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.

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[–] refreeze@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours 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.

[–] merthyr1831@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 hours ago

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

[–] nesc@lemmy.cafe 15 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 5 points 6 hours 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.

[–] nesc@lemmy.cafe 4 points 5 hours 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@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

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

[–] solrize@lemmy.world 28 points 14 hours 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.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 9 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours 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@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours 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.

[–] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)
[–] HelloRoot@lemy.lol 6 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

Thats expensive

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

[–] iknowitwheniseeit@lemmynsfw.com 3 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (2 children)

~~$1~~ $2 per month is expensive? 🤣

[edit: I can't do simple math]

[–] HelloRoot@lemy.lol 3 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

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.

[–] Zeoic@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours 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

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.