Among Russian hosting providers, FirstVDS has been holding its ground since 2010. The company has survived more than one crisis, gone through several hardware generations, and continues to grow. This review is no fluff — just facts and numbers. Official website: firstvds.ru.
Where the Servers Are
FirstVDS operates three facilities: Moscow (DataPro), the Netherlands, and Frankfurt. The Moscow data center is Tier III — that’s serious: redundant power, climate control, 24/7 security.
For projects targeting a Russian audience, the Moscow facility delivers 5–15 ms ping within Moscow and the region, and 20–40 ms across the country. European locations are a standard 40–60 ms from central Russia.
Plans: What You Get for Your Money
FirstVDS sticks to the classic VDS model (KVM virtualization). The lineup starts with the VDS-Start plan at ₽299/month:
- 1 vCPU
- 1 GB RAM
- 25 GB SSD
- Unlimited traffic (genuinely unlimited, not 1 TB)
- 1 IPv4
The mid-range VDS-Standard at ₽699/month — 2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 50 GB SSD. The sweet spot for most tasks.
The top-tier VDS-Pro at ₽1,499/month — 4 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 100 GB SSD. Suitable for an online store, corporate website, or multiple projects on a single server.
A particularly satisfying point: honest unlimited traffic on all plans. None of that “truly unlimited, but after 5 TB we throttle you to 10 Mbps” — no such tricks have been spotted with FirstVDS.
Speed Testing
I rented a VDS-Standard plan at the Moscow facility and ran standard benchmarks. Results:
- Disk: read speed ~500 MB/s, write ~350 MB/s. These are SATA SSDs, not NVMe — but more than enough for most tasks.
- Network: stable gigabit, speedtest shows 850–950 Mbps.
- CPU: single-core Geekbench 5 — around 800 points. Intel Xeon processors, not the latest generation, but solid.
If you need NVMe disks and newer processors — FirstVDS isn’t for you. But for this price, the configuration is absolutely adequate.
Control Panel
FirstVDS uses ispmanager (Lite version free, Business at an extra cost) and BILLmanager for billing. A familiar, predictable combo.
Through ispmanager you can: create websites, manage databases, configure email, install SSL certificates, monitor load. The interface is in Russian, everything is intuitive.
For those who prefer working from the terminal — SSH access out of the box, root privileges, install whatever you want: Docker, WireGuard, panels like HestiaCP or FastPanel.
Tech Support
Tickets — average response time around 20–30 minutes during business hours. Evenings and weekends — up to an hour. Answers are to the point, not templated.
Site chat is available, but honestly: tickets are faster. Phone support exists, but I haven’t used it.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Low prices with adequate configurations
- Honest unlimited traffic
- Data center in Moscow — minimal ping for Russia
- ispmanager included
- Russian bank cards accepted, ruble payments
- Stable uptime — not a single outage during a month of testing
Cons:
- SATA SSD, not NVMe — disk speed is more modest than competitors
- Processors aren’t the latest
- ispmanager panel can feel clunky
- European locations are pricier than Moscow
Verdict
7.5/10. FirstVDS is a workhorse without frills. If you need an affordable VDS in Russia with decent tech support and no surprises — go ahead. If you need stellar disk speeds and the latest-gen processors — look toward cloud providers, but bring a bigger budget.