BoxedTux
- Free allowance
- A free student vServer: '1 vCPU', '1 GB DDR5', '10 GB NVMe', 'IPv4 address', 'IPv6 /64 block included', 'Monthly bandwidth 200 GB', 'Port speed 50 Mbit/s', full root SSH, web console and VNC.
- Verdict
- fails: identitythe identity required is not reachable without it
- Cost
- free tier
- Identity
- institutionno card, no phone
- Binding limit
- write-gatedacademic email address or proof of student/educator status, plus a six-monthly re-verification; new registrations are stopped: 'Due to resource limits new account registrations are currently stopped!'
- Evidence
- documented8 sources; a first-party page was read and the sentence quoted
- Freshness
- stale since 2026-11-01checked 2026-10-24 (live); stale on 2026-11-01
| Free tier | A free student vServer: '1 vCPU', '1 GB DDR5', '10 GB NVMe', 'IPv4 address', 'IPv6 /64 block included', 'Monthly bandwidth 200 GB', 'Port speed 50 Mbit/s', full root SSH, web console and VNC. The home page states 'Cost · no card needed'. unit GB; metered on downloaded-bytes; registration is stopped on the day read; the shape is what the page advertises for when it reopens |
|---|---|
| Price | none stated |
| Limits |
Boxes run for 6-month terms with 'There isn't any grace-period! ... Expired boxes will be immediately deleted', so the term ends with no recovery window; but the eligibility gate, an institutional address, fails first. |
| Binding | write-gated two gates stack: the account requires academic affiliation, and on the day read the registration form itself was closed for capacity |
| Identity | institution 'Only academic email addresses are allowed. Not having an academic address? Contact us with proof of your student or educator status.' No card and no hold: the home page says 'Cost · no card needed'. This gate cannot be cleared at any price. |
| Egress | 'Monthly bandwidth 200 GB' and 'Port speed 50 Mbit/s' free allowance: 200 GB |
| Per-object cap | not applicable: the unit is a virtual server, not an object |
| Retention | 'Renew each semester — 30-second re-verification every 6 months. Active learners can request extensions at any time.' No inactivity-deletion clock is published. |
| Interface | ssh inferred from the tooling the provider documents; not probed |
| Tooling | Root SSH, web console, VNC, Docker allowed, distributions from Debian to Gentoo. /register returned a 500, so the signup path itself was not read. |
| Composes with | Complements BoxyBSD inside one operator: BoxyBSD runs the BSD images, BoxedTux runs Ubuntu, Debian and Rocky, which is the distribution set most tooling assumes. The chain is closed for a user because both halves need something a user does not hold - BoxyBSD needs a sponsor's invitation, BoxedTux needs an institution. |
| Reliability | no reliability event observed; the home page advertises 99.7% uptime and names DDoS protection as optional |
| Notes | Worth recording rather than skipping: this is the best-specified free machine found (1 GB DDR5, 10 GB NVMe, real IPv4, 200 GB traffic, 50 Mbit/s, root SSH) and it is entirely out of reach for a user on two independent grounds — no academic affiliation, and a closed register. If the operator ever opens a non-academic programme the home page hints at ('running a non-profit or OSS project outside academia? reach out — separate program available'), the row would be worth re-testing. |
| Evidence note | documented shape, traffic and the academic gate are quoted from first-party pages read; the registration closure is quoted from the register page as served |
| Parsed numbers |
|
Evidence 8
| date | source | what it proved |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-22 | boxedtux.com/ | the spec block reads 'vCPU cores 1 vCPU / Memory 1 GB DDR5 / Storage 10 GB NVMe / IPv4 address 0 / IPv6 /64 block included / Monthly bandwidth 200 GB / Port speed 50 Mbit/s', and the cost line reads '0 EUR Cost - no card needed'; probe 200, 31698 bytes, sha256 69b56eb86c57d18fd2fef4cc62bac17c95dc3d8cceb9438bbd674eed67ef0c21 |
| 2026-10-22 | boxedtux.com/ | the '// eligible' list contains only academic categories, and the FAQ states 'We will provide additional ways for legitimations wihout.edu domain at a later time', quoted |
| 2026-10-22 | boxedtux.com/ | 'Servers are granted for 6-month terms aligned with semesters. You'll get an email 2 weeks before expiry. Renewal takes 30 seconds with a quick student re-verification.', 'There isn't any grace-period! ... Expired boxes will be immediately deleted.', 'No! There aren't any upgrade options available.', quoted |
| 2026-05-04 | nostr.at/nevent1qqsy0rhaeqmysfgm9u6qmlwse36p40pd74cqjfxp53j9 | the operator announces boxedtux.com as a new free Linux VPS project built on Proxmox clusters, beside BoxyBSD, quoted |
| 2026-10-24 | boxedtux.com/register | quoted: 'Free Linux servers for students for educational purposes. Only academic email addresses are allowed.' and 'Important: Due to resource limits new account registrations are currently stopped! Please do not mail us for invite codes at this time.' |
| 2026-10-24 | boxedtux.com/ | quoted: '1 vCPU', '1 GB DDR5', '10 GB NVMe', 'IPv4 address', 'IPv6 /64 block included', 'Monthly bandwidth 200 GB', 'Port speed 50 Mbit/s', 'Cost · no card needed' |
| 2026-10-24 | boxedtux.com/ | quoted: 'Renew each semester', '30-second re-verification every 6 months. Active learners can request extensions at any time.' |
| 2026-10-24 | boxedtux.com/imprint | the imprint states 'BoxedTux Education Platform (non-profit project)', operated by a named individual at a postal address in Germany, and 'VAT ID (USt-IdNr.): not applicable' |
More fields 11
| facets | {"class": "perpetual-vps","free_tier_kind": "perpetual-6-month-renewable","shape": {"vcpu": 1,"ram_gib": 1,"disk_gib": 10,"gpu_class": null,"gpu_count": 0}} |
|---|---|
| shape | {"vcpu": 1,"ram_gib": 1,"disk_gib": 10,"gpu_class": null,"gpu_count": null} |
| billing model | free |
| term | semester, re-verified every 6 months |
| m10h usd | 0.0 |
| m24h usd | 0.0 |
| price arithmetic | no price: 'Cost · no card needed' and '0 €' |
| free tier kind | perpetual |
| network out | {"allow_outbound": true,"allow_inbound_listen": true,"ports": "a real public IPv4 and an IPv6 /64","static_ip": true,"ipv6": true,"per_session_bytes": null} |
| session cap | {"wall_clock_min": null,"idle_reap_s": null,"restart_required": false,"note": "none published; re-verification every 6 months"} |
| registration state | {"as_read": "2026-10-24","state": "closed","quoted": "new account registrations are currently stopped"} |