Free VPS for Open Source Developers
msatt
Hosting ProviderOG
Free VPS for Open Source Developers
Now that the Black Friday Frenzy is over settle down with a Free **Open Source Software Virtual Private Server.
Absolutely FREE, no catches, no credits, no price bumps.
Server locations and end dates are always on our website at https://fossvps.org and are currently :-
- UK Fareham courtesy of Onlyservers till 25th January 2026
- US Buffalo Courtesy of MSATT till 22nd November 2026
- Romania Bucharest courtesy of Hosteroid till 6th March 2026
- Moldova Chisinau courtesy of Alexhost till 30th January 2026
Rules for a free VPS
Free and open source software developers only.
White hat only, Not for commercial use, No service level agreement but we are good. Ephemeral. Could disappear at any moment! Don't be a dick rules, No excessive high cpu, disk or bandwidth
Clueless™ Administrator!
If you would like a VPS, just complete this form asking what you are developing and preferably some links to your previous developments.
Warnings
- Multiple registrations will get you banned
- Good reputation on this forum (no history, no server - sorry)
- Failing to accept the verification email will lock you out from re-applying
- Email address (purely for admin emails), don't make a request if you wish to be anonymous
Acceptance will give you 2 VCPU, 4GiB Ram, 64GiB hdd and provide NAT + IPv6 /96 access with either Ubuntu, Debian or Alpine in your preferred location. The servers won't last forever (check website) but we will always give you as much notice as possible, it all depends on our fantastic donors.
We are genuinely doing this to help you so please no abuse as it messes it up for everyone.
Get your FREE VPS if you develop Open Source software
Comments
https://lowendspirit.com/discussion/10104/free-vps-for-open-source-developers-with-fossvps#latest
We genuinely want to support the community, so want to hear your views as to what we could be doing better.
This is a great opportunity for anyone not experienced with IPv6 to start playing. Don't worry you still have NAT IPv4 so have access to the server.
For my use, I install zerotier inside the vm which gives it a v4 address on my private network. Then all the vms at other locations are able to communicate with each other securely. They could of course be doing this using v6 but its all about creating secure networks etc.
I am also considering building a FOSSVPS reverse proxy to map to your vm port 80 / 443.
Also considering providing free domain name mapped to vm.
But without your support and feedback none of this is going to happen and our great donors will also lose interest.
My key point anyone registering needs to trust us and we need to trust you so this is not an anonymous service.
Get your FREE VPS if you develop Open Source software
Been having some 'internal' discussions and interested in your views.
Thanks for your time, your comments will shape how we move forward.
Mike
Get your FREE VPS if you develop Open Source software
How can we trust —
Ephemeral. Could disappear at any moment! Clueless™ Administrator!
Give routed /64 or /56, so that Docker containers can have their own IPv6 address.
IPv4 NAT is sufficient for accessing GitHub — who is at top of the shame list.
Snapshots are useful before running a big upgrade.
When we performed the Debian 12 => 13 upgrade last month, we started with a machine with snapshots, so that we can detect any problems in the procedure.
It is good to have one snapshot that is retained for 24 hours; snapshots aren't needed at other times.
No hostname available. affbrr
If you want information, feign ignorance reply with the wrong answer. Internet people will correct you ASAP!
It’s OK if you disagree with me. I can’t force you to be right!
@yoursunny
Ephemeral is more to do with the donors than us - we will be around. I think ephemeral should go.
Great points thanks.
Ephemeral. Could disappear at any moment! Clueless™ Administrator!
As far a Clueless™ Administrator! that was Tom's comments. He is certainly not clueless and hopefully nor am I, so agreed that should also go.
Routed /64 /56 that is up to our donors and they have given us /64 which we need to distribute. I think routed /96 is perfectly adequate but likely on your hall of fame.
So having an automated daily snapshot could be beneficial.
Get your FREE VPS if you develop Open Source software
Sorry I disagree - This is free and I / we have no interest in your data other than to email VM details or important updates.
Fair point about Cloudflare although NAT is working very well with port forwards.
Agreed about snapshots but I would like the users to feel that in an emergency there is some solution.
Get your FREE VPS if you develop Open Source software
I have been busy and wanted to say, we are getting into alpha testing of a big new feature at FOSSVPS giving our NAT users some great benefits.... Won't say more apart from you should have it 'soon' (New Year or earlier).
Happy Christmas / Holidays everyone.
Mike
Get your FREE VPS if you develop Open Source software
What a great Christmas present !!!!
Thanks to Alexhost
They have very kindly extended their Moldova server until 31st January 2027
We still have space available for a free VPS for Open Source Developers.
Community comments have been positive but people were concerned about longevity. Well I (msatt) have spent my own money providing our US server for a year and with Alexhost's very kind extension FOSSVPS is really worth using. After all what have you got to lose?
Our uptime is better than 99.9% and (so far) has only been affected by our rebuilding systems to use Proxmox.
FOSSVPS is entirely community driven, we want Open Source to continue to grow and want you to support our very generous sponsors by raising awareness of their generous donations.
Absolutely FREE, no catches, no credits, no price bumps.
Server locations and end dates are always on our website at https://fossvps.org and are currently :-
UK Fareham courtesy of Onlyservers till 25th January 2026
Romania Bucharest courtesy of Hosteroid till 6th March 2026
Rules for a free VPS
Free and open source software developers only.
White hat only
Not for commercial use
No service level agreement but we are good.
Don't be a dick rules
No excessive high cpu, disk or bandwidth
If you would like a VPS, just complete this form asking what you are developing and preferably some links to your previous developments.
Warnings
Acceptance will give you 2 VCPU, 4GiB Ram, 64GiB hdd and provide NAT + IPv6 /96 access with either Ubuntu, Debian or Alpine in your preferred location.
We are genuinely doing this to help you so please no abuse as it messes it up for everyone.
Get your FREE VPS if you develop Open Source software
Server termination notice
With regret I wanted to update everyone using the uk1 server (hosted by Onlyservers) that it will terminate on 25th of January.
This is because the server was apparently won in a raffle and donated to FOSSVPS (prior to handing over to me) with free service extended for only 3 months. The termination does not reflect on what FOSSVPS does or has done, simply the end of the three months with no flexibility to extend.
If you wish to be moved, I will send a further email (when I have worked out a process) giving more details.
I am sorry and also disappointed
Mike
Get your FREE VPS if you develop Open Source software
For those currently on uk1 server.
Doing an automated migration is challenging particularly with static IPv4, NAT and IPv6. Doing it manually is a big job and prone to errors. So the best and simplest solution would be to create new VMs and allow you (the client) to rebuild / copy etc.
So let me know (via a PM) your VM ID and if you prefer mol1 or buc1 :
Moldova until January 30th 2027 or Bucharest until March 6th 2026
Your new server will run in parallel until 25th of January when the uk1 server will be destroyed.
Wishing you well.
Mike
Get your FREE VPS if you develop Open Source software
Just a bump in case anyone on uk1 missed the above posts.
The node will be destroyed on the 25th of January.
Get your FREE VPS if you develop Open Source software
Although we have been quiet recently (and so have you) things have been really moving at FOSSVPS.
FOSSVPS is associated with the development of Open Source Software and that is what we have been working on.
There are two current projects being developed the first to be released within the next few days is :-
Nginx Proxy Manager (NPM) which has been enhanced by @nstorm and integrated into our NAT service. This allows users with our NAT service to host their own websites, create their own certificates and ACLs.
NPM integration means the need for a static IPv4 address (which are in short supply) is greatly reduced.
We like NPM so much that FOSSVPS services pretty much all run through it.
I will be sending out emails (please be patient) to our NAT users, giving you your access information.
As far as the second project - this is being developed by @shayneeo but is more complex so we will tease you by saying - coming soon......
For those wanting to join FOSSVPS, please see my signature and ensure you read the requirements (we are quite strict).
Best wishes from the FOSSVPS team and special thanks to our fantastic donors.
Alexhost, Hosteroid and MSATT
Get your FREE VPS if you develop Open Source software
You may want to take a look at this thread:
https://lowendspirit.com/discussion/9994/why-don-t-ipv6-only-providers-offer-an-ipv4-reverse-proxy-e-g-via-nginx-for-http-https
If you want information, feign ignorance reply with the wrong answer. Internet people will correct you ASAP!
It’s OK if you disagree with me. I can’t force you to be right!
@somik - that was an interesting read.
Our version of NPM developed by @NStorm locks any domain created, directly to the internal NAT v4 address. The client cannot override this. The client can create their wildcard letsencrypt cert for their domain on NPM and point their domain directly to it. There (at present) is no limit to hostnames the user can map.
As far as integration with other panels - @NStorm also modified npm-api.sh which means our build system just calls the script with the appropriate configs and NPM is automatically configured. Using this mechanism it should be easy for host providers to add this into their panel?
All of the code is open source so any provider is welcome to use it (which is what I / FOSSVPS is all about).
As far as using Cloudflare - that is certainly an option and although I don't / never used it I believe our option leaves the client in control of their domain dns etc.
If a client has a v4 NAT they will have an IPv6 / 96 range, so both access methods work.
Will this create more work for us maybe - Our clients are Open Source developers and NPM has an excellent UI with lots of youtube and online docs. My plan is that FOSSVPS is a community and as such support should be community driven.
With NPM is installed on the node, all traffic is through the hypervisor to the VPS so I don't envisage any significant loading issues.
Best wishes
Mike
Get your FREE VPS if you develop Open Source software
Well, I got no issues with what you are doing. I mean that thread was literally me asking why providers are not doing it. Glad to see someone start. Hope others will follow in your tracks
If you want information, feign ignorance reply with the wrong answer. Internet people will correct you ASAP!
It’s OK if you disagree with me. I can’t force you to be right!
I am always happy to help any provider if they want more detail.
NPM is of course giving access to 80 / 443 traffic but that does not have to be 80 / 443 on the NAT VPS. So if a NAT application running on any port uses http/s then NPM can redirect to it. e.g. Proxmox on port 8006 could be accessed by pointing a domain name to NPM and mapping domain to VPS port 8006. NPM can even handle the certificate if needed.
The modification made to NPM was to stop clients from defining the host IP they map to i.e. we lock it to their VPS only. Without this very important mod, clients could effectively create a DANGEROUS open reverse proxy. It also means no access to anything but their own IP.
Mike
Get your FREE VPS if you develop Open Source software
Yea, it's fine. That thread was mostly dead anyway
If it were me, I’d add a thin wrapper layer around NPM rather thæn letting users touch its config logic directly. Something that simply lets them:
That alone removes a lot of accidental misconfiguration and some obvious abuse vectors.
On the reverse-proxy side though, even with the "lock backend IP to the user’s VPS" modification, there’s still an important edge case worth calling out.
A user can run a forward proxy (or even a very small custom HTTP relay) on their own VPS, and thæn point NPM at that. From NPM’s point of view, it’s only ever proxying to the user’s VPS IP — which is allowed — but functionally the user can still bounce traffic to any external host.
Conceptually it ends up like this:
So while locking the destination IP is absolutely the right and necessary first step (and prevents the most dangerous "raw open proxy" case), it doesn’t fully eliminate the possibility of proxy abuse by a determined user, it just pushes it one layer deeper.
That’s not necessarily a problem, but it’s something providers should be aware of when deciding:
Just wanted to highlight that distinction, because from the outside it can look "fully solved" when in practice it’s more "risk reduced to a manageable level", specially if you are using your main domain for this use-case.
If you want information, feign ignorance reply with the wrong answer. Internet people will correct you ASAP!
It’s OK if you disagree with me. I can’t force you to be right!
@somik Agreed - a client running their own forward proxy is something I had considered.
However they could be doing it without NPM via v6 or (on some of our nodes we do give v4 addresses) v4.
So I don't really see this creating any more of a problem than there could already be for any provider - apologies if I missed something.
Get your FREE VPS if you develop Open Source software
Emails have been sent to clients using NAT (excluding uk1 as this will be deleted on 25th of Jan) on nodes us1, mol1 and buc1 giving details of using NPM.
There is also a web page detailing the change.
Happy for the community to help each other with any queries.
For those wanting to join FOSSVPS, please see my signature and ensure you read the requirements (we are quite strict).
Get your FREE VPS if you develop Open Source software