incidentally, i found that ovh offers a kvm vps with 2gb ram and unlimited traffic for a bit over $3.

2gb ram at digital ocean is $20, with limited traffic (3tb seems like a decent amount, though). a ri on aws runs slightly over $10, but traffic costs are an absurd tragedy.

i was pretty hyped when i found this, but sadly ovh didn't offer private/internal networking for their vps last i checked. so if i want a web vps to talk to a db vps, i have to give the db an internet-facing ip; this increases risks and possibly latency if there isn't some router config preventing public-ip packets from leaving the datacenter.