As of September 29th 2015, a bunch of notes on the specific bargain VPS hosts. This is mainly a feature-set comparison, but also includes some interoperability notes.

Linode

Recommended by people I know. Bandwidth pooling is a nice feature. Can add 2 TB of bandwidth with an extra $10 plan.

Pros:

  • KVM Hosting (default is XEN)
  • IPv6
  • Pooled Bandwidth (Total Bandwidth is sum of all servers)
  • Indirect SSH Access
  • $10.00/mo: 1 GB RAM, 1 core, 24 GB SSD, 2 TB ($2.50 Backups)
  • $20.00/mo: 2 GB RAM, 2 core, 48 GB SSD, 3 TB ($5.00 Backups)
  • $40.00/mo: 4 GB RAM, 4 core, 96 GB SSD, 4 TB ($10.00 Backups)
  • $80.00/mo: 8 GB RAM, 6 core, 192 GB SSD, 8 TB ($20.00 Backups)

Cons:

  • May not be the fastest hardware

Digital Ocean

Also recommended. Has a very active/high quality community of people writing howto guides.

Pros:

  • KVM Hosting
  • IPv6
  • Toronto Datacenter
  • Can “Bump RAM+CPU Only”, meaning you can return to lower tiers (Flexible)
  • Fantastic Documentation/Howto Community
  • $5.00/mo: 512 MB RAM, 1 core, 20 GB SSD, 1 TB ($1 Backups)
  • $10.00/mo: 1 GB RAM, 1 core, 30 GB SSD, 2 TB ($2 Backups)
  • $20.00/mo: 2 GB RAM, 2 core, 40 GB SSD, 3 TB ($4 Backups)
  • $40.00/mo: 4 GB RAM, 2 core, 60 GB SSD, 4 TB ($8 Backups)
  • $80.00/mo: 8 GB RAM, 4 core, 80 GB SSD, 5 TB ($16 Backups)

Cons:

  • No bandwidth pool
  • Must charge Tax in Canada
  • I found it unusual that my VMs were created without swap

Vultr

Has the most RAM in a $5 plan, but less SSD and CPU cores at higher tiers.

Pros:

  • KVM Hosting
  • Australia Datacenter
  • $5.00/mo: 768 MB RAM, 1 core, 15 GB SSD, 1 TB ($1 Backups)
  • $10.00/mo: 1 GB RAM, 1 core, 20 GB SSD, 2 TB ($2 Backups)
  • $20.00/mo: 2 GB RAM, 2 core, 45 GB SSD, 3 TB ($4 Backups)
  • $40.00/mo: 4 GB RAM, 2 core, 90 GB SSD, 4 TB ($8 Backups)
  • $80.00/mo: 8 GB RAM, 4 core, 150 GB SSD, 5 TB ($16 Backups)

Cons:

  • No bandwidth pool

TODO: Do they have IPv6??

BuyVM

A very good value, some features not available anywhere else. I’ve been using them since 2014 (?). Great for experiments, but I’m not sure they’re ideal for serious projects.

Pros:

  • OpenVZ Hosting (Burstable, better hardware usage)
  • Anycast and IP Fallback Support (3 hosts minimum)
  • Pooled Bandwidth (Total Bandwidth is sum of all servers)
  • $1.25/mo x12: 128 MB RAM, 1 core, 15 GB SATA, 0.5 TB
  • ~$3.00/mo x6: 256 MB RAM, 2 core, 30 GB SSD, 1 TB
  • ~$5.00/mo x6: 512 MB RAM, 2 core, 50 GB SSD, 2 TB
  • ~$11.00/mo x6: 1 GB RAM, 4 core, 100 GB SSD, 5 TB
  • KVM Hosting Available, at higher rates ($2/$4/etc)

Cons:

  • OpenVZ Hosting (worse compatibility than KVM)
  • Slow activation (hours, not minutes)
  • Only 3 data-centers (US x2, EU x1)
  • Aware of outages (only because I follow them)
  • No backups (they had them for FREE, but currently unavailable)
  • LAN IPv6, no Internet IPv6

MNX.IO (NEW)

Good value. Has a $60 plan (most don’t).

Pros:

  • KVM Hosting
  • SSL
  • $5.00/mo: 768 MB RAM, 1 core, 25 GB SSD, 1 TB (?? Backups)
  • $10.00/mo: 1 GB RAM, 1 core, 40 GB SSD, 1 TB (?? Backups)
  • $20.00/mo: 2 GB RAM, 2 core, 50 GB SSD, 2 TB (?? Backups)
  • $40.00/mo: 4 GB RAM, 2 core, 100 GB SSD, 3 TB (?? Backups)
  • $60.00/mo: 6 GB RAM, 4 core, 120 GB SSD, 4 TB (?? Backups) **
  • $80.00/mo: 8 GB RAM, 4 core, 160 GB SSD, 5 TB (?? Backups)

Cons:

  • One Data Center near Chicago (Mount Prospect, Illinois)
  • No bandwidth pool
  • No IPv6 (AFAIK)
  • I haven’t tested them

Scaleway (NEW)

Actual dedicated servers for cheap!? Custom ARM based servers with 4 cores, 2 GB of RAM, and 50 GB SSD. Wow!

Pros:

  • DEDICATED SERVER
  • £3/mo (<$5): 2 GB RAM, 4 core, 50 GB SSD, 0.2 TB (?? Backups)

Cons:

  • Less/Expensive Bandwidth
  • ARM Software compatibility unknown
  • Single Data Center (Paris, France)
  • No IPv6
  • Untested

Stats

Interconnectivity of New York/New Jersey area hosts

  • Digital Ocean NYC3 to Digital Ocean NYC3: 0.5 ms ping
  • Digital Ocean NYC3 to Vultr New Jersey: 2.0 ms ping
  • Digital Ocean NYC3 to Linode New Jersey: 2.2 ms ping
  • Digital Ocean NYC3 to BuyVM New Jersey: 2.3 ms ping
  • Linode New Jersey to Linode New Jersey: 0.5 ms ping
  • Linode New Jersey to Digital Ocean NYC: (1) 1.7 ms, (2) 1.6 ms, (3) 2.3 ms
  • Linode New Jersey to Vultr New Jersey: 2.5 ms ping
  • Linode New Jersey to BuyVM New Jersey: 2.8 ms ping
  • Vultr New Jersey to Vultr New Jersey: 0.55 ms ping
  • Vultr New Jersey to Digital Ocean NYC: (1) 1.4 ms, (2), 1.2 ms, (3) 1.9 ms
  • Vultr New Jersey to Linode New Jersey: 2.5 ms ping
  • Vultr New Jersey to BuyVM New Jersey: 0.8 ms ping

Other

  • Digital Ocean NYC3 to BuyVM Vegas: 80 ms ping
  • Vultr New Jersey to BuyVM Vegas: 72 ms ping
  • Linode New Jersey to BuyVM Vegas: 72 ms ping
  • Linode New Jersey to BuyVM Vegas: 74 ms ping
  • Vultr New Jersey to Digital Ocean Amsterdam: (1) 88 ms, (2) 90 ms, (3) 96 ms
  • Linode New Jersey to Digital Ocean Amsterdam: (1) 101 ms, (2) 79.5 ms, (3) 85.5 ms
  • Vultr New Jersey to Vultr Amsterdam: 98 ms
  • Linode New Jersey to Vultr Amsterdam: 85.5 ms

A 5 ms difference between Digital Ocean’s fastest datacenter in Amsterdam (2) and Vultr’s.