LowEndBox - Cheap VPS, Hosting and Dedicated Server Deals

Alvotech - €23.40/6 Months 512MB Linux VServer in Germany

Alvotech Thanks to fLoo for sending his review on Alvotech’s VServer product. Alvotech GmbH is this hosting provider based in Germany providing Linux-VServer based VPS. Seems to be pretty good offer there — €3.90/Month (~USD$5.30) for its “vServer L” package. However it is 6 months billing period (€23.40) although on cancellation, reminding months will be refunded.

  • 512MB guaranteed/2048MB burstable memory
  • 30GB storage
  • Unmetered bandwidth

Servers in Germany. Domain registered since November 2009. Both NS are on the same server although they appear to be from different class C’s. Unmetered bandwidth at this price point seems to be a very good offer, especially when the servers are on shared Gbit line (see fLoo’s review and download tests).

VServer is rare though in low end VPS market, which is dominated by OpenVZ and Xen providers. It has been around longer than OpenVZ. Large hosting companies such as DreamHost uses it for their Private Server product. Neither are in the upstream kernel though.

LEA
Latest posts by LEA (see all)

71 Comments

  1. Tom:

    DE market is awesome for VPS’s, simply can’t argue about there prices.
    Do this guys support PP? And do they own a DC or they colo/rent server? Possible to upgrade plans? And is there even some TOS? :O

    September 29, 2010 @ 1:17 pm | Reply
  2. Yes, as written in my post, the do colocate their servers.

    September 29, 2010 @ 2:28 pm | Reply
  3. They only support paypal, no way to use mastercard or moneybookers. So sad. My country have no support for it.

    September 29, 2010 @ 2:30 pm | Reply
  4. Sonic:

    They will have English site next hours

    September 29, 2010 @ 2:53 pm | Reply
  5. The web is in german. It says:
    “Thank you for visiting. Our english website is available within the next 24 hours.”

    September 29, 2010 @ 3:26 pm | Reply
  6. I guess, cause of my promotion/review + LEB (Thanks for taking this offer into your blog buddy!), they’ve now a LOT todo :) I bet that they’ll introduce other payment options in the near future, simply because many LEB readers from outside germany are interested in this offer.

    September 29, 2010 @ 3:29 pm | Reply
  7. I have never tested a Linux-VServer. Is it more like Xen than OpenVZ?
    I am googleing just now….

    September 29, 2010 @ 3:43 pm | Reply
  8. Interesting is that while they have an own AS (AS12851 ALVOTECH-AS) they use Clanotopia within a newly registered IP range (no Geoinfo avilable yet)

    Their own AS is hosted in the Netherlands, so i would not be sure that the VPS are in Germany….

    September 29, 2010 @ 3:50 pm | Reply
  9. @Gonzalo: Linux-VServer is like OpenVZ. Its containerbased virtualisation used within a shared kernel along the guests. There are some pros and cons for OpenVZ or Linux-VServer, depends on your needs.

    @will: They got several colocations. As you can see on http://www.clano-it.com/images/company/networkmap-overview.jpg they can host in NL + DE.

    September 29, 2010 @ 3:57 pm | Reply
  10. @willi: I just called them to get your question clear:

    They do definitly host at Dusseldorf/Germany at KPN. The servers are not rented and owned by Alvotech. The reason for having such an amazing speed to NL might be that there are some extra peerings – i couldnt get more info about that fact (sorry).

    Furthermore i have been told that the VServer i’ve been on has been _full_ – that means that you can be sure to get the same speed and performance as i got (i was not on some special brand new machine or smth.)

    I hope i could get answer your question :)

    September 29, 2010 @ 4:10 pm | Reply
  11. I wonder if the hosting providers that advertise unmetered bandwidth are going to do the same thing that hosted providers do: say that it has to be within some reasonable number or else your account will be immediately disabled.

    September 29, 2010 @ 4:40 pm | Reply
  12. Tom:

    Test file from fLoo http://188.64.45.134/100mb.bin

    2 tests:
    nordic (10.6 MB/s) – `100mb.bin’ saved [104857600/104857600]
    dme (2.94 MB/s) – `100mb.bin.1′ saved [104857600/104857600]

    More speed tests would be nice like US/UK/RU

    September 29, 2010 @ 6:04 pm | Reply
  13. Leadz:

    @Tom
    2 tests:
    US/CurlHost (vps) : Downloaded: 1 files, 100M in 16s (6.32 MB/s)
    FR/Orange (optical fiber) : 100KB/s.
    Canada/Uniserve (adsl) : 600KB/s.

    With Orange(France), this connection allows me to download @ 10MB/s, so, how comes it’s faster between Germany/US than Germany/France ?

    Do anyone knows if they allow torrent traffic? IRC?

    September 29, 2010 @ 9:22 pm | Reply
  14. mrm2005:

    2 tests:

    VooServer DC (Kent, UK): Average 234KB/S in 7min 18Sec
    RapidSwitch DC (London, UK): Average 6.8MB/S in 15Secs

    September 29, 2010 @ 9:51 pm | Reply
  15. @will — Linux-VServer is more like OpenVZ and it has been around for quite a while. I have used it before OpenVZ. Well, “glorified chroot” they said :)

    @Igor — I think with VPS and dedicated IP/MAC, it is possible to throttle on the router level so they can potentially limit your flow at will, i.e. I don’t see an SLA that they must provide 1Gbps connection.

    September 29, 2010 @ 11:59 pm | Reply
  16. Sonic:

    They must oversell so much :)

    September 30, 2010 @ 12:25 am | Reply
  17. Tom:

    LEA, most likely it’s not a 1 Gbps per box, it will be connected to as many servers as they see fit until it reaches it’s some % when they will add a new line.

    September 30, 2010 @ 7:54 am | Reply
  18. Tom:

    I signed up asked support and they said they take around 2 hours to set up (during there biz hours), also I was wondering if it’s possible to get an invoice for less then 6 month, they said that due to paypal fees they issue 6 month invoices, but if you want to cancel they will issue a refund.

    September 30, 2010 @ 10:46 am | Reply
  19. rm:

    > There are some pros and cons for OpenVZ or Linux-VServer, depends on your needs.

    Are there any “pros” at all, for VServer? AFAIK it is more antique and even more dead-end than OpenVZ.
    It does not even support IPv6 out of the box in the current stable version ( http://linux-vserver.org/IPv6 )

    September 30, 2010 @ 11:01 am | Reply
  20. @rm :

    I am working for OpenVCP (Open VServer Control Panel), a CP for Linux-VServer (www.openvcp.org). As of util-vserver 0.30.212 or newer it fully supports native IPv6 which i want to show you here (made this just for you!):

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag5SeTV422Y

    Furthermore its not antique, its activly support by many people (just hop over into our IRC-Chan irc.oftc.net #vserver). For example one pro is, that due to network isolation instead of virtual network interfaces its a performance win. OpenVZ is more styled and “Web 2.0 addicted” where Linux-VServer isnt but that doesnt say anything. Its just that many “i want to be a vserver-reseller” use OpenVZ because in combination with SolusVM its easy to install and ready within a day to earn money without big knowledge.

    I would rather go to a provider using vserver instead of openvz, because i know, these people have to think about what they do and ofcourse how!

    September 30, 2010 @ 12:18 pm | Reply
  21. I do have a vps with them now too. Working as expected – awesome fast :)

    October 1, 2010 @ 6:45 pm | Reply
  22. zx123:

    do you allow proxy websites, vpn???

    October 2, 2010 @ 11:16 pm | Reply
  23. Jimmy:

    I ordered a VPS with them but the thing is that I never receive any invoice or email asking me to pay them and they have already gave me the account details, strange!

    October 3, 2010 @ 1:06 am | Reply
  24. Tom:

    Jimmy, give them a day, you will see it in your control panel and you will receive it by mail when they generate it.

    So far I can say I have pumped 300GB with an average of 5.5MB/s and they the traffic + server seems very solid, but be careful templates are awful, to add Kloxo you have to setup 1 more additional eth0, eth0:1 file yourself and if there wasn’t a guide for this I would surely not able to think of it.

    Also due to custom kernel an average person will not be able to setup VNC by guides from the network.

    October 3, 2010 @ 8:31 am | Reply
    • Thats why they call their VPS “Expert VPS” :)

      October 4, 2010 @ 4:58 pm | Reply
  25. Sonic:

    Anyone with them can give me demo IP please? :)

    October 9, 2010 @ 9:46 am | Reply
  26. Signed up 5 days ago and experienced 100% uptime so far. Performance and reliability are both top notch. The control panel hasn’t been translated to English yet, but it isn’t too difficult to find your way around.

    October 12, 2010 @ 8:40 am | Reply
  27. Dyblast:

    The VPS is good, but i haven’t succeed to add a default block rule in their firewall panel(And i haven’t reply from them). The firewall panel is very basic, and there isn’t tun device so you can forget the VPN :)

    October 13, 2010 @ 11:08 pm | Reply
  28. Dyblast:

    By the way, the bandwidth is not garantee. You can have 100Mb/s, or only 60KB/s (like now)

    October 14, 2010 @ 6:24 am | Reply
  29. TUh:

    Hey, I would be interested by their offer.. (lot of ram for a cheap price!) any news about the bandwidth issue?

    Thanks :)

    October 29, 2010 @ 7:15 pm | Reply
  30. @TUh – I haven’t personally noticed any problems while I’ve been using my VPS with them. Just grabbed a 100MB test file right before posting this. 104,857,600 39.2M/s in 2.6s. Not saying that there won’t be slow times, but I haven’t personally experienced any as Dyblast has.

    October 30, 2010 @ 6:04 am | Reply
  31. Hello.

    I have ordered a vServer L, which worked just fine from the begining of November.
    At the end of November (27.11.2010), I wanted to upgrade to vServer XXL.
    The upgrade requested at the end of November is not finished yet (15.12.2010).
    Sadly, support is responding very slow (maybe after 4-5 DAYS).

    Thinking to cancel my services from them.

    Regards,
    /Sorin

    December 15, 2010 @ 5:30 pm | Reply
    • Lyngas:

      Hey Sorin, So slow respond..?
      I sent them email , and i have feedback after 10 hours..

      I was thinking to start with the “vServer L” but now i’m thinking about..

      ..control panel is only in German? #2 reason.

      December 18, 2010 @ 3:25 pm | Reply
  32. zlotowinfo:

    alvotech is banned in poland :/

    January 9, 2011 @ 8:46 pm | Reply
  33. zlotowinfo:

    alvotech is banned in poland :/
    80% polish networks this vps not work

    if anybody need this, i can sale by ukash cupons
    server started: 30.11.2010
    payed 6 month

    January 9, 2011 @ 8:48 pm | Reply
    • Michael Altevogt:

      This issue with the biggest poland provider (tpnet) is solved and was only related to one of our subnets (81.88.24.x).

      February 17, 2011 @ 3:56 pm | Reply
  34. Bob:

    Hi.

    Any update on the bandwidth? Is it as crappy as citynet? better but still no more than 70kB/s…?

    thanks!

    January 26, 2011 @ 9:08 pm | Reply
  35. KLIKLI:

    Reminding? Perhaps you mean remaining?

    January 26, 2011 @ 9:26 pm | Reply
  36. Did anybody tested bandwidth in real conditions?

    February 12, 2011 @ 4:09 pm | Reply
  37. U can use cachefly’s 100mb test. they do over 50 mb/sec on gigabit vps

    February 12, 2011 @ 4:10 pm | Reply
  38. I’ve had one of these for about 2 months now.

    I have to say, the speed is absolutely incredible – Managed to import a 250mb SQL database in seconds. In comparison, my Burst LA vps took around half an hour.
    I/O, Network, CPU speed – All top notch.
    Currently hosting an active gaming server and players have reported that it’s faster than our old dedicated server! (Dual Atom)

    Definitely recommend this host – Really reliable, and at a fantastic price!

    March 5, 2011 @ 9:04 pm | Reply
  39. I purchased their 30GB VPS few days ago and I’m using it for backups storage.

    I haven’t done any I/O benchmarks.
    This is the download speed I’m getting

    $ wget hoop://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test -O /dev/null
    --2011-03-12 17:13:11--  http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test
    Resolving cachefly.cachefly.net... 205.234.175.175
    Connecting to cachefly.cachefly.net|205.234.175.175|:80... connected.
    HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
    Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream]
    Saving to: `/dev/null'
    
    100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 11.0M/s   in 9.2s
    
    2011-03-12 17:13:20 (10.8 MB/s) - `/dev/null' saved [104857600/104857600]
    
    March 12, 2011 @ 4:20 pm | Reply
  40. Andrius:

    Tried their vServer XXL. Servers seem to work fast, great uptime and instant, amazing support. Really great deal.

    April 5, 2011 @ 5:31 pm | Reply
    • Support? Aren’t they unmanaged?

      April 6, 2011 @ 7:39 am | Reply
      • rm:

        And he said support, not management. You don’t even know difference between the two, and yet try to run some sort of hosting review site?

        April 6, 2011 @ 8:14 am | Reply
        • As if the two terms weren’t used interchangeably 99% of the times, in fact many companies have tables explaining what they’ll do and what not.

          Anyway, being precise, you’re right.

          April 6, 2011 @ 8:30 am | Reply
  41. zlotowinfo:

    they not supporting Direct Admin
    buying from not provider its 3x expensive

    April 6, 2011 @ 8:25 am | Reply
  42. Francisco:

    I already have a VPS directly with Clanotopia (1TB RAM 30GB HD 5TB bw @ 100Mbps 9,99 euro). I just ordered the Alvotech VPS and it is impressive too:

    vs816:~# wget -O /dev/null http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test
    --2011-05-01 21:52:15--  http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test
    Resolving cachefly.cachefly.net... 205.234.175.175
    Connecting to cachefly.cachefly.net|205.234.175.175|:80... connected.
    HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
    Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream]
    Saving to: `/dev/null'
    
    100%[==========================================================>] 104,857,600 68.9M/s   in 1.5s
    
    2011-05-01 21:52:16 (68.9 MB/s) - `/dev/null' saved [104857600/104857600]
    
    May 1, 2011 @ 7:56 pm | Reply
    • God DAMN! 1 TB ram! xD

      May 1, 2011 @ 8:41 pm | Reply
      • 99.9% chance it is oversold or really GB and he hit the t instead of the g by accident.

        May 1, 2011 @ 8:58 pm | Reply
        • Yeah I know n_n Is funny, a lot of people have that accident…

          May 1, 2011 @ 9:07 pm | Reply
    • dyblast:

      It can be unimpressive too:

      wget http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test
      --2011-05-02 08:47:58--  http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test
      Resolving cachefly.cachefly.net... 205.234.175.175
      Connecting to cachefly.cachefly.net|205.234.175.175|:80... connected.
      HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
      Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream]
      Saving to: `100mb.test'
      
      100%[===================================>] 104,857,600  787K/s   in 2m 0s   
      
      2011-05-02 08:49:58 (856 KB/s) - `100mb.test' saved [104857600/104857600]
      

      Alvotech claims they don’t limit my VPS and they can’t do anything to improve it…

      May 2, 2011 @ 6:52 am | Reply
      • innya:

        you might live in the land of far far away. :)

        May 2, 2011 @ 10:26 pm | Reply
        • Dyblast:

          France, … really far … Added to this the first month my bandwidth was good (like Francisco)

          May 2, 2011 @ 10:27 pm | Reply
      • Alvotech:

        Please contact our customer support at support@alvotech.de, this speed is not normal and definitely not ok

        May 2, 2011 @ 10:39 pm | Reply
  43. zlotowinfo:

    “A one-time setup fee in the amount of 9.90 EUR normally applies, this fee is waived if ordered 04/30/2011.”

    vps with setup fee??? not so special – now will pure offer
    propose yardvps/spacerich/buyvm

    May 2, 2011 @ 11:53 am | Reply
  44. zlotowinfo:

    omg again change date ;p
    this fee is waived if ordered 06/30/2011.

    May 2, 2011 @ 8:34 pm | Reply
  45. zlotowinfo:

    isnt better just remove in vps setup fee?
    most it is in dedicate, i never seen it in vps

    May 2, 2011 @ 8:36 pm | Reply
    • I see it all the time on VPSes. Usually the providers who spam the LET site have them.

      May 2, 2011 @ 9:27 pm | Reply
      • zlotowinfo:

        in poland no one provider do setup fee for vps

        May 2, 2011 @ 10:20 pm | Reply
        • *shrug* I’m sure if I took the time to dig, I could find at least one vps provided having machines in Poland who also has a setup fee.

          May 3, 2011 @ 12:16 am | Reply
        • Spirit:

          drmike, don’t be such a partybreaker :-) You DON’T see it all the time. Maybe sometimes. Very rare…

          May 3, 2011 @ 1:06 am | Reply
  46. Well, I’ve got a vServer at Alvotech since 28.04.2011 and it works pretty good. 100% uptime (not counting my own reboots), great network speeds, good IO. I’m from Poland, as zlotowinfo (hey mate, ween you on wht.pl ;) ) but I’ve never had any issues with Alvotech’s vServ. Running Debian 6 and ispCP Omega on it – and everything works perfectly smooth.
    Download:

    # wget http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test -O /dev/null
    --2011-07-09 21:20:09--  http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test
    Resolving cachefly.cachefly.net... 205.234.175.175
    Connecting to cachefly.cachefly.net|205.234.175.175|:80... connected.
    HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
    Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream]
    Saving to: “/dev/null”
    
    100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 77.7M/s   in 1.3s
    
    2011-07-09 21:20:10 (77.7 MB/s) - “/dev/null” saved [104857600/104857600]

    IO:

    # dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=8k conv=fdatasync
    8192+0 records in
    8192+0 records out
    536870912 bytes (537 MB) copied, 13.2729 s, 40.4 MB/s
    
    # dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=2k conv=fdatasync
    2048+0 records in
    2048+0 records out
    134217728 bytes (134 MB) copied, 2.10482 s, 63.8 MB/s

    For the low price tag it has I have to say it’s one of the best VPS I’ve ever had (and I had a lot of them).

    July 9, 2011 @ 9:38 pm | Reply
  47. AH, one more thing: I haven’t seen a VPS with a setup fee in Poland either, and I live here all my life and seen dozens of VPS’ providers in this country. No budget, no premium, no VPS with setup fee, period.

    July 9, 2011 @ 9:42 pm | Reply
    • zlotowinfo:

      me to ver surprised, never seen vps with setup fee in poland
      but they always moving date of this

      dont try debian 32bit, they have crashed image

      July 9, 2011 @ 9:46 pm | Reply
      • I know some people still use 32-bit OSes because of the shitty software they need to install on it, but for “standard” usage (web server, PHP, Perl, databases) you should go for 64-bit. I’m using 64-bit systems on all of my servers and never had any issue.
        And Squeeze 64-bit is running very nicely on Alvotech’s vServ.

        July 10, 2011 @ 1:40 am | Reply
        • zlotowinfo:

          i tried counter strike server, its 32bit app, not run on 64bit
          but found solution to run on 64bit

          use this command: apt-get install ia32-libs
          they told if still not works use: apt-get install lib32gcc1

          i told them many time about bad 32 images, they dont see problem
          image run, but in use much problems

          July 10, 2011 @ 7:28 am | Reply
  48. Master911:

    This company lays a very good trap in forcing customers to pay extra money. Their customer support would not only threaten or insult you. They would spam your inbox with unwanted emails. Not to mention their service is pathetic. I would consider this company a “Rip off”

    February 5, 2012 @ 3:54 pm | Reply
    • false
      never got a spam email from them (I use a separate email address for each contact I have)

      Once I logged in their live support chat and the operator helped me troubleshoot what the issue with my vps was. Ok, it was a quick 5 minutes thing, but they did it for free (unless I get a surprise in my next 6 months invoice).

      February 7, 2012 @ 12:01 am | Reply
    • Antonio:

      not true in my case. They were fast and serious

      December 16, 2014 @ 2:39 pm | Reply
  49. Szymon:

    Warning:
    I have a 512 VPS with them. What I don’t like about them is:
    1. They are advertising SWAP as “RAM burstable”
    2. They are making SWAP difficult to use (preseting vm.swapiness to 0 and not letting you modify this parameter)
    3. They would SHUT DOWN your VPS without a warning when you try to use more than 512 MB RAM (yes, they don’t just kill a process, they shut down your VPS, rebooting from their control panel is the only option)
    4. PS. Their support is a bit arrogant and is telling you that that’s normal and the servie is only for linux experts

    More details on this FB wall post (until they remove it): http://www.facebook.com/Alvotech/posts/409314189096577
    So perhaps you can find a better company out there for your VPS.

    April 17, 2012 @ 11:21 pm | Reply

Leave a Reply to Gonzalo Cancel reply

Some notes on commenting on LowEndBox:

  • Do not use LowEndBox for support issues. Go to your hosting provider and issue a ticket there. Coming here saying "my VPS is down, what do I do?!" will only have your comments removed.
  • Akismet is used for spam detection. Some comments may be held temporarily for manual approval.
  • Use <pre>...</pre> to quote the output from your terminal/console, or consider using a pastebin service.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *