Helio Host Mercury, $ 4.00/mo. on Linux VPS

Mercury has been added on Jul 11, 2025, Aggregate Rating (4.4 out of 10 from 42 reviews)

💪 CPU/Cores :	2 vCPU
🔋 RAM :	1000 MB
🔌 Hosted domains :	unlimited
🆓 free domains :	0
📌 Dedicated IPs :	1
💳 Payment Methods :	PayPalBitcoin
🔧 Category :	Self Managed
✍️ Support Options :	EmailForum
⚑ Targeting :	US

See also initial Mercury plan location on their website!

*📜 Plan description

📄 Editorial Review

HelioHost is a US nonprofit web hosting provider founded in 2005 by Ashoat Tevosyan, who began developing the service when he was 14 years old. It operates through Helio Networks, a registered 501(c)(3) organization, and finances its infrastructure through donations, paid upgrades and volunteer work rather than conventional advertising or aggressive subscription sales.

The service is primarily suitable for students, developers, hobbyists, nonprofit organizations, personal websites and small web applications. Its long history gives it an unusual position in the free hosting market, where many competing providers have either disappeared or replaced their free packages with limited trials.

The shared hosting range consists of Johnny, Tommy and Morty. All three platforms use Plesk and support a broad selection of development technologies, including PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8, Python, Django, Flask, Node.js, Ruby on Rails, Perl, Java through Tomcat and Microsoft .NET. Database support includes MariaDB/MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQLite, with remote database access available when required.

Johnny is the completely free shared hosting platform. Account registrations are released in limited batches, with new availability normally added twice each day. The standard configuration includes several hosted domains, 1 GB of storage, unmetered traffic and daily CPU and memory allowances. Users must access their account at least once every 30 days to keep it active.

Johnny works well for programming practice, school projects, testing environments, demonstrations and personal websites that do not depend on continuous availability. Accounts using excessive processor or memory resources can be suspended when they affect other customers on the shared server.

Tommy is the donor-supported shared hosting platform. Access begins with a one-time contribution of $2, after which there is no regular monthly hosting fee. Larger initial contributions provide additional storage, with current configurations reaching up to 7 GB. Tommy generally provides better performance and account availability than Johnny, although the 30-day login requirement still applies.

Morty is the most flexible shared option. Pricing begins at $1 per month, including 200 GB of daily memory usage and 10,000 daily CPU units. Additional consumption is deducted from the prepaid balance at $0.0005 per extra GB of memory and $0.005 per additional 1,000 CPU units. Monthly charges are capped at $25, preventing an unexpected traffic increase from creating an unlimited bill.

Morty accounts remain active when their included CPU or memory allocation is exceeded. Additional resources are billed instead of triggering an automatic suspension, making Morty the strongest shared hosting choice for active applications and small commercial websites. It also removes the monthly login requirement used on Johnny and Tommy.

Shared hosting includes custom-domain hosting, unmetered bandwidth, free SSL certificates, email accounts, FTP, FTPS, SFTP, Plesk File Manager, webmail and one-click application installation. Softaculous provides access to hundreds of content management, forum, e-commerce, gallery, project management and development applications.

Domain-based email accounts can be accessed through conventional POP3 and SMTP clients or through Roundcube webmail. SpamAssassin is available for filtering unwanted messages, while SPF, DKIM and DMARC can be configured to improve mail authentication and delivery.

The standard storage allowance is 1 GB. Additional storage can normally be obtained through a one-time contribution of $5 per gigabyte, up to a usual total of 7 GB. These storage upgrades remain associated with the hosting account rather than becoming a recurring monthly expense.

Traffic is not charged per gigabyte, but server resource limits still apply. Shared hosting is not suitable for download mirrors, video distribution systems, public proxy services, cryptocurrency mining or other applications that consume sustained processing, memory or disk resources.

Free subdomains are available under helioho.st and heliohost.us. Customers can also connect domains registered elsewhere. HelioHost does not provide its own domain registration service, although Namecheap is one of the external registrars commonly used with its hosting accounts.

Root-access virtual servers are available through six standard configurations. Mercury includes 1 GB of RAM, two CPU cores and 50 GB of storage for $4 per month. Mars increases the allocation to four CPU cores and 100 GB of storage for $5 per month. Venus includes 2 GB of RAM, two CPU cores and 50 GB of storage for $7 per month.

Earth provides 4 GB of RAM, four CPU cores and 200 GB of storage for $15 per month. Saturn includes 7 GB of RAM, eight CPU cores and 200 GB of storage for $25 per month, while Jupiter provides 15 GB of RAM, eight CPU cores and 300 GB of storage for $50 per month. Custom VPS configurations begin at $4 per month.

Every VPS includes unmetered traffic, one dedicated IPv4 address, one dedicated IPv6 address and full root SSH access. Ubuntu 24 is the standard operating system, while alternative operating systems can be arranged when compatible with the virtualization environment. Hestia Control Panel can also be installed for customers who prefer a graphical server-management interface.

VPS orders may require manual provisioning while the automated billing system is being upgraded. Customers select the required configuration and complete the order through the support forum or community channels.

HelioHost does not operate a conventional dedicated-server, reseller-hosting or commercial colocation product range. Its larger VPS configurations can nevertheless host several websites, applications or individual users when managed by an experienced administrator.

The website, account interface and documentation are primarily available in English, and prices are denominated in US dollars. The current website uses a responsive layout suitable for desktop computers, tablets and mobile devices.