RackNerd’s annual Black Friday promotion is one of the most important events in the budget yearly VPS market. This year, we immediately purchased the best-value entry plan — only $10.60/year — and deployed it in the popular West US data center: San Jose, California.
However, during real-world testing, we found that although San Jose was selected at purchase time, the assigned IP geolocation ultimately resolved to nearby Santa Clara, CA. This is very common in the Bay Area budget VPS segment, as datacenter infrastructure and IP ranges are often shared between nearby cities.
A major highlight of this plan is the official free double bandwidth offer, which increases the base 4TB monthly traffic on the entry plan. Combined with a 1Gbps port, this makes it extremely attractive for the price. This review is based on the actual Santa Clara location.
RackNerd Official Website: RackNerd – Introducing Infrastructure Stability
Test machine NodeQuality report:
https://nodequality.com/r/1HHLycWDjOqQ5doBXQNoMaIOam49mt18
1. RackNerd 2025 Black Friday VPS Plans (Traffic Doubled)
The tested plan is the lowest tier. Below is the official promotion table with doubled bandwidth traffic included:
| CPU | RAM | Disk | Traffic | Price | Purchase Link |
| 1 Core | 1GB | 25GB SSD | 4TB | $10.6/year | Buy |
| 2 Cores | 2.5GB | 45GB SSD | 6TB | $18.66/year | Buy |
| 3 Cores | 4GB | 65GB SSD | 13TB | $29.98/year | Buy |
| 5 Cores | 6GB | 100GB SSD | 20TB | $44.98/year | Buy |
| 6 Cores | 8GB | 150GB SSD | 40TB | $62.49/year | Buy |
To claim double bandwidth, simply post your order number on the official LET thread:
LowEndTalk Official Thread
If inconvenient, you can also leave a comment on related YouTube or Bilibili review videos for assistance.
2. Hardware & System Overview
This VPS was purchased as San Jose but is actually located in Santa Clara, California. IP: 107.173.83.189
System Summary
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Location | Santa Clara, CA (AS36352 / ColoCrossing) |
| CPU | Intel Xeon E5-2680 v2 @ 2.80GHz |
| RAM | ~1GB |
| Virtualization | KVM |
| OS | Debian 12 |
Disk I/O Performance
| Test | Read | Write | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4K | 50.99 MB/s | 51.05 MB/s | 102 MB/s |
| 64K | 690 MB/s | 693 MB/s | 1.38 GB/s |
| 1M | 1.41 GB/s | 1.50 GB/s | 2.91 GB/s |
CPU Performance
| Test | Score |
|---|---|
| Geekbench 5 Single | 415 |
| SysBench | 725 |
3. Network Routing Analysis
China Ping Latency
| Carrier | Avg Latency |
|---|---|
| China Telecom | 174ms |
| China Unicom | 180ms |
| China Mobile | 204ms |
| Overall | 186ms |
Routing Overview (China → VPS)
- Telecom: ChinaNet (AS4134) → Level3/Cogent → Santa Clara
- Unicom: AS4837 → Tier1 backbone → West US
- Mobile: CMI (AS58453) → Hong Kong / Pacific route → West US
Return Routing (VPS → China)
- Telecom: Cogent → AS4134 (163 backbone)
- Unicom: Cogent → AS4837
- Mobile: Cogent → CMI backbone
Bandwidth Test
| Location | Upload | Download |
|---|---|---|
| Suzhou Telecom | 129 Mbps | 502 Mbps |
| International LA | 583 Mbps | 448 Mbps |
| Tokyo | 580 Mbps | 431 Mbps |
4. IP Quality & Streaming Unlock
- IP Type: Native IP
- Location: Santa Clara, CA
- Risk Score: 25% (moderate)
| Service | Status |
|---|---|
| Netflix | Unlocked |
| YouTube | Unlocked |
| Spotify | Unlocked |
| ChatGPT | Unlocked |
| TikTok | Unlocked |
| Disney+ | Blocked |
5. Conclusion
The RackNerd $10.6/year VPS once again proves its extreme value in the budget hosting market.
- Pros: ultra-low price, 4TB traffic, solid SSD I/O, native IP, good streaming & AI unlocking support.
- Cons: location mismatch (San Jose → Santa Clara), standard mixed routing (no premium CN2/9929), moderate latency 174–204ms.
Best for: budget users, backup storage, lightweight websites, or cross-border applications. At this price point, performance is already highly competitive.
