Are you algo trading? Have you written a custom trading bot? Did you buy into an MT4 or MT5 expert advisor? Or maybe you just want to collect data without running your home PC 24 hours a day? If so, a VPS might just be for you!
Main considerations:
Latency - This is a measurement of time, specifically the time it takes requests from your VPS to be received by your desired broker or exchange. Often overlooked is the latency measured between your data source and your VPS, which may add to overall delay in executing your strategy. For example, you might be lightening fast executing trades, but if price data is delayed by a tenth of a second that will slow down your algos ability to made decisions in live markets. It’s a good idea to start with a month long contract with more than one VPS providers (or use a free trial) and test out latency should your strategy be sensitive to execution delays.
RAM - Your custom code might run right, or it might gobble up RAM like cookie monster at a bake sale… Picking a cheaper VPS package that starves your code of RAM will cause the VPS to temporarily store data that should be in RAM to the storage drive which will slow down performance across the board. If you are using off-the-shelf software, make sure to check your software vendor’s RAM requirements and choose an adequate VPS setup accordingly. Any modern install of Windows Server should have 2-4Gbs of RAM minimum. A command line app running on Linux might only need 512Mb of RAM. A good rule for mission critical software is to err on the side of caution and get a little more than you think you need just to be safe.
OS - Do you need your software to run on Windows or Linux? Windows will require more system resources upfront but has more retail trading software available for it. Windows will also typically be more expensive for VPS’ of the same configuration given Microsoft charges a licence fee. Linux, on the other hand, not only can be stripped right down to be very light on system resources (and thus, not require as expensive of a VPS package to run,) but also doesn’t come with the same licensing costs.
Uptime - This one is pretty simple, does the VPS provider guarantee the system will stay online without interruption?
Recommended Vendors:
Each VPS below has been tested by members of FXGears Staff.
| Beeks Financial Cloud (Beeks FX) 
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Commercial Network Services (CNS) 
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FXVM
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New York City Servers
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Latency | ~1ms to many popular brokers (Global) | E~1-3ms to many popular brokers (NYC) | ~1-2ms to many popular brokers (Global) | ~2.5ms to many popular brokers (NYC and London) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry Level Price (Monthly) | £27, or £270 for year in advance | $20 | $19, or $17.50 on 12 Month Contract | $35 | |||||
| Entry Level Specs | "Bronze" Package 1 vCPU 1.3GB RAM 25GB Storage |
"ECONOMY" Package 1 vCPU 1GB RAM 45GB Storage (SSD) |
"Lite" Package 1 vCPU 1.5GB RAM 40GB Storage (SSD) |
"Basic VPS 1" Package 1 vCPU 1GB RAM 30GB Storage (SSD) | |||||
| OS Options | Windows Server 2012 and 2016, CentOS Linux | Windows Server 2012 R2 | Windows Server 2008 and 2012, +$2/month for 2016 or 2019 | Windows Server 2016 | |||||
| Trial Period? | No | No | 7 days for $1.99 | 7 days for $5. Note: Auto subscribed to, and billed for, the Basic plan at $35 if not canceled before the end of your trail period. |
