Overview of cheap VPS servers

Instead of the foreword

or how it happened that this article appeared

which explains why and why this testing was conducted



It’s useful to have a small VPS server on hand where it will be convenient to test some things. It is usually required that it is also available around the clock. This requires the smooth operation of the equipment and a white IP address. At home, it is sometimes quite difficult to provide both of these conditions. And given that the cost of renting a simple virtual server is comparable to the cost of the service of issuing a dedicated IP address by the Internet provider, renting such a server may well justify the costs. But how to choose from whom to order such a VPS? There is little trust in reviews on various resources. Therefore, the idea came up to choose the best provider of such services by a simple criterion - by the performance of a rented server.

Configuration selection

Market analysis showed that the minimum configuration available for ordering with most VPS / VDS services corresponds to the following characteristics:



At the same time, various drive configuration options are available. Commonly offered: SATA HDD, SAS HDD, SAS / SATA SSD, NVMe SSD.

The choice of participants

I didn’t even read any reviews and reviews in order to find out in personal practice which service it offers. As it turned out, there are virtual server selection services, for example:

• poiskvps.ru
• vds.menu
• vps.today
• hosting101.ru
• hostings.info
• hosters.ru
• hostadvice.com

Each such service offers to install the necessary filters (for example, RAM volume, number of cores and processor frequency, etc.) and sort the results by some parameter (for example, by price). It was decided to divide the participants into two groups: the first group will include offers with hard drives, and the second - on flash memory. It is clear that there are more types of drives and the speed performance of drives with a SAS interface will differ from those of drives with a SATA interface, and the performance of SSDs using the NVMe protocol will differ from that of other SSDs. But then, firstly, we will have too many groups, and secondly, HDD performance from SSDs are generally more different than the performance of different HDDs among themselves and different SSDs among themselves.

Test Participant Lists

Servers with HDD

Hard drives are a thing of the past, and there are significantly fewer offers on the virtual server hosting market with HDDs.

Servers with SSD

As we can see, the amplitude of the price spread for VPS servers with SSDs and for servers with HDDs turned out to be the same. This once again suggests that SSDs are firmly entrenched in the server segment.

Testing methodology

Each server was tested for a week. The CPU, RAM, disk subsystem and network were subjected to load. Tests run on schedule, being hosted in cron.



The results were collected and processed by tabulating the values ​​and plotting the graphs and (or) charts. The following tools were used.



Synthetic tests:

• sysbench
• cpu, general test: sysbench --test=cpu run (
  
  
  
  values :
  
  
  
  total time)
• memory, general test: sysbench --test=memory run
  
  
  
  (values: total time)
• file i / o, tests and commands (block size in all tests is 4k; values: transfer speed):
  
  
  
  
  • Single threaded sequential read with simulated queue depth 32: sysbench --num-threads=1 --test=fileio --file-test-mode=seqrd --file-total-size=2G --file-block-size=4K --file-num=32
    
    
    
    
  • Single-threaded sequential recording with simulation of queue depth 32: sysbench --num-threads=1 --test=fileio --file-test-mode=seqwr --file-total-size=2G --file-block-size=4K --file-num=32
    
    
    
    
  • Eight-threaded random read with simulated queue depth 8: sysbench --num-threads=8 --test=fileio --file-test-mode=rndrd --file-total-size=2G --file-block-size=4K --file-num=8
    
    
    
    
  • Eight-threaded random recording with simulation of queue depth 8: sysbench --num-threads=8 --test=fileio --file-test-mode=rndwr --file-total-size=2G --file-block-size=4K --file-num=8
    
    
    
    
  • Single threaded random read with simulated queue depth 32: sysbench --num-threads=1 --test=fileio --file-test-mode=rndrd --file-total-size=2G --file-block-size=4K --file-num=32
    
    
    
    
  • Single-threaded random recording with simulation of queue depth 32: sysbench --num-threads=1 --test=fileio --file-test-mode=rndwr --file-total-size=2G --file-block-size=4K --file-num=32
    
    
    
    
  • Single threaded random read with simulated queue depth 1: sysbench --num-threads=1 --test=fileio --file-test-mode=rndrd --file-total-size=2G --file-block-size=4K --file-num=1
    
    
    
    
  • Single-threaded random recording with simulated queue depth 1: sysbench --num-threads=1 --test=fileio --file-test-mode=rndwr --file-total-size=2G --file-block-size=4K --file-num=1
    
    
    
    
• hardinfo:
  
  
  
  
  • CPU Blowfish
  • CPU CryptoHash
  • CPU fibonacci
  • CPU N-Queens
  • FPU FFT
  • FPU Raytracing

The speedtest test (speedtest-cli) was used to check network speed.

Register and order the server

Inoventica

When registering, you must specify an email, it will be sent to:

• Registration confirmation link
• Login (which in my case was cut off to 8 characters entered during registration email)
• Password Generated

At the first login, a password change is not offered . Available data centers:









And OS:









When ordering a server of any configuration, it is indicated that a one-time fee of 99 ₽ is charged. It is included in the cost of the server, or not - while it is a mystery.







When you try to order a server with a zero balance, you will be prompted to replenish it, moreover, by 500 ₽, regardless of the selected configuration.









It turned out that the service uses different panels for control, in which you need to register separately. The panel discussed above does not have our tariff for 49 ₽ (it has the address lk.invs.ru), so we won’t find out what happens with the “installation payment”.



So, there is another panel based on ISP Manager (and it is available at bill.invs.ru). When registering, enter an email, come up with a password, and immediately get into the panel. Even mail does not need to be confirmed. By the way, the login and the password generated by the service are sent to you by the specified mail. And here we are offered to switch to a new interface. Switching, we get into Billmanager.



The list of available OSs is shorter here:









Available methods of crediting funds:









The service provides IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. IPv6 had to be configured manually. To use the services, you still need to confirm the email. Access to the server screen is.

Firstvds

After registration, we get into the ISP Manager panel (You need to provide a name, email and create a password by entering it without a chance of an error - there is only one password field), after which we are asked to confirm the email.









List of available OSs:









Available payment methods:









The service does not provide IPv6, at least at the selected rate. In order to be able to use the services, you must confirm your email and phone. There is SSH access from LC.

Ihor

When trying to register, we get an error:







Switch the language of the site interface to Russian and ...







I had to change the password. List of available OSs:









The service provides both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. I also had to configure IPv6 manually. I would like to separately note the fact of a very long installation of the packages necessary for testing. Specially, the time was not measured, but unlike a couple of minutes, which was enough for all other hosting services, here it took an order of magnitude more time - about 20 minutes.



Access to the server screen is:

RuVDS

To register, you must enter an email and unravel the "captcha". The list of available OSs is as follows:









Available payment methods:









The IPv6 address service does not provide, at any rate, at the selected rate. Access to the server screen is.

Regru

To register, just specify email. List of available OSs:









And a list of available payment methods:















The service provides both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. IPv6 has earned, as they say, out of the box. Those. after creating the server, I was immediately able to connect to it by IPv6 address. Access to the server console is.

Hosting-Russia

When registering, you must specify an email and password. To pay for services, you must confirm the phone number. List of available OSs:









And payment methods:









It is possible to download your own ISO. There is access to the server screen.

Firstbyte

To register, you must specify email, phone, desired password and country. To enter the mail must be confirmed. List of available OSs:









And a list of available payment methods:















There is access to the server console.









There is the ability to download your ISO.

Ionos

To register, you must specify the gender, first name, last name, city, street, the desired password and phone. Here is a list of available OSs:









When registering, you must confirm the possibility of payment. The service writes off and then returns one dollar.



For some time I could not register. During the registration process, at one of the steps the page was updated and inside it appeared with the first step.









At some point, I received an error message first, then I was still able to complete the registration.









Available payment methods are not so many.









By default, the server is issued with IPv4, but you can add one IPv6 for free.









Access to the KVM console is.

cPanel Hosting

To register, you must specify an email and create a password. List of available OSs:









List of payment methods:

Ramnode

List of available OSs:















And a list of payment methods:









IPv6 is out of the box. Access to the console is present.

Test results

In each test, the results of the participants were sorted from best to worst, those who won the first place were awarded 12 points, the second - 10, the third - 8, from the fourth place - 6 and for each place below it was awarded one point less. Those who took places below the ninth did not get points.



Scoring table:

Table with test results (clickable)

Final score table (clickable)

Podium

All places went to hosting with SSD. The first place in a fierce battle won RuVDS. AdminVPS finished second, and REG.RU and American Ionos (1 & 1) divided the third place among themselves. All other hosting services on the podium represent Russia.

Conclusion

Among all test participants, the first place was taken by the tariff with SSD from RUVDS. Better processor performance and good disk performance allowed them to take first place in their tariff. Congratulations to the winner. I also want to note the hosting adminvps, ionos and regru, they fought with dignity. AdminVPS showed excellent disk performance, but lagged behind in processor performance. REG.RU showed fairly good processor performance, but with disk performance it is not going smoothly. Ionos showed fairly balanced results. The remaining participants have much worse results. Ihor showed outstanding results in his own way. Both of their tariffs were at the very “bottom” of the table; when using their service, low performance is noticeable “by eye”.