Rocky Linux VPS Hosting — Rocky 10 or 9, stable for a decade
RHEL-compatible enterprise Linux, community-governed. It arrives pre-installed on a DreamHost VPS in minutes — no ISO to download, no installer to click through.
Predictable pricing
NVMe performance
Full root access
Unmetered bandwidth
Run Rocky Linux from day one.
Every plan includes Rocky Linux installation, unmetered bandwidth, and full root access.
Length of Subscription
Enterprise Linux that keeps its promises for a decade at a time.
A Decade of Updates Per Release
Every Rocky Linux major version gets a 10-year support lifecycle — Rocky 10 receives security updates into 2035, Rocky 9 into 2032. Build on a platform that stays boring on purpose.
The RHEL Toolchain from First Boot
dnf, SELinux, systemd, and OpenSSH arrive pre-installed, so your existing CentOS and RHEL runbooks, playbooks, and muscle memory work unchanged. Founded by a CentOS co-founder, governed by the community.
Cockpit Included in the Image
Cockpit ships in the image — enable the web console when you'd rather manage services, storage, logs, and updates from a browser than a terminal. SSH and full root stay the primary path.
A $0 License With No Strings
Rocky Linux is free — no subscriptions, no entitlement counting, no license audits. Pair it with predictable VPS pricing and unmetered bandwidth with $0 overage charges, and nothing about this server can surprise you.
Other VPS hosts meter your bandwidth. We don’t.
Most providers hand you a transfer allowance, then bill you per gigabyte the moment you exceed it — so a traffic spike becomes a surprise invoice. DreamHost doesn’t meter bandwidth at all.
is what 10 TB of monthly transfer costs on AWS Lightsail. On a DreamHost Self-Managed VPS, the same 10 TB costs $0.
| Provider | Bandwidth | Overage rate | Cost at 10 TB/mo | Cost at 50 TB/mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DreamHost | Unmetered | No overage | $0 | $0 |
| AWS Lightsail | Metered | $0.09/GB | $810 | $4,410 |
| DigitalOcean | Metered | $0.01/GB | $90 | $490 |
| Vultr | Metered | $0.01/GB | $75 | $475 |
| Linode / Akamai | Metered | $0.005/GB | $45 | $245 |
No transfer caps, no overage fees, no surprise invoice when your traffic spikes — fair use applies.
Competitor figures are each provider's publicly listed overage rates as of June 2026, for outbound transfer beyond each provider's included transfer allowance (plan plus any account-level free-transfer grant). Providers publish these rates in USD; amounts shown in other currencies are approximate conversions. DreamHost Self-Managed VPS includes unmetered bandwidth with no per-GB or per-TB overage charges, subject to terms.
Your VPS. Run anything.
Choose your OS, deploy any app in minutes from your dashboard, and run whatever you build on infrastructure you fully own.
AI Agent
Open-source AI assistant for WhatsApp, Telegram, and Slack. Always-on private AI.
Automation & AI
Open-source AI agent that remembers your projects and gets more capable over time. Self-hosted, private, always on.
Workflow Automation
Connect apps and automate complex workflows without coding. 190k+ GitHub stars.
Development
Scalable JavaScript runtime for building fast network applications. Includes npm to manage thousands of open-source libraries.
Base OS
Universal default. Maximum compatibility with apps, tutorials, and resources.
Base OS
Community-governed. RHEL-compatible enterprise-grade Linux with a 10-year support lifecycle.
Base OS
Required for cPanel. RHEL-compatible enterprise-grade Linux for sysadmins.
Base OS
Lean, reliable, battle-tested. Preferred by experienced sysadmins.
Development
Run containers and compose multi-service stacks with Portainer CE for visual container management.
Database
Open-source Firebase alternative — database, auth, file storage, and real-time APIs.
Database
The most advanced open-source relational database. Runs under n8n, GitLab, and Supabase.
Productivity Suite
Files, calendars, contacts — your own private Google Drive on infrastructure you own.
Publishing
Modern platform for blogs, newsletters, and content monetization. Fast self-hosted publishing.
Development
Self-hosted Git, CI/CD pipelines, issue tracking, and a private container registry.
Development
Linux + Apache + MariaDB + PHP. 25 years of web history.
Development
Self-hosted PaaS to deploy and manage apps, databases, and SSL with a visual dashboard. Modern Heroku alternative.
Join thousands of businesses and developers worldwide on infrastructure that performs.
Run Rocky Linux on infrastructure you fully control.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Either way you land on free, RHEL-compatible enterprise Linux — and DreamHost offers both. Rocky Linux aims to track RHEL as closely as possible (the project describes it as "designed to be 100% bug-for-bug compatible"), with CentOS-founder lineage; AlmaLinux is binary-compatible with RHEL and free to ship its own fixes sooner. Two philosophies — pick the one that matches yours.
- Yes — it was created for exactly that. Gregory Kurtzer, co-founder of the original CentOS, announced Rocky Linux in December 2020 after CentOS was discontinued, so your RHEL-family runbooks and guides carry over. The free migrate2rocky script converts existing CentOS, AlmaLinux, RHEL, or Oracle Linux systems in place on versions 8 and 9 — back up and snapshot first; the script doesn't support version 10 yet.
- Effectively, yes. The project describes Rocky Linux as "designed to be 100% bug-for-bug compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux®," so software built for RHEL-family systems generally runs unchanged. Rocky is an independent, community-governed project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Red Hat.
- That worry is exactly what Rocky Linux was built around. It's free at no cost, community-governed under the Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation (RESF) with community-ratified bylaws, and every major version carries a 10-year support lifecycle. Rocky Linux 10 receives security updates into 2035, Rocky 9 into 2032 — dates the project publishes, not a subscription you renew.
- Rocky Linux 10, unless something you run says otherwise. It's the default template, released June 2025, with security updates into 2035 — the longest runway. Pick Rocky Linux 9 (supported into 2032) when a vendor app or your tooling hasn't certified version 10 yet. Your image choice is set at provisioning, so decide before you launch — switching later means reprovisioning.
- No. cPanel dropped Rocky Linux support — since version 134 (January 2026), new installs and upgrades are blocked, and its supported OS list is now AlmaLinux, CloudLinux, and Ubuntu only. If you need cPanel, start from our AlmaLinux VPS instead; on Rocky, admin is SSH plus the Cockpit web console included in the image.
- You manage the OS; DreamHost runs everything under it. We provision the pre-installed Rocky Linux image and support the hardware, network, and connectivity 24/7. Root is yours, and so is day-2 admin: dnf updates, minor-release upgrades (only the latest minor gets security patches), firewalld rules, and SELinux policy.
Need Some Help?
Whether you're stuck or just want some tips on where to start, hit up our experts anytime. We're here to help!
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