Most VPS users get one IPv4 address with their plan and never think about it again. But the moment you start hosting multiple SSL sites without SNI, running a mail server with proper per-domain reputation, building a small VPN provider, or separating tenants on a single box, that single IP becomes a hard wall. This guide explains when you actually need extra IPv4, how to choose between a single address and a routed /29, /28 or /27 subnet, and how to order and configure one on a TinyServers NVMe VPS.

Why one IPv4 is sometimes not enough

Here are the real-world scenarios where customers reach out for additional addresses:

• Mail server with multiple domains. SMTP reputation is tied to the sending IP. Mixing transactional and marketing mail on a single address means one bad campaign can poison delivery for everything else. A small subnet lets you bind each domain or each traffic class to its own IP and PTR record.
• Multiple SSL sites for legacy clients. SNI covers the modern web, but if you have to support old TLS clients, IoT devices, or some payment gateways, every certificate still needs its own IPv4.
• VPN exit nodes. WireGuard and OpenVPN endpoints, especially commercial or per-user exits, benefit from distinct public IPs to avoid CGNAT-like blacklisting and to give each tenant a clean address.
• Multi-tenant hosting and reverse proxies. Agencies running many small sites on one VPS often want to give each customer a dedicated public IP for billing, isolation, or to allow customers to point their own DNS without coordinating.
• Outbound proxy or scraping pools. Rotating across a /28 or /27 spreads request volume and reduces rate-limit collisions.
• NAT and lab segmentation. Routed subnets give you a clean L3 block to NAT internal containers or LXC guests behind, with no bridging tricks.

If none of those describe you, a single extra IPv4 at €1.00/month is almost always the right starting point. If two or more apply, a routed subnet is cheaper per address and far easier to manage long-term.

Single IPv4 vs routed subnet — what changes

A single extra IPv4 is added to your existing VPS interface as an alias. From the OS side it looks like:

ip addr add 203.0.113.45/32 dev eth0

It works for SMTP, extra HTTPS vhosts, or a second VPN endpoint, but it is not a network you can subdivide.

A routed subnet is different. The provider routes the entire block (a /29, /28, or /27) to your VPS as the next hop. You receive the subnet on a separate interface or as additional addresses, and you control the inside however you want — bind addresses to services, assign them to LXC/Docker containers, NAT internal networks behind them, or build a small lab network. There is no MAC-layer dependency, no bridging, no provider ARP magic. The traffic for any address in the block lands on your VPS because the upstream routes it there.

The practical implication: a routed subnet behaves like a real network you own, not like a list of aliases. That is exactly what you need for containers, NAT, or per-tenant isolation.

The decision table: /29 vs /28 vs /27

All three TinyServers routed subnets are billed monthly with no setup fee. Here is how they compare on cost-per-usable-IP:

Product	Monthly price	Usable IPs	Cost per IP	Best fit
Routed /29	€8.90	6	€1.48	Entry subnet — small NAT, light multi-tenant, per-domain mail
Routed /28	€14.90	14	€1.06	Agencies, mid-size multi-tenant layouts, mixed VPN+web
Routed /27	€26.90	30	€0.90	Validated use case where /28 is too tight — proxy pools, larger VPN providers

Three rules of thumb:

1. Start with /29 unless you have a written list of 6+ addresses you will use in month one. Most customers who jump straight to /28 underuse it for the first quarter.
2. If you are between /28 and /27, take the /28 and grow. Upgrading later is straightforward; over-provisioning IPv4 is expensive and increasingly frowned upon by RIRs.
3. If you genuinely need /26 or larger, contact us directly. Anything above /27 is reviewed case-by-case and is not orderable from the cart.

Configuring a routed /29 on a Linux VPS

Once the subnet is provisioned, you will receive the block (for example 203.0.113.40/29) and the gateway your VPS already uses. There is no separate gateway for the routed block — your VPS itself is the gateway for that subnet.

The fastest, distribution-agnostic way to bring addresses up is the ip command — it works identically on Debian, Ubuntu, Rocky and Alma:

# add the addresses you want to use
ip addr add 203.0.113.41/29 dev eth0
ip addr add 203.0.113.42/29 dev eth0
ip addr add 203.0.113.43/29 dev eth0

You only need to add the addresses you actually plan to bind to services — the rest of the block is still routed to your VPS and you can add them later without downtime.

These commands are not persistent across reboots. To make the configuration survive a restart, write it into the network manager your distribution uses by default:

• Ubuntu 24.04 — add the extra addresses under ethernets.eth0.addresses in /etc/netplan/*.yaml, then run netplan apply.
• Debian 12 — add an up ip addr add ... line for each address under the iface eth0 stanza in /etc/network/interfaces.
• Rocky 9 / Alma 9 — use nmcli connection modify <conn> +ipv4.addresses 203.0.113.41/29 (repeat per address), then nmcli connection up <conn>.

In all cases the addresses behave the same once they are up — the choice is purely about how your distribution stores network state.

Quick sanity test from another machine:

for ip in 41 42 43; do ping -c1 -W1 203.0.113.$ip; done

Bind a service to a specific IP — for example, an extra Nginx vhost:

server {
    listen 203.0.113.42:443 ssl;
    server_name client-a.example.com;
    ssl_certificate     /etc/letsencrypt/live/client-a.example.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/client-a.example.com/privkey.pem;
    # ...
}

Per-IP rDNS is available on request — open a ticket with the IP and the desired PTR. This is essential for mail servers; without correct PTR, most receivers will defer or reject your messages.

Three real customer patterns

1. Small mail host on a 4 GB VPS

A consultancy hosts mail for six client domains on TSM4NVME40. They added a /29 and assigned one IP per domain, with matching PTR records. Result: deliverability issues from one client’s newsletter no longer affect the other five. Total cost: €5.46 + €8.90 = €14.36/month for six independently reputable mail IPs.

2. Agency hosting 12 small WordPress sites

A web agency runs a dozen low-traffic sites on a single 2 GB VPS. They took a /28 so each customer gets a dedicated public IP — useful for legacy DNS setups customers manage themselves and for billing transparency. Cost per customer for the IP: roughly €1/month, baked into the hosting fee.

3. WireGuard VPN provider, beta phase

A small VPN startup runs WireGuard on a 4 vCPU VPS and rotates exits across a /28. When they outgrew it (week three), they upgraded to a /27. Lesson learned: they should have started with a /29 to validate the model and then jumped to /27 directly.

What we do not allow

Routed subnets are reviewed manually before allocation. Use cases that will be rejected:

• Bulk unsolicited email or anything resembling cold-mail at scale
• Open proxies or open resolvers exposed to the public internet
• Address hoarding — ordering a /27 with no concrete plan to use the IPs
• Reselling individual IPv4 addresses as a standalone product

If your project is sensitive to abuse complaints (large-scale crawling, marketing email, anonymization services), tell us upfront. We would rather have an honest conversation than reclaim addresses later.

How to order

1. Make sure you have an active TinyServers VPS. Routed subnets are not standalone products — they require a VPS as the routing target.
2. Open the IPv4 add-ons category and add the subnet size you need to your cart.
3. Complete the order. The first allocation requires manual review. Once approved, we will email you the block, confirm the gateway your VPS already uses, and handle any rDNS requests you send in.
4. Configure the block on your VPS using the ip commands above (and the persistent equivalent for your distribution) and start binding services.

If you are unsure which size fits, the safe answer is almost always start with /29. The €6 difference per month between /29 and /28 is much smaller than the cost of unused address space sitting idle for six months.

FAQ

Can I upgrade from /29 to /28 later?

Yes. The new block is routed alongside the old one — you keep using the /29 addresses while you migrate services, then we deprovision the smaller block when you are ready. No forced renumbering.

Do I get the addresses immediately?

Provisioning is manual to keep abuse rates low. Once your order is approved, the block is routed within minutes and you can configure it on your VPS.

Do I need a TinyServers VPS to order?

Yes. Routed subnets are add-ons for existing VPS plans — they have to terminate somewhere, and we route them to a VPS in your account. If you do not have one yet, start with a small NVMe plan from €2.48/month and add the subnet on top.

Can I use the addresses on a non-TinyServers server?

No. Routed blocks are tied to a TinyServers VPS as the next hop. We cannot announce them to a third-party network from the storefront product — that requires a separate BGP arrangement.

What about /26 or larger?

Available, but not from the cart. Contact us with your use case and projected utilization timeline.

Summary

Extra IPv4 is one of those line items that looks small but quietly unblocks entire classes of projects — proper mail hosting, multi-tenant agency setups, VPN services, container labs. If you only need one or two extra addresses, the single IPv4 add-on is the right call. If you need a real network you can subdivide, start with a /29, grow into a /28, and only step up to a /27 once you have validated the use case.

Pair any of them with one of our NVMe VPS plans in Romania and you have a clean, low-cost foundation for projects that have outgrown a single public IP.