4 ms·

Linode: Transfer is $0.10/GB, CPU+RAM+HD is free

18 points by arturadib 16y ago

Here's an interesting way of looking at Linode's pricing scheme, especially if your app is a data transfer hog. With most other services, you pay per GB transfered on top of the instance price. For example, at Rackspace you pay $0.22 (u/l) or $0.08 (d/l) per GB transfered, which goes on top of the instance price, about $44 per GB of RAM. At Linode, you get 400GB of transfer included in a 1GB RAM instance. Or, looking at it from a different angle, at $40 an instance, that's $0.10 per GB transfered, pretty much the same rate as other services (the rate remains at $0.10 if you need more than what's included). If you notice that $0.10/GB is roughly the standard rate for transfers across all cloud hosting services, at Linode you are basically getting the physical instance (CPU, RAM, HD) for "free". DISCLOSURE: I am not by any means affiliated with Linode, Rackspace, or any other cloud hosting service. I'm simply a customer with a probably not-so-exciting epiphany.

dxjones 16y ago
Except, if I don't use 400GB of transfer, I still pay $40, right? So then, my CPU+RAM+HD doesn't seem free anymore.
- arturadib 16y ago
  As I said, the point of view is particularly useful for data transfer hogs.
chrismiller 16y ago
What happens if that Linode instance goes down? With Amazon you pay 15cents a GB but you get a lot more reliability for your money.
piotrSikora 16y ago
Your math is wrong on all levels. Let me take this to the extreme: at 100TB.com you get 100TB of transfer for $201,15, which according to your math equals to $0.002 per GB plus free dedicated server. However, if you don't use 100TB, but only 10GB (which is quite enough for most of the websites) then using Amazon S3 you would pay $1,50... And even if you would use 1TB (which is quite a lot) then you would pay $150 for the S3... ...in the end $0.15 turns out cheaper than $0.002 most of the time ;)
- arturadib 16y ago
  Nice to know about 100TB.com. As I said, the math makes sense if your app is a data transfer hog (> 1TB/mo). As to Amazon, I suppose you meant EC2? (S3 is a data store). If you use 1TB at EC2 for $0.15/GB, that's $150 for data transfer only, on top of the instance usage price. At Linode, if you use that 1TB, you pay less for that transfer ($100), and you get a free instance. How's this so "wrong on all levels"?
cheald 16y ago
I run a voice chat hosting service on Linode that tends to be quite bandwidth-heavy, and I noticed this a while ago. I don't need a lot of RAM per machine, so I've got a whole bunch of 512 instances scattered around their various data centers; all purchased bandwidth is pooled, so even if a node goes over its allocation, I don't pay extra unless I exceed 200gb * number of leased nodes across all nodes in a given billing period. That's made it very easy to make a decision between horizontal or vertical scaling; they're the same cost, but horizontal scaling gets me better geographic coverage. I do wish Linode had some sort of plan for extra bandwidth that was more cost-effective than just purchasing another node outright, though.
- Andys 16y ago
  Lighter users are subsidising you :-)
- arturadib 16y ago
  From the FAQ: "If you believe you will have overages consistently, you can purchase additional transfer or upgrade to the next plan level. Purchasing additional transfer ahead of time is $0.10/GB, otherwise overages are $0.15/GB." http://www.linode.com/faq.cfm http://www.linode.com/faq.cfm
  - arturadib 16y ago
    My point is though, why would you pay for additional GB only, if you can also get a node for "free"? You can improve the performance of your app by deploying more memcached nodes, for example.
    - cheald 16y ago
      Exactly. If I think I'll have overage, I can purchase 200gb of bandwidth for $20, or I can purchase another node for $20, which includes 200gb of pooled bandwidth. In my case, whenever, I need more bandwidth, I get more for my money by just purchasing a whole new node.
jacquesm 16y ago
That's bickering over pennies though. If $40 scares you you're in 'hobby' territory. For $150 you can get a flat rate 100 MBit connection, including a machine. That's 4 times as much dough, but it gives you 32400 Gbit/month, or, by your math, $3200 worth of 'value'. Measured traffic is nice for bits & pieces. Flat rate is pretty much the only way to go if you're using a lot of bandwidth.
- arturadib 16y ago
  The savings scale with transfer, it's not just an overhead. You save $40 per 400GB transfered. That affects deployments of any size. What service offers unlimited 100 MBit connection for $150/mo, including machine?
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    > What service offers unlimited 100 MBit connection for $150/mo, including machine? http://www.leaseweb.com/en/dedicated-servers/unmetered-series/configurator/924 http://www.leaseweb.com/en/dedicated-servers/unmetered-serie... Gigabit goes for a bit more, but effectively that's half the price of the 100Mbit connections: http://www.leaseweb.com/en/dedicated-servers/unmetered-series/configurator/930 http://www.leaseweb.com/en/dedicated-servers/unmetered-serie...
- _delirium 16y ago
  > Measured traffic is nice for bits & pieces. Flat rate is pretty much the only way to go if you're using a lot of bandwidth. This used to be advice nearly everyone followed, but I'm seeing an increasing number of high-traffic sites serving from per-GB-billed providers like EC2. (It could be that it's still good advice, but the other benefits of EC2 outweigh that downside?)

18 points by arturadib 16y ago

dxjones 16y ago

Except, if I don't use 400GB of transfer, I still pay $40, right? So then, my CPU+RAM+HD doesn't seem free anymore.

arturadib 16y ago
As I said, the point of view is particularly useful for data transfer hogs.

chrismiller 16y ago

What happens if that Linode instance goes down? With Amazon you pay 15cents a GB but you get a lot more reliability for your money.

piotrSikora 16y ago

Your math is wrong on all levels. Let me take this to the extreme: at 100TB.com you get 100TB of transfer for $201,15, which according to your math equals to $0.002 per GB plus free dedicated server. However, if you don't use 100TB, but only 10GB (which is quite enough for most of the websites) then using Amazon S3 you would pay $1,50... And even if you would use 1TB (which is quite a lot) then you would pay $150 for the S3... ...in the end $0.15 turns out cheaper than $0.002 most of the time ;)

arturadib 16y ago
Nice to know about 100TB.com. As I said, the math makes sense if your app is a data transfer hog (> 1TB/mo). As to Amazon, I suppose you meant EC2? (S3 is a data store). If you use 1TB at EC2 for $0.15/GB, that's $150 for data transfer only, on top of the instance usage price. At Linode, if you use that 1TB, you pay less for that transfer ($100), and you get a free instance. How's this so "wrong on all levels"?

cheald 16y ago

I run a voice chat hosting service on Linode that tends to be quite bandwidth-heavy, and I noticed this a while ago. I don't need a lot of RAM per machine, so I've got a whole bunch of 512 instances scattered around their various data centers; all purchased bandwidth is pooled, so even if a node goes over its allocation, I don't pay extra unless I exceed 200gb * number of leased nodes across all nodes in a given billing period. That's made it very easy to make a decision between horizontal or vertical scaling; they're the same cost, but horizontal scaling gets me better geographic coverage. I do wish Linode had some sort of plan for extra bandwidth that was more cost-effective than just purchasing another node outright, though.

Andys 16y ago
Lighter users are subsidising you :-)
arturadib 16y ago
From the FAQ: "If you believe you will have overages consistently, you can purchase additional transfer or upgrade to the next plan level. Purchasing additional transfer ahead of time is $0.10/GB, otherwise overages are $0.15/GB." http://www.linode.com/faq.cfm http://www.linode.com/faq.cfm
- arturadib 16y ago
  My point is though, why would you pay for additional GB only, if you can also get a node for "free"? You can improve the performance of your app by deploying more memcached nodes, for example.
  - cheald 16y ago
    Exactly. If I think I'll have overage, I can purchase 200gb of bandwidth for $20, or I can purchase another node for $20, which includes 200gb of pooled bandwidth. In my case, whenever, I need more bandwidth, I get more for my money by just purchasing a whole new node.

jacquesm 16y ago

That's bickering over pennies though. If $40 scares you you're in 'hobby' territory. For $150 you can get a flat rate 100 MBit connection, including a machine. That's 4 times as much dough, but it gives you 32400 Gbit/month, or, by your math, $3200 worth of 'value'. Measured traffic is nice for bits & pieces. Flat rate is pretty much the only way to go if you're using a lot of bandwidth.

arturadib 16y ago
The savings scale with transfer, it's not just an overhead. You save $40 per 400GB transfered. That affects deployments of any size. What service offers unlimited 100 MBit connection for $150/mo, including machine?
- jacquesm 16y ago
  > What service offers unlimited 100 MBit connection for $150/mo, including machine? http://www.leaseweb.com/en/dedicated-servers/unmetered-series/configurator/924 http://www.leaseweb.com/en/dedicated-servers/unmetered-serie... Gigabit goes for a bit more, but effectively that's half the price of the 100Mbit connections: http://www.leaseweb.com/en/dedicated-servers/unmetered-series/configurator/930 http://www.leaseweb.com/en/dedicated-servers/unmetered-serie...
_delirium 16y ago
> Measured traffic is nice for bits & pieces. Flat rate is pretty much the only way to go if you're using a lot of bandwidth. This used to be advice nearly everyone followed, but I'm seeing an increasing number of high-traffic sites serving from per-GB-billed providers like EC2. (It could be that it's still good advice, but the other benefits of EC2 outweigh that downside?)