UK VPS solutions... decisions, decisions! Can you help me?!

[maffp]

Hi!

I'm looking for a decent UK-based VPS (£30 - £40 all inclusive) to power a few very small websites and one or two magento stores. I'd be transferring from ResellerZoom shared hosting which is just not powerful enough for magento. I've whittled my selection down to the following (in no particular order). :

Tagadab.com - VS500/VS1000 - seems good value
CheapVPS.co.uk - 1024MB Ram - well known, good value
NewNet.co.uk - VPS VS3 - very fast according to webperf.net
Easyspace.com - Premium VPS - seem to regularly win awards
Xilo.net - XV3 - read a bit of good feedback
Memset.com - custom vps - get excellent hosting 2008 award on pcpro.co.uk
xtrahost.co.uk - XenVM-512 - magento experience, good value

Has anybody got anything to say about any of these? Pitfalls? Good experiences?

I know I shouldn't go by this but I think it might be a decent guide...
Just done speed test on all their websites and get following results:

# // Domain name // Size // Load Time // Average Speed per KB
1 // www.newnet.co.uk/ // 42.96 KB // 0.82 seconds // 0.02 seconds
2 // www.easyspace.com/ // 18.97 KB // 0.75 seconds // 0.04 seconds
3 // www.xilo.net/ // 18.55 KB // 0.67 seconds // 0.04 seconds
4 // www.memset.com/ // 19.22 KB // 0.92 seconds // 0.05 seconds
5 // www.tagadab.com/ // 9.34 KB // 0.52 seconds // 0.06 seconds
6 // www.xtrahost.co.uk/ // 9.19 KB // 0.64 seconds // 0.07 seconds
7 // www.cheapvps.co.uk/ // 5.38 KB // 0.55 seconds // 0.1 seconds

Cheers!

[~ServerPoint~]

What the way for the tests was used?
I believe that better have the same file and then download. Moreover you have done tests for your own location and I'm sure that you are not visitor your web site going to have?

[maffp]

Hi!

I used the online tool at http://www.selfseo.com/website_speed_test.php. It checks the speed from their server

[Karl]

Hi,

First things first, throw away those speed test results - when you're dealing with such small quantities of data, that vary in size between the tested providers, the results are going to be very unreliable - You could actually end up with the faster real world host coming out the slowest in terms of KB/s because they have the smallest website front page.

Secondly, we find Magento is quite resource intensive (we're just putting together a package based around it) so I'd check very carefully if the RAM levels quoted are guaranteed. A popular trick is to give you 192MB/256MB of guaranteed RAM then 1GB of burst RAM - which is the figure they shout about and means they are over-subscribing the server resources, else they'd offer it as guaranteed RAM.

Thirdly, check what kind of CPU resources you'll get - If anyone gives you meaningless waffle like, "You'll get a priority of 4000 on VPS Package 4, on VPS Package 1 it's a priority of 1000" - Those numbers mean nothing (apart from VPS 4 gets higher priority than VPS 1), because you don't know how many VPS are on the server to know what kind of real priority and percentage of the CPU you're going to get. Far more transparent is aa provider who says, "You get 0.25 of a CPU, the CPUs are X.YGhz <model> from AMD/Intel". You know where you stand then, again, check if that is guaranteed.

As you're running an ecommerce venture from it, I would say those are some of the most important things to be checking (outside of support) as customers won't buy from slow websites.

Thanks,

[shaki22]

only newnet website loads pretty fast for me, all other i have to wait 1-2 secs to see the page.

[stevewebdev2005]

I'd agree with Karl that you need plenty memory (guaranteed). Magento runs best if you have large mysql and accelerator caches, which mean persistent memory use. You want a vps with fast disk throughput too, so I'd avoid any of those companies listed if they don't state what kind of disk system they use (which can often mean they are using domestic quality disks). Worth having a look at clustered.net, they use good hardware and xen so all memory stated is guaranteed.

[SiberForum]

7 comapnies you have - enough. You'd rather go for the reviews now for these companies and that will help you get right decision about the company name, not the solution

[Davelin]

i heard only easyspace name , why you don't do with US ones ?

[reviewman]

I heard about good words about xtrahost, they have good reputation.