Russia-based First VDS has specialized in VPS hosting, VDS hosting, and dedicated servers since 2002, but it also offers CMS hosting and domain registration. It supports both Windows and Linux operating systems.
The well organized and informative First VDS website is in Russian.
Features and Ease of Use
This provider lets you pick a preconfigured VDS, or you can configure your own package by choosing the amount of web space, RAM, storage type (HDD or SSD) or NVMe.
The key features you will find in the packages are:
- Daily backups
- ISPmanager control panel
- 99.6% uptime guarantee
- SSH access
- SSD storage
The Moscow data center is equipped with all the latest safety measures, plus its own power units, to ensure the least possible downtime. That said, the 99.6% uptime is a little bit below the industry average.
First VDS will transfer your existing website for free, but it will charge you extra for SSL certificates and DDoS protection.
Pricing and Support
As a VDS and VPS provider, the pricing is not the same as you would see on the website of a shared hosting provider. So, although there are preconfigured examples, the price you pay will depend on the resource levels you pick. On the plus side, you won’t pay for resources or fixed features that you don’t really need, but it also means that many usually-free features (like SSL certificates) are sold separately.
I found the prices to be affordable enough when I put together a test package.
You can choose to pay for packages through bank transfer, credit cards, Sberbank Online, WebMoney, Yandex, or other methods. Upon subscribing, you have the option to request a free trial lasting up to three days. If you decide to cancel your subscription early, you will receive a refund for the remaining period of your contract.
The available support channels include email, ticket, telephone, and live chat. I got almost instant expert answers when I fired off my questions via live chat, and I also found this vendor’s knowledge base to be a good source of support information including video tutorials:
