With hardware costs climbing this year, many hosting providers have quietly retired their rock-bottom budget plans. However, I recently noticed that ColoCrossing brought back their special promo plans. Having a few low-traffic WordPress sites and marketing trackers to host, I jumped on a new instance to replace an aging 2.5GB RAM box.
Currently, I maintain a fleet of four budget VPS instances, all priced between $20 and $30 per year. On paper, three of them share nearly identical specs, but their real-world performance tells a very different story.
Instead of getting bogged down in theoretical, complex benchmarking, I want to look at these machines purely from a webmaster’s perspective. Here is a quick breakdown of my current lineup:
| ID | Provider | Specs | Location | Price / Year |
| 1 | RackNerd | 2 vCPU / 2.5 GB RAM / 40 GB SSD | Los Angeles (DC03) | $18.93 |
| 2 | RackNerd | 3 vCPU / 4 GB RAM / 65 GB SSD | San Jose | $29.98 |
| 3 | ColoCrossing | 3 vCPU / 4 GB RAM / 60 GB SSD | Los Angeles | $22.22 |
| 4 | ColoCrossing | 3 vCPU / 4 GB RAM / 60 GB SSD | New York | $20.99 |
Market Note: RackNerd has phased out these ultra-low-cost promos, and their new pricing has nearly doubled, stripping away much of their competitive edge. On the other hand, ColoCrossing’s deals are temporarily back online after a brief hiatus. There is no telling how long they will last.
The Raw Data: YABS Benchmarks
All four virtual private servers are running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. Here are the essential takeaways from their Yet Another Benchmarking Script (YABS) runs, focusing on Disk I/O and Network speeds.
Box 1: RackNerd (2 vCPU / 2.5 GB) — Los Angeles DC03
Basic System Information:
Processor : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2690 v4 @ 2.60GHz
CPU cores : 2 @ 2599.996 MHz
AES-NI : ✔ Enabled
VM-x/AMD-V : ✔ Enabled
RAM : 2.4 GiB
Swap : 3.2 GiB
Disk : 38.0 GiB
Distro : Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS
Kernel : 5.15.0-179-generic
VM Type : KVM
IPv4/IPv6 : ✔ Online / ❌ Offline
fio Disk Speed Tests (Mixed R/W 50/50) (Partition /dev/vda2):
| Block Size | 4k (IOPS) | 64k (IOPS) |
|---|---|---|
| Read | 64.43 MB/s (16.1k) | 701.18 MB/s (10.9k) |
| Write | 64.55 MB/s (16.1k) | 704.87 MB/s (11.0k) |
| Total | 128.99 MB/s (32.2k) | 1.40 GB/s (21.9k) |
| Block Size | 512k (IOPS) | 1m (IOPS) |
|---|---|---|
| Read | 800.81 MB/s (1.5k) | 781.20 MB/s (762) |
| Write | 843.36 MB/s (1.6k) | 833.23 MB/s (813) |
| Total | 1.64 GB/s (3.2k) | 1.61 GB/s (1.5k) |
iperf3 Network Speed Tests (IPv4):
| Provider | Location (Link) | Send Speed | Recv Speed | Ping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clouvider | London, UK (10G) | 738 Mbits/sec | busy | 143 ms |
| Eranium | Amsterdam, NL (100G) | 710 Mbits/sec | 542 Mbits/sec | 164 ms |
| Uztelecom | Tashkent, UZ (10G) | 598 Mbits/sec | 179 Mbits/sec | 247 ms |
| Leaseweb | Singapore, SG (10G) | 672 Mbits/sec | 438 Mbits/sec | 181 ms |
| Clouvider | Los Angeles, CA, US (10G) | 822 Mbits/sec | 881 Mbits/sec | 0.709 ms |
| Leaseweb | NYC, NY, US (10G) | 793 Mbits/sec | 558 Mbits/sec | 65.1 ms |
| Edgoo | Sao Paulo, BR (1G) | 650 Mbits/sec | 154 Mbits/sec | 172 ms |
Box 2: RackNerd (3 vCPU / 4 GB) — San Jose
Basic System Information:
Processor : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2699 v4 @ 2.20GHz
CPU cores : 3 @ 2199.998 MHz
AES-NI : ✔ Enabled
VM-x/AMD-V : ✔ Enabled
RAM : 3.8 GiB
Swap : 2.0 GiB
Disk : 61.9 GiB
Distro : Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS
Kernel : 5.15.0-46-generic
VM Type : KVM
IPv4/IPv6 : ✔ Online / ❌ Offline
fio Disk Speed Tests (Mixed R/W 50/50) (Partition /dev/vda2):
| Block Size | 4k (IOPS) | 64k (IOPS) |
|---|---|---|
| Read | 88.40 MB/s (22.1k) | 971.95 MB/s (15.1k) |
| Write | 88.63 MB/s (22.1k) | 977.07 MB/s (15.2k) |
| Total | 177.04 MB/s (44.2k) | 1.94 GB/s (30.4k) |
| Block Size | 512k (IOPS) | 1m (IOPS) |
|---|---|---|
| Read | 757.18 MB/s (1.4k) | 780.00 MB/s (761) |
| Write | 797.41 MB/s (1.5k) | 831.95 MB/s (812) |
| Total | 1.55 GB/s (3.0k) | 1.61 GB/s (1.5k) |
iperf3 Network Speed Tests (IPv4):
| Provider | Location (Link) | Send Speed | Recv Speed | Ping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clouvider | London, UK (10G) | 327 Mbits/sec | busy | 135 ms |
| Eranium | Amsterdam, NL (100G) | 601 Mbits/sec | 629 Mbits/sec | 143 ms |
| Uztelecom | Tashkent, UZ (10G) | 334 Mbits/sec | 533 Mbits/sec | 233 ms |
| Leaseweb | Singapore, SG (10G) | 420 Mbits/sec | 702 Mbits/sec | 177 ms |
| Clouvider | Los Angeles, CA, US (10G) | 793 Mbits/sec | 870 Mbits/sec | 8.45 ms |
| Leaseweb | NYC, NY, US (10G) | 507 Mbits/sec | 808 Mbits/sec | 65.3 ms |
| Edgoo | Sao Paulo, BR (1G) | 310 Mbits/sec | 182 Mbits/sec | 172 ms |
Box 3: ColoCrossing (3 vCPU / 4 GB) — Los Angeles
Basic System Information:
Processor : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2683 v4 @ 2.10GHz
CPU cores : 3 @ 2099.996 MHz
AES-NI : ✔ Enabled
VM-x/AMD-V : ✔ Enabled
RAM : 3.8 GiB
Swap : 1024.0 MiB
Disk : 59.0 GiB
Distro : Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS
Kernel : 5.15.0-46-generic
VM Type : KVM
IPv4/IPv6 : ✔ Online / ❌ Offline
fio Disk Speed Tests (Mixed R/W 50/50) (Partition /dev/vda1):
| Block Size | 4k (IOPS) | 64k (IOPS) |
|---|---|---|
| Read | 40.73 MB/s (10.1k) | 517.99 MB/s (8.0k) |
| Write | 40.81 MB/s (10.2k) | 520.71 MB/s (8.1k) |
| Total | 81.54 MB/s (20.3k) | 1.03 GB/s (16.2k) |
| Block Size | 512k (IOPS) | 1m (IOPS) |
|---|---|---|
| Read | 714.04 MB/s (1.3k) | 722.52 MB/s (705) |
| Write | 751.98 MB/s (1.4k) | 770.64 MB/s (752) |
| Total | 1.46 GB/s (2.8k) | 1.49 GB/s (1.4k) |
iperf3 Network Speed Tests (IPv4):
| Provider | Location (Link) | Send Speed | Recv Speed | Ping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clouvider | London, UK (10G) | busy | busy | 153 ms |
| Eranium | Amsterdam, NL (100G) | 548 Mbits/sec | 596 Mbits/sec | 145 ms |
| Uztelecom | Tashkent, UZ (10G) | 389 Mbits/sec | 442 Mbits/sec | 240 ms |
| Leaseweb | Singapore, SG (10G) | 369 Mbits/sec | 539 Mbits/sec | 168 ms |
| Clouvider | Los Angeles, CA, US (10G) | 914 Mbits/sec | 889 Mbits/sec | 0.648 ms |
| Leaseweb | NYC, NY, US (10G) | 616 Mbits/sec | 602 Mbits/sec | 66.5 ms |
| Edgoo | Sao Paulo, BR (1G) | 454 Mbits/sec | 461 Mbits/sec | 168 ms |
Box 4: ColoCrossing (3 vCPU / 4 GB) — New York
Basic System Information:
Processor : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2699 v4 @ 2.20GHz
CPU cores : 3 @ 2199.996 MHz
AES-NI : ✔ Enabled
VM-x/AMD-V : ✔ Enabled
RAM : 3.8 GiB
Swap : 1024.0 MiB
Disk : 59.0 GiB
Distro : Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS
Kernel : 5.15.0-46-generic
VM Type : KVM
IPv4/IPv6 : ✔ Online / ❌ Offline
fio Disk Speed Tests (Mixed R/W 50/50) (Partition /dev/vda1):
| Block Size | 4k (IOPS) | 64k (IOPS) |
|---|---|---|
| Read | 27.50 MB/s (6.8k) | 450.59 MB/s (7.0k) |
| Write | 27.52 MB/s (6.8k) | 452.96 MB/s (7.0k) |
| Total | 55.02 MB/s (13.7k) | 903.55 MB/s (14.1k) |
| Block Size | 512k (IOPS) | 1m (IOPS) |
|---|---|---|
| Read | 1.20 GB/s (2.3k) | 1.27 GB/s (1.2k) |
| Write | 1.26 GB/s (2.4k) | 1.35 GB/s (1.3k) |
| Total | 2.47 GB/s (4.8k) | 2.63 GB/s (2.5k) |
iperf3 Network Speed Tests (IPv4):
| Provider | Location (Link) | Send Speed | Recv Speed | Ping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clouvider | London, UK (10G) | busy | 289 Mbits/sec | 79.3 ms |
| Eranium | Amsterdam, NL (100G) | 448 Mbits/sec | 663 Mbits/sec | 88.3 ms |
| Uztelecom | Tashkent, UZ (10G) | 369 Mbits/sec | 254 Mbits/sec | 179 ms |
| Leaseweb | Singapore, SG (10G) | 365 Mbits/sec | 303 Mbits/sec | 218 ms |
| Clouvider | Los Angeles, CA, US (10G) | 563 Mbits/sec | 331 Mbits/sec | 64.8 ms |
| Leaseweb | NYC, NY, US (10G) | 867 Mbits/sec | 542 Mbits/sec | 12.4 ms |
| Edgoo | Sao Paulo, BR (1G) | 332 Mbits/sec | 272 Mbits/sec | 122 ms |
Head-to-Head Analysis
1. Performance: The Disk I/O Divide
While all these hosts utilize standard Intel Xeon E5 v4 processors, their storage performance tells a completely different story:
- RackNerd (Boxes 1 & 2): These offer the best all-around storage speeds. The San Jose machine shines with a
4kmixed read/write speed of 177 MB/s. This snappy random I/O performance makes a massive difference for database-heavy applications like WordPress. - ColoCrossing (Boxes 3 & 4): Storage here is a bit of a mixed bag. The Los Angeles box yields a modest 81 MB/s on
4kblocks. Meanwhile, the New York machine chokes on small4kfiles (55 MB/s combined) but bursts to an incredible 2.6 GB/s sequential throughput on1mblocks. This suggests CC’s New York host node relies heavily on aggressive large-file caching. It is excellent for streaming static assets, but it will lag slightly under write-heavy logging operations.
2. Network: Location Dictates Your Audience
- US West Coast (LA & San Jose): If your target audience is global or heavily concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region, West Coast servers are the sweet spot. Routing to APAC nodes like Singapore stays solid, with latency hovering predictably around 160ms–180ms.
- US East Coast (New York): Box 4 offers a massive advantage for European traffic, dropping latency to London and Amsterdam down to 79ms–88ms. However, this comes at the expense of Asia-bound routing.
Real-World Use Cases & Practical Takeaways
Box 1 (RackNerd 2.5G LA): The “Set It and Forget It” Workhorse
Despite having the lowest memory allotment, this box effortlessly juggles six low-traffic WordPress sites. RackNerd’s uptime has been rock solid. Over the past year, I haven’t experienced any random freezes or hardware crashes—only a single network outage that lasted a few hours. It is highly reliable for the price.
Box 2 (RackNerd 4G San Jose): The Affiliate Tracker
I use this setup for my Media Buy self-hosted tracking system (Binom). Under heavy click traffic, the CPU handles traffic redirection smoothly, and the San Jose location offers incredibly balanced global response times. It is a shame this specific tier is no longer available to new buyers.
Box 3 (ColoCrossing 4G LA): The Demo Server
This machine hosts a live demo of Binom. If you’re currently using Binom, check out my guide on setting up the lifetime version—it’s a massive money-saver. ColoCrossing provides massive, unthrottled bandwidth pipes here, resulting in snappy click redirects and plenty of network headroom.
Box 4 (ColoCrossing 4G NY): The New Project
Because of its slower random I/O and East Coast positioning, I plan to utilize this machine as an application migration target or for staging environments.
The Verdict: Are Cheap VPS Plans Worth the Gamble?
Absolutely—provided you assign the right machine to the right job.
With global hardware prices ticking upward, getting a KVM slice with 3 vCPUs, 4 GB of RAM, and a dedicated IPv4 address for the price of two casual dinners is an incredible deal.
Best Use Cases for Budget Promos
- Learning & Personal Projects: Perfect for deploying control panels like aaPanel, setting up standard LNMP environments, or testing self-hosted tools without worrying about costs.
- Low-Budget Global/Cross-Border Sites: When paired with a reverse proxy or CDN like Cloudflare, these back-end servers handle corporate showcase sites flawlessly.
- Infrastructure Support: Excellent for running scheduled cron scripts, offsite data backups, or automated developer environments.
Buying Tips
- Know Your Audience: Pick your datacenter carefully. Target Europe? Buy New York. Target Asia or Global? Stick to Los Angeles or San Jose.
- Avoid High-Concurrency Production Loads: These nodes are heavily oversold shared environments. If your site generates tens of thousands of unique daily hits, or if your business model depends on strict uptime SLAs, invest in dedicated, high-tier compute infrastructure (AWS, DigitalOcean, Linode).
- Port 25 Restrictions: If you intend to run mail servers, keep in mind that RackNerd leaves Port 25 open by default on most promos, whereas ColoCrossing blocks it until you open a support ticket.
Final Thoughts: Look Beyond the Benchmarks
Many buyers rely entirely on YABS or geekbench readouts to make their purchasing decisions. While those metrics give you a baseline, they do not tell the whole story.
When setting up my new New York VPS from ColoCrossing, the box registered as active and fully functional in the client area, but it refused all incoming SSH connections. After debugging local firewalls, routing tables, and OS configurations, I finally tracked down the culprit: a misconfigured default gateway on the datacenter’s host side. The VPS was perfectly healthy inside its container, but it was completely cut off from the web due to a simple administrative typo.
Once support resolved the gateway mapping, it reconnected instantly.
This serves as a good reminder: a budget VPS can put up amazing numbers on paper, but actual peace of mind comes down to network stability, correct initial provisioning, and data center reliability. For less than $25 a year, you just have to accept a little hands-on troubleshooting along the way.
