Russia-based CoolVDS offers Virtual Dedicated Servers (VDS) and Virtual Private Servers (VPS) along with true dedicated servers and domains. One of this provider’s unique selling propositions is that it allows you to publish content – including pornography and pharmaceuticals – that other hosts don’t allow, as long as the content doesn’t violate the laws of the United States.
The CoolVDS website can be switched between the Russian and English languages.
Features and Ease of Use
CoolVDS provides virtual private servers, virtual dedicated servers, and true dedicated servers, which means you get your own virtual or physical server with its own operating system rather than shared space on a single server.
The three VDS/VPS plans come with between 1 and 4 vCPUs, 1 GB to 4 GB RAM, 6 GB to 20 GB HDD storage, and unmetered bandwidth. The plans comprise the entry-level budget Boy plan, the popular business-oriented Star plan, and the “faster than any virtual servers on earth” (their words) Sherriff plan.
You can choose between CentOS, Debian, and Ubuntu flavors of the Linux operating system. With all plans, you get these features for free:
- Basic support and monitoring
- A basic choice of software
- Operating system reinstallation
- Reboot control panel
- Server load statistics
- DNS domain parking
- Root access
You can pay extra for the ISPmanager Lite control panel, more RAM, more storage, additional CPUs, and additional IP addresses.
Pricing and Support
This provider’s plans are priced reasonably in U.S. dollars but can also be bought using euros, Russian rubles, or Ukranian hryvnia. You can pay via the WebMoney, Robokassa, Interkassa, 2Checkout or PayPal payment services, or using credit/debit cards via those services.
CoolVDS offers a 7-day free trial for any of its VDS/VPS plans, which you can access by purchasing a plan via the checkout (without paying) and then sending an email to the company’s billing department. There is also a ‘Specials’ page detailing the company’s latest offers, but the most recent offer – for a month’s worth of free hosting – is dated as far back as 2015.
You get a basic level of support for free, or you can purchase a service level agreement (SLA) at various levels to give you faster support responses (from 12 hours down to 3 hours, or as agreed), guaranteed uptime (from 99% to 99.5%), downtime compensation, and more.
I failed to elicit any response as a prospective customer via the company’s ticket system, which should perhaps not surprise me since this provider’s special offers page and blog have both not been updated since 2015.
For self-support purposes, CoolVDS provides two different FAQ pages: one on the main website and another accessible via the checkout process.
