SSD Nodes was started 14 years ago. Back then, our CEO was in college working a minimum wage job. The idea was simple - sell good servers for way less money than everyone else.
Sounds crazy, right? Turns out it worked.
The Early Days Were Rough
2011 was different. SSDs cost a fortune. Most hosting companies wouldn't touch them because the margins were terrible. Amazon didn't even offer SSD instances until 2012 or 2013.
We bought them anyway. Credit cards were maxed out, every dollar was scraped together. People thought we were idiots.
Maybe we were. But we're still here and those people... well, some of them aren't.
Starting in a college dorm room with basically no money taught us something important - nothing can be wasted. Every server purchase mattered. Every customer support ticket was precious. Everything had to be done right because we couldn't afford to get it wrong.
Even now with 20+ people on the team and servers in 14 countries, we are still resourceful and flexible.
As our CEO Matt Connor reflected in our 7th-year interview: "I still think we're a startup in so many ways just because we're growing, we're learning, we're trying new things." That startup mentality has carried us through 14 years of continuous innovation.
What We Built This Year
Our 14th year was busy. Here's what we shipped:
Nested Virtualization
Virtual machines can now be run inside your VPS. This is a game-changer for development work. You can test dangerous code changes, try different operating systems, or run multiple isolated environments all on one server.
Break something in the nested VM? Just delete it and start over. Your main setup stays untouched. Check it out here.
API That Actually Works
Our new API allows everything to be controlled through code. Servers can be deployed, settings managed, deployments automated. It's what people have been asking for since day one.
Gaming Servers
We optimized our Performance VPS instances for gaming.
You can host pretty much any popular game. Minecraft servers for your friends. Counter-Strike matches with low ping. Rust servers that don't crash when 100 players join. ARK worlds that actually load fast.
The hardware is the same as our regular Performance VPS - we just realized gamers need reliable servers that don't cost a fortune. Most gaming hosts charge 3x what we do for worse performance. Check out our Gaming servers.
Vippy Improvements
Vippy, our custom virtualization software was made faster and more efficient.
Less overhead means better performance for the same price.
Public Uptime Stats
This one's huge. Real uptime numbers are now shown for all 14 locations. No hiding behind marketing speak. You can see exactly how our servers perform every day.
Most companies would never do this. What if the numbers are bad? What if downtime is seen by people?
Here's the thing - our uptime is actually really good. 99.99% across the board. Why not show it off?
The Numbers After 14 Years
- 40,000 virtual machines (VMs) created
- Zero outside investment (still bootstrapped)
- 14 data centers across 6 continents
- 99.99% uptime with public proof
- Customers save up to 80% vs competitors
Why We're Different
Most hosting companies take investor money. That changes everything. Suddenly you're optimizing for growth metrics instead of customer happiness. You need 10x returns in 5 years. Prices go up. Quality goes down.
We never did that.
Being bootstrapped means decisions can be made based on what's right for customers. Want to keep prices low during inflation? Sure. Want to offer 3-year plans at crazy discounts? Why not. Want to spend extra on better hardware? Makes sense.
The big guys can't do this stuff. Their investors won't let them.
Support That Speaks for Itself
Our support gets mentioned by people in reviews all the time. It's not bots or outsourced chat. It's our actual engineers who know the systems.
This costs more money. It's "inefficient." Investors would hate it.
But customers love it. And happy customers stick around for years. They recommend us to friends. They upgrade when they need more resources.
Long-term thinking beats quarterly optimization every time.
What's Next
Year 15 is going to be interesting. The whole industry is changing. AI workloads need different resources. Edge computing is becoming real. Everyone wants APIs and automation.
Good thing this stuff has been built by us already.
The API capabilities are being expanded. More automation options are being added. New locations are being looked at where it makes sense.
All this, without changing our core philosophy: premium infrastructure at prices that don't hurt.
Thanks
Fourteen years is a long time in tech. Most startups are dead or sold by year 7. We're just getting started.
This happened because customers chose us over bigger, fancier alternatives. A small company was trusted with production workloads. We were recommended to colleagues. Feedback was given that made our product better.
That means everything.
The next 14 years are going to be fun.
Want to try us out? Check out our incredible VPS servers here.
