Vps Provider

calendar Oct 16, 2025 · 3 min read
 en review  · linode contabo hetzner aws vps
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Instead of doing review of VPS provider (which is a complex thing), I want to provide here a small questionnaire you can use to understand if your provider is good or not.

+3 Points Questions

Assign 3 points to every question you can answer yes, and it is applicable to your cloud VPS provider (CP) in a positive way. IF the answer is no, do not assign nothing.

  1. Has your CP a firewall management panel, or do you need to manually configure the firewall of every box manually? Centralized firewall is a spy of a true cloud infrastructure. If you do not have it, it is okey but more work on tour side need to be planned. Also exposing your box to the Internet usually it is a bad idea nowadays.

  2. Is the web panel easy to use, or it seems an old, 1990-style web interface with lots of menu or confusing setup? Some provider has very ugly login/interfaces and usually it is not a good sign.

  3. Do you have 2-Factor Authentication (2FA) option or OTP one? I am not a fan of too much security, but 2FA is pretty standard on these days.

  4. Pricing: during VPS configuration, is clear the final cost, VAT included? or there is a pricing calculator?

  5. There is an ARM-based option and does it cost less the x64 Intel/AMD version?

  6. K8s control plane is free? Big provider normally ask a price for it, emerging provider does not.

  7. A VPS with apprx 1 GB RAM + 1 CPU + 40GB disk and 1 TB Transfer (or better) is below 7$/mo? AWS Lightsail offers 2CPU for this price. Hetzner offers a lower price (around 4.62 €). Normally a provider smaller then AWS should be able to compete with this price tag or to sell at equal value. As a counter example, DigitalOcean provides a similar “droplet” around 6 and 12 $ and would not pass this question.

  8. Is backup included?

  9. Is backup a fixed price? On some provider backup is computed as a percentage of the VPS prize, and this can be far or not, depending on your business needs.

-1 Points questions: bad smell

If the answer is yes for a question below, remove 1 points

  1. If you try to reset your password, the provider send you the password via e-mail (this is not a good idea)?
  2. Provisioning time. Is it more than 5-minute wait on average?
  3. VPS lower price is below 5$ / 6€ ? (very low price normally are a spy of overbooking)
  4. Are you forced to pay on a different currency (i.e. U.S.Dollar instead of €uros)? This can be a currency-related risk if you plan huge investments.

Final score

Compute the final score.

  • Score 24 or better: very good deal
  • Score between 12 and 24: acceptable, need further evaluation.
  • Score below 10: risky business, eval with care