compose native | ✓ | ✓ |
| Cloud provider choice | live providers only, growing | 9 listed |
Elestio pricing and feature details as publicly listed; verify current specifics at elest.io.
No card to start, no ID ever, and one price per machine — not one per core.