Frequently asked questions
Curious about our services? Here you can find answers to the most frequently asked questions about UpCloud.
And if you can’t find what you are looking for, don’t hesitate to contact us!
Free trial
We want to enable our customers to experience our cloud infrastructure first hand. To this end, we offer a free 3-day trial with no strings attached. Additionally, you also always have a 30-day money-back guarantee on your first payment!
Every new user gets a 3-day free trial with no strings attached. If you would like to extend your trial period, please contact our sales team.
You may keep using your cloud server deployed during the trial by making a one-time deposit of at least €10 before the trial ends.
We will not charge you during the free trial. However, we may need to make a temporary €1 authorisation which we use to validate your credit card and will refund immediately.
You can contact our 24/7 in-house support via live chat or email. Check also our community page for a quick start guide and other tutorials to help you make the most of your cloud server.
New accounts in trial mode are limited to a single €7 Simple plan Linux cloud server. The server will have the firewall enabled allowing only common protocols: SSH, HTTP, HTTPS, DNS, RDP, NTP and the port range 33434-33434.
Please also note that the public network speed is limited to 100/100 Mbps during the trial. The public network speed increases to 1000/1000 Mbps by default when your account is upgraded to full access.
You will get free access to a €7 Simple plan Linux cloud server with 1 GB Memory, 1 CPU, 25 GB Storage, and 1 TB Transfer.
It is only possible to have one cloud server at a time but you can deploy, delete, and redeploy as many times as you like. Also, please note that during the trial, network speeds and certain network ports are limited.
You can upgrade easily by making a one-time deposit of €10 or more with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Visit the billing section at your UpCloud control panel.
We need to verify your contact information by validating your credit card details during our secure signup process.
Unfortunately, deploying Windows servers is not possible during the free trial. Nevertheless, as a licensed Microsoft partner, we offer cloud servers running the latest Windows Server products to our users. Contact us for more information.
The purpose of the free trial is to allow you to test and benchmark the performance of our infrastructure. The trial restrictions protect our existing users while providing new users with an opportunity to get familiar with our services. If you would like to test the full set of features, you can always upgrade your account by making a minimum €10 payment with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Account & Billing
Signing up at UpCloud allows anyone to create an account and start deploying cloud services. Managing your account and billing is do via your UpCloud Control Panel.
UpCloud uses a prepaid system in which your use of billed services is deducted from your account balance on an hourly basis. You need to have adequate funds on your account to deploy new services. Find out more at our guide to adding balance to your UpCloud account.
We offer several payment methods for adding balance to your UpCloud account:
Credit cards: Visa and MasterCard
PayPal: PayPal balance, bank account, debit and credit cards (payment methods may vary by region).
If you have any questions about the payment methods, please contact us.
You can earn bonus credits to your UpCloud account by sharing your unique referral link or code with your friends. For every new qualifying user who signs up using your referral code, you will receive €50 worth of free credits. When signing up, the new user also receives a bonus of €25 in credits. Read more about the referral program here.
We are required by law to apply local taxes for certain countries. Any applicable taxes are paid at the point of adding to the balance of your account according to the tax rules of your country. The rate at which any local taxes are charged depends on the tax location indicated by your billing details. VAT or GST registered businesses from certain countries can enter their VAT or GST registration number to not be charged taxes.
All Simple plans on your account are billed hourly up to the monthly rate cap and the hourly rate is determined by dividing the monthly rate by 672 hours (28 days). However, if your server is online for more than 672 hours in a calendar month, we will bill you on the monthly rate.
The Flexible plan is billed hourly according to our pricing for the used resources. All invoices are calculated based on UTC times.
Yes! For every new user who signs up using your unique referral code, makes at least two payments and stays active for a minimum of 28 days, you will receive €50 worth of free credits. On top of that, the new user receives a bonus worth €25 credits. Read more about the referral program here.
Simple plan Cloud Servers are billed per hour regardless of whether the server is powered on or shut down. This is due to the discounted bundle pricing, which in turn affords a lower monthly cost.
Cloud Servers
Cloud Servers offer on-demand availability of computer system resources, including data storage and computational capacity without the need to directly manage the server hardware.
UpCloud is a European cloud service provider offering the world’s fastest cloud servers with 100% uptime SLA from multiple data centres around the world in Asia, Europe and the U.S. Our SMB customers run their business-critical web applications on our enterprise-grade cloud computing platform and love us for our high performance, reliable service, and competitive prices.
The Flexible plans let you pick and choose exactly the server specifications you want while the General purpose plans offer easy to use, value for money configurations. Read more about the plans here.
We offer a suite of popular Linux distributions and Windows templates for fast server deployment. These include Debian, CentOS, Ubuntu, Windows Server and many others with different versions of each. You can install any operating system manually using our Storage Import feature.
You can choose between email, SMS and phone call for password delivery. The password is also shown in your control panel notifications until you log off.
As a licensed Microsoft partner, we offer cloud servers running the latest Windows Server products. However, this means that Microsoft Windows licences you want to use on UpCloud must be purchased from us. By signing the Microsoft License Mobility Agreement (MLMA), you may use your existing Microsoft licences such as Microsoft SQL Server database software, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SharePoint Server and many others.
Contact us to learn more.
You’ll need to enter the IP address of your cloud server and then authenticate using the username “Administrator” and your server password.
We currently don’t offer MS SQL licences, but by signing the Microsoft License Mobility Agreement you can use many of your existing Microsoft licenses such as Microsoft SQL Server database software, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SharePoint Server, and more.
Not at this time. UpCloud is an infrastructure-as-a-service provider and we focus on offering the best the cloud infrastructure for SMB companies to freely build upon. However, we do offer other managed services such as databases, load balancing and object storage. We also have an extensive network of partners offering world-class managed hosting services.
Contact us to learn more.
Our data centres are certified for different requirements such as ISO9001, ISO27001, ISO14001, ISO14644-8, OHSAS 18001, PCI DSS, PAS 99, VAHTI T3 and KATAKRI. You can find the list of all certificates on our data centre page.
We’ve built our data centres using nothing but state-of-the-art hardware with the goal to be the fastest cloud in the world. UpCloud’s MaxIOPS storage technology and top-grade CPU performance ensure that our servers are faster than any other. You can see the difference on our comparison pages.
You can change your cloud server plan to scale up or down by shutting down the server and changing the General purpose plan on the Resize tab at your control panel. Find out more at this guide to using Cloud Server plans.
We recommend using SSH for Linux servers and Remote Desktop for Windows. You can find out more in our tutorial.
Yes. If you can’t find your favourite flavour of Linux among our CDROM collection, you can always create your own installation media by using our Storage Import feature.
We recommend using Remote Desktop to connecting to your Windows server. Find out how to connect to your cloud server here.
You can save your public SSH keys to your control panel and include them at deployment. Then check out this guide on how to connect using SSH.
Yes, within seconds of deploying a server! You can use SSH, VNC, RDC for Windows, as well as the convenient web Console at your UpCloud control panel.
Read more on how to connect to your server.
100%! Our entire infrastructure is developed on the principle of N+1 redundancy. For every component, theres a backup, which gives us the confidence to promise 100% Service Level Agreement against unscheduled interruptions in our cloud infrastructure. You can find the full details on SLA in our Terms of Service.
Yes! Our Private Cloud offers dedicated hardware exclusively to your cloud servers. No need to worry about noisy neighbours. You can find out more about at our Private cloud product page or contact our sales team.
Managed Databases
Managed Database is a carefree database-as-a-service for running well-known open-source databases in the cloud. Built on high availability, Managed Databases provide a safe way to store application data.
UpCloud Managed Databases work using the master/replica model to provide dependable high-availability. This means all writes are done on the master node, but you are free to query the read-only replicas for added performance. Single master node ensures consistent transaction handling which can otherwise become an issue with multi-master HA solutions.
All databases are backed up automatically with full backups taken daily. These allow you to go back to any minute from the last 24 hours. 2-node plans have additional 7 days of backups and 3-node plans include 14 days.
Yes, our managed PostgreSQL databases support a wide range of extensions. You can find a list of supported extensions in the documentation section.
Private connection is enabled by default via the UpCloud Utility network. Note that the private network access is only available to Cloud Servers within the same UpCloud account and data centre.
Yes, if the management system detects a failure with the master node, it will seamlessly promote one of the replica nodes to take over the write tasks. Note that the automated fail-over is only possible with clusters of 2 or more nodes.
Yes, all backups are encrypted and stored off-site independently from the Managed Database without affecting the cluster’s storage capacity.
The maintenance window is used to handle system updates and other management tasks during off-hours. You can set the maintenance window at your UpCloud Control Panel according to the time and day of the week you prefer.
You can set connection permissions either by granting access to specific Cloud Servers on your UpCloud account or manually inputting the IP addresses of the hosts you want to be able to connect.
Database clusters are billed hourly according to the selected configuration plan starting from the cluster creation until the instances are deleted, including while stopped. Monthly prices are estimates based on a 30 day month.
Storage
Our cloud infrastructure is designed around redundancy and high availability, and a core part of it is the separation of computation and storage. Cloud Servers use our in-house developed MaxIOPS Block Storage by default.
MaxIOPS is our in-house developed storage technology, which gives you industry-leading performance and reliability. It’s leaps and bounds faster than the SSD storages found on competing providers. Check out how much faster our storage is on our comparison pages.
Each cloud server can have up to 16 storage devices 4 TB each to the maximum of 64 TB of storage capacity. You can always add more storage capacity after deployment. Find out more at our guide to adding and removing storage devices.
You need to tell your server operating system to use the new storage space. Learn more in this guide.
Of course! You can take manual snapshot backups of any storage device on your server or schedule automatic backups. The backups are a quick way to restore an earlier state of your server or a simple way to archive data. Read more about backups in our tutorial.
We offer MaxIOPS, HDD block storage and Object Storage. UpCloud Object Storage stores all your data redundantly on multiple storage devices and uses standard HTTPS encryption in transit with automatically provisioned SSL certificates.
You can increase storage size at your control panel under Resizing tab in the server settings. Afterwards, you also need to increase the storage in the OS of your cloud server. Find out how by following this guide.
Not at all. Every storage device, whether MaxIOPS or HDD, is fully persistent.
Not by default. Full storage encryption can be challenging to install and maintain, so instead, we focus on making your storage devices secure without encryption. You are, of course, free to encrypt your storage if you wish.
Networking
On UpCloud, you will be able to use 3 different types of networks, public internet access over IPv4 and IPv6, user customisable SDN private networks, and the preconfigured private Utility network.
You can do a network speed test by manually copying files between servers. Alternatively, you can test the network latency using ping. Please note that the network speed is restricted to 100Mbit/s during the free trial.
Yes. Each server can have up to 5 public IPv4 addresses, 5 IPv6 addresses, and 1 private IPv4 address. Find out more in our guide for attaching new IP addresses.
Yes, but you must follow common good practices when sending any marketing emails. Spamming is strictly prohibited. As such the port 25 used by SMTP is blocked by default on all new accounts. You can learn more at our guide to SMTP best practices.
You will need to point your domain name to the public IP address of your cloud server at your domain name registrar. Learn more about domains at this guide.
Yes. Our SDN private networks and the account-wide utility network allow your servers to communicate securely. Only servers on your account can communicate via the utility network connection while with SDN private networks you get even more control over which cloud servers are connected. Your private networks are exclusively yours.
Yes. Every cloud server gets a free IPv6 address unless you wish to disable it at deployment.
During the free trial, we block some ports for security reasons but after making the first payment, all ports are unlocked with the exception of the port 25.
If the included outbound traffic runs out, we bill each additional GB of transfer according to our standard pricing at €0.01 per GB. All inbound and private network traffic is free of charge.
Yes, you can do this in our Private Cloud. Contact our sales team for more information.
You can use any SSH client you wish by connecting to the public IP address of your cloud server. Log in with the user “root” and your server password. Learn more about SSH at this tutorial.
API
The programmable UpCloud API encompasses all of the functionality of our control panel and then some. If you want to build automation or services that’ll utilise our cloud infrastructure, our API or one of the many API clients is the way to go.
Yes. We have built a fully-featured API which allows you to perform all the operations available at your UpCloud control panel. The same API is used by our backend and it always has the latest features and updates.
UpCloud allows you to create the API ID and API key yourself. Find out more in our tutorial on how to get started with API.
We have a number of different API clients to help you with getting started which are available at our GitHub page.
GDPR
GDPR is an important regulation in the EU to ensure data privacy. UpCloud is fully GDPR compliant, and furthermore, we had already followed similar principles long before GDPR was introduced.
Yes. UpCloud is fully GDPR compliant and we have followed similar principles for a long time, even before GDPR was introduced. Read more about GDPR and how it protects your privacy at our GDPR update.
We collect and process certain personal data (contact, billing and behavioural) in compliance with GDPR to enhance our services. This does not include any personal data stored on your cloud servers. Those are not accessible by UpCloud and they are under your sole discretion.
If GDPR applies to your organization and you need a DPA to satisfy the GDPR requirements, contact our support.
You may exercise your right to view, modify, or delete your personal data through your UpCloud control panel.
Support
UpCloud provides customer support to assist our users with all of their cloud infrastructure needs. Users who wish to learn more about our products or need assistance with any related services can contact our support for help.
Yes, always! We have a friendly dedicated team of technical support specialists available 24/7. On average, we’ll respond in less than 2 minutes! We are happy to assist with any technical questions related to our infrastructure and services but are unable to manage any of our users’ cloud servers.
We have an extensive library of support articles, tutorials, and guides to help you configure your cloud server. Check out our community pages to learn more.
Be sure to also watch our video on how to deploy a server in only 45 seconds with UpCloud Control Panel.
We can help you with any technical difficulties you might experience with our services and their use. Don’t hesitate to contact us and ask for help!
You can contact us via live chat, email or phone lines in four different time zones. Find the contact details here.
Due to privacy and security reasons, we can’t access your cloud servers for installing or managing software. However, you can find plenty of easy to follow guides and tutorials on how to install commonly used and popular software in our community section.
We maintain a live status page where we report any incidents and planned maintenance regarding our cloud services. On the status page, you can also subscribe for email updates to be immediately notified of any changes to our service level.