All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.
Starting a VPS hosting service. Will appreciate suggestions.
EfficientHosting
Member
Hi,
I am starting a VPS service and will like to offer clients Unmetered VPS slices.
I will appreciate your suggestions based on my budget.
I have a 6 month expense budget set to a $600/month so will like to keep it around that for first couple of months and will start to expand as i grow.
Server specs i am thinking of
Dual CPU : E5-2683v4 or 2699
RAM : 128 or more
4 TB NVMe
Should i opt for EPYC 48 core instead?
So my questions are :
Should i opt for a Dual CPU Intel server or a Dual CPU AMD?
Is Dual CPU necessary to offer really good fast performance servers or can single CPU servers with enough ram work as good?
What minimum ram should i opt for to start with?
I will start with USa location and then EU location and eventually ASIA.
I am planning on offering 1 Gbit and then eventually to 10 Gbit as i see demand.
What virtualization software should i opt for SolusVM? Virtualizor? I am intending on using WHMCS as i am familiar with this billing panel so whatever works best with WHMCS.
I will appreciate your suggestions and help.
Thanks.
Comments
Suggestion: Dont
If you want to start a new summerhost, you can be added to https://guards.re
Now answers reguarding your questions
Intel CPUs are usually much cheaper and can be found even on a used market for quite cheap. They still offer quite good performance so it's more than enough for most customers.
Single CPU should be fine. Depends on the scale but if you're just starting out I think you could get away with just one CPU.
I think you should assume 1 or 2 GB / customer and do not oversell too much (don't give resources that you don't have hoping customers won't use them). 128 GB should be enough for just starting out.
OK. There's quite a lot of competition in US but it isn't the worst place to start.
1 Gbit is good for starters. If you collocate, it's usually easy to upgrade to 10 Gbit if needed.
No idea
I'm not a provider. Those are just my suggestions and opinions I've heard. Do not take them too seriously.
E5 is very unpopular these days. Most people want AMD Ryzen. E5 is like 15yrs old
Do you own a block of IPs from ARIN? If not IP cost are going cost you $2-3/mo per IP.
Don't. E5s are e-waste at this point
I've heard a number of providers stating they don't suggest the 2699 v4, such as Purevoltage, IOFlood, etc: https://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1923155
On that basis, if you do use an E5, the E5-2683v4 is likely a better option.
gb6 above 2800 is a must nowadays!111
Please modern hardware, enterprise.
You will probably make significantly more money on the stock market with significantly less hassle.
How many users are you hoping to support on this machine? Assuming that the majority of your budget will be spent on a /24, you'll need to have at least 200 users to cover the cost, so you'll be looking at charging probably $1.5-$2/m just for that.
If you're not going to fill the /24, then you'll be throwing away money on the IP addresses that will be very hard to make back. You could get a dedi with an assigned IP block, but this will cost you even more plus they'll be tied to the machine / upstream and you have no control over them.
Assuming you only have money left for one machine, I doubt you'll be able to support this many users on it.
You'll need at least double the RAM or it'll be swapping like crazy, and performance will be awful.
Even 2x2699 only has 44 cores / 88 threads and trying to fill a /24 will give you 1/3 thread per customer and performance will be awful.
Looking at these specs, I don't think you'd be able to charge much for these at all. If you make enough to cover your costs, then the server is going to be hideously oversold. If you don't fill a /24, you're going to lose a lot of money. If you get multiple dedis to give decent specs for 250 customers, then it'll probably cost you a lot more than $600/m in costs.
The big question you need to ask yourself is why would any potential customer chose you over any other supplier? You've got no proven track record, you're only planning to get one machine so at risk of downtime for any minor hardware failure, your costs are going to be higher than anyone who's been established for a while. If your price is the same or even slightly lower than any of the established reputable players, why would someone chose you?
The reality is that to attract any customers at all, you're probably going to operate at a loss at the start by offering crazy deals to your first clients. If you're good, those clients will stick around and keep renewing at the low price that you'll have to carry for multiple years. If you don't let them renew at that price, then expect a massive exodus, potential bad feeling, possibly putting you back into a precarious place again with finances.
Finally, what do you value your time at? Let's assume you manage to charge $5/m for 1G1C (and note you'll need double the RAM from above, and this price is already expensive in the market) AND let's assume you manage to fill your /24 and have 250 customers. You're now bringing in $1250 per month, which sounds great because you've doubled your money, right? But the time you'll have sunk into dealing with 250 customers, setting this up and ongoing maintenance work... Is it really worth all that time and effort for $600 a month?
but we want this space to be filled with new providers.
I want providers that don't deadpool.
where are you going to open business, in what country?
go last gen intel, amd is unstable plus fire risk. xd
Ayymd is unstable?
So must get an EPYC 7451 or any other EPYC server with 256 GB RAM for IPs i can rent IPs from IPXO, they seem the cheapest.
Thank you for all the suggestions
Please confirm $7/yr 128gb RAM deals. Then we are interested. But I agree with others. You shouldn’t do this if that’s your budget. I would start reseller.
IS DUAL CPU NECESSARY TO OFFER REALLY GOOD PERFORMANCE CONFIRM IT
IPXO doesn't rent ranges to personal accounts, only registered businesses.
It's not just about buying a server and a panel. You have to analyze the type of business and the type of clients you want. Offers aren't about giving away a plan at prices that aren't profitable. You have to understand the entire process. Sometimes it's not what you expected, but just work on what you believe in.
Good luck.
its already 2025. EPYC ftw
IPv6 /64 only.
Say goodbye to IPXO.
You should start smaller. Rent a dedicated server in NL, perhaps online.net/scaleway. Get something like their 37euro/month deal, the EM-A215R-HDD
Set up that system for provisioning. Please start with something like that to give you experience. Unfortunately, people often try to take advantage of systems, especially those run by people with less experience. Be prepared to deal with the darkest possible scenarios -keep records and be transparent. You may wish to only allow LES & LET members initially.
I would strongly advise you not to judge by 'they are the cheapest'.
A marketplace, such as IPXO, but also InterLIR or brokers such as Voldeta, are totally random shots in the dark. You are not in contract with the direct holder of IP space, and as such have zero guarantees that your IP space is still to be used by you the next day.
While I am obviously biased, I would advise to always enter into contract backed leases which state the mutual obligations and rights, and are legally binding. Saving maybe $10 per month will not be worth the pain of a forced renumbering, or worse ;-)
Try the Caasify project, which allows you to sell VPS solutions from over 78 data centers, and also offers VPN and web hosting services with a pay-as-you-go (hourly payment) model for your clients. No investment, no server rental, no Solusvm or Virtualizaor, or technical expertise needed.
Since you're planning to use WHMCS, you can start selling VPS within 5 minutes by installing our plugin, without any specific budget requirements.
There are plenty of providers and 10$ per year offers! you won't get any business unless you can offer something unique!
100%
E5 sounds too old in 2025.
For IP leasing, I highly recommend Cogent. Yes, the same Cogent which is a transit provider. But they lease individual IPv4 blocks also, even if you don't use their transit.
The advantage of Cogent is they own the IP blocks so they won't pull the rug under you the way IPXO will.
If you don't want Cogent, use the LIR thread here.
I started my last VPS host using E5 in 2022. It was a big mistake: the service was always sluggish. Sure, we had cheap RAM, but that's about it. And that was almost three years ago. And I had to sell the business.
Fourplex started using Ryzen 9000, and even if I have to assemble servers myself, we outsold them 2.5 to 1, despite fitting more customers per node (mainly 1/2G plans).
Everyone should abandon E5, as you did.
What about VPS management? Can clients manage their own CPU on my WHMCS panel inside their accounts?
Yes they can. You can check the demo here.
https://caasify.com/resell-cloud-vps-vpn-whmcs-module/