Starter
VPS-XL · VPS
- AMD EPYC 9124 (8 vCPU)
- 32 GB DDR5 · 400 GB NVMe
- 1 Gbps · Unlimited bandwidth
Pruned bitcoind + LND fit in 400 GB NVMe and 32 GB RAM — a serious hobby routing node at VPS price.
From $24.50/mo
Order
Instant payments, your channels
Lightning Node Hosting
A Lightning node is only as good as its uptime. Run LND or Core Lightning on always-on offshore hardware with your own Bitcoin backend, keep your channel keys, and route payments from an IP that isn't your living room.
Node requirements at a glance
- Client software: LND 0.19 / Core Lightning
- Chain size: BTC backend ≈ 760 GB
- Recommended RAM: 8–16 GB
- Recommended storage: 1–2 TB NVMe
- Initial sync: hours (over synced bitcoind)
- P2P port: 9735 TCP
No KYC
Crypto Only
No Logs
Unlimited bandwidth
Full Root
NVMe SSD
Blockchain infrastructure
Why host your Lightning node on a server
Lightning channels are live contracts: if your node goes offline you can't route, can't receive, and in the worst case an old channel state gets force-closed against you. Home nodes die with power cuts and flaky uplinks. A datacenter node with redundant power and unmetered bandwidth keeps your channels breathing 24/7 — and because the node holds hot keys, the no-KYC part matters twice: nobody should be able to look up whose money that is.
01
Uptime is revenue
Routing fees flow to nodes that are always reachable. Datacenter power and network beat any home setup's nines.
02
Your own backend
Every mapped plan runs bitcoind (pruned or full) on the same box — no third-party block source, no light-client compromise.
03
Tor + clearnet hybrid
Announce a clearnet address for throughput and a Tor address for privacy; LND handles both. Your home IP appears nowhere.
04
Hot wallet, cold identity
The channel wallet is hot by design. Hosting bought with a token and paid in crypto means the machine holding it isn't tied to your name.
Requirements
Hardware requirements — Lightning Network
Realistic sizing for a mainnet node in 2026 — chain size, memory, disk and bandwidth. Based on what actually runs in production, not on minimum specs that stopped being true two years ago.
| Client software | LND 0.19 / Core Lightning |
|---|---|
| Chain size | BTC backend ≈ 760 GB |
| Growth per year | channel DB: a few GB |
| Recommended RAM | 8–16 GB |
| Recommended storage | 1–2 TB NVMe |
| Initial sync | hours (over synced bitcoind) |
| Prunable | ✓ (pruned bitcoind OK) |
| P2P port | 9735 TCP |
Matched hardware
Recommended servers for Lightning Network
Every plan ships with unlimited bandwidth, NVMe storage and full root access — the three things a node actually consumes. Deploy with a token, pay in the same coin your node secures.
Recommended
DS-1 · Dedicated
- Intel Xeon E-2388G (3.2 GHz) (8C / 16T)
- 64 GB DDR4 ECC · 2x 1TB NVMe
- 2 Gbps · Unlimited bandwidth
Full-chain backend on 2× 1 TB NVMe, ECC RAM for the channel database, headroom for RTL or ThunderHub dashboards.
From $48.50/mo
Order
Performance
DS-2 · Dedicated
- AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (4.5 GHz) (16C / 32T)
- 128 GB DDR5 · 2x 2TB NVMe
- 5 Gbps · Unlimited bandwidth
Big routing nodes: archival bitcoind, multiple Lightning implementations, watchtowers for others — 16 cores and 2× 2 TB NVMe.
From $87.50/mo
Order
DS-1 — price by jurisdiction
| Location | CPU | RAM | Storage | Uplink | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moldova Budget Offshore | 8C / 16T Intel Xeon E-2388G (3.2 GHz) |
64 GB DDR4 ECC | 2x 1TB NVMe | 2 Gbps | $48.50/mo | Order |
| Russia Western-Proof | 8C / 16T Intel Xeon E-2388G (3.2 GHz) |
64 GB DDR4 ECC | 2x 1TB NVMe | 2 Gbps | $48.50/mo | Order |
| Panama No Data Retention | 8C / 16T Intel Xeon E-2388G (3.2 GHz) |
64 GB DDR4 ECC | 2x 1TB NVMe | 2 Gbps | $53.50/mo | Order |
| Romania Anti-Retention | 8C / 16T Intel Xeon E-2388G (3.2 GHz) |
64 GB DDR4 ECC | 2x 1TB NVMe | 2 Gbps | $53.50/mo | Order |
| Netherlands Best Peering | 8C / 16T Intel Xeon E-2388G (3.2 GHz) |
64 GB DDR4 ECC | 2x 1TB NVMe | 2 Gbps | $58.50/mo | Order |
| Iceland Free Speech Haven | 8C / 16T Intel Xeon E-2388G (3.2 GHz) |
64 GB DDR4 ECC | 2x 1TB NVMe | 2 Gbps | $63.00/mo | Order |
| Switzerland Premium Privacy | 8C / 16T Intel Xeon E-2388G (3.2 GHz) |
64 GB DDR4 ECC | 2x 1TB NVMe | 2 Gbps | $68.00/mo | Order |
Need more disk, RAM or a custom RAID layout for your node? Contact →
Deployment
Launch a Lightning routing node in 5 steps
From order to synced node. Commands are copy-paste ready for Ubuntu 24.04 — adapt paths if you run Debian or Rocky.
-
1
Order an always-on box
DS-1 recommended — Lightning wants dedicated uptime. Netherlands peering helps you reach the big hub nodes with low latency.
-
2
Harden, then sync the Bitcoin backend
Follow the Bitcoin node setup first — pruned is fine for LND. Enable Tor while the chain syncs.
-
3
Install LND (or Core Lightning)
Grab the release binaries, verify signatures, install. Create a dedicated user and a systemd unit so the node survives reboots.
# after bitcoind is synced (pruned is fine for LND) wget https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/releases/download/v0.19.0-beta/lnd-linux-amd64-v0.19.0-beta.tar.gz tar xzf lnd-linux-amd64-v0.19.0-beta.tar.gz && install -m 0755 lnd-linux-amd64-v0.19.0-beta/* /usr/local/bin/ -
4
Configure for routing
Point LND at your bitcoind, enable tor.active with a static onion address, set your alias and fee policy. Back up the seed offline — channel funds depend on it.
# ~/.lnd/lnd.conf bitcoin.mainnet=1 bitcoin.node=bitcoind tor.active=1 # hide your node's IP tor.v3=1 -
5
Open channels & monitor
Fund the wallet, open channels to well-connected peers, install RTL or ThunderHub as a dashboard, and push static channel backups (SCB) off-box automatically.
lnd & lncli create # scripted wallet init lncli getinfo
The hardware a Lightning node actually needs
The Lightning software itself is light — a few GB of channel database, 2–4 GB of RAM. The real weight is the Bitcoin backend behind it: pruned (~50–100 GB) or full (~760 GB). What Lightning uniquely demands is reliability: NVMe that won't corrupt the channel database under sudden load, ECC memory on the dedicated tiers, and a network that never disappears mid-HTLC. That's why the recommended tier is bare metal even though the CPU rarely breaks a sweat.
Uptime, watchtowers and not losing money
Force-closes hurt: if your node is offline while a peer broadcasts an old state, only a watchtower can punish the cheat. Run your node where uptime is backed by a 99.9% SLA, add an external watchtower (or host one for friends on the same box), and keep static channel backups synced off-server. The node's job is to never miss a block — everything else is fee tuning.
Privacy for routing node operators
Your node's alias, pubkey and IP are public on every Lightning explorer. If that IP is your home, your physical location is one lookup away from your channel balances. Hosting offshore under a token breaks the chain: explorers see a Moldovan or Icelandic datacenter, payments route exactly the same, and the operator behind the pubkey stays unmapped. Add a Tor-only announce address if you want the node fully dark.
From hobby node to routing business
Start with a few million sats across 3–5 well-picked channels on the Starter tier. When forwards become steady, move up: more RAM keeps bigger channel graphs in memory, more disk lets the backend go archival, and spare cores host a second implementation or an LNbits stack. Migration is a channel-preserving copy of the LND directory — or run old and new in parallel and rebalance across.
FAQ
Lightning node hosting FAQ
01 Can I run Lightning over a pruned Bitcoin node?
Yes — LND and Core Lightning both work over a pruned bitcoind (keep a comfortable prune target, ≥100 GB, for safety during long channel closes). Full chain removes edge cases and is what the DS-1 tier is sized for.
02 How much uptime do I really need?
For receiving and routing: as much as possible — every offline minute is a missed forward. For fund safety your node must reappear well within the CLTV window, but don't play with that margin. Datacenter hosting makes the question moot.
03 Is a VPS enough, or do I need dedicated?
A VPS-XL runs a real routing node fine. Dedicated buys ECC RAM, private NVMe for the channel database and immunity from noisy neighbours during traffic spikes — worth it once channels hold serious value.
04 The node wallet is hot — do you have access to it?
No. Full root is yours, disks can be LUKS-encrypted, and we keep no images or console trail. Operational security of the seed and macaroons stays entirely in your hands — as it should.
05 Can I actually earn routing fees?
Well-managed nodes with good channel placement and fee tuning earn; poorly placed ones don't. Nobody serious promises yield. What hosting controls is the one variable you can't tune later: being online every hour of every day.
06 Clearnet, Tor, or both?
Both is the pragmatic answer: clearnet for throughput and peer quality, a v3 onion for privacy and NAT-free inbound. LND's tor.active plus externalip covers the hybrid setup — both flags are in step 4.
Keep exploring
Host a node for every chain we accept
Bitcoin Node Hosting
Ethereum Node Hosting
Monero Node Hosting
Solana Validator & RPC Hosting
Litecoin Node Hosting
TRON Node Hosting
All node types →
Related reading: Crypto Payments for Hosting: Monero vs Bitcoin vs USDT · The First Hour of VPS Hardening: A Checklist · Crypto nodes
Route payments around the clock
Always-on hardware for LND or Core Lightning, Bitcoin backend included, paid in BTC. Channels stay up because the box never goes down.