Light in optical fibre covers about 200 km per millisecond, so every 1,000 km between the user and the server adds roughly 10 ms to each round trip. Putting the server in the right region is free, while fixing a wrong region later means a migration. In our catalog an entry VPS costs about the same in the US, Europe and Asia: $4 to $11 a month (prices checked October 21, 2026)
Latency is distance plus network quality
Latency is the time a request takes to reach the server and come back. Physics sets the floor: data cannot travel faster than light in fibre, and real cable routes are longer than a straight line. Network quality adds the rest: how many hops the route has, and how well the provider is connected to other networks. That is why the large hubs, Ashburn, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, London and Singapore, tend to feel fast: they are densely interconnected
Typical round trips between hubs, rounded:
| Route | Round trip, approx. |
|---|---|
| Within one metro area | 1-5 ms |
| Frankfurt to Amsterdam | 7-10 ms |
| US East coast to US West coast | 60-70 ms |
| New York to London | 70-80 ms |
| Frankfurt to Singapore | 150-170 ms |
| US West coast to Sydney | 140-160 ms |
Figures are typical values on good routes, your provider's looking-glass tool shows real numbers
Every round trip multiplies the distance
A page load is not one round trip. Opening a TLS connection takes one or two, and the page then requests HTML, styles, scripts and API data, often in several waves. With 150 ms per round trip, five waves cost 0.75 seconds before any rendering, while with 20 ms they cost 0.1 seconds. For interactive apps, online stores and especially game servers, hosting close to the audience is one of the cheapest performance wins there is
Place the server where most of your users are
The simplest rule: put the server near the majority of users
- a US audience: a US region, see VPS in the USA
- a European audience: a hub such as Frankfurt or Amsterdam, see VPS in Europe
- an Asian audience: Singapore, Tokyo or Hong Kong depending on the market, see VPS in Asia
- the Gulf: a local data centre such as Dubai, see VPS in the UAE
If users cluster in one country, a server in that country trims latency further
Location barely changes the price
| Region | Example plan | vCPU / RAM | Price per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| USA | MassiveGRID Starter | 1 / 1 GB | $3.99 |
| USA | DataPacket VServer 2 GB | 2 / 2 GB | $9.99 |
| Europe | Hostman Cloud 3 | 2 / 2 GB | $7.00 |
| Europe | MassiveGRID Growth | 2 / 2 GB | $7.98 |
| Asia | MassiveGRID Professional | 4 / 8 GB | $19.16 |
| UAE | is*hosting Lite · Dubai | 1 / 1 GB | $10.19 |
Prices checked October 21, 2026, live prices and all locations are in the catalog
Put in money: in the US and Europe the right region costs the same as the wrong one. The exception is smaller markets such as the UAE, where a local plan can cost roughly double a European one. Pay it when the users are there and the app is interactive, skip it for a static site behind a CDN
A CDN serves a global audience better than a second server
If users are spread across the world, no single location serves everyone equally. A content delivery network caches static files, images, scripts and styles, at many points near the visitors, while your VPS handles only the dynamic part. Many CDNs have a free tier, so this is far cheaper than running servers on several continents. A second server in another region makes sense only when the dynamic part itself is slow for distant users, for example a game, a chat or an API
Check before you commit
- run a ping or the provider's looking-glass test from where your users are
- confirm the exact city, not just "Europe", on the provider's site
- look at bandwidth and egress pricing if you serve large files
The calculator lets you pick a target location, so the ranking favours providers that serve it
Frequently asked questions
Does server location affect website speed?
Yes. Each 1,000 km adds about 10 ms to every round trip, and a page load needs several round trips. For a distant audience the difference is noticeable
What is a good latency for a website?
Under 50 ms round trip feels instant. 50-100 ms is fine for most sites. Above 150 ms interactive pages start to feel slow without a CDN
Is a VPS in Europe fast enough for US visitors?
For a static site behind a CDN, yes. For an interactive app or a game server with mostly US users, pick a US region
Do I need a CDN if my server is close to my users?
Not necessarily. A CDN helps most when users are spread across regions or when you serve many large files
Does a server in another country cost more?
In the US and Europe prices are similar. In smaller markets such as the UAE a local VPS can cost about twice as much