OpenSim prices drop to record lows, median now $10

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A few OpenSim grid owners have contacted me about price updates, and there have been some dramatic drops out there fueled by improved management tools on the part of the grid owners and lower hosting prices by infrastructure providers.

That inspired me to review all the grid prices on the public grids. To make it a fair comparison, I looked at base prices of standard-sized regions with at least 15,000 prims.

The median price — meaning that half the grids have lower prices, and half have higher prices — is now $10 per month, the lowest in history.

The average price rose slightly, from $14.96 in 2019 to $15.18 today, due to one outlier — a $99 region at AvatarLife.

Meanwhile, the single lowest price for a standard region fell to just $2.50, at Neverworld Grid.

OpenSim grid price distribution May 2021. (Hypergrid Business data.)

When you look at the distribution of prices, the largest concentration is under $10 per month.

OpenSim grid price distribution as of May, 2021. (Hypergrid Business data.)

Out of 49 grids that currently offer region rentals, 18 priced them at under $10, eight priced them exactly at $10, 14 grids priced them from $11 to $20, and nine grids had prices of $21 or more.

And that’s not counting varregion pricing. A varregion allows a grid to offer a substantially larger amount of land and prims at lower prices — on some grids, the average comes out to under $1 per region.

All the up-to-date grid price listings are here. Or you can scroll down for the list as of the publication date of this article, sorted by price, at the bottom of this post.

Latest price drops in OpenSim

ALife Virtual lowered prices from $20 to $10 per month for their basic region, and increased the prim count from 15,000 to 20,000. The land area is also bigger — it’s now a two-by-two region. A three-by-three with 30,000 prims is now $20, and a four-by-four with 40,000 prims is $30 per month. That averages out to $1.88 per 2,500-prim region per month. Full pricing details here.

AviWorlds added 5,000 prims to their standard region allotment, doubled their varregion sizes. A single region with 20,000 prims is now $10 a month, and their largest varregion is an eight-by-eight varregion with more than a million prims for $100 a month — that averages out to $1.56 per 20,000-prim region per month. Full pricing details here.

Barefoot Dreamers Grid increased varregion sizes while keeping prices the same, with a 20,000 prim standard region just $5 a month. But a four-by-four varregion is $15 a month — that’s an average of just 94 cents per region. Full pricing details here.

Dynamic Worldz lowered prices for standard region from $10 to $5 per month. A three-by-three varregion with 40,000 prims is $18 per month, which averages out to $2 per 4,444-prim region per month. Full pricing details here.

Mobius Grid kept the price of their basic region of 10,000 prims and up to 20 visitors at $10 a month but it’s now anything from a standard-sized region to a five-by-five varregion. The biggest option, a five-by-five varregion with up to 100,000 prims and up to 100 avatar capacity costs $50 a month, which comes out to an average of $2 per 4,000-prim region. Full pricing details here (registration required to see prices).

Neverworld Grid now offers the biggest bargain on the hypergrid. It cut prices in half, from $5 for a 15,000-prim standard region to $2.50 a month for a move-in ready, pre-made region. Plus, there are a few other tempting options. For $7.50 per month you can get a 45,000-prim two-by-two varregion and for $12 per month you can get a 60,000-prim three-by-three varregion — that’s an average of $1.33 per 6,667-prim region. There is also a water region option, equivalent in size to eight standard regions that can hold up to 50,000 prims for $10 a month. Full pricing details here.

NextLife World now offers a standard-sized region that can hold up to 30,000 prims for 20 Euros (about US $24). Previously, the capacity was jut 15,000 prims. Full pricing details here.

Rev World had the biggest price drop of the lot, down from 40 Euros (about US $48) to just 8 Euros (about US $10) a month. This grid also now supports hypergrid connectivity. Full pricing details here.

Vida Dupla lowered the price of a standard 15,000-prim region to R$ 25, or about US $5. Previously, their smallest option was a 25,000-prim region for R50 — which was then worth US $12.  Full pricing details here (registration required to see prices).

Virtual Life Brasil kept the price of a standard 15,000-prim region at R$20, but it now converts to just US $3.71 — down from $6 — because of the changing exchange rate. The prices of variable-sized regions has dropped accordingly. Full pricing details here.

ZetaWorlds lowered prices from 10 Euros a month for a 15,000-prim standard-sized region to 7 Euros a month. And a 75,000-prim two-by-two varregion is now 16 Euros — previously, it was 20 Euros for a two-by-two with only 50,000 prims. A 100,000-prim three-by-three region is now 26 Euros a month, down from 35 Euros. And the company also added a 150,000-prim eight-by-eight mega varregion for 30 Euros (US $37) a month. That averages out to 0.47 Euros (58 cents) per 2,344-prim region per month.  Full pricing details here.

Here’s the full list of OpenSim grid prices, sorted by price:

Does your grid offer region rentals and is not on our lists? Email me at maria@hypergridbusiness.com with a link to your land rental page. This could be a public page on your website, or even a social media post, just as long as its accessible to the public.

I would also remind grid owners to make it easier for people to buy land. Check out the AviWorlds region purchase page. All you really need from a buyer is their avatar name, the name of their new region, and their money. And even the avatar name is optional — do you really care if people buy regions without registering on your grid? You get their money, and some other grid has to deal with their inventories.

Maria Korolov
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