this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2025
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Apparently US bandwidth was reduced to 1TB for their base plan, though they have 20TB for the same plan in Europe. I don't use much bandwidth right now, but I could need more in the future depending on how I do backups and whatnot.

So I'm shopping around in case I need to make a switch. Here's what I use it for:

  • VPN to get around CGNAT - so all traffic for my internal services goes through it
  • HAProxy - forwards traffic to my various services
  • small test servers - very low requirements, basically just STUN servers
  • low traffic blog

Hard requirements:

  • custom ISO, or at least openSUSE support
  • inexpensive - shooting for ~$5/month, I don't need much
  • decent bandwidth (bare minimum 50mbps, ideally 1gbps+), with high-ish caps - I won't use much data most of the time (handful of GB), but occasionally might use 2-5TB

Nice to have:

  • unmetered/generous bandwidth - would like to run a Tor relay
  • inexpensive storage - need to put my offsite backups somewhere
  • API - I'm a nerd and like automating things :)
  • location near me - I'm in the US, so anywhere in NA works

Not needed:

  • fast processors
  • lots of RAM
  • loose policies around torrenting and processing (no crypto or piracy here)
  • support features, recipes, etc - I can figure stuff out on my own

I'll probably stick with Hetzner for now because:

  • pricing is still fair (transfer is in line with competitors)
  • can probably move my server to Germany w/o major issues for more bandwidth
  • they hit all of the other requirements, nice to haves, and many unneeded features

Anyway, thoughts? The bandwidth change pisses me off, so let me know if there's a better alternative.

top 26 comments
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[–] [email protected] 2 points 16 hours ago

I hope is to improve their bandwidth, it really sucks (even from inside Europe )

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Hetzners still the cheapest pay by the hour option in the US? Long term id use racknerd or littlecreekhosting, but for quick deployments that are paid by the hour on the 3rd of the month, Hetzner is great. Don't have to whip out the credit card, it's instant.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

When I was testing panels I started up a bunch and deleted them the next day, saved me time reinstalling on a single one.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Yeah, or they're at least competitive across the board. I'm mainly annoyed at the dramatic change to transfer quotas, which is a lot more generous in the EU and less generous than it used to be.

For now I'm sticking with them, at least until I exhaust the transfer quota.

[–] solrize 46 points 3 days ago (2 children)

That article is almost 4 months old and yeah, the internet in EU is better than in the US. But you can get US plans with plenty of bandwidth. I've been happy with buyvm.net and there are many others. Hang out on lowendspirit.com for a while to get a sense of things.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Yeah, it's old, but it took effect this month for existing customers, hence why I noticed.

Thanks for the suggestion. Any issues with the transfer speeds?

[–] solrize 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I'm satisfied. Virmach has had ups and downs but their network is fast too.

If you want something Hetzner-like in North America, you might look at OVH. They have a data center in Beauharnois (BHS), Canada, which is near Quebec. It's not too different from using a server in the Northeast US.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Thats expensive

With a very nieche benefit. I doubt that one core can chug enough to make any significant bandwith

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

~~$1~~ $2 per month is expensive? 🤣

[edit: I can't do simple math]

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

You can get 4 cores, 6gb ram, 200gb ssd for 6$ per month from contabo.

Lets normalize the price for comparison.

6/3 = 2

So for the same normalized price you get:

  • 4/3 = 1.333 cores
  • 6/3 = 2GB RAM
  • 200/3 = 66GB SSD storage

Thats a bit more CPU, four times the RAM and six times the storage!!!

I highly doubt that the "near bare metal" performance of that one core is better than just having 30% more virtualized cores.

And the math gets even worse if you compare the other tiers.

The only good tradeoff for this offer is the unlimited traffic IF and only if you actually would hit the comtabo limits (32TB outbound + unlimited incoming) and there is probably some math where you can calculate when it starts to be worth the money vs. getting a second contabo vps.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

Contabo uses recycled hardware for many of its products, which contributes to its competitive pricing. However, this practice might raise concerns about reliability for critical projects.

[–] Zeoic 4 points 2 days ago

Well the cheapest there is $2/month, but yeah for a single core I dont think I would be worth the effort to setup, let alone also pay for

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I like racknerd for cheap vps. Check their black Friday deals (they're up all the time).

Also check lowendtalk, sometimes you'll find good deals.

[–] ssdfsdf3488sd 1 points 1 day ago

Racknerd is almost always the right answer. Just find one of their various specials for yearly servers amd get one.love those guys

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 days ago (1 children)

ovh has everything (i think) mentioned, they also have inexpensive baremetal servers. They also have shitty ui. 😄

[–] JubilantJaguar 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

And terrible, archaic, chaotic practices such as activating your 2FA without permission and then locking you out of your account for weeks pending multiple signed paper letters. Oh, and sometimes their datacenters burn down and take your server with them. I'm sad to have to throw them under the bus like this. I want OVH to succeed but personally my patience with them definitively ran out.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Well it not like they burn constantly they only burned ~~once~~ twice! As for the 2fa problem, I've missed it because it was activated already. They are mostly okay now, I think my company lost a few millions when they burned (all our infrastructure was there).

[–] JubilantJaguar 3 points 2 days ago

Well that puts the loss of my little VPS into perspective.

[–] refreeze 7 points 2 days ago

Check out Lunanode. Cheapest option is 3.50 a month and bonus points for being Canadian. I just recently set my VPS up there and am really pleased with them. Afaik they support your needs including custom ISO.

[–] LovableSidekick 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Company: Yes we're charging you more... but on the other hand we're giving you less, so it all evens out. Besides, changing hosts is a pain.

Customers: Changing hosts is such a pain.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

Yeah, I really don't understand why transfer is so expensive here in the US. The same base tier service provides 1TB transfer in the US and 20TB in the EU. I don't need 20TB, but it would be nice to have 3-5TB in case I need to restore a backup or something.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago

For bandwidth intensive stuff I like wholesale internet’s stuff.

The hardware is very uh, old, but the network quality is great since they run an ix. And it’s unmetered too so it’s probably sufficient.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Thats a shame. I use Hetzner for my offsite backups because they're so damn cheap for my usecase.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

how do they compare with infomaniak? i was looking to move from aws to an eu solution.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

infomaniak

It looks like they don't go very low end, so if you're wanting that, Hetzner is probably a better pick.