Pricing · Kenya
Server pricing in Kenya, in KES
Every Lineserve product on one page, in Kenya shillings. You are not reading a dollar price with a converter bolted on — KES is the price, and KES is what leaves your account. Server pricing in Kenya usually stops at the number. This page keeps going: what the invoice looks like, what your finance team can do with it, and which rail to use when the amount is larger than a phone payment.
No credit card required to start · Prices exclude VAT · Local figures indicative, settled at checkout
Cloud Servers
Build your own VM, from $13.89
No fixed plans — a server is the sum of the vCPU, RAM, SSD and IPv4s you pick. Linux images are free; Windows Server adds a license fee. IPv6 is free and on by default.
| Resource | Unit | Price /mo |
|---|---|---|
| vCPU | per vCPU | KES 433 |
| RAM | per GB | KES 306 |
| Storage — Universal SSD | per GB | KES 25 |
| Public IPv4 | per address | KES 150 |
| Windows Server 2019 Standard | per server | From KES 800 |
| Windows Server 2022 Standard | per server | From KES 1,000 |
| Windows Server 2025 Standard | per server | From KES 1,200 |
| Bandwidth | 1 Gbps port, unlimited local traffic | Free |
| IPv6 (/64) | per server | Free |
Minimum storage: 20 GB for Linux images, 32 GB for Windows. The Windows Server license scales with server size.
Dedicated Servers
Single-tenant bare metal, from $309
The whole machine, nothing shared. Ready configurations online in hours, or a custom build to spec.
| Config | Price /mo | Setup (one-time) | CPU | RAM | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LineServe Core 1 | KES 46,350 | KES 14,850 | 16c / 32t | 32 GB | 2 × 480 GB SSD |
| LineServe Core 2 | KES 56,850 | KES 14,850 | 24c / 48t | 64 GB | 2 × 960 GB SSD |
| LineServe Core 3Popular | KES 79,350 | KES 22,350 | 32c / 64t | 128 GB | 2 × 1.92 TB SSD |
| LineServe Core 4 | KES 116,850 | KES 22,350 | 36c / 72t | 256 GB | 2 × 3.84 TB SSD |
| LineServe Core 5 | KES 154,350 | KES 29,850 | 40c / 80t | 512 GB | 2 × 7.68 TB SSD |
| LineServe Core 6 | KES 194,850 | KES 29,850 | 44c / 88t | 1 TB | 2 × 15.36 TB SSD |
| Custom | Quote | Quoted | Your spec | Your spec | Your spec |
Object Storage
S3-compatible, from $0.035/GB
Tiered pricing that gets cheaper as you store more — with free egress up to your stored volume each month. No surprise transfer bills.
| Storage tier | Monthly volume | Price / GB / month |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | Up to 1 TB | KES 7.90 / GB |
| Growth | Up to 5 TB | KES 6.77 / GB |
| Business | Up to 10 TB | KES 5.64 / GB |
| Enterprise | 10 TB+ | KES 4.52 / GB · custom quote |
| Metric | Price |
|---|---|
| Data transfer out | Free |
| Data transfer in | Free |
| Requests | Free |
Colocation
Tier III space, from $100/U
Your hardware in our carrier-neutral facilities, with redundant power and connectivity. Standard commitment terms.
| Option | Price /mo | Space | Power |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single U | KES 12,900 | 1U | 1A / 120 W |
| Quarter rack | KES 129,000 | 10U | 500 W |
| Half rackPopular | KES 270,900 | 21U | 1 kW, A+B |
| Full rack | KES 541,800 | 42U | 3 kW, A+B |
| Private cage | Quote | Custom | Custom |
Power above your footprint's allowance is KES 64,500 per kW per month.
Always included
No nickel-and-diming
These come standard on every plan, at no extra cost.
How billing works
Simple, local, predictable
How you're charged, and what to expect on the invoice.
Pay in KES
Settle by M-Pesa and other mobile money, bank transfer, or card. Billed in KES, with no forex conversion on your side.
No card to start
Begin without a credit card. Add whatever payment method suits you.
Annual billing — 2 months free
Pay for 10 months, get 12, on eligible plans.
VAT shown separately
Prices exclude VAT; applicable tax is added at checkout.
FAQ
Billing questions, answered
Instances are billed monthly. Changes mid-cycle are prorated, so you only pay for what you use after a resize.
No. You can start without a card — add whatever payment method suits you when you're ready.
No. Displayed prices exclude VAT. Applicable tax is calculated and shown at checkout based on your location.
Pay annually on eligible plans and get two months free — you pay for 10 months and get 12.
Egress is free. Data transfer in and out — and API requests — are all included at no charge, so you only ever pay for the storage you use.
Yes — for dedicated servers, colocation, large deployments, and volume commitments. Talk to Sales for a tailored quote.
KES. As a Kenyan customer you are billed in shillings with no forex conversion, and no foreign-transaction fee from your bank. You can view prices in USD, KES, TZS or NGN, but settlement is in KES.
Kenya's standard rate is 16%, and KRA treats digital marketplace supplies — including cloud and hosting services — as taxable under section 5(2)(b) of the VAT Act. Confirm the tax treatment of your own invoice with [email protected] before you order, so your finance team knows what to expect.
If you are VAT-registered, yes — provided the invoice shows the value of the supply and the tax charged, and carries your KRA PIN. KRA confirms a Kenyan buyer can claim input tax on a non-resident supplier's invoice showing the value and the tax charged, as well as on a resident supplier's electronic tax invoice.
Yes. M-Pesa and other mobile money, bank transfer, and card are all accepted for Kenyan customers, billed in KES.
A Core 1 is KES 46,350 a month plus a one-time KES 14,850 setup fee, which is likely above a single mobile-money transaction limit. Bank transfer is the practical rail at that size.
No. You can start without a card and add whichever payment method suits you.
Yes — pay for 10 months and get 12, on eligible plans.
Monthly, prorated. Add 2 vCPU at KES 433 each mid-cycle and you pay for the part of the month you used them. RAM is KES 306 per GB, Universal SSD is KES 25 per GB, and a public IPv4 is KES 150 per address.
Nothing. Cloud servers and VPS plans include a 1 Gbps port, and every plan includes unlimited local traffic.
Colocation is quoted per footprint rather than sold from a price list. Talk to [email protected] or +254 119 039 063 with your rack layout and power draw.
No. Those products are on the waitlist and carry no Kenyan price.
Registration is your obligation as a controller or processor, not a consequence of where you host. Fees run KES 4,000 to KES 40,000 by size, and entities in financial services, telecommunications, health, education, insurance, betting, public bodies and religious organisations must register regardless of size.
Not generally. Regulation 26 requires in-country processing, or at least one serving copy in a data centre located in Kenya, for six named purposes — civil registration and legal identity, elections, public finance systems, protected computer systems, basic education, and primary or secondary health care. For everything else it is a choice, not a requirement.
Yes — for dedicated servers, colocation, large deployments and volume commitments. [email protected] or +254 119 039 063.
The KES figures for cloud servers, VPS plans and dedicated servers are a manual Kenyan price list, not a live conversion from USD. Object-storage figures in local currency are derived from an indicative rate and confirmed at checkout.
Start for $5, scale to a full rack
One platform, one bill, one support team — priced in your currency and built for where you are.
No credit card required · 99.9% uptime SLA · Local billing in KES, TZS & NGN
Payments
Pay the way Kenya pays
Mobile money is not an alternative payment method in Kenya. It is the default, and the card is the alternative. The Communications Authority counts 53,368,939 active mobile money subscriptions served by 602,470 registered agents — 100.1% of population — with M-Pesa holding 89.1% of the market. You are billed in KES throughout, so nothing converts, nothing lands on your statement as a foreign transaction, and your bank adds no foreign-transaction fee.
M-Pesa first
M-Pesa and other mobile money, in shillings. You are billed in KES, so nothing converts, no international transaction appears on your statement and your bank adds no foreign-transaction fee. Kenyan VAT at 16% is added at checkout.
Bank transfer second
The rail for larger invoices. This price list runs from a KES 1,389 cloud server to a KES 194,850 dedicated machine, and an annual commitment or a dedicated server can exceed a mobile-money transaction limit. A transfer handles what a push cannot.
Card third
Visa and Mastercard work if your finance team prefers them. They are just not the assumption here — for a large share of Kenyan businesses, paying by international card is not a worse option, it is not an option.
Bank transfers clear during banking hours; mobile money does not stop at 15:00. If the timing of a purchase matters to you, that is worth planning around.
Tax & invoicing
What your accountant gets, not just what you pay
Kenya's standard VAT rate is 16%, and the Kenya Revenue Authority treats digital marketplace supplies as taxable under section 5(2)(b) of the VAT Act. KRA's published list of taxable digital services names cloud backup, email hosting and software subscriptions — hosting sits squarely inside it. So there is no version of this where a Kenyan business buys hosting and VAT does not come into it.
The only question worth asking is whether you can claim it back, and that depends entirely on the document you are handed. Input VAT and the expense are only safe on audit against a valid tax invoice carrying your own KRA PIN. Compare providers on that, not only on the monthly figure.
What a Kenyan tax invoice carries
The seller's KRA PIN and registered name; a unique invoice number with date and time; the buyer's KRA PIN on B2B sales; the line description, quantity, unit price and taxable value; the tax type and the VAT charged, shown separately; and the KRA control number and QR code returned when the invoice is transmitted.
Who you are buying from matters here
Buy hosting from an overseas provider and you are buying from a non-resident supplier, which changes what lands in your inbox: KRA exempts non-residents registered under its simplified framework from the eTIMS requirement, so what arrives is an invoice or receipt showing the value of the supply and the tax charged rather than a Kenyan electronic tax invoice. Your Kenyan supplier here is Lineserve Limited, registered for VAT in Kenya, charging 16% on a Kenyan tax invoice. If your finance team has specific requirements for what the document must carry, raise them with [email protected] before you order rather than after the first invoice.
The deadline that governs the claim
VAT is due by the 20th of the month following the earlier of invoice, performance or payment, filed on a VAT3 return through iTax. If you are buying near month-end, that deadline — not ours — decides which period the claim lands in.
Lineserve Limited is registered for VAT in Kenya, so your invoice is a Kenyan tax invoice with the 16% shown on it — not a foreign receipt your accountant has to argue about. Talk to [email protected] about your invoicing requirements before you order.
Data residency
Where your data sits, and the compliance cost that comes with it
Kenya's law is the Data Protection Act, No. 24 of 2019, and the regulator is the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner. Hosting in Nairobi gives you data residency for that Act — your data stays in-country. That is a statement about location, not a compliance certification, and it is deliberately worded that way.
Two things belong on a pricing page specifically, because both are real money.
Registration is a line item, and it is yours, not ours
ODPC registration fees run KES 4,000 for micro and small entities (1–50 employees, up to KES 5M revenue), KES 16,000 for medium entities (51–99 employees, KES 5M–50M) and KES 40,000 for large entities (100+ employees, over KES 50M); renewals are lower, KES 2,000–25,000. Entities below KES 5 million turnover with fewer than 10 employees may be exempt — but not in restricted sectors. Financial services, telecommunications, health, education, insurance, betting, public bodies and religious organisations register regardless of size. That obligation follows from what you do, not from where you host.
For six named purposes, in-country storage is not a preference
Section 50 of the Act lets the Cabinet Secretary require certain processing to run through a server or data centre located in Kenya, and Regulation 26 of the Data Protection (General) Regulations, 2021 exercises that power. It requires a controller or processor handling personal data for a listed purpose either to process it through a server and data centre located in Kenya, or to store at least one serving copy in a data centre located in Kenya. The listed purposes are civil registration and legal identity, the conduct of elections, overseeing systems for administering public finances, running a protected computer system under the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act, 2018, early childhood and basic education, and primary or secondary health care. If your system is not one of those — and most Kenyan businesses are not — any page telling you Kenyan law requires all your data to stay in Kenya is wrong. Whether your own processing falls inside those categories is a question for your counsel, not for a hosting provider.
Sending data out of Kenya is conditional, not forbidden
Section 48 permits cross-border transfer where appropriate safeguards have been demonstrated to the Data Commissioner, or where the transfer is necessary for contract performance or another listed ground. Section 49(1) is stricter for sensitive personal data, requiring the data subject's consent and confirmation of appropriate safeguards. Keep the data in Nairobi and section 48 has nothing to permit: there is no transfer, so no safeguards to demonstrate to the Commissioner and no consent to gather before your customer records can move. The question closes.
What Lineserve provides here is location: data residency for Kenya's Data Protection Act, with your data held in Nairobi and not moved out of Kenya without your instruction. Registration and compliance remain yours as the data controller.
Bandwidth
Why there is no bandwidth line on your bill
Cloud servers and VPS plans on this page include a 1 Gbps port, and every plan includes unlimited local traffic. That is a pricing decision, and it only makes sense if the traffic is genuinely local — so it is worth saying what the Kenyan network actually looks like underneath it.
Your server sits in Nairobi, and traffic between ke-1a and the 136 networks present at KIXP is exchanged inside the city rather than hauled to Europe and back. Domestic traffic that stays domestic is cheap to carry, which is why it is not metered here — your Kenyan users can pull as much of it as they like without a surprise arriving at the end of the month.
136
Networks peering at KIXP, Nairobi (PeeringDB)
2.9 Tbps
Combined KIXP capacity (PeeringDB)
28,130 Gbps
Kenya's lit international capacity (CA, Q1 2026)
480 km
Mombasa landing to Nairobi backhaul
Local traffic is exchanged in Nairobi
The Kenya Internet Exchange Point is a neutral non-profit exchange operated by TESPOK, present in four Nairobi facilities. PeeringDB records 136 peer networks, 151 connections and 2.9 Tbps of combined capacity, with 84% IPv6 adoption. Lineserve peers at KIXP, so traffic between ke-1a and another network present there is exchanged inside Nairobi instead of being hauled to Europe and back.
International traffic still goes to the coast
Every Kenyan international subsea cable lands at Mombasa — TEAMS, SEACOM, EASSy, LION2, DARE1 and PEACE — and the capacity is backhauled roughly 480 km inland to Nairobi. The Communications Authority reports 28,130 Gbps of lit international capacity against 17,759 Gbps in use. Bandwidth priced against that path is a different cost structure from bandwidth priced against a local exchange.
Who buys what
What Kenyan buyers are actually pricing
The same price list reads differently depending on which of these you are. These are the shapes we see most often in Kenya, and the part of the ladder each one lands on.
Digital lenders and fintechs
An always-warm callback receiver for M-Pesa integrations, a loan-book database, a KYC document store, a USSD gateway backend. The L1 plan at KES 8,330 covers a modest production stack; the loan book usually ends up on a Core 1 at KES 46,350 or a Core 2 at KES 56,850, each with a one-time KES 14,850 setup fee.
SACCOs and microfinance
Core banking, member portals, USSD channels, month-end and dividend runs, Paybill reconciliation. These are dedicated-server buyers on an annual cycle with a board-approved budget — which is where paying for ten months and getting twelve does the most work.
Media and publishing
Nairobi's news sector has a traffic pattern most markets do not: election cycles, budget day in June, and exam-results days are hard, predictable, single-day spikes on top of a normal load. The relevant price is not the monthly rate. It is that vCPU and RAM are priced per unit at KES 433 and KES 306 and prorated mid-cycle, so a spike costs what it costs and then stops costing.
ISPs, WISPs and MSPs
The Communications Authority's fixed-ISP table has a long tail behind Safaricom, Faiba, Zuku and Poa — Ahadi Wireless, Vilcom, Mawingu and 3.5% in "others". RADIUS and AAA, recursive resolvers, NetFlow collectors, LibreNMS, looking-glass nodes. These are useless outside the country they serve, and they are small machines: the KES 1,389 to KES 4,240 band, several of them.
Agencies and the .ke long tail
One buyer, many client sites. A single XL1 at KES 16,510 hosting a dozen client WordPress installs is a different unit economic from a dozen separate shared-hosting accounts.
Teams sizing a Windows estate
Windows Server licensing is billed per vCPU on top of compute, on a minimum of four cores — from KES 800 a server for 2019 Standard, KES 1,000 for 2022 Standard and KES 1,200 for 2025 Standard. Linux images are free, and the minimum disk differs too: 20 GB on Linux, 32 GB on Windows.
Managed Databases, Load Balancer, File Storage, Block Storage, Messaging and Kubernetes are not priced for Kenya yet — they are on the waitlist and carry no Kenyan price.
Migrating
What changes on the invoice when you move
From an overseas provider
The list price is only the first number. A USD-billed provider charges your Kenyan card in dollars, which means an issuer FX spread and, at most Kenyan banks, a foreign-transaction fee — neither of which appears on the provider's price page. The bill also moves with the shilling between one month and the next, so the figure your finance team budgeted in January is not the figure that clears in September. Here the KES price is the price, from a rail you already use, and the arithmetic on this page is your real monthly spend.
From another Kenyan host
Nairobi hosting, a Kenyan IP and M-Pesa billing are table stakes in this market — every local provider advertises them, and they are right to. So the reason to move is not any of those. What is worth comparing line by line: whether bandwidth is metered, whether you can move from a KES 1,389 server to a full dedicated Core 6 on one account and one bill, whether compute is priced per unit and prorated when you resize, and what the invoice carries for your VAT return.
Four questions are worth putting to any host, this one included. Which city is the machine physically in? Is domestic traffic exchanged inside Kenya, or does it take a trip abroad and back? What does the uptime SLA pay out when it is missed, and who has to claim it? And does the invoice carry the KRA PIN your accountant needs to claim the input VAT? A price is easy to compare. Those four are what the price is for.