# Is a storage VPS a cheaper alternative to rsync.net or BorgBase?

> A cheaper alternative to rsync.net or BorgBase: 1 TB cost $15.00 and $9.17 a month on 2 Nov 2026. A storage VPS, crypto, no KYC.

- URL: https://coffervale.com/rsync-net-alternative/
- Last updated: 2026-11-02
- Publisher: Coffervale (https://coffervale.com)

rsync.net and BorgBase run the backup server for you; a storage VPS hands you the server. What each costs from 1 to 8 TB, what you give up by doing it yourself, and how to get the same protections back.

**Quick answer — Is a storage VPS a cheaper alternative to rsync.net or BorgBase?**

Yes, if you can run the backup server yourself. On 2 November 2026, 1 TB cost $15.00 a month at rsync.net and $9.17 at BorgBase (Medium plan, $110.00 a year); neither listed crypto. **Coffervale**'s 1 TB storage VPS costs $1.66 a month on 12 months, paid in crypto, and takes the same Borg, restic and rsync uploads over SSH.

## What do rsync.net and BorgBase sell, and what does a storage VPS add?

**A storage VPS is a cheaper alternative to rsync.net or BorgBase whenever you are willing to look after the server that receives your backups.** The three products answer the same need in different shapes.

- **rsync.net** sells "an empty UNIX filesystem" built on ZFS, reached with any SSH tool: rsync, SFTP, SCP, Borg, rclone, restic or git-annex. Its pricing page lists 1.5 cents per GB a month up to 9 TB, an 800 GB minimum, seven daily snapshots on that tier, no contract and no charge for data downloaded.
- **BorgBase** hosts Borg and restic repositories only. Plans are sold by the year: 250 GB for $30, 1 TB for $110, 2 TB for $210 (or $20 a month), each able to grow past its quota at a published rate per TB. It bills data after compression and deduplication, offers append-only mode and two-factor login, and lets each repository live in an EU or US region.
- **A storage VPS** is a whole Linux server with root access. Nothing is managed for you, and anything that runs on Linux can receive your data.

### rsync.net, BorgBase and a Coffervale storage VPS

|  | rsync.net | BorgBase | Coffervale storage VPS |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| What you get | ZFS filesystem over SSH | Hosted Borg and restic repositories | KVM server with root access |
| About 1 TB, per month | $15.00 | $9.17 ($110.00 a year) | $1.66 on 12 months, $2.37 month to month |
| Billing | Monthly, no contract | Yearly; the 2 TB plan also monthly | 1, 3, 6 or 12 months, prepaid |
| Smallest order | 800 GB | 250 GB | 500 GB |
| Snapshots kept by the provider | 7 daily on the 0 to 9 TB tier | None stated: your archives are the versions | None: your archives are the versions |
| Append-only | Not stated on the pricing page | Offered | You set it with borg serve --append-only |
| Tools | rsync, SFTP, SCP, Borg, restic, rclone, git-annex | Borg, restic | Any Linux software |
| Data transfer | No charge for downloads | No data transfer charges | 4 TB a month on 1 TB, then 100 Mbit/s, no extra bill |
| Crypto payment | No | No | Yes |
| Location | Listed on a separate page | EU or US region | Amsterdam, Bucharest or Chișinău |

*Prices checked on November 2, 2026.*

Crypto: payment methods named on the provider's own pages on 2 November 2026 (rsync.net and BorgBase named none). BorgBase prices exclude VAT.

## What does 1, 2, 4 or 8 TB cost at each?

**According to Coffervale's survey of 2 November 2026, the median storage VPS cost $4.00 per TB a month: about a quarter of rsync.net's $15.00 and under half of BorgBase's $9.17.** The gap widens with size, because rsync.net charges the same rate per gigabyte up to 9 TB.

### Monthly cost by size, 2 November 2026

| Size | rsync.net | BorgBase | Coffervale, 12-month term | Coffervale, month to month |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 TB | $15.00 | $9.17 (Medium, yearly) | $1.66 | $2.37 |
| 2 TB | $30.00 | $17.50 (Large, yearly) or $20.00 monthly | $3.34 | $4.77 |
| 4 TB | $60.00 | $37.50 (Large + 2 TB at $10) | $7.53 | $10.75 |
| 8 TB | $120.00 | $77.50 (Large + 6 TB at $10) | $16.75 | $23.93 |

*Prices checked on November 2, 2026.*

rsync.net: 1.5 cents per GB a month on the 0 to 9 TB tier, 1 TB = 1,000 GB. BorgBase: yearly plan price ÷ 12, plus extra terabytes at the $10 per TB a month the Large plan lists; BorgBase charges extra storage at renewal. Arithmetic from published rates, not quotes.

## What do you give up by leaving a managed backup service?

**You give up someone else's care: on a storage VPS, the patching, the access rules and the restore tests are yours.** rsync.net keeps ZFS snapshots of your account on its side, and BorgBase offers append-only mode as a setting of its service. On a server you rent, neither happens unless you set it up. We take no backup of your server and keep no copy of your data anywhere else, so what sits on a Coffervale storage VPS should be one of your copies, never the only one.

What you gain is the server itself: any Borg version you choose, a restic REST server, Syncthing or Nextcloud next to the backups, your own disk encryption with LUKS, and payment in crypto. The tools encrypt on your machine in any case, so the provider holds ciphertext whichever of the three you pick. How the storage VPS fits a wider plan is set out in [how do I use a storage VPS for off-site backups?](https://coffervale.com/backup-vps/ "Backup VPS: off-site backups")

## How do I get the same protections on a storage VPS?

**Lock each backup key to one repository and to append-only writes, encrypt on your own machine, and test a restore.** Borg's `borg serve` takes both restrictions from a forced command in `~/.ssh/authorized_keys`: `--restrict-to-repository` limits a key to one path, and `--append-only` only lets the client add to the repository. A client that is later compromised can then write new archives but cannot erase old ones. Run pruning from a trusted machine with a separate key. The full server setup is in [how do I set up a Borg backup server on a storage VPS?](https://coffervale.com/borg-backup-server-on-a-vps/ "Borg backup server on a storage VPS")

*One locked-down Borg repository per client*

```bash
# On the storage VPS, as the user that owns the repositories
mkdir -p /srv/borg/laptop ~/.ssh
echo 'command="borg serve --restrict-to-repository /srv/borg/laptop --append-only",restrict ssh-ed25519 AAAA-your-public-key laptop' >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

# On the laptop: create the encrypted repository, export its key, run a first backup
borg init --encryption=repokey-blake2 ssh://borg@203.0.113.10/srv/borg/laptop
borg key export ssh://borg@203.0.113.10/srv/borg/laptop ~/borg-laptop.key
borg create --stats ssh://borg@203.0.113.10/srv/borg/laptop::'{hostname}-{now}' ~/Documents ~/Pictures
```

## When are rsync.net or BorgBase the better choice?

**When you would rather not run a server at all.** A managed service is worth its premium if:

- you want snapshots kept by the provider, on its side of the line;
- you need more than 8 TB in one place: Bedrock, at 8 TB, is the largest storage VPS we sell. Past that size a dedicated storage server, a whole machine full of disks, is the better fit, and we say so plainly rather than stretch a VPS;
- you want a US region;
- nobody on your side will patch a Linux server every month.

If all you want is a cheap place to push backups without root, a storage box is the third option, weighed in [Hetzner Storage Box or a storage VPS?](https://coffervale.com/storage-box-vs-storage-vps/ "Storage Box vs storage VPS") Prices for every storage VPS seller are in [what is the least expensive storage VPS per TB right now?](https://coffervale.com/storage-vps-price-index/ "Storage VPS price index")

## rsync.net and BorgBase alternative: questions

### Do rsync.net or BorgBase accept crypto?

Neither named a payment method on the pages read on 2 November 2026. Coffervale takes BTC, USDT, USDC, ETH, SOL, LTC, XMR, from a minimum top-up of $1.

### Can I use Borg and restic with a Coffervale storage VPS?

Yes. You install the version you want, then reach the server over SSH; restic can also talk to a REST server you run on it. KVM gives your server its own kernel, so you can put LUKS on the data disk or run ZFS with native encryption, and the keys never leave you. For backups, encrypt on your own machine before upload (Borg, restic and Kopia all do it), so the server only ever holds ciphertext.

### Does Coffervale keep snapshots like rsync.net?

No. We take no backup of your server and keep no copy of your data anywhere else, so what sits on a Coffervale storage VPS should be one of your copies, never the only one. Your Borg or restic archives are the history, so keep a second copy of anything you cannot lose.

### Can I get BorgBase's append-only mode on a storage VPS?

Yes: put `borg serve --append-only` in the forced command of the client's SSH key, as in the example above. Prune from a separate, trusted key that does not carry the flag.

### How do I move my backups from rsync.net or BorgBase?

The simplest path is to start a fresh repository on the storage VPS and keep the old one until its retention period has passed. A Borg repository on rsync.net is a plain directory, so it can also be copied across with rsync while no backup is running.

## Sources

1. [Pricing](https://www.rsync.net/pricing.html) — rsync.net (read 2026-11-02)
2. [Cloud storage for offsite backups (home page)](https://www.rsync.net/) — rsync.net (read 2026-11-02)
3. [Plans and pricing](https://www.borgbase.com/) — BorgBase (read 2026-11-02)
4. [borg serve (Borg 1.4 documentation)](https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/usage/serve.html) — The Borg Collective (checked 2026-11-02)
5. [restic: preparing a new repository (SFTP and REST Server backends)](https://restic.readthedocs.io/en/stable/030_preparing_a_new_repo.html) — restic authors (checked 2026-11-02)

---

Coffervale: Coffervale sells storage VPS in Europe: KVM servers with 500 GB to 8 TB of HDD storage for off-site backups, Nextcloud, Seafile, Syncthing and archives, paid in crypto with no ID at signup. The servers run in Amsterdam, Bucharest and Chișinău, and the operator is DomaineGoat LLC, a company registered in Panama. On the 12-month term, every plan is priced at least 25% a month under a named comparable storage VPS, picked from 10 no-KYC crypto hosts whose prices were read on 2 November 2026.