In my personal opinion, Linode is better than Vultr…and Vultr is better than Digital Ocean.
I’ve used Linode in 3 continents for over 10 years. Used Vultr in 2 continents for several years. I haven’t done exact fair-comparison testing but through just firing up servers for clients using the same stack and “feeling it” (however you trust my feel for it, haha)….I feel Linode is better.
When I run a quick hdparm, Linode is definitely faster. It goes in order of this Linode > Vultr > Digital Ocean. I think DO is the biggest “hype” of all 3. Vultr probably used to be the weakest of them but then got better with their recent upgrade (in the hypervisor or stack, I believe?).
I feel Linode just has consistently better hardware to begin with. They seem like a much bigger company with uniform hardware. Vultr seems more like hodgepodge of different hardware (and also depending on which datacenter)…and I could be totally wrong.
Linode interface is kind of ugly but I like it a lot. Very clean and efficient for me (kinda like the Craigslist of VPS-UI). I used to think DO is sexy but it’s actually annoying to use. Vultr is probably the best mix between sexy & functional.
Any room for variability?
Absolutely. Some people feel Vultr is the fastest (faster than Linode). I do like their interface and also that they sell bare metal servers and DDOS filtering. But for sure, I think we all agree Digital Ocean is the slowest and gimmicky/over-hyped of the 3.
Performance (and reliability)
Some people feel Vultr (especially their high-frequency instances) are super fast. And indeed they are. My biggest qualm with Vultr is that some of their datacenters have had dropped network packets. And it seems to be a constant issue. Maybe you’ll never have that issue. I experienced it as much as 3-5 times within two months within the same datacenter. For that reason, I prefer not to have any servers with Vultr unless clients specifically request.
Company culture
In my opinion, Linode and Vultr are true server companies with a tech culture that I respect. True history in managing datacenters, and providing tech solutions for tech clients. Basically…run by geeks for geeks.
Digital Ocean on the other hand, just seems like some tech start-up that got funding and tried to take over what they saw was a “weak and overly-technical market”. They figured if they could just do a cuter UI and more personality, they can dominate the VPS industry (and win over the rapidly growing casual market). Just like how Mailchimp took over email marketing from Aweber, ConstantContact, etc. It makes sense since so many everyday people are switching to VPS now…back then, it was only for the most tech-savvy and demanding websites that needed it.
But reality in the tech world…techies still care about performance. You can have a nice UI, but your numbers still need to add up well or else you won’t win over the influencers (devs, admins, etc). Also, too…DO has done some things that really pissed customers off. (Like suddenly shutting off people’s accounts and such.)
Hi Johnny!
Thank you for the article! Let me ask you a question.
VPS server is not enough to configure once? Does it need to be constantly updated? For example, operation system (Linux example), control panel, web server, versions of scripts (such as php, nginx, databases, etc.).
And the choice of VPS implies a permanent job with the server?
If you choose the usual virtual hosting. Then you once placed sites there. And don’t worry about anything else. Work on your sites, and the server is supported by hosting employees.
Isn’t shared hosting better? VPS gives you a lot of headaches, as VPS needs constant care.
VPS vs shared hosting is a very similar debate to DIY custom computer or buying an Apple. It really comes down to your skill level and what you need as well as what you like.
VPS & DIY computer:
– more power
– more options
– more control
– more responsibility
– requires skill to manage
Shared hosting & Apple:
– more convenient
– provided support
If I had to guess, just by the way you asked the question: shared hosting, managed hosting or even managed VPS is the ideal option for you.
Hello jhonny
you already used linode in America do sul clients?
great results?
Thank you!!
Hey Johnny, I’m thinking of moving my server from Linode to Vultr
High Frequency, which the GridPane folks highly recommended to me (I’ve had issues before with Linode ridiculous steal rate, which GridPane support said happened multiple times for people during the month back when it happened. I had to contact Linode to move me to a different node. It just shaved off my trust in them that they didn’t let me know about it themselves, and GridPane did). Also read this:
https://joshtronic.com/2019/07/01/vps-showdown-digitalocean-lightsail-linode-upcloud-vultr/
“With the exception of the Redis benchmarks and the Apache benchmarks (which are always somewhat anecdotal), the new high frequency instances from Vultr absolutely crushed it in every other category.”
However I read what you wrote :
“My biggest qualm with Vultr is that some of their datacenters have had dropped network packets. And it seems to be a constant issue. Maybe you’ll never have that issue. I experienced it as much as 3-5 times within two months within the same datacenter. For that reason, I prefer not to have any servers with Vultr unless clients specifically request.”
Do you still recommend avoiding Vultr?Or should I take the leap to their High Freq servers?
Thanks a lot.
The last time I used Vultr was 4-6 months ago. I personally wouldn’t use them now. But you can try and see for yourself.
In case it’s useful for anybody, I contacted GridPane and asked if they’ve noticed a similar issue:
“I am a big fan of those Vultr High Frequency plans, I think it’s the best bang for the buck right now, but Johnny is right, some of their datacenters have had that. Their Sydney DC as an example was terrible for a while there, and had a lot of outages. Digital Ocean is my number one for stability and reliability, but they are missing a couple of key regions like Central United States, Sydney Australia, etc. Linode, we see issues with noisy neighbor syndrome pretty consistently.”
And also Vultr, who said:
“Datacenters most affected by DDoS attacks which would cause very brief moments of packet loss for -some- servers in that location would be Singapore and Australia in my opinion but this is a rare occurence either way and attacks are usually mitigated before any network connectivity issues are noticed or service impacting.”
Also from GridPane:
“Vultr is the talk of the town due to their HF server. At only a few bucks more, you get superior speed and in most cases more hdd space as well. Those machines are pretty slick.
If you haven’t seen it, take a look at this page
https://cloudharmony.com/status-of-compute
There is an immense mound of information there. It’s real world monitoring that will tell you a different story than the provider’s status pages.
As far as location, that page can help you decide. It shows problem areas for each provider. For example, I’d stay far away from Vultr Frankfurt right now. But two months ago, Vultr Dallas was the trouble spot. You can also run tests from there too! https://cloudharmony.com/speedtest“
I dunno. As much as I trust those uptime reports, I feel the best thing is to try the servers for yourself. Uptime monitors don’t show the true experience…noisy neighbors, dropped packets, support responsiveness, how aggressive the DC is at shutting down server abuse (too aggressive may be annoying for you).
for linode server maintenance is often not yes … i use vultr HH singapore … often maintenance 😭
hahaha, I am so sorry
I used DO for some months a couple of years back. Stopped and never back. Currently enjoy having some WP sites on Vultr and Lightsail. And I’ve actually been trying to compare both of them: https://kokitree.com/blog/amazon-lightsail-vs-vultr/
I hope to test out Linode in the very near future.
18 months on do you still recommend Linode over Vultr/DO/Upcloud? I notice in most VPS benchmarks I see Linode is generally at the bottom end of these 4 but I don’t really think those benchmarks give the full picture. I’m thinking of setting up a WHM server for a decent amount of sites (100-200) and I’m a bit torn between providers.
Vultr’s been pretty inconsistent, Upclouds performance has been pretty good but the 50% price hike is a bit steep and Linode doesn’t do great in the old benchmarks.
What would Johnny do? 😉
Read my guide and you have the answer.