Favorite VPS providers?

[frei]

What's your favorite VPS provider?

I've been happily using Linode, but not excited about the Akamai acquisition . .

[lukas]

@frei I prefer and love https://www.netcup.de/
Very good prices and performance, I run several VPS there and and am very satisfied with it.

[timconsidine]

@frei Hetzner is my preferred VPS provider.
Netcup is fine.
SSDNODES is cheap if the VPS will only be used for testing or low traffic (not recommended for main production use).

Also tried Linode, Exoscale, Digital Ocean, AWS : they're OK but I don't fit their pricing model.

[girish]

Hetzner (auction) dedis are pretty great - https://www.hetzner.com/sb .

[lukas]

@girish said in Favorite VPS providers?:

Hetzner (auction) dedis are pretty great - https://www.hetzner.com/sb .

What is the situation in the event of a hardware failure? Does Hetzner take care of it automatically, or do I have to contact support?

[girish]

@lukas Good question but I have no idea. It hasn't failed so far...

[lukas]

@girish ok, I hope this will not happen! but good luck

[ekevu123]

I am happy with Vultr. Their user interface is super intuitive, yet you get full functionality for your server. Also, I like it that you only pay for what you really need. HostEurope, for example, has a notice period for shutting down your server, so if you want to stop using it, you still have to pay for a few weeks.
Vultr also has flexible plans, so that you can choose the resources you really need.

Cons: they are not the cheapest, they didn't want to allow me initially separate accounts for company vs. private, and their customer support, albeit helpful, is not the friendliest.

Hetzner, specifically, when I wanted to sign up a few years ago, asked me for a printed piece of paper with my signature to open my account, and they didn't accept a digital signature. Not sure if they still do that. But that's why I didn't sign up, I think hosting is something were you should simply create an account and that's it.

[jayonrails]

@timconsidine said in Favorite VPS providers?:

SSDNODES is cheap if the VPS will only be used for testing or low traffic (not recommended for main production use).

This one is new to me and I would like to try it, but it seems like it wouldn't be EU GDPR-compliant. Their support team doesn't even want to ask someone who might be able to help on that.

[jdaviescoates]

@jayonrails said in Favorite VPS providers?:

This one is new to me and I would like to try it

Search on this and other forums first. Lots of people reporting issues with them. Generally too good to be true pricing is just that. Personally I wouldn't ever consider using them.

I think my favourite is Hetzner, although I quite like Netcup too.

Both are 100% powered by renewables (personally I only consider using providers that are, because that's the very least you can do given the multiple climate and ecological emergencies we're in the middle of).

Hetzner is great value and has a much better user experience. It's really easy to spin up a new VPS to test things for a few hours and only pay for those few hours.

Netcup have even better prices, but I think they use older tech and their English isn't as good. And despite also having hourly pricing, in practice they kinda don't really as they tend to require 6 months up front and then refund the difference if you cancel before then. Not really the same.

Both sometimes (I think Netcup a bit more often) have issues with IP reputation health: but I think this generally applies to all good value providers.

I also use Scaleway for my Object Storage needs and they are great too.

A few more 100% renewable powers providers can be found here https://ud.coop/ecovps

[LoudLemur]

@timconsidine said in Favorite VPS providers?:

@frei Hetzner is my preferred VPS provider.
Netcup is fine.
SSDNODES is cheap if the VPS will only be used for testing or low traffic (not recommended for main production use).

Also tried Linode, Exoscale, Digital Ocean, AWS : they're OK but I don't fit their pricing model.

Thanks!

[lukas]

@LoudLemur SSDNODES Performance is good? Overprovisioned ?

[LoudLemur]

@lukas @timconsidine would be best on this.

[timconsidine]

@lukas definitely overprovisioned
and definitely they don't expect you to make heavy use
if you complain about performance, they say don't use it so much

I definitely would NOT recommend them for a primary VPS or a VPS under load.

But for a testing machine, or one under small load, they do have a place in the market.
Who wants to pay a DO or AWS or Linode price for a VPS running simple scripts or light loads?

It is very easy to criticise SSDNODES and largely they deserve that, but in their defence it's about understanding that their price point is reflective of performance.
Don't buy a tricycle expecting a Ferrari.

[humptydumpty]

@timconsidine sounds like they’re good to run a cloudron mail server on. How is their uptime?

[marcusquinn]

Hetzner, Contabo, Proxmox for home and dedicated servers.

[humptydumpty]

@marcusquinn said in Favorite VPS providers?:

Contabo

I've had over 3 hours of downtime in the past 2 weeks alone (St. Louis DC).

[timconsidine]

@humptydumpty said in Favorite VPS providers?:

sounds like they’re good to run a cloudron mail server on. How is their uptime?

I haven't had any issues with uptime,

[warg]

@lukas Nope, there's no monitoring on their side for all hardware topics as far as I know. I remember from other cases that the support had to be contacted by customer and in some cases they requested proofs that something is wrong with the hardware before they check or replace it. Same with network issues on their side: You can't say "It's broken" when it is on their side and then they check it, agree and fix it. You have to send them monitoring logs. That's what I dislike about them. Beside of that, replacing faulty hardware is of course free of charge.

My recommendations so far:

• Contabo
• netcup (although their new extra fee for server location choice is bad)
• Hetzner

Contabo is top notch. Never had any issue with their hardware (1 HW replacement in several years) and their support replies within minutes in case of technical issues on their side. Just perfect for a great price. Netcup is fine as well and good support in case of emergencies as well.

[roofboard]

recently switched to contabo lately and they have been awesome. They have servers in many countries which is cool.