Moving LibHunt’s VPS from DigitalOcean to Linode improved “page download time” ~4 times + more
I would like to share my latest experience of using DigitalOcean and Linode’s VPS services for hosting LibHunt. Historically, I have used both companies for the last several years. First, I was a huge fan of Linode, then, when DigitalOcean was born I moved one by one all my memory hungry Ruby on Rails apps to it. At that point, the RAM was the most precious resource, and DO offered 2 times more compared to Linode. Linode’s support was superior, but DigitalOcean’s was good, too. All I needed was more RAM for my money.
I am using Ubuntu LTS in most cases, and whenever a new LTS version is released, I start hunting if there is a better provider. If there is, I pre-install everything to the new VPS, sync the DB, and update the relevant DNS records. I have fully documented this simple process, and it has worked almost flawlessly for me. So, a month ago, I again made the switch of VPS providers from DigitalOcean back to Linode :). First, Linode is offering two times more RAM at the same price, and second, I read a blog post with extensive CPU, RAM & SSD speed performance comparisons in huge favor of Linode.
I can’t find the article I read; however, I performed the same tests on my Linode and DO instances (using sysbench), and Linode showed considerably better results in regards of RAM and SSD speed, and some slight advantages over CPU speed. In both cases, I was testing on $20 instances. In essence, at this moment, I am getting more raw resources for my money by using Linode’s services.
In addition to the quantity of the RAM, which was more or less enough even before the upgrade (2GB), its speed and the speed of the SSD played a positive role, after the move. I was able to notice response-time improvements immediately (measuring by httpstat). Now, more than a month after the switch, I can share the “Site Speed” stats of LibHunt’s GoogleAnalytics.
As you can see, all characteristics have improved more or less, with “Avg Page Download Time” 4 times better when using Linode. Of course, these stats should be taken with a pinch of salt, as the old VPS was located on the East coast of the States, and the new one is located on the West coast. Moreover, I had Ubuntu 14.04 on the first one, while it is a fully updated 16.04 now.
In the end, I am more than happy with moving back to Linode; however, I was happy as well when moving from it to DigitalOcean in the past :). Who knows, maybe I will switch the VPS provider again with the next LTS release of Ubuntu... Would I recommend Linode? Sure. I think they offer the best value for your money as of this time, and their support has been flawless so far, too.
Now, if you are a software developer or sysadmin/dev-ops, I would recommend giving a look at LibHunt. It helps you find the software you need.
Update: Here it is the article with performance benchmarks that I couldn’t find earlier today — $10 Showdown: Linode vs. DigitalOcean (July 2016)
