Best OpenClaw Hosting Providers in 2026 (Compared)
26 years building and operating hosting infrastructure. Founded Remsys, a 60-person team that provided 24/7 server management to hosting providers and data centers worldwide. Built and ran dedicated server and VPS hosting companies. Agento applies that operational experience to AI agent hosting.
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Your OpenClaw agent is only as reliable as where it runs. An agent that goes offline at 3 AM can't send your morning briefing. One hosted on a misconfigured VPS might leak your API keys to the internet. And one running on your laptop stops working the moment you close the lid.
Choosing the right hosting matters more than most people realize. It affects uptime, response latency, security, and—perhaps most importantly—how much of your time gets eaten by maintenance instead of actual work.
This guide compares seven OpenClaw hosting options, from fully managed platforms to bare-metal DIY. Whether you want something that just works or prefer to control every detail, you'll find the right fit here.
Quick Comparison
| Provider | Type | Setup Time | Monthly Cost | RAG Included | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agento | Managed | 5 min | From $20 | Yes | Production agents |
| DigitalOcean | VPS | 1-2 hrs | From $6 | No | Dev/hobbyist |
| Vultr | VPS | 1-2 hrs | From $5 | No | Budget global |
| Hetzner Cloud | VPS/Dedicated | 2-4 hrs | From $4 | No | Cost-conscious |
| Cloudflare Moltworker | Serverless | 30 min | Free* | No | Experiments |
| Google Cloud Run | Serverless | 2-3 hrs | Variable | No | Enterprise |
| AWS ECS/Fargate | Containers | 4+ hrs | Variable | No | AWS shops |
*Free compute; you pay LLM API costs
What to Look for in OpenClaw Hosting
Before diving into specific providers, here's what actually matters:
Uptime & reliability: Your agent needs 24/7 availability. Heartbeat tasks, scheduled reminders, and monitoring all require the agent to be awake when expected. A hosting provider with 99.9% uptime still means 8+ hours of downtime per year.
Persistent storage: OpenClaw stores memory in files (MEMORY.md, daily logs). These must survive container restarts, deployments, and server reboots. Ephemeral storage is a non-starter.
Security: This is where self-hosting gets dangerous. Research has shown that a significant percentage of self-hosted AI agents are misconfigured—default credentials left unchanged, exposed management ports, missing firewalls. Attackers actively scan for these vulnerabilities. A compromised agent with access to your tools and API keys is a serious threat.
Compute requirements: Good news—OpenClaw agents are CPU and network bound, not GPU bound. The heavy lifting happens at the LLM provider (OpenAI, Anthropic). Your hosting just needs reliable compute and low-latency networking.
RAG/Vector database: Memory search requires embeddings and vector storage. Setting this up yourself means configuring SQLite-vec, Qdrant, or similar. Managed options include this out of the box.
Observability: When your agent behaves unexpectedly, you need logs, traces, and metrics. Self-hosted setups require configuring this yourself.
Agento (Recommended)
Type: Managed OpenClaw hosting
Agento is purpose-built for OpenClaw agents. You upload your agent configuration (SOUL.md, MEMORY.md, etc.), connect your channels, and you're live. No servers to provision, no Docker files to write, no security patches to apply.
Pros
- Zero setup: Deploy a production agent in under 5 minutes
- RAG included: Memory search works out of the box with pre-configured embeddings
- Built-in observability: Logs, traces, message history, and cost tracking in one dashboard
- Multi-channel ready: Telegram, Slack, Discord, and email integrations included
- Automatic updates: Security patches and OpenClaw updates applied without downtime
- Heartbeat scheduling: Native support for scheduled agent wake-ups
- Security handled: No exposed ports, no default credentials to forget, no attack surface to manage
Cons
- OpenClaw-focused only (not general-purpose compute)
- Newer platform with smaller community compared to major cloud providers
Pricing
- Starter: $20/mo (1 agent, included messages)
- Pro: $49/mo (3 agents, higher limits)
- Team: $99/mo (10 agents, priority support)
Best For
Teams and individuals who want production-ready agents without becoming infrastructure engineers. If you'd rather spend time crafting your agent's personality than debugging nginx configs, this is your option.
Verdict
"The Vercel of OpenClaw hosting." You focus on your agent; Agento handles everything else.
DigitalOcean
Type: VPS with tutorials
DigitalOcean is a popular choice for developers thanks to excellent documentation and a straightforward interface. They've published a detailed OpenClaw deployment tutorial that walks through the entire setup.
Pros
- Excellent OpenClaw-specific documentation
- Predictable, transparent pricing
- Good community and support resources
- Droplets are simple to understand and manage
Cons
- You manage everything: updates, backups, security, monitoring
- No RAG included—set up SQLite-vec or Qdrant yourself
- No built-in observability—configure your own logging
- Heartbeat requires manual cron job setup
- Security is your responsibility (and easy to get wrong)
Pricing
From $6/mo (1GB RAM droplet). Realistically, expect $12-24/mo for a production-capable setup with adequate resources.
Setup Time
1-2 hours following the official tutorial, assuming no issues.
Best For
Developers comfortable with Linux administration who want full control and don't mind the maintenance overhead.
Vultr
Type: VPS + Docker
Vultr offers budget-friendly VPS instances with data centers across 32 global locations. Good option if you need your agent hosted in a specific geographic region.
Pros
- Competitive pricing (often cheapest VPS option)
- 32 worldwide locations for low-latency deployment
- Solid Docker support
- Hourly billing for flexibility
Cons
- Less OpenClaw-specific documentation than DigitalOcean
- Full DIY setup required
- No managed services or add-ons
- Security configuration entirely on you
Pricing
From $5/mo (1GB RAM)
Setup Time
1-2 hours with Docker experience; longer if starting from scratch.
Best For
Budget-conscious users who need specific geographic regions and are comfortable with self-managed infrastructure.
Hetzner Cloud
Type: VPS and Dedicated Servers
Hetzner Cloud is a German provider known for exceptional price-to-performance ratios. Their dedicated servers are particularly attractive for running multiple agents.
Pros
- Best value for raw compute in the industry
- Dedicated servers from €38/mo (ideal for 10+ agents)
- Strong privacy stance (GDPR compliant, German data protection)
- Excellent for multi-agent deployments
Cons
- European data centers only (higher latency for US/Asia users)
- Bare metal means full responsibility for everything
- Less beginner-friendly than DigitalOcean
- Security hardening is entirely manual
Pricing
- VPS (CX22): From €4/mo
- Dedicated (EX44): From €38/mo
Setup Time
2-4 hours minimum. Dedicated servers require more initial configuration.
Best For
Power users running multiple agents who want maximum compute per dollar. EU-based teams benefit from local data residency.
Cloudflare Moltworker
Type: Serverless/Edge
Moltworker is an open-source project that runs OpenClaw on Cloudflare Workers. It's free to run (you only pay for LLM API calls), making it attractive for experimentation.
Pros
- Free compute tier (generous limits)
- Edge deployment means low latency globally
- No server management whatsoever
- Great for trying OpenClaw without commitment
Cons
- Limited persistence (Workers KV has constraints)
- No long-running processes (workers timeout after seconds)
- Heartbeat requires separate scheduling solution
- Feature-limited compared to full OpenClaw installation
- Not suitable for production agents with complex memory needs
Pricing
Free compute; you pay only for LLM API calls to OpenAI/Anthropic.
Setup Time
30 minutes to basic deployment.
Best For
Experimentation, simple stateless agents, and developers who want to try OpenClaw without spending money on infrastructure.
Important note: Moltworker is not suitable for production agents that need reliable heartbeat scheduling or complex memory operations.
Google Cloud Run
Type: Serverless Containers
Cloud Run lets you deploy containerized OpenClaw with automatic scaling. Good fit for teams already invested in the Google Cloud ecosystem.
Pros
- Auto-scaling (scale to zero when idle, scale up under load)
- Enterprise-grade reliability and SLAs
- Good for unpredictable or spiky workloads
- Full integration with GCP services (Cloud SQL, Firestore, etc.)
Cons
- Complex initial setup
- Cold starts affect response latency
- Persistent storage requires additional services (Cloud SQL, Firestore)
- Pricing becomes unpredictable at scale
- Security configuration across multiple GCP services
Pricing
Pay-per-request plus compute time. Varies significantly based on usage patterns.
Setup Time
2-3 hours for someone familiar with GCP; longer otherwise.
Best For
Teams already on Google Cloud Platform with variable load patterns who want to leverage existing infrastructure.
AWS ECS/Fargate
Type: Container Orchestration
AWS offers the most mature container orchestration through ECS and Fargate. Serious infrastructure for serious deployments.
Pros
- Enterprise-grade scalability and reliability
- Full AWS ecosystem integration
- Mature tooling and extensive documentation
- Fine-grained control over every aspect
Cons
- Most complex setup of all options
- Expensive at small scale
- Requires significant AWS expertise
- Overkill for single-agent deployments
- Security configuration across IAM, VPC, and services
Pricing
Variable based on resources. Expect $30-100+/mo for a production setup.
Setup Time
4+ hours minimum. Realistically, days to get everything configured correctly.
Best For
Enterprise teams already on AWS who need to run multiple agents with strict compliance requirements.
The Security Problem with Self-Hosting
This deserves special attention. Security researchers have repeatedly found that self-hosted AI agents are frequently misconfigured:
- Default credentials left unchanged: Many tutorials skip the "change the default password" step, or users forget.
- Exposed management ports: SSH, admin panels, and debug endpoints left open to the internet.
- Missing firewalls: "I'll configure that later" becomes "I forgot to configure that."
- Outdated software: Security patches require manual intervention that often doesn't happen.
- Leaked API keys: Agents with access to OpenAI, Anthropic, and other APIs become valuable targets.
A compromised OpenClaw agent isn't just embarrassing—it has access to your tools, your memory files, potentially your email, your calendar, your code repositories. Attackers actively scan for vulnerable AI agent deployments.
Managed platforms like Agento handle security by design: no exposed ports, no default credentials, automatic patching, and isolated execution environments.
Recommendation Summary
Here's a simple decision tree:
"I want it to just work" → Agento No infrastructure to manage, security handled, RAG included. Deploy in minutes, focus on your agent.
"I'm a developer who wants full control" → DigitalOcean or Hetzner Cloud More work, more flexibility. Good if you enjoy infrastructure.
"I'm experimenting on a tight budget" → Cloudflare Moltworker Free to try, limited in production capability.
"We're an enterprise already on cloud" → Cloud Run or AWS ECS Leverage existing infrastructure and expertise.
"I'm running 10+ agents" → Hetzner Cloud dedicated or Agento Team Hetzner Cloud for maximum control; Agento for minimum hassle.
Conclusion
The "best" hosting depends on what you value: control, convenience, cost, or some combination.
Most people underestimate the maintenance burden of self-hosting. What starts as "I'll just spin up a VPS" becomes weekends spent debugging Docker networking, applying security patches, and figuring out why the heartbeat stopped working at 2 AM.
If you're a developer who enjoys infrastructure work, self-hosting can be rewarding. But if you're using OpenClaw to actually get things done—to have an AI assistant that helps with your real work—the infrastructure should be invisible.
Agento is built for people who care about results, not about tinkering with the latest DevOps tools. Non-developers and busy professionals who want a reliable AI agent without becoming sysadmins find it's exactly what they need.
You don't need to decide forever. Start with what makes sense now. If you outgrow it, OpenClaw's file-based architecture means you can export your agent configuration and move anywhere.
Start your free 7-day Agento trial →
Your agent files. Our infrastructure. Your time back.
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