Sharper Price History: Why We Now Track Prices in Each Provider's Native Currency
We changed how serverlist.dev handles prices behind the scenes. Until now, every server price was normalized to EUR at collection time - even when the provider originally billed in USD, GBP, or JPY. That meant a server's "price history" was partly a history of currency conversions: prices appeared to bounce up and down whenever exchange rates moved, even if the provider hadn't actually changed anything.
From now on, prices are stored in the currency the provider charges in. Conversion only happens at the moment we display the price to you, using the latest rate. The numbers you see are a more faithful reflection of what each provider is actually doing.
Nothing changes in how you use the site. Your preferred currency and VAT settings still apply on display - the data underneath them is just sharper.
What changed
The change is small in description but has real consequences for data quality across the whole platform.
Before
Every price was normalized to EUR at collection time. A USD-billed server's stored price moved every time EUR/USD moved, regardless of provider behavior.
Now
Prices are stored in the provider's original billing currency. FX conversion happens only at display time, using the latest available rate.
Cleaner price history charts
A stable provider price now shows up as a flat line. Previously, a steady USD or GBP offer could look like a noisy curve - but the wiggle was just EUR/USD movement, not the provider changing anything.
If you compare historical charts side by side, the new ones are visibly calmer. Movement on the line now means the provider actually adjusted its pricing - not that the euro had a busy week.
More accurate notifications and subscriptions
Price drop alerts now fire when the provider actually drops the price - not when the euro happens to strengthen against the dollar.
Signal, not noise
Subscriptions previously could fire on FX swings. With prices anchored to the provider's currency, every alert reflects an actual provider action.
Threshold rules behave as expected
"Notify me below X" thresholds now track the provider's real price, so the rule means what you'd expect even across long time windows.
Fewer false "price changes"
Diffs and change detection are no longer polluted by FX noise. A server only registers as "changed" when the provider actually changes something.
Same currency in, same currency out
If a provider charges in JPY and you view the site in JPY, we skip the round-trip through EUR entirely. No double conversion, no rounding artifacts.
- Matching billing and display currency means the number we show is the number the provider would charge - to the cent.
- Where conversion is needed, it happens once, from the source currency directly to your display currency, using the latest rate.
- VAT and currency preferences continue to work exactly as before - just on cleaner numbers.
Why we made this change
serverlist.dev exists to give you a transparent, faithful view of the hosting market. Storing every price in EUR was a convenient shortcut, but it quietly added FX noise into the data that powers history charts, change detection, and subscription alerts.
Anchoring prices to the provider's billing currency is the boring, correct foundation. It does not show up in any flashy UI - but it makes every downstream signal more trustworthy.