Hello, Habr! I once conducted a small test of virtual machines from various hosting providers and compared them with each other — it turns out that five years have passed since then. And in that test, the conditions for all servers were the same, as similar configurations were being tested.
Today I'd like to talk about how the cheapest (in the price range of 100 to 300 rubles) offers from popular hosting providers behave.
For the test subjects, I took VDS from hosting providers such as RUVDS, Timeweb, FirstVDS, Ultravds and Selectel. For each, I tested the processor performance, drive read/write speed, and connection speed — regardless of the processor power, disk type, and internet speed specified on the hoster's website. There will be no referral links :)
I want to emphasize once again to the reader that this article compares the cheapest plans, not those with similar configurations.
RUVDS
RUVDS's cheapest plan costs 139 rubles. For this price, we get a server with 1 core, 512 MB of RAM, and 10 GB on an HDD drive. The configuration with an SSD is slightly more expensive — 209 rubles.
For the OS on this configuration, you can choose one of the provided Linux versions (Debian, Ubuntu, and CentOS), or one of the pre-made system templates (StrongSwan IKEv2/IPsec, Matrix Synapse, Zabbix, Wordpress, Minecraft, etc.). The configuration is available in 9 data centers (three in Moscow: Rucloud, M9, Ostankino, as well as Saint Petersburg, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Vladivostok, and Krasnodar).
Additional services available for a separate fee on this plan include:
Backups (6 rubles per 1 GB / 60 rubles per 10 GB)
DDoS protection (for 400 rubles per month)
Snapshot (0.7 rubles per 1 GB) for self-cloning the server.
It's possible to order a server with Windows, but it will cost 588 rubles. The configuration will be: 1 CPU core, 1 GB of RAM, and 20 GB HDD.
Looking ahead — almost all other test participants offer a solid-state drive (SSD/NVMe), and it would be more correct to compare performance with them. But since the goal of this review is to test the cheapest plans, I tested RUVDS on a configuration with an HDD.
Testing
My server got an Intel Xeon Gold 6240 with a frequency of 2.6 GHz:
The processor performance test showed 422.19 operations per second, which immediately seems like a pretty good indicator (spoiler alert — it is) for a server costing 139 rubles:
Next, disk performance. Sequential write was also generally surprising, considering it's an HDD — 547 MiB/s:
Sequential read didn't disappoint either — 493 MiB/s:
Next, let's test random read and write operations. Random write — 5113 KiB/s:
Random read — 4822 KiB/s:
The results were pleasantly surprising. An excellent result for a hard drive, on par with some SSDs.
The internet speed test also showed decent results — over 900 Mbps for download and 100 Mbps for upload.
Overall, the RUVDS server pleasantly surprised me. Despite being at a disadvantage compared to other servers due to its HDD, all its performance indicators were quite decent and (spoiler) not inferior to the drives of other hosting providers.
Timeweb
The next server to be tested is from Timeweb. Their cheapest configuration cost me 300 rubles — for this price, I got 1 core, 1 GB of RAM, and 15 GB of NVMe.
There are 3 locations to choose from: Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Novosibirsk.
Available OSs include Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Bitrix24 + CentOS, Astra Linux, AlmaLinux, Arch Linux, and BrainyCP + Ubuntu. There are also a number of ready-made templates with pre-installed software (LAMP, WordPress, Gitlab, Minecraft, etc.).
Additional services include backups (6 rubles per 1 GB / 90 rubles per 15 GB) and DDoS protection for 450 rubles.
The option to order a Windows server starts at 1570 rubles:
Testing
Unfortunately, I couldn't determine the server's processor model — the system showed QEMU Virtual CPU:
However, the processor performance test showed quite good results: 917.16 operations per second, which is 2x compared to the previous participant:
But the very next test results (for the drive) seemed strange: sequential write for the NVMe was only 153 MiB/s, which is more than 2 times lower than the HDD from RUVDS:
Sequential read was much better — 2317 MiB/s, which is a very good result:
Random write gave 7473 KiB/s, which again seems like a rather low value for an NVMe:
Random read showed 26.7 MiB/s, which is quite good:
The internet speed test on the server also showed decent results — a gigabit for both download and upload:
Overall, I have mixed feelings about the server. Good processor performance and fast internet, but the NVMe results, which are sometimes inferior to an HDD, are confusing.
At the same time, the price for this package is the highest among all the servers reviewed.
FirstVDS
Their cheapest plan costs 219 rubles — for this price, we get a configuration with 1 core, 1 GB of RAM, and 15 GB on an SSD.
You can only order this plan in the Moscow data center, and for the OS, you can choose one of the Linux distributions (Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian, Oracle, etc.) or a template with pre-installed software (Django, Tomcat, Teamspeak, etc.).
Additional services include backups (75 rubles for 15 GB), DDoS protection (from 250 rubles per month), IPv6 (10 rubles per month), and ISPmanager (from 349 rubles per month).
Although the 379 ruble plan indicates the possibility of installing Windows, the actual cost will be 1059 rubles due to the additional charge for the license:
Testing
My server was equipped with an Intel Xeon Gold 5115 at 2.4 GHz:
The processor showed rather low performance compared to the previous test subjects — only 257.49 operations per second:
The disk test, on the other hand, was a pleasant surprise — the tests showed decent results for both sequential and random operations. Sequential write showed 743 MiB/s:
Sequential read — a whole 1882 MiB/s, a very good result:
Random write — 28.7 MiB/s:
Random read — 40 MiB/s:
An excellent result for an SSD, surpassing the previous test subjects.
As for internet speed, as stated in the plan, the server showed 100 Mbps for both download and upload. Not bad, but a gigabit would have been nice:
Overall, as with Timeweb, the impressions were quite mixed. The disk performance was a very pleasant surprise, especially compared to the previous test subject's NVMe, but the processor showed a very weak result — almost 2 times slower than RUVDS and 4 times slower than Timeweb. The internet speed is only 100 Mbps, which is significantly inferior to other servers.
Ultravds
At UltraVDS, the cheapest plan costs only 119 rubles — this is the cheapest server of all those tested. For the price of a bag of chips, we get a processor with 1 core, 512 MB of RAM, and a 10 GB HDD.
Only two operating systems are available to choose from — Windows Server CORE 2019 and Debian. The server itself will be located in Moscow.
Additional services include DDoS protection (500 rubles per month) and backups (4 rubles per 1 GB / 40 rubles per 10 GB).
This is the only one of all the tested hosting providers that allows installing Windows on such a configuration, but it's worth noting that the CORE version of the system differs from the classic desktop and server versions — interaction with it is done through the command line, which may not be suitable for everyone.
Plans with a more familiar version of Windows start at 199 rubles (which is again several times cheaper than servers from other hosting providers):
Testing
I got an Intel Xeon CPU E5-2680 at 2.5 GHz:
The processor test showed an average result, inferior to RUVDS but superior to FirstVDS — 314.12 operations per second:
The disk also showed generally good performance, considering it's an HDD being tested. Sequential write showed 180 MiB/s:
Sequential read — 212 MiB/s:
Random write — 1831 KiB/s:
Random read — 8217 KiB/s:
The results are noticeably weaker compared to the HDD from RUVDS, but considering that RUVDS's HDD performed at an SSD level, the result of Ultravds's HDD can be considered not bad (I repeat — for the price of a bag of chips!).
In terms of internet speed, the server also delivered an honest result — despite the website stating a speed of 100 Mbps, in reality, the download speed was over 400 Mbps, and the upload speed was 102 Mbps:
Overall, for a server costing only 119 rubles, it's quite decent. The server showed good processor performance, falling between FirstVDS and RUVDS, good indicators for an HDD, and excellent internet speed.
It's great that you can install Windows on the server (albeit a version without a graphical interface), but it's a downside that only Debian and Windows Server Core are available as OS options.
Selectel
The last server to be tested is from Selectel. Their cheapest plan costs 200 rubles per month. For this price, we get a configuration with 1 core, 512 MB of RAM, and a 20 GB disk (the disk type is not specified, but based on the tests, it seems to be an HDD or SSD).
Available OSs include Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, and Fedora. Images with pre-installed software (Ajenti, WordPress, Docker, etc.) are also available. As an additional service, you can add backups for 2 rubles per 1 GB per month.
Two data centers are available to choose from: Moscow and Saint Petersburg. There are no servers with Windows
Testing
My server was equipped with an Intel Xeon CPU E5-2680 at 2.4 GHz:
The processor test showed the lowest performance among all hosting providers — only 130.65 operations per second:
The disk test generally showed good results, slightly inferior to the HDD from RUVDS, but the random read was unpleasantly surprising.
Sequential write — 317 MiB/s:
Sequential read — 320 MiB/s:
Random write — 6832 KiB/s:
Random read — 268 KiB/s:
In terms of internet speed, their server surpassed everyone — over 2 gigabits for download and a gigabit for upload — a magnificent result!
To be honest, my impressions of the server were rather negative. Despite the huge internet speed (faster than the other hosting providers), the server showed the lowest processor performance and disk performance on par with an HDD. Again, there are few additional options.
Conclusion
After entering the test results into a table, I decided to color the cells in different colors — this makes the choice visually clear. The best value is green, the worst is red; something average is yellow, and what's worse than average is pink:
As you can see, each participant is strong in some area, but the most "balanced" offer seems to be from RUVDS — the pink color is only present due to the use of an HDD, although an SSD configuration could have fit into the test's price range.
If processor performance is important to you, Timeweb showed the best result.
If you need a fast SSD, FirstVDS stood out here.
If you specifically need internet speed, then go with Selectel.
If you want to save money and get decent performance, or if you need a server with Windows Server CORE, take a look at UltraVDS.
Thank you all for your attention. If you use something similar, please share your experience in the comments!