MikroTik CHR: RouterOS in the cloud, live in 5 minutes

CloudHosting sells MikroTik CHR as one flat plan at 20.00 EUR a month without VAT, which drops to 17.00 EUR a month on a 12-month term; 3 and 6 months save 5 and 10%. The price includes the instance with dedicated resources, a 1 Gbps port, 3 TB of traffic a month, a public IPv4 address, snapshots and monitoring, and it is the same in Riga and Amsterdam. The only extra cost to plan for is a paid RouterOS licence from MikroTik if you need production throughput, since the included free licence is limited to 1 Mbit/s. Latvian VAT of 21% is added where it applies.

CloudHosting runs MikroTik CHR, the Cloud Hosted Router: the full RouterOS 7 operating system packaged as a virtual machine instead of MikroTik hardware. Nothing is stripped out, so BGP, OSPF, IPsec, WireGuard and the rest of RouterOS behave exactly as on a physical device. Running it in our data centre means you skip buying, racking and powering a box: the router lives in a professional environment and is online about 5 minutes after ordering. A typical use is a central VPN hub or routing point that your offices, branches, remote staff and servers connect to, with a public IPv4 address that does not depend on any office line.

Technically a CloudHosting CHR is a private virtual server with dedicated resources that we never oversell, booting RouterOS instead of a general-purpose Linux, with its own public IPv4 address. It behaves like a real standalone router on the internet rather than a shared appliance. The difference is in how you work with it: instead of a shell and packages you manage the whole system through WinBox, WebFig, SSH or the API, like any other MikroTik. If you already run RouterOS hardware, nothing about daily administration will feel new. If you also need Linux services, order a VPS alongside the router and connect the two through a tunnel.

Every CloudHosting CHR comes with the free RouterOS licence already active, so you can log in and start configuring at once. The free level caps each interface at 1 Mbit/s: enough to build and test a configuration, check firewall rules or stage a setup before go-live, but not for real traffic. For production the usual choice is a P1 licence from MikroTik, 45 USD once, which allows up to 1 Gbit/s. Applying it does not require redeploying the router: the licence unlocks throughput on the same instance, and the plan's 1 Gbps port stays the same throughout.

CloudHosting expects you to use your own licence: CHR licences are bought from MikroTik or an authorised MikroTik reseller and paid to them, not to us. There are three paid levels: P1 at 45 USD for up to 1 Gbit/s, P10 at 95 USD for up to 10 Gbit/s, and P-Unlimited at 250 USD with no speed cap. Each is a one-time purchase bound to the system ID of your CHR, so it survives reboots and RouterOS upgrades without renewal. On a 1 Gbps port P1 covers most cases, because a higher level cannot push traffic past the port; write to support if you are unsure.

CloudHosting places no restrictions on BGP inside RouterOS, so you can build sessions to your own routers over tunnels or run a routing lab straight away. In Riga we can also bring you in as a real peer on our own network, AS58269: if you hold your own PI address space or an AS number and want to announce it to the internet through us, write to support and we will set up the session and agree the technical details. That turns a CHR from a VPN hub into a proper edge router for your own address space. If you have no AS or addresses of your own yet, we can help you register them.

CloudHosting CHR accepts a configuration exported from any RouterOS device, hardware or virtual, imported over WinBox, SSH or the API as you normally work. Check interface names and addresses first: a config written for a hardware router with many physical ports refers to interfaces your cloud instance does not have, so adjust those lines before applying. Snapshots are part of the plan, so if a new config locks you out or breaks routing, the instance can go back to its previous working state instead of being rebuilt. Use RouterOS Safe Mode while you apply changes: if your session drops, the router undoes them by itself.

CloudHosting never switches a CHR off or throttles its port for passing the 3 TB monthly allowance: the router keeps running at full speed. When usage goes past 3 TB, we get in touch and discuss a larger traffic bundle, so the outcome is a conversation, not an automatic penalty. In practice most CHR workloads, VPN concentrators and site-to-site routing among them, stay well below 3 TB a month. If you expect sustained heavy transfer, tell support in advance and we will suggest a suitable bundle. You can watch your own usage at any time in the RouterOS interface statistics.

CloudHosting offers CHR in two locations at the same price, from 17 EUR a month, so decide by where the people and systems that use the router sit. Riga (RIX1) is the Tier 3+ data centre we run ourselves on our own network, AS58269, with the lowest latency to Latvia and the Baltics, and it is where we can peer with you over BGP. Amsterdam (NL1) is closer to Western European traffic and suits offices and users there. Both locations are under EU jurisdiction. If you need a presence in the Middle East, Dubai (DXB1) is available on request: ask support about timing.

CloudHosting provides monitoring and incident response 24/7 for the CHR platform, and engineers answer on working days from 9:00 to 17:00 Riga time, in English, Latvian and Russian. The router itself is self-managed: you hold the admin account and decide the configuration. If you would rather have tunnels and routing designed and run for you, our managed site-to-site VPN service connects offices, branches and cloud servers over MikroTik, Fortinet or other equipment, priced on quote. For quick questions about CHR licences, the first login or snapshots, simply write to support.