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I'm a big fan of Linode. Have had one of their mid-range servers for about 2 years now and have had no troubles. When it came time to upgrading, or any other qu

I'm a big fan of Linode. Have had one of their mid-range servers for about 2 years now and have had no troubles. When it came time to upgrading, or any other questions I had, their support staff is 1) quick, 2) knowledgable, 3) thorough & helpful. I've used DO in the past for quick spin-ups, and they're great for that. But for long running applications I'd stay away. Was actually considering DO for a new project, but this kind of tipped the scales the other way. If you're looking to switch, I think Linode gives you the best bang and reliability for your buck. Have also used Rackspace for a previous startup. A bit more pricey, but also a great service if you're considering switching.

meritt 12y ago
Linode can't silo resources on a per VPS basis and constantly will harass you for over-utilizing your share of arbitrarily enforced limits. Just a heads up if you actually utilize your instances.
- harpastum 12y ago
  Are you talking about the "Linode Alert" emails? Those are user-configurable — in the email, they specifically state "This is not meant as a warning or a representation that you are misusing your resources. We encourage you to modify the thresholds based on your own individual needs." If that's not what you're talking about, I apologize, but I've been using Linode for years (often with very compute-intensive projects) and I haven't seen what you're talking about.
  - jarin 12y ago
    Just out of pure laziness, I use the CPU and disk access emails as makeshift notifications for when my backups run.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
- opendais 12y ago
  Really? I find that odd. I do load testing on their instances all the time. which maxes out cpu/disk to give me an idea of performance changes for stuff I have high throughput on. Hell, I've gotten DDoS'd for like 2 Gbps and they were like "Oh, ya, its fine." So, can you explain more about what happened?
- bigredtech 12y ago
  Have run a web-app with 30K+ users. Only been 'harassed' when I've been warned that I'm running the CPU at 350% of max rate and I should be concerned. That's ok in my book.
- Ronsenshi 12y ago
  I find that surprising. Linode support never contacted me regarding resource usage. Not even when one of the servers has been under DDOS. I contacted them first notifying of such event. And that was it. I agree with harpastum. I think you're confusing automatic email notifications based on your own settings with Linode support. I feel like you have to seriously abuse their infrastructure to get them to contact you. Disclaimer: has been a happy Linode customer for over 4 years now.
  - meritt 12y ago
    http://i.imgur.com/UCPWdBq.png http://i.imgur.com/UCPWdBq.png I was not confusing automated emails with direct contact from Linode support. I fully understand and can appreciate the need to be a "nice neighbor" in a shared environment but what baffles me is: 1) Linode doesn't have the capability to actually enforce any sort of quota or limit. It's 2014, there's been numerous advancements in the area of virtualized servers in the past decade. cgroups is a very easy way that works across xen, kvm and lxc. 2) Linode doesn't publish these arbitrary limits nor give guidance on which node size comes with what acceptable usage levels.
    - guiambros 12y ago
      This is ridiculous. Would suggest you move out of Linode right away. It's their job to limit resources on your node, not your job to self-limit. Asking you to limit resources because it's "affecting other customers' performance" is not only outrageous, but also unfair with the other customers being impacted. This reminds me of the late 90's [1], when web hosting meant sharing the same box with hundreds of other customers, and very limited tools to enforce limits. When you had a resource hog, the only option was really to get them to reduce usage, or move them to a separate box (which wasn't as easy as today). [1] ps: I know this well; used to have a web hosting company at the time. We had to frequently move customers around, and in some cases to terminate their contracts - e.g., porn sites. But this was a good 10 years before Xen become commonplace.
      - meritt 12y ago
nilved 12y ago
If you'd used their servers for a bit longer, you'd have plenty of trouble. Linode is notorious for dreadful security practices. Their main ColdFusion app (yes, really) has been hacked on numerous occasions, including at least once incident that involved customer data loss. Linode dodged the issue and didn't tell their customers until badgered. I can agree that DO isn't suited for production apps, but Linode isn't either. They're both VPS playgrounds.
- antsar 12y ago
  Is there a better alternative you would suggest? While Linode has done better than DO, that fiasco left me feeling somewhat uneasy as well.
  - nilved 12y ago
    There are a great many VPS and server providers out there. I've had good experiences with gandi.net, Rackspace, moln.is and pgrmr. I've seen Ramnode and Lithium Hosting get a lot of praise. You could also use AWS if you don't have any ethical objections to using Amazon products.
- Ronsenshi 12y ago
  Same question as antsar. What would you suggest then?
olso 12y ago
I use DO because they have servers in Amsterdam, which happens to be very close to my country. I never had problems with DO that weren't resolved promptly. Just a note, Linode is very US-centric anyway... (and that one London location doesn't make it international very much)

meritt 12y ago

Linode can't silo resources on a per VPS basis and constantly will harass you for over-utilizing your share of arbitrarily enforced limits. Just a heads up if you actually utilize your instances.

harpastum 12y ago
Are you talking about the "Linode Alert" emails? Those are user-configurable — in the email, they specifically state "This is not meant as a warning or a representation that you are misusing your resources. We encourage you to modify the thresholds based on your own individual needs." If that's not what you're talking about, I apologize, but I've been using Linode for years (often with very compute-intensive projects) and I haven't seen what you're talking about.
- jarin 12y ago
  Just out of pure laziness, I use the CPU and disk access emails as makeshift notifications for when my backups run.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
opendais 12y ago
Really? I find that odd. I do load testing on their instances all the time. which maxes out cpu/disk to give me an idea of performance changes for stuff I have high throughput on. Hell, I've gotten DDoS'd for like 2 Gbps and they were like "Oh, ya, its fine." So, can you explain more about what happened?
bigredtech 12y ago
Have run a web-app with 30K+ users. Only been 'harassed' when I've been warned that I'm running the CPU at 350% of max rate and I should be concerned. That's ok in my book.
Ronsenshi 12y ago
I find that surprising. Linode support never contacted me regarding resource usage. Not even when one of the servers has been under DDOS. I contacted them first notifying of such event. And that was it. I agree with harpastum. I think you're confusing automatic email notifications based on your own settings with Linode support. I feel like you have to seriously abuse their infrastructure to get them to contact you. Disclaimer: has been a happy Linode customer for over 4 years now.
- meritt 12y ago
  http://i.imgur.com/UCPWdBq.png http://i.imgur.com/UCPWdBq.png I was not confusing automated emails with direct contact from Linode support. I fully understand and can appreciate the need to be a "nice neighbor" in a shared environment but what baffles me is: 1) Linode doesn't have the capability to actually enforce any sort of quota or limit. It's 2014, there's been numerous advancements in the area of virtualized servers in the past decade. cgroups is a very easy way that works across xen, kvm and lxc. 2) Linode doesn't publish these arbitrary limits nor give guidance on which node size comes with what acceptable usage levels.
  - guiambros 12y ago
    This is ridiculous. Would suggest you move out of Linode right away. It's their job to limit resources on your node, not your job to self-limit. Asking you to limit resources because it's "affecting other customers' performance" is not only outrageous, but also unfair with the other customers being impacted. This reminds me of the late 90's [1], when web hosting meant sharing the same box with hundreds of other customers, and very limited tools to enforce limits. When you had a resource hog, the only option was really to get them to reduce usage, or move them to a separate box (which wasn't as easy as today). [1] ps: I know this well; used to have a web hosting company at the time. We had to frequently move customers around, and in some cases to terminate their contracts - e.g., porn sites. But this was a good 10 years before Xen become commonplace.
    - meritt 12y ago

nilved 12y ago

If you'd used their servers for a bit longer, you'd have plenty of trouble. Linode is notorious for dreadful security practices. Their main ColdFusion app (yes, really) has been hacked on numerous occasions, including at least once incident that involved customer data loss. Linode dodged the issue and didn't tell their customers until badgered. I can agree that DO isn't suited for production apps, but Linode isn't either. They're both VPS playgrounds.

antsar 12y ago
Is there a better alternative you would suggest? While Linode has done better than DO, that fiasco left me feeling somewhat uneasy as well.
- nilved 12y ago
  There are a great many VPS and server providers out there. I've had good experiences with gandi.net, Rackspace, moln.is and pgrmr. I've seen Ramnode and Lithium Hosting get a lot of praise. You could also use AWS if you don't have any ethical objections to using Amazon products.
Ronsenshi 12y ago
Same question as antsar. What would you suggest then?

olso 12y ago

I use DO because they have servers in Amsterdam, which happens to be very close to my country. I never had problems with DO that weren't resolved promptly. Just a note, Linode is very US-centric anyway... (and that one London location doesn't make it international very much)