Arch Linux VPS Host Options

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Arch Linux is my preferred Linux distribution. Not many of the VPS providers offer Arch Linux though. Here is my review of three options. It is worth mentioning that using Arch Linux for a critical server that needs to stay up is generally not recommended. Updates are frequent and they sometimes come with big changes. There are situations where the only way to fix something that breaks after an update is to read the news on the Arch Linux website. CentOS and Debian are good reliable choices.

Linode

Linode is my top pick. 40Gbps incoming bandwidth. SSD. Awesome. They only offer VPS. Cheapest package is $10 per month versus the $6 per month from InterServer and $25 per year from Virpus. It is still cheap and the speed of the servers and connection is worth it. Deploying Arch Linux is fast, easy, and automated. There are nice graphs for the servers too. Happy overall. Have not had to file any support tickets. When looking at the downfalls of the other two options, Linode is a clear winner for me. Link.

InterServer.net - Cloud VPS

Quick support. They support Arch Linux however it does not run on their OpenVZ offer, only the KVM choice. The KVM server costs $8/month versus $6/month for OpenVZ. Provisioning the Arch Linux server also required manual intervention from support. They were quick to respond and I was able to provide a URL to the exact ISO I wanted to use. The process was smooth however it was not automated. That is the one disadvantage. The bandwidth speed is slower than Linode. It is easy to increase and decrease slices. Each slice is $6 per month but comes with 1GB RAM per slice. Also offers unlimited hosting packages with unlimited storage, bandwidth, emails. Pair an unlimited hosting account with a VPS and you have a great set up. The transfer limit on the VPS counts from server to server internally though. Some providers like SoftLayer don't count internal bandwidth when communicating internally. Link.

Virpus - SSD-Cache Linux VPS Hosting

At $25 for one year of VPS it is the cheapest by far. Disappointing service and support though. Not only slow to respond but their responses were very minimal and not very helpful. Server could not be provisioned because hostname was only 3 letters and too short, was not warned during creation or informed why it was stuck in pending until I put in a support ticket. Was told they did not have enough IP addresses to provision my server. Eventually the server was provisioned but I was told the network setup was temporary and any reboot would lose it. They say they offer a 3 day trial period where you can ask for a refund if you are not satisfied. I asked for a refund within three days and my support ticket was transferred to their billing department. A few days later they acknowledge it and told me they would not refund it because it was past the three day period. They also said they would not refund my money because there is nothing wrong with the server and asked me to provide proof there was something wrong. I asked them to look at the ticket comment history and explained all the problems I had and that I wasn't even able to SSH to the box at that moment. They still refused to refund my money and told me to use the server that is 'working perfectly'. Their support is awful. Their server provisioning process is awful. The management dashboard is awful and would randomly return CloudFlare errors. Stay away. Link.

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