Why a NAT VPS can cost $1: the economics of an IPv4 address

(natbox.io)

10 points | by msarrph 10 hours ago ago

16 comments

  • killingtime74 7 hours ago ago

    This hoster is a reseller of only three Contabo VPSs. "On 9 November 2026 our three addresses..."

  • nirui 5 hours ago ago

    > around $20 per address

    That's very high. I wonder how could some providers managed to offer VPS packages at $10.00/year that includes a dedicated IPv4 address (https://lowendbox.com/blog/1-vps-1-usd-vps-per-month/)

    Maybe the pricing is different from one data center to another? These cheap VPSs are often hosted in ColorCrossing's data center.

    • Arnt 4 hours ago ago

      The pricing varies somewhat by continent. Buying a block for less than $10/address would be difficult anywhere now, and if you want someting small, like a /24, you'll struggle to pay less than $20/address.

      See https://circleid.com/posts/october-2026-ipv4-market-report-b... for example.

      For someone who has a lot of old addresses and hardware, keeping the addresses and renting them together with the hardware may be more profitble than selling the addresses and switching to renting v6+NAT. And of course they may want to sell next year for a higher price.

  • swiftcoder 8 hours ago ago

    > leases run at roughly $0.35 to $0.60 per address per month on the wholesale market... the retail price is far higher. Our own provider, Contabo, charges €3.50 a month for one additional IPv4 address

    Damn, 5-10x markup on IPv4 addresses? I had no idea that line of business was so profitable

  • spwa4 5 hours ago ago

    Why would you do things this way instead of running ... well, not nginx but something like that on port 80 and 443 (not that anyone is, or should be, still using port 80)

    Have it come with a free subdomain?

  • Kwpolska 7 hours ago ago

    This is an advertisement for a service offering containers on a server (not a VPS!) with a vibecoded website.

    • bakugo 7 hours ago ago

      And worse: they're using Contabo as their upstream provider, widely known to be one of the worst providers out there.

    • jen729w 7 hours ago ago

      > a vibecoded website

      How would you know?

      > Everything you need. Nothing you don't.

      > The basics come with every plan, not as add-ons.

      Ah-ha.

      Edit: blessed relief they don't have a blog… oh… wait…

      https://natbox.io/blog

      Edit: OMG I can't stop. The tagline even has Opus 5's honesty tax.

      > Small, honest Linux servers on modern Incus containers. From $1 a month.

  • eximius 7 hours ago ago

    Ah, yes! This is one of the reasons why hoppy.network is a little more pricey. We give you the whole IP since we tunnel the whole thing back to you - it's as close as you can get to leasing a single IPv4 address. We can't make our margin on partitioning the IP's port space. I won't justify the price much more than that - it's a managed VPS instead of an unmanaged one and we picked a number. It could have been more, it could have been less.

    Disclosure: I am one of the owners of https://hoppy.network.

    • fartfeatures 7 hours ago ago

      The first sentence made me think hmm that's interesting. The rest of the comment made me think that you don't have confidence in your own pricing choices. I'm sure I am not the only one who thought that. Might be worth rewording it.

      • eximius 7 hours ago ago

        A valid response to products like Hoppy or Tailscale is "why wouldn't I just rent a VPS and do it myself?" The answer is you can, but you don't have to. The point is more that I'm not going to debate over the correct margin for providing a managed service.

        If folks are interested in our service, they can make that call for themselves.

        • fartfeatures 7 hours ago ago

          I think you missed the point. Even more reason to not want to do business with you.

          • eximius 7 hours ago ago

            How terribly passive aggressive! The feeling is mutual.

            • fartfeatures 7 hours ago ago

              You are out here shilling your product whilst in the same breath telling everyone you don't think it is worth the money you charge for it and that you plucked the price for it out of thin air. Someone nicely tries to point that out to you and this is your response. It speaks more to you and your business than anything else either of us could say from here.

              • eximius an hour ago ago

                I actually didn't say any of those things, you just seem to be interpreting everything I say in the most hostile way possible.