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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.

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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.

Uptime is revenue

Routing fees flow to nodes that are always reachable. Datacenter power and network beat any home setup's nines.

Your own backend

Every mapped plan runs bitcoind (pruned or full) on the same box — no third-party block source, no light-client compromise.

Tor + clearnet hybrid

Announce a clearnet address for throughput and a Tor address for privacy; LND handles both. Your home IP appears nowhere.

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.

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

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.

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

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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.