Where your server stands decides how fast it answers your users and which data protection law applies. Three questions help you choose: where are your users, which rules apply to your data, and how does the route look in practice?
Distance and latency
Light in fiber needs about 1 ms for every 100 km there and back, and real cables rarely run in a straight line. A server in the same region as your users answers in a few milliseconds; across the Atlantic it is around 80 ms or more. For websites the difference is small, for game servers, trading and voice it matters a lot.
Put the server where most users are
| Your users | Good locations |
|---|---|
| Austria, southern Germany, Eastern Europe, Balkans | Vienna |
| Germany, Poland, Scandinavia | Berlin, Frankfurt |
| Benelux, France, Western Europe | Rotterdam, Frankfurt |
| United Kingdom and Ireland | London |
| US East Coast and Canada | New York, Montreal |
| US West and Mountain states | Salt Lake City |
With users all over the world, pick the location for the largest group and put a CDN in front of static content, or run servers in more than one location.
Data protection
Servers in Vienna, Berlin, Frankfurt and Rotterdam are in the EU and fall under the GDPR. London follows the UK GDPR. In the US and Canada, local law applies. If you process personal data of EU citizens, an EU location makes compliance simpler.
Test before you order
Every one of our locations except Montreal has a looking glass. Run a ping or traceroute from there to your own connection and compare the results; see what a looking glass is.