Raff and Vultr both offer cloud VPS with virtual machines, snapshots, S3-compatible object storage, VPC networking, and NVMe SSD storage. Vultr also offers managed databases, managed Kubernetes, GPU instances, and bare metal today. Raff focuses on VMs, object storage, VPC networking, backups, snapshots, and predictable bandwidth, with managed Kubernetes and managed databases on the 2026 roadmap.
At the benchmarked 2 vCPU / 4 GB tier, Raff CPU-Optimized is $19.99/mo and Vultr High Performance is $24/mo. Raff also now includes a lower-cost 2 vCPU / 2 GB / 50 GB CPU-Optimized plan at $13.99/mo, giving users a new intermediate option before the 4 GB tier. The differences sit in four areas: pricing, bandwidth policy, performance by workload, and product breadth. Each is covered below.
Vultr vs Raff: which is right for you?
Both providers ship the same core VM capabilities. The differences are measurable across four dimensions covered in the sections that follow:
- Pricing and bandwidth — Raff is $19.99/mo at the benchmarked 2 vCPU HiMem / 4 GB tier with unmetered bandwidth; Vultr High Performance is $24/mo with 5 TB metered transfer + $0.01/GB overage.
- New lower-cost Raff tier — Raff now offers 2 vCPU / 2 GB / 50 GB CPU-Optimized at $13.99/mo for workloads that need 2 vCPU but do not need 4 GB RAM.
- Performance — Raff is 2.2x faster on Redis and memory writes; Vultr is 9% faster on CPU single-thread, about 15x lower latency on QD1 disk reads, and 22% faster on SQLite inserts.
- Storage architecture — Raff supports snapshots and live migration through distributed storage; Vultr's local NVMe is faster at QD1 but VMs are host-pinned.
- Product breadth and geography — Vultr offers GPU, bare metal, managed Kubernetes, managed databases, and 32 data center locations; Raff is US-focused with a tighter VM-first product line.
Match these against your workload's priorities to decide.
Vultr overview
Vultr, founded in 2014 and operated by Constant Company, LLC, offers Cloud Compute, High Performance NVMe, High Frequency, Optimized Cloud Compute, Cloud GPU, and Bare Metal. Instances run on AMD EPYC or Intel Xeon processors with SSD or NVMe storage.
Beyond core VMs, Vultr ships managed Kubernetes (VKE), managed databases for PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Redis, load balancers, and a one-click application marketplace. The platform exposes a REST API and CLI (vultr-cli). Bandwidth is metered per plan: 1-12 TB outbound depending on tier; overage is $0.01/GB. Automated backups are an opt-in add-on at approximately 20% of the VM monthly cost.
Typical Vultr customers include teams running globally distributed applications, ML workloads needing GPU instances, and organizations that want a single provider spanning shared CPU through bare metal.
Raff overview
Raff Technologies is a US-based cloud infrastructure provider focused on virtual machines, S3-compatible object storage, VPC networking, snapshots, automated backups, and predictable bandwidth. Raff VMs run on AMD EPYC processors with NVMe SSD storage and DDR5 RAM. Managed Kubernetes and managed databases are on the 2026 roadmap.
Every Raff VM plan includes unmetered outbound bandwidth, 3 automated backups at no additional cost, snapshots, block storage volumes, private networking (VPC), firewalls, IPv4 + IPv6, and DDoS protection. Storage uses distributed block storage, which enables snapshots and live migration at the cost of slightly higher queue-depth-1 latency compared to direct-attached NVMe.
Raff is battle-tested at scale: 10,000+ production VMs run on the platform today, and Raff Technologies is rated 4.5/5 across 14 verified reviews on Trustpilot as of May 2026. The Raff dashboard, API, billing system, object storage, marketplace, and audit logs all run on the same infrastructure Raff sells — Raff runs on Raff. Raff operates from US infrastructure with a 14-day money-back guarantee on paid services.
Vultr pricing vs Raff pricing
Both providers bill hourly. Raff CPU-Optimized is cheaper at every listed comparable tier, and Raff also has a new 2 vCPU / 2 GB tier for users who want 2 vCPU without paying for 4 GB RAM.
| Configuration | Raff CPU-Optimized | Vultr High Performance | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 vCPU / 1 GB / 25 GB | $3.99/mo | $6.00/mo | Raff about 34% cheaper |
| 1 vCPU HiMem / 2 GB / 50 GB | $9.99/mo | $12.00/mo | Raff about 17% cheaper |
| 2 vCPU / 2 GB / 50 GB | $13.99/mo | No direct High Performance match | New Raff intermediate tier |
| 2 vCPU HiMem / 4 GB / 80-100 GB | $19.99/mo | $24.00/mo | Raff about 17% cheaper |
| 4 vCPU HiMem / 8 GB / 120-180 GB | $35.99/mo | $48.00/mo | Raff about 25% cheaper |
| 8 vCPU HiMem / 16 GB / 180-350 GB | $63.99/mo | $96.00/mo | Raff about 33% cheaper |
Raff also offers General Purpose VMs with shared CPU starting at $5.99/mo for 2 vCPU / 2 GB / 40 GB NVMe SSD, suited to development environments, low-traffic sites, or non-critical workloads where dedicated CPU is not required. The comparison above and benchmarks below use Raff CPU-Optimized to match Vultr High Performance's higher-performance VM category.
Bandwidth cost math
At the benchmarked 2 vCPU / 4 GB instance ($19.99/mo Raff vs $24/mo Vultr), the bill behaves very differently as outbound traffic scales:
- Under 1 TB/mo: Both providers are within the base plan — bills are $19.99 vs $24/mo.
- 5 TB/mo: Right at Vultr's included limit — bills are still $19.99 vs $24/mo.
- 10 TB/mo: Vultr = $24 plan + about $50 overage = about $74/mo. Raff stays at $19.99/mo.
- 50 TB/mo: Vultr = $24 plan + about $460 overage = about $484/mo. Raff stays at $19.99/mo.
At low traffic, the providers are close on monthly price. The gap opens dramatically once outbound traffic exceeds Vultr's included allowance.
Automated backups
Raff includes 3 automated backups per VM at no additional cost. Vultr offers automated backups as an opt-in add-on at approximately 20% of the VM monthly cost. At the 2 vCPU / 4 GB tier, that is an additional ~$4.80/mo, bringing Vultr's effective cost with backups to about $28.80/mo.
Feature comparison: Vultr vs Raff
Compute
Both providers use AMD EPYC processors with DDR5 memory on the tested AMD-backed plans. On sysbench cpu --threads=1, Vultr scored 1,824 events/sec vs Raff's 1,662 — Vultr's SKU has a slightly higher base clock, giving a 9% single-thread edge. The gap closes at higher thread counts. Both deliver more than enough single-core performance for typical web and API workloads.
Vultr additionally offers GPU instances and bare metal servers. Raff does not currently offer GPU or bare metal.
Networking
Raff includes unmetered outbound bandwidth at 3 Gbps standard port speed on VM plans. Vultr meters per plan — the 2 vCPU / 4 GB High Performance tier includes 5 TB monthly outbound transfer; overage is $0.01/GB. Both support IPv4 + IPv6, private networking (VPC), DDoS protection, and floating IPs.
Storage architecture — the honest tradeoff
Both providers ship the same core storage tools: block storage volumes, snapshots, automated backups, and S3-compatible object storage. The structural difference is how block storage is implemented.
Raff uses distributed block storage. Snapshots and live VM migration are supported. Storage capacity scales independently of compute, and data is replicated across the cluster for durability. The tradeoff is slightly higher queue-depth-1 latency than direct-attached NVMe.
Vultr uses local NVMe attached directly to the hypervisor. Queue-depth-1 latency is lower, so single fsync round-trips are faster. The tradeoff is that VMs are host-pinned and storage capacity is tier-bound.
For object storage, both providers offer S3-compatible APIs:
- Raff Object Storage: $7/mo for the first 100 GB, $0.07/GB/mo above.
- Vultr Object Storage: starts at $5/mo for 250 GB in regions where it is available.
For most workloads — web servers, application servers, in-memory caches, queue workers — the block storage architectural difference is invisible. For single-threaded synchronous workloads with tight fsync loops, Vultr's local NVMe is measurably faster.
Platform breadth
Vultr ships a broader catalog today: managed Kubernetes (VKE), managed databases, GPU compute, bare metal, and a more mature global footprint. Raff's managed Kubernetes and managed databases are on the 2026 roadmap; GPU and bare metal are not currently offered.
Raff's platform is narrower but tightly integrated — one dashboard covers VMs, S3-compatible object storage, VPC private networking, snapshots, backups, REST API, CLI, the one-click marketplace, and a Terraform provider on the public registry. For teams that want a focused VPS + object storage + VPC stack and integrate everything else through standard internet services like Cloudflare and GitHub Actions, Raff covers the ground. For teams that want GPU, bare metal, managed databases today, or a single provider spanning every workload class from shared CPU to AI training, Vultr is the better fit.
Performance benchmarks: Raff vs Vultr
Headline result: On benchmarked 2 vCPU / 4 GB specs, Raff is 2.2x faster on Redis and 2.2x faster on memory random-write. Vultr is 9% faster on single-thread CPU, about 15x lower latency on queue-depth-1 disk reads, and 22% faster on SQLite inserts. Methodology and full numbers below.
Methodology
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Test date | 2026-05-11 |
| Raff VM | 2 vCPU HiMem / 4 GB DDR5 / 80 GB NVMe — $19.99/mo CPU-Optimized — Vint Hill, VA |
| Vultr VM | 2 vCPU / 4 GB DDR5 / 100 GB NVMe local — $24/mo High Performance (vhp-2c-4gb-amd) — Chicago, IL |
| OS | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, default kernel parameters |
| Tools | sysbench 1.0.20, fio 3.36, iperf3 3.16, redis-benchmark 7.x |
| Runs | Single pass per test; multi-pass refresh planned before next quarterly update |
| Test cost | Paid at standard rates by Raff Technologies; no sponsorship or rebate from Vultr |
Tests cover real-application workload patterns rather than synthetic peaks. Single-run numbers reflect a single point in time and will vary with host load and region; relative gaps between providers tend to be consistent within ±15%.
Results
| Benchmark | Raff | Vultr | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Redis SET (req/s) | 157,356 | 70,596 | Raff 2.2x faster |
| Redis GET (req/s) | 157,356 | 70,596 | Raff 2.2x faster |
| Memory random write (MiB/s) | 6,099 | 2,790 | Raff 2.2x faster |
| Memory random read (MiB/s) | 5,541 | 5,259 | Raff 5% faster |
| Memory sequential read (GB/s) | 131 | 127 | Raff 4% faster |
| CPU single-thread (events/s) | 1,662 | 1,824 | Vultr 9% faster |
| Disk QD1 random read P99 (µs) | 807 | 53 | Vultr 15x lower latency |
| Disk QD32 random read (IOPS) | ~75,000 | ~210,000 | Vultr 2.8x more |
| Disk sequential read (GB/s) | 2.4 | 4.6 | Vultr 1.9x faster |
| SQLite insert (inserts/s) | 331,000 | 424,000 | Vultr 22% faster |
| VA to NYC ping (ms) | 7.5 | 18.3 (Chicago to NYC) | Raff geographically closer to NYC |
What the results tell us
Where Raff wins: memory-bandwidth-bound workloads and real-application throughput. Redis — the canonical caching, sessions, and queues workload — runs 2.2x faster on Raff at benchmarked CPU and RAM specs, consistent with Raff's stronger memory random-write performance. For services that move work through memory at high rates, such as Redis, in-memory caches, queue workers, and API hot paths, this is the pattern that matters.
Where Vultr wins: queue-depth-1 disk latency and saturated deep-queue IOPS. Vultr's local NVMe is architecturally favored for single-threaded synchronous workloads with tight fsync loops, and for OLTP databases that benefit from very low write latency. SQLite, dependent on fsync round-trips, is 22% faster on Vultr.
For the majority of cloud VPS workloads — HTTP services, APIs, caches, and application servers — the disk latency gap is invisible because real applications use higher queue depths and asynchronous I/O. For the minority of workloads where QD1 disk latency directly bottlenecks user-facing performance, Vultr is the better fit.
Caveats
Performance varies based on neighboring VM activity, region selection, and time of day. Numbers above are one snapshot from May 2026 in single-pass tests. A multi-pass refresh is planned before the next quarterly update.
When you should choose Vultr over Raff
- Multi-region deployments outside the US — Vultr's 32-location footprint.
- GPU compute for AI/ML inference or training.
- Bare metal for licensing-constrained workloads or single-tenant compliance.
- Managed databases or managed Kubernetes today — Vultr offers both today; Raff lists them on the 2026 roadmap.
- Single-threaded synchronous I/O workloads that bottleneck on
fsynclatency at QD1. - Mature global infrastructure catalog spanning shared CPU, high-performance VMs, optimized VMs, GPU, and bare metal.
When you should choose Raff over Vultr
- Predictable cost matters more than geographic reach — unmetered bandwidth removes a class of bill surprise, especially at 5+ TB/mo egress.
- New lower-cost 2 vCPU option — Raff's 2 vCPU / 2 GB / 50 GB CPU-Optimized plan is $13.99/mo.
- Real-application throughput on memory-bound workloads — Redis, caching layers, queue workers, and API services.
- Snapshots and live migration are architecturally important — Raff's distributed storage supports both.
- 3 free automated backups versus a paid 20%-of-VM add-on.
- US-region workloads — Raff's Vint Hill location is closer to NYC than Vultr Chicago in the benchmark path.
- Verified third-party rating — Raff is rated 4.5/5 across 14 reviews on Trustpilot.
Migrating from Vultr to Raff
A typical Vultr to Raff migration takes 30-90 minutes per VM:
- Inventory Vultr instances — note OS, region, attached volumes, networking, and backup schedule.
- Provision matching Raff VMs — equal or greater vCPU/RAM. Raff uses virtio-blk, so volume device names are
/dev/vdafor the OS disk and/dev/vdb,/dev/vdcfor additional disks, not/dev/sd*. - Transfer data —
rsyncover SSH for application files; nativepg_dump/mysqldumpfor databases; or snapshot and restore through Raff Object Storage for large datasets. - Update DNS to point to the new Raff IP. Lower TTL to 300 seconds ahead of cutover.
- Verify — smoke tests, bandwidth, backups, firewall rules, and application logs.
- Decommission the Vultr instance after the cutover window.
For stateful workloads, plan a brief maintenance window during DNS swap. Stateless services behind a load balancer can drain Vultr instances gradually.
About Vultr
Vultr is operated by Constant Company, LLC, headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida, and was founded in 2014. The company is one of the larger independent cloud infrastructure providers in the developer market. Read more on the official Vultr website: vultr.com.
Conclusion: Vultr or Raff?
The comparison resolves across four measured axes:
- Cost — Raff is about 17% cheaper at the benchmarked 2 vCPU HiMem / 4 GB tier ($19.99 vs $24), and Raff now has a lower-cost 2 vCPU / 2 GB CPU-Optimized tier at $13.99/mo. Raff also includes unmetered bandwidth versus Vultr's metered 5 TB transfer with $0.01/GB overage.
- Performance — Raff is 2.2x faster on Redis and memory writes; Vultr is 9% faster on CPU single-thread, about 15x lower latency on QD1 disk reads, and 22% faster on SQLite inserts.
- Storage — Raff supports snapshots and live migration through distributed storage; Vultr's local NVMe is lower-latency but host-pinned.
- Product breadth — Vultr offers managed databases, managed Kubernetes, GPU, bare metal, and 32 global data center locations; Raff is US-focused with a tighter VM-first product line.
If your workload is memory-bound or your egress exceeds 5 TB/mo, Raff is the wiser pick. If you need GPU, bare metal, managed databases today, global regions, or QD1 disk latency for synchronous I/O workloads, Vultr is the right answer. Most production web and API workloads fall in the first category.
Verified rating: Raff Technologies is rated 4.5/5 across 14 reviews on Trustpilot, with 10,000+ production VMs running on the platform.