Written in front: This article is a purely personal experience record, written in July 2026, for people with legitimate needs for cross-border access, such as remote connection to overseas servers, access to overseas development resources, cross-border business and testing, etc. I am not an intermediary, there is no commission, and the article does not contain promotional links. Service provider policies and line conditions change rapidly, please refer to actual measurements for accuracy.
This is the second article of my blog. The first article was about opening an HSBC account. This article takes a different direction and talks about the pitfalls I have encountered when buying overseas VPS in the past few years. I plan to write about the specific server configuration, protocol construction and other engineering details of
separately later. To be honest, I basically leave that part to Codex to help me generate the configuration. This article only talks about one thing: how to choose a VPS before spending money.
Do the demand regression first, don’t look at the configuration as soon as you get started
The most common mistake when buying a VPS is to open a review website to directly compare CPU and memory, and then be led away by a bunch of parameters.
My approach is to go through the requirements first and split them into several dimensions:
- Connection stability (line): It has the greatest impact on the experience, which will be discussed later.
- Bandwidth: Determines whether it is easy to use large traffic
- Price: Determines choice range and long-term holding costs
- IP Attribute: Affects the availability of some websites and services
- Geographical location: Directly affects physical delay
. In these dimensions, the first thing to determine is actually the budget. **
Step one: Determine the budget and usage intensity first
The price range of VPS is ridiculously wide: you can get a cheap one for about 10 US dollars a year, and some people can buy expensive high-end ones for 300 US dollars** a year.
First ask yourself: Do you watch videos and social media heavily, or do you only do occasional light visits?
- Heavy use: Bandwidth and line quality cannot be saved, cheap chicks cannot handle the peak period
- Light use: There is no need to pay an exorbitant premium for the top line
. Once the two anchor points of budget and usage intensity are set, all subsequent trade-offs will be determined.
Step 2: Select a geographical location
Below are a few areas I have used and actual experiences.
USA
- The largest selection, premium lines are relatively cheap
- Most of the mainstream network service providers are in the United States, and accessing these services is usually the most user-friendly.
- The disadvantage is that it is far away from China and the physical delay is there
Japan
- Close geographical location and many merchants to choose from
- The disadvantage is that the price is generally expensive**
South Korea
- The price is relatively cheap, the location is close, the line quality is good, and the IP reputation is usually good
- The disadvantage is that some websites or businesses require KYC, which is not very friendly to users who mind their real names.
Hongkong
- Not recommended as a main machine
- The usability of some AI services and streaming media is not friendly enough
Other niche areas
I haven't actually used it, so I won't comment.
sums it up in one sentence: If you want lower prices and more line options, you can look to the United States; if you want lower latency, you can look to Japan and South Korea. However, the physical distance from the United States to China determines that the delay is usually difficult to be lower than about 120 ms. The price in Japan is higher, and South Korea may encounter KYC.
Step 3: Understand the lines. This is the easiest place to be fooled by merchants.
The route directly determines the peak period experience and is also the deepest part of the water.
Normal 163
This is the most common and cheapest route. The main problem is that during peak periods, packet loss is easy, delay is high, and jitter is large. The network lags during the peak hours of the evening, which is probably related to this.
Boutique Network
The high-quality network is divided into one-way and two-way:
- One-way high-quality network: CN2 GIA, 9929, CMIN2, etc.
- Two-way boutique: CN2 GIA two-way experience is usually the best, but there are fewer merchants and the price is more expensive
The key pitfall
The "optimization" that many merchants claim is actually just one-way optimization, or even no optimization at all.
Don’t just look at the merchant’s product title. Before purchasing, confirm whether the line is really 9929 or CN2 GIA, instead of just believing in the words "triple network optimization". It is best to judge based on actual route testing and evening peak performance.
Step 4: Look at the IP attributes and don’t pay a premium for “disguised residential IP”
IPs can be roughly divided into three categories:
- Residential IPs: Server-native residential IPs are usually very expensive. If necessary, there are other options, which will not be discussed here.
- Disguise residential IP: Only some of the detected websites are displayed as residential, the following is an important reminder
- Computer room IP: The most common IP type of VPS
What is "disguised residential IP"
Some merchants will let the IP appear as a residential IP on testing websites such as ping0.cc, but when queried in more professional databases such as IP2Location, it is still essentially a computer room IP.
Conclusion: There’s no need to pay a premium just for the label “pretended residence.” It may only be valid for specific detection sites and does not equate to true residential IPs.
Three due diligence actions before placing an order
The line, IP and location are all good, and there are three things you must check before making payment:
- Risk of running away: It is not uncommon for small businesses to stop operations. You need to check word-of-mouth and operating hours.
- Refund Policy: Confirm whether there is a trial period or refund window, and whether you can return it if you buy the wrong product.
- Whether KYC is required: If you mind your real name, please confirm before purchasing; Korean nodes and some merchants may require certification
After selection
Once the VPS is selected, I will basically leave the rest of the construction work to Codex to generate the configuration, and use Clash Party to manage my own computer. I will not go into the details of the project in this article and will write a separate article later.
Summary
The correct order for buying a VPS is actually the same as buying other things: Determine the budget and needs first, and then discuss the parameters.
- Set budget and usage intensity
- Select a geographical location and understand the trade-offs of the United States, Japan and South Korea
- Understand the lines and confirm the real CN2 GIA, 9929 and other line conditions
- Don’t blindly pay a premium for “disguised residential IP”
- Check the merchant's reputation, refund policy and KYC before placing an order.
is required to complete these steps, and you can basically avoid most of the money wasted.
In the next article, I will talk about how I chose in the end.