The VPS Tax
Enter what your VPS costs and how long you've been paying. See the total you've spent on a rented computer to solve a problem that costs $9 a month to solve cleanly.
Most retail traders don't need a VPS. They need a clean route. A VPS costs 3–4× a proxy, requires you to manage a remote machine, and solves a hardware problem most traders don't actually have. If you're paying $30–60/mo for a Windows box in a datacenter because your fills were slow or your MT4 kept disconnecting — that's a network problem. Network problems have a network fix.
Total you've spent on VPS hosting
$840
On hardware you never touched, in a datacenter you'll never visit.
$1,260
If you stay another year
9.3 yrs
of TradersProxy Starter ($9/mo)
TradersProxy Starter is $9/mo — $108/year. You've spent $840 on a VPS for the same network routing problem. That's 7.8 years of Starter for the same total spend.
Starter is $9/mo · 7-day free trial · card required, not charged until day 8
When a VPS is the right answer. When it isn't.
This calculator doesn't exist to trash VPS hosting. It exists to make the number visible. Some traders genuinely need a VPS. A lot of traders are paying for one because nobody explained the alternative clearly.
A VPS is the right call if you:
- Run Expert Advisors 24/7 without touching your machine
- Need your MT4 alive while your laptop is off or asleep
- Do high-frequency algo execution that needs sub-5ms to the broker rack
- Already have it working and your latency is genuinely low from that datacentre
A proxy is enough if you:
- Trade discretionarily — you're at the machine, hands on the keyboard
- Copy signals from Telegram and need MT4 live when the alert fires
- Trade news events and need a clean, fast route at that exact second
- Travel and hate the hotel WiFi latency ruining your fills
- Don't want to manage a remote machine and RDP into it every session
A VPS and a proxy are different tools. A VPS is a rented computer. You solve the network problem by moving your entire setup to a datacentre machine. A proxy is a clean TCP relay. Your own machine stays put — the route just gets shorter and more reliable. If you don't need always-on execution, you're paying for a hammer when you need a screwdriver.
FAQ
No. A VPS is the right tool for traders running EAs 24/7 or anyone who needs always-on offsite execution. This calculator exists to quantify the spend for traders who bought a VPS for network routing reasons, when a $9/mo proxy would have solved the same problem.
If you need your MT4/MT5 to run while your machine is off, you need a VPS. TradersProxy routes traffic from your machine. If the machine is off, the connection is off. EAs need a VPS. This is not a competition — it is a different tool for a different job.
For discretionary traders, signal copiers, and news traders who only need a cleaner route from their own machine, yes. For always-on EA runners and automated strategies that need offsite execution, no. The calculator helps you decide which camp you are in.
Shared exit IPs. The current product uses a shared IP pool. Retail brokers don't care. Prop firms running IP-collision checks at payout will flag it. Dedicated IPs are not live yet. If you are trading a prop firm challenge, wait for that tier.
Anyone running EAs unattended 24 hours a day. Anyone whose machine needs to stay off during a session. HFT traders at the microsecond level. Prop firm challengers until dedicated IPs ship. Everyone else should run the calculator and decide.