Linode.com VPS Review
Linode is a webhosting provider that positions itself as a cloud hosting service for developers and designers. But this means nothing else than that they offer high performance servers operating with SSD disks and Linux systems. Their cloud servers are easy to setup and manage and offer a scalable environment for complex systems.
Besides fast SSDs their network speed in general is 40Gbps which is faster than average when compared to other cloud network speeds. This ensures fast processing of sophisticated applications. Another quality feature is an 9.99% uptime fo their servers, so once your server is up you can rely on a stable system.
But of course like all cloud hosting services they offer both, managed and unmanaged plans. The managed ones costs more, as usual. Depending on your project and needs you can decide if and how much assistance you need and choose your vServer plan accordingly.
Linode.com was launched in 2003 which makes them one of the first cloud hosting services on the market. So they have many years of experience which gets obvious in their high quality cloud systems, where customers can rely on high performance and stability. They actually have more than 400,000 customers as of today.
Linode.com VPS
Choosing a server environment is simple and comfortable. You just pick a plan with the features that fit your project best regarding storage space, memory, CPU etc., then you select your Distro which can be Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS Fedora, Gentoo, Arch Linux, or Slackware, and finally you are allowed to pick the server location you think would be best for your project – and you are ready to go.
Let’s have a look at their vServer plans in detail:
Packages & Pricing
Linode.com offers a wide range of plans starting from cheap VPS with capacities suiting smaller web projects starting from as little as $5 a month. Then those plans go up stepwise with increasing performance ending up at their most expensive enterprise plan for nearly 1000 bucks per month that comes with 300 GB RAM, 16 CPU Cores, 340 GB SSD, 9 TB bandwidth at 40 Gbps (network out 9000 Mbps) – and unbelievable performance machine. Whatever your project requires, somewhere in between you will definitely find the best VPS package for your needs.
They generally have two kinds of VPS packages. One type of plans focuses on a higher amount of CPU Cores while the other series comes with higher memory. They call them Standard plans and High Memory Plans:
Standard Plans
High Memory Plans
One remarkable point as that they offer hourly billing as an alternative to monthly billing. This means that you can preselect to be billed by the hour. This means that they will charge their hourly rate for the usage of their service that can only go up to the monthly cap. So let’s say you choose the $10 plan in general and then decide to be billed by the hour, you will never pay more than the maximum cap of $10. Only less, in case you should use the service little. However, if you need to exceed the maximum bandwidth that is included in your package you will get charged for each additional GB on top. That is $0.02 per GB. Good to know: Inbound traffic is free, so you’re only getting charged for outbound traffic.
For payments they accept the standard credit cards (Visa, AmEx, MasterCard) and Discover but of course also Paypal.
Of course Linode offers extra services like monthly Backups, additional IPs, server management by their staff and some other features you can check on their website.
Customer Service
With their many years of experience in the industry Linode know very well how to best assist their customers. So you can expect fast answers and great assistance. Their job is to make your life easier and that is usually what you will feel when asking for help.
There are different ways to get in touch with Linode’s customer service 24/7. You can open a support ticket online that will be answered in a short time, but you can also just write them an email or even call them. Also FAX can be send.
Trial Period
A great thing about Linode.com is that they offer a one week trial period. So within the first 7 days you can cancel your subscription and request a full refund. They won’t ask any questions. That’s extraordinary among cloud services since most of them don’t offer a trial or money back guarantee and will at least keep the payment for the first month.
Another great thing is their promo coupon Code that will credit $10 on your new account. So if you take the $5 plan, the first two months will be free for you.
Code: DOCS10
Bottomline
Linode is a big player on the market with a lot of experience and good reputations. Their VPS are definitely recommended The hourly billing is a fair deal for customers who don’t need a server all the time. Some more payment options would be nice, like bank wire or even cryptocurrencies.