# Measuring hosting performance: shared \<--\> vps \<--\> dedicate

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/measuring-hosting-performance-shared-vps-dedicate/53851>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [February 15, 2006, 11:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/measuring-hosting-performance-shared-vps-dedicate/53851 "2006-02-15T11:16:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![aravet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@aravet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/aravet)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2006, 11:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/measuring-hosting-performance-shared-vps-dedicate/53851/1 "2006-02-15T11:16:59Z")

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Every app we build has to be deployed, and the price has to be right.

- dedicated servers start at 99$/m (Dreamhost, …), and  
shared hosting go up to 47$/m (PlanetArgon) or 60$/m (TextDrive)
- Railsplayground: 2$/m
- TextDrive dedicated servers : 1000$/m

Is there an objective way/tool to measure, test and compare the  
performance of the hosters?

Alain

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**Author:** ![aravet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@aravet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/aravet)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2006, 11:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/measuring-hosting-performance-shared-vps-dedicate/53851/2 "2006-02-15T11:47:07Z")

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No, not really…

I think somebody has tried, search the archive…

anyways…serverpronto.com does dedicated for 30$…been using them since  
november 2005 without any problems…i signed up to see what the catch  
could be…so far there hasnt been one…you need to know how to admin a  
server though…

Mikkel B.

www.strongside.dk - Football Portal(DK)  
[nflfeed.helenius.org](http://nflfeed.helenius.org) - Football News(DK)  
ting.minline.dk - Buy Old Stuff!(DK)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![aravet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@aravet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/aravet)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2006, 12:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/measuring-hosting-performance-shared-vps-dedicate/53851/3 "2006-02-15T12:02:32Z")

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Mikkel

> i signed up to see what the catch …you need to know how to admin  
> a …

This thread is not about ‘catch’, reputation, or service level, it’s  
about sheer performance, as a number.

To oversimplify:

"I tested my app., and it consumes  
x cpu units/hour, on average  
y db units/hour, on average  
z bandwidth units/hour, on average  
.  
What hosting plans fit those needs?  
"

From there, you start checking prices, service levels, reputation, ease  
of installation, guarantees, etc, etc… and then you make your choice.

Alain

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**Author:** ![aravet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@aravet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/aravet)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2006, 12:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/measuring-hosting-performance-shared-vps-dedicate/53851/4 "2006-02-15T12:50:42Z")

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> Is there an objective way/tool to measure, test and compare the  
> performance of the hosters?

IIRC there are some forums where people posts benchmark stats etc, but  
your best bet is probably word of mouth from people running live  
mission-critical apps. If you really want stability and performance,  
dedicated is really the only option in my opinion. None of that  
managed or cpanel crud either. Your best bet would be to either get  
an unmanaged box and run it ALL on your own, or a managed from  
textdrive since they are the only ones I’d trust. Dreamhost and  
PlanetArgon are probably great as well, Ive just never tried them  
myself. I have an unmanaged at [layeredtech.com](http://layeredtech.com) and its been my best  
server to date. I never had anything close to comparable with shared  
or vps. Seems like they’ve got a lightning fast network. Remember  
though, you’d be 100% responsible for  
troubleshooting/installing/maintaining everything. If your ok with  
that then you cant beat it.

Joe

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**Author:** ![aravet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@aravet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/aravet)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2006, 6:29pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/measuring-hosting-performance-shared-vps-dedicate/53851/5 "2006-02-15T18:29:01Z")

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Rimu all the way! True VPS (running RHEL!) for like $20/mo, and  
dedicated servers for like $160 or so. Plus they don’t mind newb  
questions (like why the eff isn’t my subdomain working? Oh, I see,  
incorrect permission on public/!).

- Rabbit

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![aravet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@aravet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/aravet)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2006, 5:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/measuring-hosting-performance-shared-vps-dedicate/53851/6 "2006-02-15T17:22:03Z")

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On Feb 15, 2006, at 2:13 AM, Alain R. wrote:

> Alain
> 
> * * *
> 
> Rails mailing list  
> removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
> [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails)

Alain-

```
Maybe using the depo app from the agile rails book would be a good

```

benchmark app. Its widely available and well known by most people.  
And its simple enough but has enough features to get a decent  
benchmark. I can run it on a rimu vps and a layeredtech dedicated  
server.

```
And by the way, you can get a nice dedicated server from layeredtech

```

for $69/month. Athlon 3000+, 80gig hd and 512Gig ram.

Cheers-  
-Ezra Z.  
WebMaster  
Yakima Herald-Republic Newspaper  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
509-577-7732

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![aravet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@aravet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/aravet)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2006, 6:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/measuring-hosting-performance-shared-vps-dedicate/53851/7 "2006-02-15T18:47:11Z")

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Ezra

```
  > Maybe the depo app .. would be a good benchmark app. ...
  > I can run it on a rimu vps and a layeredtech dedicated server.

```

The ideal solution would be :

## Once :

1/ Design a “typical” and standard web application.  
That’s the hard part, but anything is better than what we have now.  
(This client web. app will be installed on each host server to test)

2/ Design a test script that:  
- exercises the app and simulates a chosen load/number of users.  
- collects and stores the perf. results in a unique DB  
This will run on 1 unique master machine, and test ALL the  
monitored servers.

## Once for each target server :

3/ Install _the_ app on each target server/host.  
=\> Know/find 1 person with an account on each target host/server.  
(On Textdrive, some machines are known to be less reliable than  
others.).

4/ register the target url in the master server

and finally, in the master

## Every hour, for each server :

5/ run the script and collect the results

==\> The accumulated results would be displayed in a big matrix.

That would be a starting point, but it would be damn useful.

Alain