GreenCloudVPS Review

GreenCloudVPS, also known as "Green Hat Cloud" by users, is a foreign hosting service provider. The exact founding time is unknown. Currently, they have coverage in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, the United States, Europe, and other regions. They offer both storage-type and SSD VPS, using KVM virtualization, and have a wide range of options.

Review Configuration

When not running promotions, GreenCloudVPS prices are not cheap. However, they often have holiday promotions and now they have weekly specials. I purchased a discounted machine with the following configuration:

• CPU: 2 cores
• Memory: 4GB
• Bandwidth: 1Gbps
• Traffic: 500GB
• Price: $60/year
• Location: Japan
• Model Name: NVMeAPAC
• Purchase link: https://greencloudvps.com/ (AFF link, pay attention to the weekly promotions at the top, as the machine may go out of stock)

I/O and Download Tests

Below, I used the bench.sh script to perform the tests. The average I/O speed reached 966.3 MB/s, which is quite impressive and may be due to the NVMe boost.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
CPU model            : QEMU Virtual CPU version 2.5+
Number of cores      : 2
CPU frequency        : 2599.994 MHz
Total size of Disk   : 18.0 GB (6.6 GB Used)
Total amount of Mem  : 3938 MB (491 MB Used)
Total amount of Swap : 2047 MB (0 MB Used)
System uptime        : 1 days, 2 hour 23 min
Load average         : 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
OS                   : CentOS 7.7.1908
Arch                 : x86_64 (64 Bit)
Kernel               : 5.5.5-1.el7.elrepo.x86_64
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I/O speed(1st run)   : 851 MB/s
I/O speed(2nd run)   : 1.0 GB/s
I/O speed(3rd run)   : 1.0 GB/s
Average I/O speed    : 966.3 MB/s
----------------------------------------------------------------------

The official page indicates a bandwidth of 1Gbps, but the highest download speed only reached 60.0MB/s, so it did not reach Gbps level. It may be due to throttling or insufficient bandwidth.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Node Name                       IPv4 address            Download Speed
CacheFly                        204.93.150.152          60.0MB/s
Linode, Tokyo2, JP              139.162.65.37           32.0MB/s
Linode, Singapore, SG           139.162.23.4            14.3MB/s
Linode, London, UK              176.58.107.39           6.43MB/s
Linode, Frankfurt, DE           139.162.130.8           4.36MB/s
Linode, Fremont, CA             50.116.14.9             11.3MB/s
Softlayer, Dallas, TX           173.192.68.18           9.39MB/s
Softlayer, Seattle, WA          67.228.112.250          7.57MB/s
Softlayer, Frankfurt, DE        159.122.69.4            4.57MB/s
Softlayer, Singapore, SG        119.81.28.170           12.9MB/s
Softlayer, HongKong, CN         119.81.130.170          33.6MB/s
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Ping Test

This test was conducted during the day, so the results look better. The average latency from China is 73.9ms, as shown in the following graph.

Traceroute

I won't provide detailed data for the outbound routing, but I will provide the test IP addresses later. You can also test the outbound routing yourself. Here is a summary of the outbound routing.

• Liaoning Unicom: Direct connection via IIJ
• Mianyang Telecom: Direct connection via IIJ
• Hefei Mobile: Rerouted via Hong Kong to IIJ (detour through Hong Kong)

Next is the test of the return routing to Sichuan Telecom.

1  172.93.220.1  0.54 ms  AS4785  Japan Tokyo nexeon.com
 2  10.254.89.1  0.35 ms    Local network
 3  mpr1.g0-2-7.catnetworks-4.tok003.pnap.net (203.169.8.141)  0.70 ms  AS17675  Japan Tokyo inap.com
 4  core4.ge1-1-bbnet1.tok.pnap.net (61.211.160.15)  1.77 ms  AS17675  Japan Tokyo inap.com
 5  101.110.21.201  1.50 ms  AS17676  Japan Tokyo bbtec.net
 6  softbank221111179214.bbtec.net (221.111.179.214)  37.28 ms  AS17676  China Shanghai bbtec.net
 7  *
 8  202.97.57.158  33.29 ms  AS4134  China Shanghai Telecom
 9  *
10  *
11  61.139.113.58  79.81 ms  AS4134  China Sichuan Chengdu Telecom
12  ns.sc.cninfo.net (61.139.2.69)  77.58 ms  AS4134  China Sichuan Chengdu Telecom

Return routing to Hebei Unicom:

1  172.93.220.1  0.52 ms  AS4785  Japan Tokyo nexeon.com
 2  10.254.89.1  0.89 ms    Local network
 3  mpr1.g0-2-7.catnetworks-4.tok003.pnap.net (203.169.8.141)  0.34 ms  AS17675  Japan Tokyo inap.com
 4  mpr2.vlan-2-bbnet2.tok003.pnap.net (61.211.160.84)  1.39 ms  AS17675  Japan Tokyo inap.com
 5  202.232.6.45  1.34 ms  AS2497  Japan Tokyo iij.ad.jp
 6  tky009bb00.IIJ.Net (58.138.112.213)  1.77 ms  AS2497  Japan Tokyo iij.ad.jp
 7  tky008bb00.IIJ.Net (58.138.88.33)  2.26 ms  AS2497  Japan Tokyo iij.ad.jp
 8  tky008ix11.IIJ.Net (58.138.104.26)  1.82 ms  AS2497  Japan Tokyo iij.ad.jp
 9  210.130.133.10  2.29 ms  AS2497  Japan Tokyo iij.ad.jp
10  219.158.102.201  35.03 ms  AS4837  China Shanghai Unicom
11  219.158.113.126  38.58 ms  AS4837  China Shanghai Unicom
12  219.158.113.113  32.86 ms  AS4837  China Shanghai Unicom
13  219.158.23.34  51.93 ms  AS4837  China Tianjin Unicom
14  202.99.160.214  53.78 ms  AS4837  China Hebei Shijiazhuang Unicom
15  61.182.175.194  59.42 ms  AS4837  China Hebei Shijiazhuang Unicom
16  221.192.35.2  63.49 ms  AS4837  China Hebei Shijiazhuang Unicom
17  202.99.160.68  57.70 ms  AS4837  China Hebei Shijiazhuang Unicom

As you can see, the return routing is direct for all cases.

Test IP Addresses

• Los Angeles: 198.55.111.5
• Phoenix: 66.154.97.183
• Las Vegas: 199.241.143.254
• Seattle: 216.244.83.34
• Dallas: 45.34.12.147
• Chicago: 167.88.10.4
• Amsterdam: 185.214.10.103
• Japan: 210.193.122.1
• Singapore: 45.119.201.6
• Hong Kong: 103.232.84.1

I won't list the test IP addresses for other data centers, as they may change. You can visit the official test page to check them: https://greencloudvps.com/data-centers.php

Additional Information

The machine mentioned above was purchased during the weekly special, so it was cheaper than usual. Originally, I planned to buy a machine in the Hong Kong data center, but I learned from customer service that the total bandwidth for mainland China and Hong Kong is only 10Mbps and it is shared. Therefore, I chose Japan instead.

Summary

For GreenCloudVPS Japan data center, the routes to China Telecom and China Unicom are direct, while China Mobile routes via Hong Kong (which is not a big issue). The return routes are direct for all three major ISPs. Latency may be higher during peak hours.

GreenCloudVPS offers a wide range of VPS types and regions, and they have online customer support with fast response times. If they maintain their routes and connections, it's worth considering. Those interested can check out their weekly specials.

• Purchase link: https://greencloudvps.com/ (AFF link)
• Weekly specials: https://greencloudvps.com/ As of now, you can still purchase the machine reviewed in this article (named NVMeAPAC), but the specific date it will go out of stock is unknown.