Managed Cloud Server Billing Overview

To address frequently asked questions about Managed Cloud Server (MCS) billing, we’ve put together the following article to outline the major factors involved.

General MCS Billing

To ensure that MCS are accurately and fairly invoiced for optional scaling charges, the following factors are in place when it comes to MCS specific charges:

1. Every MCS includes our “Base” configuration of 2vCPU, 4GB RAM, and 100GB Storage. The base is invoiced at $200 USD | £125 GBP | €150 EUR per month¹ (depending on your account currency).
2. Any resources above the base configuration – whether you start out with a larger configuration or scale during a given month – are invoiced one month in arrears at the following rates:
   

   	USD	GBP	EUR
   CPU (per 1 vCPU)	$0.027 hourly $20.00 monthly	£0.02 hourly £15.00 monthly	€0.023 hourly €17.00 monthly
   RAM (per 1GB)	$0.02 hourly $15.00 monthly	£0.013 hourly £10.00 monthly	€0.016 hourly €12.00 monthly
   SAN Storage (per 10GB)	$0.0068 hourly $5.00 monthly	£0.0034 hourly £2.50 monthly	€0.0040 hourly €3.00 monthly

   1. Not all MCS clients will have scaling activity or charges. For some clients, the base configuration is sufficient, and they don’t end up adding more resources through the month. These clients will then only be charged the base rate on their invoice(s).
3. On the 1st of each calendar month, your MCS is invoiced at the base rate (in item #1 above) plus any additional scaling you may have done in the month prior (item #2 above). Scaling charges are rounded to the nearest hour, so you’re never billed for more than you have your MCS set to.
   1. You can scale up, or down, any time via the My Rochen portal via “Manage Servers -> [your server] -> Resource Scaling”.
   2. Changes will take effect within a few minutes. Usage is tracked hourly and billed to the maximum monthly amount which will be displayed in the Resource Scaling section. The charges will be detailed on your next invoice.

Understanding your first/initial MCS invoice

Another factor to note, for newly registered MCS only, is that MCS registrations are always pro rated to the 1st of the closest full month. If you purchase an MCS on 5th September, for example, then your first invoice dates and charges will cover the period of 5th September through 30th September. Our pro rata cut off for MCS is always the 20th of the month. So, if you purchase your MCS on 21st September, then your first invoice is prorated to end of the next full month, and the period covered will be 21st September through 31st October. Your first regular invoice will then be processed 1st November. In addition, that first invoice will cover only the base rate (noted in item 1 above). For these reasons, sometimes the initial invoice will appear significantly lower than what you may have anticipated based on the quote provided and the size of your configuration – particularly if you register prior to the 20th.

It is important to note that is article describes only the billing for the Managed Cloud Server service. Any licenses (LiteSpeed, CloundLinux, etc) are billed at the monthly quoted price in addition to the MCS billing, as separate line items on the same invoice(s).

Once you become accustomed to your MCS monthly billing, it’s easy to understand as well as budget for. However, we do understand that it may be take some time for newer MCS clients to adjust to the way the billing works. If you do have any questions or concerns about your MCS billing, at any time, please open a Billing support ticket so that we may assist.

For information about MCS payment options, please refer to this article.

^{1Prices are subject to change with industry costs, at any time, and are also subject to VAT where applicable.}