VPS Price Plans and Differences

Basics and types of VPS price plans

Basic CPU, memory, and storage

While most rental servers have abstract plans such as "Basic" and "High Speed," VPS server pricing plans are basically based on the number of CPU cores occupied, memory capacity, and storage capacity. The more of each, the higher the price.

The combination of the number of CPU cores, memory capacity, and storage capacity is basically decided by the VPS provider, so you cannot customize your plan by saying "I only want to increase the memory" or "I want to use this plan for the number of CPU cores and reduce the price by reducing the memory only.

Prices vary by region.

Although a VPS server is a virtual server, it is operated on an actual physical server, so it has a data center somewhere. The location of the data center is called a "region" in the server industry.

Since the cost of operating a data center varies by region, the price generally varies depending on which region's data center you choose, even for the same server configuration (same CPU, memory, and storage).

Server performance does not often vary by region, but the physical distance between different data center locations and the people accessing the servers does. Even with today's high-speed data networks, it is common to locate servers in data centers near regions with large numbers of users, since transmission speeds vary with physical distance (the closer, the faster).

Therefore, "which region to choose" is important not only in terms of price, but also in terms of usability.

How to compare VPS price plans

Basically, compare by specs

As we have seen, VPS price plans are classified by the "number of CPU cores, memory capacity, and storage capacity," so when comparing VPS providers, it is basic to compare price plans with the same specifications.

Although the CPU generation of the servers used by different VPS providers may differ, you should not be concerned about this.

Comparing by whether or not there are additional fees

Once you have compared basic fees, the next step is to compare additional fees and optional fees. A common case is that "A VPS provider includes a feature in the basic fee, but B VPS provider charges an optional fee. In this case, the monthly fee may differ by as much as 1.5 times, so be careful.

Also, when using a VPS for web services, pay particular attention to the transfer volume settings. It is common for one VPS provider to have an estimated monthly transfer volume of 10TB, while another VPS provider has only 1TB.

Let's also compare the availability of features you may use in the future.

When you sign up for a VPS, you may have only wanted a server that you can use freely for the time being, but after a long period of operation, you may want to add additional functions to it.

The following functions are commonly used in VPS. 1.

1. plan change function Load balancer function
2. additional storage
3. mail server function

We will avoid explaining each of these here, but be sure to research and compare the features you may need in the future, even if only lightly.

How to decide on a VPS pricing plan

Be clear about what you want to do with the server.

If you compare working on a server to working at a desk, the number of CPU cores is the number of brains, memory is the size of your desk, and storage is the size of your drawers.

1. need more processing power: number of CPU cores
2. you need a lot of processing: memory capacity (1) You want to store a lot of data: storage capacity

Therefore, it is very important to first think about what kind of programs you want to run on the VPS.

Next, think about your target users.

When you make a contract, there is always some purpose: for a web server, it is "to let as many people as possible view your web site," and for a batch server, it is "to perform data processing on the server. What we want to consider here is that the target users differ depending on the purpose.

For example, in the case of a web server, the person who signs up for a VPS is also a VPS user, but the user who accesses the website is also a VPS user. Rather, in the case of a web server, the person accessing the server spends more time accessing the server than the subscriber, so he or she is the original user.

On the other hand, if you are using a VPS server for batch processing, etc., the user is the subscriber. You can choose according to your own usability.

Let's decide on a region.

As explained earlier, the "region," which indicates where the VPS data center is located, is very important in terms of user access speed.

If your service is accessed by many users in US, you should choose a data center in US. If your service is accessed by many users in the US, you should choose the US, and if your service is accessed by many users in Europe, you should choose Europe. It is normal to contract in the region where your main users occupy.

Some VPS providers may not have a region in the country you want. If you use an overseas VPS provider, you may have to solve this problem by saying, There is no Japan, so you'll sign up in the nearest Singapore region.

Test the approximate throughput

Once you have decided on your target users, you will have a rough idea of how your VPS server will be used. Then, test how much processing power you need.

Since VPS allows you to freely install applications on the OS, it is common to use benchmarking software for testing. When testing, be sure to use a free trial.

When testing, it is best to use a VPS that offers a free trial. If the VPS service you want to use does not have a free trial, you can minimize costs by choosing a VPS that charges by the hour.

If you have trouble choosing a plan?

For a web server, focus on "memory

When operating a web server, it is important to "handle a large number of user accesses instantly," so choose a VPS plan based on memory, which is an indicator of the "size" of the processing capacity.

When choosing a plan based on memory, keep in mind that "the server's OS alone uses memory. For example, if the OS uses about 300MB at startup, a 1GB plan has almost 700MB to spare, but a 512MB memory plan has only about 200MB to spare. Even though there is only one difference in terms of plans, there is a big difference in terms of memory margins.

Since it depends on the language and framework you are using, you should actually try setting up a VPS server with multiple plans and test it in various situations on the Apache bench.

If you are using it for data processing, focus on the "number of CPU cores".

On the other hand, if you are using the VPS as a server for data processing, focus on the number of CPU cores. In data processing, the simple calculation "time to process = cost" holds true, so the higher the CPU capacity of the server, the faster it will finish and work. Also, if the server is deleted when processing is complete, the cost of the server can be reduced by that amount.

However, even if you prepare a VPS with unnecessarily high specs, it will be useless if the program itself is not set to use the appropriate number of cores, so look at the CPU usage (such as the top command for Linux) and choose an appropriate plan.

Points to keep in mind when choosing a VPS pricing plan

Be sure to check if you can change plans!

The performance of a VPS server is determined at the moment you sign up, but the performance requirements of a VPS server change daily.

In the case of a web server, the required specifications will increase as your site grows, and in some cases, you may be able to lower the specifications and cut costs by optimizing the program.

In other words, the requirements for VPS servers are always changing.

To be able to respond to such changes, be sure to check if it is possible to change plans on a VPS server. It is also important to know how to change plans. Depending on the provider, in some cases "you can change plans by shutting down," while in other cases "you have to re-sign up for a new server. In some cases, you can upgrade but cannot downgrade.

Also, the detail of the pricing plan is important. For example, what if there is a VPS server with 1GB memory for 500 yen, and the only plan above is 4GB for 3,000 yen?

There may be additional fees.

Basically, the basic principle of VPS service is to "buy outright with a monthly plan." However, in the case of VPS (also called virtual instance) of cloud services, there are cases where additional charges are made for data transfer fees called "egress" or the number of accesses, in addition to the machine usage fee.

In such cases, the cost may be higher than the plan list, and in some cases, the price may be several times higher than that of other companies' services.