AI agent hosting: what to look for before you pay for a server

AI agent hosting is a server that runs an AI agent for you around the clock. The three kinds are a plain VPS you maintain (commonly $5–20 a month), managed hosting of one framework you already run, and an AI VPS with its own desktop (MyClawn, $19–159 a month with AI usage included). Here are the six things it has to provide, and how the three score.

Six things AI agent hosting has to provide

1. Uptime. The whole point. A process that restarts when it dies, on a machine that does not sleep.
2. A real browser with persistent logins. Most work worth delegating is behind a login on a site with no API. A headless scraper gets challenged; a real Chrome on a real display with a session that survives does not.
3. An identity. An email address the agent sends from, so it can transact with the world without acting as you inside your own inbox.
4. A screen you can see. The failure mode of an unattended agent is not crashing, it is confidently doing the wrong thing for an hour. A live view, from your phone, is the difference between a summary and a check.
5. A way to take over. A CAPTCHA, a two-factor code, a decision. If you cannot step in from where you are, every one of those is a dead agent until you SSH in.
6. State that persists. Files, installed tools, browser sessions, still there tomorrow. A sandbox that resets between runs is the opposite of hosting.

The three kinds of AI agent hosting

1. A plain VPS

Hetzner, DigitalOcean, any Linux box, commonly $5–20 a month. You get uptime and nothing else on the list until you build it: a desktop, a browser, VNC, mail, a process manager, patches. It is the most flexible option and the most work, and it is the right choice for a shell-only agent run by someone who enjoys maintaining it.

2. Managed framework hosting

A service that runs the open-source framework you chose, such as OpenClaw or Hermes Agent, keeps it updated and gives you the channels to talk to it. Priced by the provider, plus model usage; MyClaw, the one this site names, publishes plans from $29 a month to $239 and up. Right when the framework is the requirement. Screens, take-over and an email identity are usually not part of the deal; see VPS for OpenClaw or Hermes for that trade-off in detail.

3. An AI VPS with its own desktop

A dedicated cloud desktop that already has all six: always on, Chrome with persistent logins, its own address, the screen streamed live, take-over from any browser, and files that stay. MyClawn's machines are $19–159 a month with AI usage included. The agent is built in and chat-driven; your own framework runs next to it in the terminal (installs go in your home folder, no root), and if you need it hosted and kept updated for you, this is not your product. If you already use Claude Code, it can hand the desktop jobs through MCP, covered in VPS for Claude Code.

A Hetzner or DigitalOcean VPS vs a MyClawn AI VPS for an agent

The plain box is cheaper, more flexible, and can come with a GPU. MyClawn's own machines run in Hetzner's EU data centres, so the difference is not the metal; it is what is on it the minute you pay.

How to host an AI agent: choosing between the three

Ask what the agent will touch. Only APIs and files: a plain VPS. A specific framework you already rely on: managed hosting. Websites, logins, mail, and anything you want to watch rather than trust: the AI VPS. The general comparison, with prices, is on the AI VPS page.