My Real-World Experience with 8 VPS Providers

As an independent developer, I have used RackNerd, CloudCone, GreenVPS, ClawCloud, Contabo, ZgoCloud, Sunshine Cloud, and Hostinger for the past two years. This article is a record of my real-world experience, helping you avoid pitfalls.

1. Expectations

  • To help independent developers quickly choose a VPS that suits their needs
  • To record my real-world experiences, not just promotional content
  • To continuously update my experience

2. Planning and Thinking

My Usage Scenarios

Scenario Requirements Priority
Development Environment Low latency, stability, and ability to install a graphical interface ⭐⭐⭐
Deployment Environment Stability, sufficient traffic, and reasonable prices ⭐⭐⭐
Monitoring Service Affordable, stable, and sufficient ⭐⭐

What I Look for When Choosing a VPS

  1. Network Quality: Return route (CN2/9929/ordinary BGP), latency, and packet loss rate
  2. Value for Money: Price for the same configuration
  3. Stability: Whether the server frequently crashes and whether the IP is easily blocked
  4. Purchase Threshold: Whether real-name verification, passport, etc. are required

3. Detailed Comparison of 8 VPS Providers

Quick Overview Table

Comparison of Cloud Services

Provider Price Configuration Bandwidth Location My Purpose Recommendation
RackNerd $62.49/year 6C8G150G 20T New York, USA Deploy Dokploy ⭐⭐⭐
CloudCone $20/year 1C1G14G 1T Maine, USA Idle ⭐⭐
GreenVPS $88/year 4C8G88G 2.2T Singapore (Uncertain) Abandoned ❌
ClawCloud $25.2/year 2C2G40G 1T California, USA (Aliyun) Monitor Server ⭐⭐⭐
Contabo $12.45/month 6C12G100G - Japan Spare Development Machine ⭐⭐
[ZgoCloud](https://clients.zgovps.com/?affid=1315 $40/season 4C6G100G 2T Hong Kong Main Development Machine ⭐⭐⭐⭐
阳光云 ¥29.29/month 4C4G50G Unlimited Domestic Abandoned ❌
Hostinger $230.17/2 years 4C16G200G 16T Vietnam Production Environment ⭐⭐⭐

Detailed Review

Price: $62.49/year (approximately 450 CNY/year)

Configuration: 6 cores / 8G memory / 150G hard drive / 20T traffic / New York data center

Actual Experience:

  • High cost-performance, initially shocked by the price (compared to Aliyun, same configuration is 10 times more expensive)
  • Stable operation, deployed Dokploy for half a year without any issues
  • High latency for direct connection to China (200ms+), poor development environment experience
  • Obvious packet loss during peak hours on normal lines

Suitable Scenarios: Deploying services that do not require frequent access, such as API backend, scheduled tasks

Purchase Suggestion: Wait for Black Friday promotion, the price will be lower

Speed Test Screenshot:
bench.sh 测速

rn 回程测速

Price: $20/year

Configuration: 1 core / 1G memory / 14G hard drive / 1T traffic / 1 IPv4 + 3 IPv6 / Maine, USA

Actual Experience:

  • Cheap
  • Low configuration, can only run lightweight services
  • Currently idle

Suitable Scenarios: Special purposes that require multiple IPs

Price：$88/year

Configuration：4 cores / 8GB RAM / 88GB hard drive / 2222GB traffic / claimed Singapore

Actual Experience：

  • ❌ The biggest pitfall：Before buying, I thought the Singapore line would be good, but the IP is actually not from Singapore
  • ❌ Network quality is very poor, high latency and unstable
  • ❌ Control panel and RackNerd are very similar (may be the same system)

Suitable Scenario：Not recommended, abandoned

Lesson：Don’t just look at the machine room location, actually test the IP ownership and network quality

ClawCloud 👉 Official Website

Price：$25.2/year

Configuration：2 cores / 2GB RAM / 40GB hard drive / 1TB traffic / California, USA (Aliyun data center)

Actual Experience：

  • ✅ Reasonable price
  • ✅ Stable, suitable for running monitoring services
  • ⚠️ Low configuration, not suitable for heavy use

Suitable Scenario：Lightweight services, monitoring, scheduled tasks

Speed Test Screenshot：

claw bench

Contabo 👉 Official Website

Price：$12.45/month (approximately 150 CNY/month)

Configuration: 6-core / 12GB RAM / 100GB HDD / Japan data center

Actual Experience:

  • ✅ High configuration, good value for money
  • ❌ High purchase threshold: requires uploading passport and income proof
  • ❌ Additional fee for IP, $3+ per IP per month
  • ❌ Although it’s a Japan data center, direct connection to China requires a VPN
  • ❌ Return traffic quality is average

Current Use: Backup development machine

Complaints: Verification process is too complicated, buying a VPS is like applying for a visa

Speed Test Screenshot:

contabo 东京 bench

contabo 回程

Price: $40/quarter (approximately CNY 960/year)

Configuration: 4-core / 6GB RAM / 100GB HDD / 2TB traffic / Hong Kong

Actual Experience:

  • ✅ 9929 return route, low delay for domestic access
  • ✅ Suitable for development machine, with Chrome and other GUI installed
  • ✅ Currently running stably
  • ⚠️ Initially unstable, but improved later
  • ⚠️ More expensive than RN, but network quality is much better

Suitable Scenarios: Requires low-latency development environment, remote desktop

Why Choose It as the Main Machine: As a development machine, network latency is the top priority. The 9929 line route performs significantly better in China than the ordinary BGP.

Speed Test Screenshots:

image.png

zgo回程

zgo ip质量

Price: ¥29.29/month

Configuration: 4 cores / 4G memory / 50G hard drive / unlimited traffic / 9929 return route

Actual Experience:

  • ❌ Failed to Receive SMS Verification Codes, resulting in inability to complete registration/login
  • ❌ Requires real-name authentication
  • ❌ Network is unstable
  • ❌ Customer service response is slow

Suitable Scenarios: Except for the SMS issue, the price-performance ratio is still acceptable

Reason for Giving Up: The repeated SMS verification code issue is unbearable

Price: $230.17/2 years (approximately $115/year)

Configuration: 4 cores / 16G memory / 200G hard drive / 16T traffic / Vietnam

Actual Experience:

  • ✅ High configuration, 16G memory can run production services smoothly
  • ✅ Stable, used to deploy Dokploy for formal environment
  • ⚠️ Vietnam data center, domestic access needs to consider the route

Suitable Scenarios: Production Environment, Services Requiring Large Memory

Benchmark Screenshot:

hostinger bench

4. Conclusion

Scenario Recommendation Reason
Development Environment (Domestic Access) ZgoCloud 9929 Route, Low Latency
Deployment Environment (Infrequent Access) RackNerd High Cost-Performance Ratio, Stable
Production Environment (High-Configured) Hostinger Large Memory, Ample Traffic
Lightweight Service/Monitoring ClawCloud Affordable, Sufficient
Backup Development Machine Contabo High Configuration, Verification Can Be Troublesome
Not Recommended GreenVPS, Yangguang Cloud Too Many Pitfalls

My Final Choice

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主力开发机：ZgoCloud（低延迟优先，9929线路）
    ↓
备用开发机：Contabo（配置高，验证麻烦但能用）
    ↓
部署测试：RackNerd（性价比优先）
    ↓
生产环境：Hostinger（稳定性优先，大内存）
    ↓
监控服务：ClawCloud（便宜够用）

Purchase Suggestions

  1. Determine the Purpose: Development Environment Requires Low Latency, Deployment Environment Requires Stability, Monitoring Service Requires Affordability
  2. Don’t Just Look at Server Location: GreenVPS’s Singapore Pitfalls Taught Me to Test IP and Route in Reality
  3. Wait for Promotions: VPS Prices Will Be Lower During Black Friday, Double 11, etc.
  4. Try with Small Configuration: Buy the Cheapest Configuration to Test Network First, Upgrade Later If Needed

5、Error Records

GreenVPS IP Issue

Problem: The IP of the newly purchased Singapore server does not belong to Singapore.

Discovery Process: Use IP query tools to detect the issue.

Lesson Learned: Before purchasing, ask the customer service about the IP ownership or check other users’ evaluations.

Sunshine Cloud SMS Issue

Problem: Verification SMS cannot be received repeatedly.

Solutions Tried:

  • Change phone number ❌
  • Change time period ❌
  • Contact customer service (slow response) ❌

Final Solution: Give up.

Contabo Verification Process

Problem: Requires passport + income proof.

Complaint: Buying a VPS is like applying for a visa, but the configuration is indeed good, so I endured it.

Appendix: Speed Test Script

If you want to evaluate a VPS yourself, you can use the following scripts:

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# 综合性能测试（基本信息+IO+测速） 普通用户就行
wget -qO- bench.sh | bash

# 回程路由测试（看是什么线路） 可能需要root
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zhanghanyun/backtrace/main/install.sh -sSf | sh

# IP质量检测（看IP纯净度）
bash <(curl -Ls IP.Check.Place)

The next article will introduce the usage method and result interpretation of these tools in detail.

Next Article Preview

《How to Scientifically Evaluate a VPS》— Introduction to commonly used speed test scripts, backhaul route detection, and IP quality detection tools, and teach you how to understand the evaluation results.

Last Updated: 2026-01