OVHcloud Explained: Public Cloud, VPS, and Dedicated Servers
OVHcloud explained: the account and Control Panel, the Public Cloud, VPS, and Bare Metal product lines, OpenStack projects, storage and managed services, European regions, vRack networking, quotas, billing, and SMTP rules.
OVHcloud is a French provider, founded in 1999 and headquartered in Roubaix, that runs its own data centers and manufactures its own servers. Unlike a pure VPS host or a pure hyperscaler, it sells three distinct product lines under one customer account: Public Cloud, VPS, and Bare Metal dedicated servers. This guide explains how the account and Control Panel are organised, what each product line is for, how regions and networking work, and what to know about quotas, billing, and email before you order.
Account, Control Panel, and access
An OVHcloud account is identified by a customer handle (the NIC handle) and managed through the OVHcloud Control Panel. The account holds the billing contact, the payment methods, and every service you have ordered, whether that is a domain, a VPS, a dedicated server, or a Public Cloud project. Legal and billing details attached to the account are verified by the provider, and changes to the country or legal entity go through support.
Access control has two layers. OVHcloud IAM lets you create additional users on the account and assign policies that limit which services they can see or change, so a developer can manage one Public Cloud project without seeing invoices. Inside a Public Cloud project there is a second layer of OpenStack users, which are technical credentials used by the OpenStack API, the Horizon interface, and tools such as Terraform. Two-factor authentication on the main account is available and strongly recommended.
The OVHcloud API is exposed through application keys tied to the account, and the same API drives the Control Panel. The OVHcloud documentation is organised by product line and is the reference for every feature mentioned here.
Three product lines: Public Cloud, VPS, and Bare Metal
| Line | What it is | Billing pattern | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public Cloud | OpenStack-based IaaS: instances, block and object storage, managed Kubernetes, managed databases, AI tools | Hourly or monthly per resource, pay-as-you-go | Elastic applications, Kubernetes, data pipelines, GPU jobs |
| VPS | KVM virtual servers with fixed resources and a full root login | Monthly or longer commitments | Websites, small apps, game servers, personal infrastructure |
| Bare Metal | Physical dedicated servers in several ranges, with optional private networking | Monthly rental, sometimes with a setup fee | Databases, virtualisation hosts, storage, high-traffic services |
The Public Cloud is where most cloud-native work happens. Everything is organised into projects; a project has its own quotas, its own OpenStack users, its own billing line, and can span several regions. Instance flavors are grouped by purpose: small Discovery instances for testing, General Purpose, Compute-optimised, Memory-optimised, Storage-optimised, and GPU flavors for training and inference. Because the platform is OpenStack, the standard OpenStack CLI, Horizon dashboard, and Terraform provider all work against it.
VPS plans are simpler: you pick a range and a size, choose a distribution or a preinstalled application image, and receive a server with a public IP and included anti-DDoS protection. Bare Metal servers are the historic core of the business and come in ranges from entry-level machines to high-end configurations with large memory and NVMe storage. Because the hardware is yours alone, you can run your own hypervisor or a bare-metal database without noisy-neighbour effects.
Storage, data, and managed services
Public Cloud storage comes in two forms. Block Storage volumes attach to instances in the same region, with performance tiers that differ in throughput and IOPS. Object Storage is offered through an S3-compatible API with classes for standard access, high performance, and cold archive. Snapshots and instance backups let you capture volumes and instances and rebuild them.
Managed services reduce the operations burden: Managed Kubernetes Service provides a free control plane with worker nodes billed as instances; managed databases cover MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis-compatible caching, Kafka, and OpenSearch; and the AI range includes AI Notebooks, AI Training, and AI Deploy for running notebooks, training jobs, and inference on GPU capacity without managing the underlying machines. AI Endpoints exposes hosted open-weight models through an API.
Regions and networking
OVHcloud operates data centers in France (Gravelines, Roubaix, Strasbourg, and Paris), elsewhere in Europe (including Frankfurt, London, and Warsaw), in North America (Beauharnois near Montreal, plus US locations operated separately under OVHcloud US), and in Asia Pacific (Singapore, Sydney, and Mumbai). Newer Local Zones extend Public Cloud into additional cities with a smaller service set. Not every product is available in every location, and Public Cloud regions, VPS locations, and Bare Metal locations are listed separately.
Networking depends on the product. Every service gets a public IPv4 address and anti-DDoS mitigation at no extra charge. The vRack is a private, isolated layer 2 network that can connect dedicated servers, Public Cloud instances, and Hosted Private Cloud resources across OVHcloud data centers, which is how hybrid designs are built. Inside Public Cloud, private networks with subnets, a Gateway for outbound traffic, Floating IPs, and a Load Balancer cover the usual patterns. Additional public IPs can be ordered as blocks and moved between services.
Quotas, billing, and practical considerations
Public Cloud projects carry quotas on vCPUs, RAM, instance count, volumes, and floating IPs, counted per region. A fresh project starts with a low quota, and increases are requested from the Control Panel and reviewed by OVHcloud, with larger allocations usually requiring an account with payment history. Listings that mention a vCPU figure refer to this project quota and nothing more. VPS and Bare Metal orders are not quota-based but are subject to stock and to order verification.
Billing for Public Cloud is pay-as-you-go: usage is consumed hourly and invoiced monthly, or you can prepay credit into the project. Choosing monthly billing on an instance gives a lower rate in exchange for committing to the month. VPS and Bare Metal are invoiced in advance for the chosen period. Payment can be by card, bank transfer, or other methods depending on your country, and new accounts may be asked to verify identity or payment before the first order is delivered; this is a standard provider control.
Outbound SMTP is a common question. OVHcloud blocks port 25 on Public Cloud instances by default, and unblocking is requested through support, where the provider reviews the use case. Any mail you send from any OVHcloud service must follow its terms and anti-spam rules; abuse complaints lead to the service being suspended. A dedicated email service is usually the better choice for application mail.
- Enable two-factor authentication on the account and create separate IAM users for team members.
- Set a budget alert in the Public Cloud project so you are warned when consumption crosses a threshold.
- Check region availability for the flavor or server range you want before assuming it exists in your preferred location.
- Read the OVHcloud terms of service and acceptable use rules; cryptocurrency mining, scanning, and unsolicited email are grounds for suspension.
Where to go next
Account listings labelled by Public Cloud vCPU quota or by outbound port 25 status are on the Buy OVHcloud Accounts product page. The provider’s own overview of the platform is at OVHcloud Public Cloud.
Related reading in the Cloud Library:
- What is a vCPU? Understanding cloud compute sizing
- Cloud regions and availability zones: how to choose a location
- How to choose a cloud provider for your business
- Port 25 and cloud email sending: why providers restrict it
Browse the full Cloud Library, or read the Hetzner vs OVHcloud comparison.