If you’ve been following the AI agent space lately, you know that OpenClaw (the project formerly known as Clawdbot and briefly Moltbot) has become the gold standard for self-hosted autonomous assistants.

While running it on your local machine is great for testing, the real power of OpenClaw comes when it’s running 24/7 in the cloud. Whether it’s managing your WhatsApp messages while you sleep or executing long-running web automations, a cloud VPS is the way to go.

After testing various providers, here are the top 5 ways to run OpenClaw in the cloud right now.

1. DigitalOcean: The Reliable Choice

DigitalOcean remains the favorite for many developers. Their “Droplets” are incredibly easy to set up, and their documentation is second to none. For OpenClaw, a basic 2GB RAM droplet is usually enough to keep things snappy.

  • Best for: Beginners and those who want a “set it and forget it” experience.
  • Link: DigitalOcean

2. Vultr: Global Performance

Vultr offers an impressive array of locations. If you need your OpenClaw agent to have low latency to a specific region, Vultr is likely your best bet. Their high-frequency compute instances are overkill for OpenClaw but make the web browsing features feel instantaneous.

  • Best for: Users needing specific geographic locations.
  • Link: Vultr

3. Hetzner: The Value King

If you are in Europe or the US and want the most “bang for your buck,” Hetzner is unbeatable. Their ARM64 cloud instances are dirt cheap and perform remarkably well with OpenClaw’s Node-based architecture.

  • Best for: Budget-conscious power users.
  • Link: Hetzner

4. Linode (Akamai): The Developer’s Choice

Now part of Akamai, Linode continues to offer stellar support and reliable hardware. Their CLI tool makes deploying OpenClaw instances across multiple regions a breeze for those who love the terminal.

  • Best for: Developers who prefer a clean, no-nonsense interface.
  • Link: Linode

5. AWS: Enterprise-Grade Scalability

For those who want to integrate OpenClaw into a larger ecosystem, AWS (Amazon Web Services) is the natural choice. Using an EC2 t3.small instance gives you access to the entire AWS suite of tools for monitoring and scaling.

  • Best for: Users who already live in the AWS ecosystem.
  • Link: AWS

How to choose?

If you’re just starting, go with DigitalOcean. If you want the cheapest reliable option, Hetzner is your friend.

Regardless of which one you pick, getting OpenClaw off your local machine and into the cloud is the first step toward true AI autonomy.