Kamatera is a cloud provider that sells servers by configuration rather than by plan: you pick cores, RAM, disk and region in a calculator and it prices the result. Raff Technologies is a US cloud provider where the virtual machine is one product among several, alongside managed databases, object storage, Functions and Kubernetes on the same account. Both run NVMe storage and both offer shared and dedicated CPU. At a matched 2 cores, 4 GB and 80 GB in New York, Kamatera's budget Type A configuration is $22/month and Raff General Purpose is $17.99/month.
Kamatera VPS and Raff at a glance
Kamatera has no fixed plan list. Every server is configured from four CPU types, 256 MB to 128 GB of RAM, 20 GB to 4 TB of NVMe storage, and 21 data centers. The four types are its own descriptions:
- Type A — Availability, the budget tier
- Type B — General Purpose, marked Recommended, where "CPU threads are dedicated with reserved resources guaranteed"
- Type T — Burstable, for spiky workloads
- Type D — Dedicated, the high-performance tier
Every configuration includes 5 TB of traffic, with additional transfer at $0.01/GB and additional storage at $0.05/GB-month. Billing is hourly, charged by the minute, with no long-term contract. Kamatera also sells cPanel, Plesk and Microsoft SQL Server licensing as add-ons, offers Windows Server and Windows Desktop images, and has optional managed service and extended daily backup.
Its footprint is wide: Sydney, Toronto, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Tel Aviv, Milan, Tokyo, Bucharest, Singapore, Madrid, Stockholm, Amsterdam, London, and eight US locations including New York, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Santa Clara.
Raff Technologies runs 15,000+ VMs for 3,000+ customers from us-east, with a 99.90% monthly uptime SLA backed by service credits, rated 4.5/5 on Trustpilot and 4.6/5 on G2. VMs run AMD EPYC with DDR5 ECC memory and NVMe storage in two lines: General Purpose with shared vCPU from $4.99/month, and CPU-Optimized with dedicated vCPU from $15.99/month, scaling to 16 vCPU and 32 GB. Every plan includes a 3 Gbps port with unmetered transfer, automated Daily or Weekly backup schedules, uncapped snapshots, firewall controls, private networking and full root access.
Past the VM, Raff sells S3-compatible object storage at $7/month for 100 GB and 1 TB of egress, managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, Valkey, ClickHouse and Kafka from $7.99/month, managed Kubernetes with a free control plane and workers from $9.99/month, Functions with a free monthly tier, block volumes at $0.08/GiB-month, and Raff Apps from $3/month.
Kamatera VPS pricing vs Raff pricing
Because Kamatera prices per configuration, the comparison has to be built by matching a shape and reading the total. The figures below were configured on Kamatera's own calculator on 2026-08-20, New York, Ubuntu Server, with the included 5 TB of traffic.
Class matters here. Raff General Purpose is shared vCPU with no CPU guarantee, which matches Type A. Raff CPU-Optimized is dedicated vCPU, which matches Type B and Type D — Kamatera describes Type B as giving each vCPU a dedicated CPU thread with reserved resources.
Shared vCPU: Raff General Purpose against Kamatera Type A
| Shape | Raff General Purpose | Kamatera Type A |
|---|---|---|
| 2 cores / 4 GB / 80 GB | $17.99 — unmetered, 3 Gbps | $22 — 5 TB included |
| 4 cores / 8 GB (≈150 GB) | $33.99 at 160 GB | $47 at 150 GB |
Raff is 18% to 28% cheaper at both shapes, with more disk at the larger one and no transfer cap.
Dedicated vCPU: Raff CPU-Optimized against Kamatera Type B and D
| Shape | Raff CPU-Optimized | Kamatera Type B | Kamatera Type D |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 cores / 4 GB / 80 GB | $36.99 | $45 | $70 |
| 4 cores / 8 GB | $72.99 at 120 GB | $95 at 150 GB | — |
Raff is 18% to 23% cheaper than Type B and 47% cheaper than Type D at the matched shape.
Kamatera prices configured on kamatera.com on 2026-08-20 for the New York data center with Ubuntu Server and the included 5 TB traffic allowance; add-on licensing, managed service and extended backup excluded. Storage steps differ between the two providers, so the 150 GB and 160 GB rows are the closest available match rather than identical.
Raff is cheaper at every CPU class Kamatera sells. That is the whole pricing story, and it holds whether you compare budget against budget or dedicated against dedicated.
What Kamatera charges for separately
Two rates are worth knowing before configuring. Transfer beyond the included 5 TB is $0.01/GB, so an extra 5 TB adds $50/month. Storage beyond the configured disk is $0.05/GB-month, which is more than half again what Raff charges for block volumes at $0.08/GiB-month once you account for the units.
Raff includes unmetered transfer on every plan, so there is no equivalent line to calculate.
Automated backups
Raff includes a free backup and snapshot storage pool — 50 GB per account plus 10–15% of each VM's disk — with Daily and Weekly schedules you configure, retention from 1 to 365 days, and uncapped snapshots. Storage above the pool is $0.06/GB-month. Kamatera offers extended daily backup as a paid add-on at configuration time, so price it in rather than assuming it is included.
Kamatera VPS performance vs Raff
This is a clean pairing: both machines are shared-CPU, both are 2 cores with 4 GB, and both sit in the same region — Kamatera in New York, Raff in us-east.
Methodology
Raff figures are internal, measured March–May 2026 on a General Purpose 2 vCPU / 4 GB instance in us-east. Kamatera figures are third-party, from VPSBenchmarks, on an "Availability 4GB 2 cores" configuration in New York running Ubuntu 26.04, trial started 24 June 2026 — a Type A server, which Kamatera's own spec sheet marks as neither dedicated nor burstable, the same shared-CPU basis as Raff General Purpose. The benchmarked Kamatera configuration lists at $19.00/month with 40 GB of disk.
Results
| Metric | Raff General Purpose | Kamatera Type A | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Geekbench 6 single-core | 2,266 | 1,126 | Raff 2.01x higher |
| Geekbench 6 multi-core | 4,057 | 1,979 | Raff 2.05x higher |
| fio 4K read, 50/50 mix | 48,670 IOPS | 46,691 IOPS | Level, Raff 4% higher |
| fio 1M sequential read | 2,491 MB/s | 2,985 MB/s | Kamatera 1.20x higher |
| fio 1M sequential write | 1,257 MB/s | 3,183 MB/s | Kamatera 2.53x higher |
| iperf3 to NYC, upload | 9,574 Mbps | 9,626 Mbps | Level |
| iperf3 to NYC, download | 3,635 Mbps | 9,523 Mbps | Kamatera 2.62x higher |
| Processor | AMD EPYC, DDR5 ECC | Intel Xeon Sapphire Rapids |
What the results tell us
Raff is roughly twice as fast per core. 2,266 against 1,126 on Geekbench 6 single-core, and 4,057 against 1,979 multi-core, on the same shared-CPU basis in the same region. For anything bound by application logic — API workers, rendering, request handling, queue consumers — that is the number that decides throughput, and it is not close. Raff also costs less: $17.99/month with 80 GB against the benchmarked $19.00 with 40 GB.
Kamatera wins on sequential disk and download. Sequential 1M write measured 3,183 MB/s against Raff's 1,257, and download to New York 9,523 Mbps against 3,635. The download figure reflects a real capability difference rather than a measurement artifact: Raff publishes a 3 Gbps port, and the Kamatera box is clearly on a faster interface. If your workload is dominated by large sequential writes or by pulling large volumes of data inbound, Kamatera's configuration is the stronger one in this test.
Random I/O is level. 48,670 IOPS against 46,691 on the same 50/50 4K job — within noise, and the pattern most databases actually run.
Read it as a trade: Raff for CPU-bound work at lower cost, Kamatera for sequential throughput and inbound bandwidth.
Kamatera vs Raff: features and reliability
Compute
Kamatera configures from 1 to 104 cores and 256 MB to 128 GB of RAM across four CPU classes — a far wider range than Raff's 16 vCPU and 32 GB ceiling, and finer-grained at the bottom. Raff offers General Purpose from $4.99/month and CPU-Optimized from $15.99/month, on AMD EPYC with DDR5 ECC memory, and resizes on demand: stop the VM, switch plan, restart, with the difference settled to the account balance and a resize API endpoint for CPU, RAM and disk.
Networking
Raff includes a 3 Gbps port with unmetered transfer, private networking, VPC, firewall controls and site-to-site VPN gateways. Kamatera includes 5 TB of traffic per server with additional transfer at $0.01/GB, and offers multiple public IPs at configuration time.
Storage
Both use NVMe. Kamatera lets you configure the boot disk from 20 GB to 4 TB and attach up to four additional volumes at $0.05/GB-month. Raff separates storage into VM disk, block volumes at $0.08/GiB-month that resize independently, and S3-compatible object storage at $7/month for 100 GB with 1 TB of egress.
Support
Raff provides 24/7 human support through live chat, with a first response typically under 10 minutes. No bots triaging you first, and no support tier to buy: a single $4.99 VM reaches the same engineers as a hundred production machines, through the same queue. Kamatera offers an optional paid managed service tier, so confirm what is included at your service level before buying.
Platform and licensing
This is where the two catalogs diverge, and each has something the other lacks.
Kamatera sells licensed software as part of the server: cPanel in three sizes, Plesk in three sizes, Microsoft SQL Server from Express to Enterprise per vCPU, Microsoft Office Standard per user, plus Windows Server 2016 through 2025 and Windows Desktop images.
Raff covers most of that list through its SPLA program: Windows Server Standard at $15.00/month per instance, multi-user RDP licensed with RDS User SALs at $8.00/month per user, and SQL Server and Office licensing on the same bill. Bring-your-own-licence is supported at create time. What Kamatera adds that Raff does not sell is cPanel and Plesk hosting control panels, and Windows Desktop images.
Raff sells managed services around the server: managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, Valkey, ClickHouse and Kafka from $7.99/month, object storage at $7/month, Functions with a free tier of 100,000 GB-seconds and 10,000 vCPU-seconds per month, Raff Apps from $3/month, and managed Kubernetes with a free control plane. They connect over private networking, share one API, one CLI and one bill.
The distinction is straightforward: Kamatera helps you build a bigger server, Raff helps you build a smaller one with managed pieces beside it.
When you should choose Kamatera over Raff
- Users outside the United States — 21 data centers across Europe, Asia, Australia, the Middle East and North America against Raff's single us-east region
- cPanel or Plesk on one bill — hosting control panels configured into the server, plus Windows Desktop images; Raff licenses Windows Server, RDS, SQL Server and Office but not these
- Sequential-throughput and inbound-heavy workloads — measured 2.53x higher 1M sequential write and 2.62x higher download to New York in third-party testing
- Very large or very small servers — up to 104 cores and 128 GB RAM, or down to 256 MB, against Raff's 16 vCPU / 32 GB ceiling and 1 GB floor
- Exact configurations — cores, RAM and disk chosen independently, rather than fitting a workload to a fixed plan
- Short-lived workloads — hourly billing charged by the minute makes brief tests and burst capacity cheap
- Burstable workloads — the Type T tier has no Raff equivalent
When you should choose Raff over Kamatera
- CPU-bound applications — measured 2.01x faster single-core and 2.05x faster multi-core than a same-class Kamatera Type A server in the same region (VPS for application hosting)
- Lower cost at every CPU class — 18% to 28% below Type A on shared vCPU, 18% to 23% below Type B and 47% below Type D on dedicated
- Egress-heavy applications — unmetered transfer on a 3 Gbps port against 5 TB included and $0.01/GB after
- Database-backed products — managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, Valkey, ClickHouse and Kafka from $7.99/month over private networking, instead of self-hosting and licensing your own (VPS for databases)
- Stacks that outgrow one server — object storage at $7/month, Functions with a free monthly tier, Raff Apps from $3/month and managed Kubernetes with a free control plane
- Backups without an add-on — Daily and Weekly schedules on a free storage pool with 1 to 365 day retention, against extended daily backup priced as an option
- 24/7 human support at no extra tier — live chat to the same engineers at any account size, first response typically under 10 minutes
Migrating from Kamatera to Raff
- Match the CPU class, not the core count — a Kamatera Type A core and a Type D core are different products. Type A maps to Raff General Purpose, Type B and D to CPU-Optimized.
- Check your region requirement — Raff serves us-east only. If you are running in Frankfurt, Tokyo or Tel Aviv for latency or data residency, this migration will not preserve that.
- Inventory your licences first — licences bought through Kamatera do not transfer. Raff relicenses Windows Server at $15.00/month per instance, RDS User SALs at $8.00/month per user, and SQL Server and Office through the same SPLA program; cPanel and Plesk it does not sell, so price those separately.
- Right-size on utilisation, and test sequential paths — Kamatera configurations are often built larger than needed because the calculator makes it easy. Measure actual usage first, and if your workload is dominated by large sequential writes, benchmark it on Raff before committing.
- Move data in order — files with rsync or SCP, then database dumps into managed Postgres or MySQL, then static assets to object storage. Keep the Kamatera server running throughout.
- Cut over and stop the clock — lower DNS TTL beforehand, switch, then terminate the Kamatera server rather than stopping it, since hourly billing continues while resources are allocated.
About Kamatera
Kamatera is a cloud infrastructure provider offering configurable cloud servers, block storage, load balancers, private networking and managed services from 21 data centers across North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East. Servers are priced by configuration rather than by fixed plan, starting at $4/month. See Kamatera pricing for current rates and the configuration calculator.
Conclusion: Kamatera or Raff?
The comparison resolves across four axes:
- Price — Raff wins at every CPU class: 18–28% below Type A, 18–23% below Type B, 47% below Type D at matched shapes
- Performance — split: Raff 2.01x faster per core on the same class in the same region; Kamatera 2.53x higher sequential write and 2.62x higher download
- Reach — Kamatera wins, 21 data centers against Raff's single us-east region
- Configurability — Kamatera wins, with independent core/RAM/disk selection, a 104-core ceiling, and cPanel and Plesk on the same bill; both providers license Windows Server, RDS, SQL Server and Office
- Managed services — Raff wins, with managed databases from $7.99/month, object storage, Functions, Apps and Kubernetes on one account over private networking
If your users are outside the United States, you need cPanel or Plesk bundled into the server bill, or you want a server shape Raff does not sell, choose Kamatera. If your users are in North America and you want lower cost per server plus managed databases and storage beside it, choose Raff.
Raff runs 15,000+ VMs for 3,000+ customers and is rated 4.5/5 on Trustpilot, with a 99.90% monthly uptime SLA in writing.