A trading bot that stops when your laptop closes is a bot that will eventually close a position at the worst possible moment — or fail to close one at all. If a strategy runs unattended, it belongs on a machine that doesn't sleep, doesn't lose Wi-Fi, and doesn't reboot for updates while you're out.
What a bot actually needs
Less than people think. Trading bots are latency-sensitive in principle, but for anything that isn't sub-second HFT, the real requirements are:
- Constant uptime. The bot must be awake when the market moves, not when you are.
- Enough RAM for backtests. Live trading is light; backtesting a year of minute candles across pairs is what actually eats memory.
- Fast disk. Candle databases and trade logs write constantly. Our NVMe (RAID1, ~800 MB/s reads) handles that without stalling.
- A stable outbound IP. Some exchange APIs let you whitelist an IP for API keys — a dedicated-IP plan gives you a fixed one.
Micro ($5/mo) fits a single strategy on a handful of pairs. Small ($8/mo — 4 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 35 GB NVMe) is where most people settle once they add backtesting and a dashboard.
Freqtrade in a few commands
# Fresh Ubuntu 24.04 — install Docker
apt update && apt install -y docker.io docker-compose-v2 git
systemctl enable --now docker
# Freqtrade
mkdir -p /opt/freqtrade && cd /opt/freqtrade
docker run --rm -v "$(pwd):/freqtrade/user_data" \
freqtradeorg/freqtrade:stable create-userdir --userdir /freqtrade/user_data
# Configure (exchange keys, pairs, stake) — then run in dry-run first
docker compose up -d
docker compose logs -f
Start in dry-run. Always. Then flip to live only after the strategy has survived a few days of paper trading on real market data.
Hummingbot works the same way — Docker image, config in a mounted volume, run it under docker compose so it comes back after a reboot.
Custom bot? Python plus ccxt covers virtually every exchange. Run it under systemd with Restart=always so a crashed process restarts instead of leaving you exposed.
Why crypto payment and no KYC matter for this specifically
Traders tend to have opinions about where their identity is attached. If you're running strategies on crypto exchanges, funding a server with a corporate card in your legal name — and handing a hosting provider a passport scan — is an odd place to break that pattern.
We don't ask. Email to register, USDC or USDT to pay (Base, Ethereum, or Tron). No documents, no card. Your API keys, your strategy, your server — with nothing linking the box to a KYC file.
New to paying in crypto? Five-minute guide.
Picking a plan
| Setup | Plan | Price |
|---|---|---|
| One strategy, a few pairs, dry-run and live | Micro | $5/mo |
| Backtesting, database, web UI — the usual setup | Small | $8/mo |
| Need a fixed IP to whitelist on exchange API keys | Small-IP | $16/mo |
| Multiple bots, heavier backtests | Medium | $12/mo |
Full root, NVMe, unmetered traffic at 1 Gbit/s, servers in Germany and Finland. Pay yearly — one crypto transfer instead of twelve.
Related reading
- Secure a new VPS: a checklist — do this before your API keys touch the box
- Host a Discord bot on a VPS — same systemd pattern, different bot
Ready? Deploy a bot server → — live in about a minute, paid in crypto, no ID required.