Personal Guide to Choosing VPS (Virtual Private Server)

Software translation

Preface

VPS (Virtual Private Server) is based on virtualization technology, which divides a physical server into multiple virtual servers, allowing users to obtain servers at a lower cost. This guide is intended for personal use, such as learning and research, lightweight websites (personal blogs), etc. But other uses, such as commercial websites, also have reference value.

When should I choose VPS

Building a website or building a self built cloud storage and other web-based services requires a computer that runs stably (around 7x24 hours on), a stable upstream bandwidth network connection, and a public IP address.

Especially for the latter two, when it comes to personal use of home broadband, what is commonly referred to as “how many megabits of broadband” only refers to the downlink speed, and the uplink speed may only be a few tens of Mbps. Moreover, if there is a lot of uplink traffic, the speed may be reduced even lower, and commonly used ports 80 and 443 may be blocked from use.

The most important thing is that IP addresses can be divided into public IP and internal IP. Internal IP can only be accessed when connected to the same WIFI or other networks, while public IP can be accessed by visitors from other networks. However, public IP addresses, especially fixed and unchanging ones, are not easily accessible for general household broadband.

To achieve this, there are four cloud based service options for building a website:

• Static website hosting (can only handle a few web page source code files)
• Shared hosting (more suitable for building simple websites, usually restricted by service providers to using specific software such as WordPress a software that can be used to build websites).
• vps (It can build complex websites or other web-based services, such as running official account robots, self built email, self built web disks, etc., and you need to choose vps or exclusive servers.)
• Exclusive server (due to single person use, high price and good performance)

Geographical location selection

It is recommended to select vps from overseas (outside Chinese Mainland) for two reasons:

1. As long as the vps are in Chinese Mainland and the websites or services built are open to the public, they need to be recorded. It is almost impossible to achieve under the age of 18. And the filing procedures are cumbersome, increasing the time cost.
2. The bandwidth cost of vps network in Chinese Mainland is generally high. The normal price of vps for 1Mbps (128KB/s) network speed may be more than 1000 yuan. If you charge by traffic, it is usually 0.8 yuan per gigabyte, which is often higher than the overseas vps.

Therefore, for the reason of choosing a lower price and better vps, it is recommended to select vps from overseas (outside Chinese Mainland).

In theory, the closer it is to the main user group, the better. For example, if it is mainly aimed at Chinese users, it is theoretically best to choose VPS that is geographically close, such as Hong Kong.

However, in practice, if it is not for games, voice calls and other use cases that require low latency, even if the server is more than 10000 kilometers away from users (such as Chinese Mainland to the eastern United States), most users will not feel the difference.

Selection of service providers

After determining the geographic location, you can search for geographic location+VPS or similar keywords in a browser or similar settings. Service providers that frequently appear on the first few pages of search results may be worth considering.

If you have special requirements such as large memory or hard drive, you can also use similar keywords to search.

Then gather as much information as possible about such service providers, as those with a long history and high reputation are often worth choosing.

For example, when choosing a VPS from the United States, Vultr can always be seen in the search. Further search reveals that it has been established for a long time and has high popularity, so this VPS is probably worth choosing.

Note that the service provider may not support payments such as Alipay WeChat, but only international cards such as MasterCard. You can apply for such bank cards in banks in Hong Kong and other overseas regions, or you can apply for MasterCard debit cards in China’s Guangfa Bank, China Construction Bank, and Bank of China when you are under age. Be careful not to choose Postal Savings Bank’s Mastercard debit card, as transactions will be rejected by the bank when making payments until July 2025. This can avoid limiting the range of options due to inability to make payment. It is recommended not to use virtual cards for payment unless necessary.

Remember: Do not recharge too much money into your account. You can use international cards such as Mastercard, which will be automatically deducted when the service provider settles. This is not suitable and convenient for changing to a better place

Selection of billing method

It is recommended to choose hourly billing for the convenience of low-cost experience service providers’ VPS, and then decide whether to adopt it. Monthly billing is quite common and can be considered as an alternative. It is recommended to consider annual billing only when there is sufficient evidence to support it, such as past practical experience.

Network related choices

First of all, avoid the vps commonly used in Chinese Mainland that are billed by bandwidth rate. In particular, configure low speed vps such as 1Mbps, 2Mbps, and 3Mbps. Do not select them. Otherwise, convert them according to the formula of 8Mbps=1MB/s. When users visit the server, the maximum speed is several hundred kb/s. For example, if a website page displays an image, it may be slow to open, and large files that play video and music are basically impossible. Using CDN and other technologies to reduce the bandwidth of VPS will increase development and operational costs, such as increased CPU overhead for compression. CDN often reads static resources such as web pages from VPS first.

It is recommended to consider VPS that charges based on data usage. Generally, VPS has several hundred GB of data usage per month, and the bandwidth rate is commonly shared at 1000Mbps or even higher in the United States and other places, which is generally sufficient for usage.

When choosing VPS billing based on bandwidth rate, it is not recommended to use bandwidth rates that are too low (below 50Mbps) unless it is strictly determined that the use case can only use lower bandwidth rates.

If there are no special requirements, you can choose VPS that only supports IPv6, and then support IPv4 through methods such as configuring Cloudflare CDN. This way, when choosing low-priced VPS in geographical locations such as the United States, you can save tens of yuan.

Memory selection

Suggest 1GB or choose a higher one based on the use case.

For example, when building a Redis database, MongoDB database, etc., it is advisable to choose VPS with large memory. The web server increases its memory based on concurrent access volume.

If choosing VPS with less than 1GB of memory, swapping space can be used appropriately to compensate, but it may lead to performance degradation.

CPU selection

Choose according to the situation. A typical low load use case with a single core is sufficient for use.

For use cases with high single core performance requirements, such as building a Redis database, it is advisable to choose VPS with high single core performance as much as possible, and even choose dedicated servers if necessary.

For scenarios such as web servers, where performance can be improved through multi-core, the number of CPU cores should be selected based on the number of visits.

Selection of Hard Disk

For general use cases, a 10GB hard drive is sufficient.

If using a self built cloud drive, self built MySQL database, or other special needs, a VPS with a large hard drive should be selected. When building your own MySQL database, you should also try to choose VPS with solid-state drives.

Determine the specific size of the hard drive based on the actual use case.

Disclaimers

This article is only for technical exchange, and the products mentioned are only examples and do not constitute purchasing advice. Please make the actual choice based on personal needs.