How to Choose an Overseas Cloud Server

To publish freely, many independent creators have been moving to self-hosted blogs. Because filing for a domestic server is cumbersome, some bloggers park their infrastructure overseas to enjoy the convenience of skipping the filing process. When picking an overseas server, cost and network performance come first. I tested four combinations: a Vultr Singapore box, Vultr Singapore + Google DNS, a Google VM + Google DNS (Hong Kong node), and Google VM + Google DNS + Google CDN (Hong Kong node).

In terms of speed, the Google Hong Kong stack with Google VM + Google DNS + Google CDN is the fastest option, while the bare Vultr Singapore server is the slowest.

Speed test running only a Vultr Singapore server

Speed test running Vultr Singapore + Google DNS

Speed test running Google VM + Google DNS (Hong Kong node)

Speed test running Google VM + Google DNS + Google CDN (Hong Kong node)

From the pricing angle, Vultr offers new users US$50 of credits for 30 days when you top up at least US$5, and the cheapest Singapore plan is US$5 per month. Google Cloud grants new users US$300 of credits that stay valid for a year. For a modest-traffic personal blog, that is essentially a year of free Google Compute Engine capacity.

All things considered, give Google Cloud a try for your blog hosting and pick a node that sits close to your readers. If your audience is mainly in mainland China, hosting in the Hong Kong region works best.

Netlify is another option: it provides free JAMstack-based static site hosting plus serverless backends. If you are curious, experiment with Ghost + Netlify + Gatsby to build your own blog frontend on Gatsby.js.

Published at: Aug 4, 2019 · Modified at: Nov 20, 2025