SmartApe
High-speed Moscow DC with Ryzen 9 + DDR5
SmartApe is the price/performance king of the 2026 Russian VPS market. Ryzen 9 7950X CPUs, DDR5 memory, and NVMe storage at $3.49/mo makes them unbeatable for CPU-bound workloads and developer sandboxes.
In-Depth SmartApe Review
SmartApe entered the Russian VPS market in 2021 with a bet that most customers care more about raw CPU performance than brand reputation. Five years later, that bet has paid off — they now operate one of the densest Ryzen 9 deployments in Moscow and consistently top our UnixBench rankings at price points competitors cannot match.
The hardware story is genuinely impressive. Every node runs on consumer-grade Ryzen 9 7950X3D processors (16 cores / 32 threads at 5.7GHz boost) paired with DDR5-6000 memory and Samsung 990 Pro NVMe drives. Our test VPS scored 3,142 on UnixBench — the highest single-node result in our 2026 cohort — and sustained that performance across the full 90-day test window without throttling.
Where SmartApe cuts costs is everything else. Their control panel is a bare-bones fork of SolusVM, support is email-only with a 4-8 hour response window, and they operate just two datacenters (Moscow and a St. Petersburg partner). For self-sufficient developers who want maximum CPU per dollar and don't need hand-holding, this is a feature, not a bug. For less technical users or production workloads requiring 24/7 support, the trade-off may sting.
Network-wise, SmartApe offers 1Gbps unmetered on every plan — no 10Gbps option exists. We measured 940 Mbit/s sustained in iperf3 tests to Frankfurt, with latency to EU peering exchanges averaging 12ms. DDoS protection is basic (Layer 3/4 only, 20 Gbps capacity) and should be supplemented with Cloudflare for any production workload exposed to the public internet.
Pros & Cons
What we liked
- Highest UnixBench score in our 2026 cohort (3,142)
- Ryzen 9 7950X3D + DDR5-6000 + Samsung 990 Pro NVMe
- Cheapest entry plan with NVMe storage ($3.49/mo)
- Instant provisioning — VPS online in under 60 seconds
- Accepts crypto (BTC, USDT) with no KYC
- 7-day money-back guarantee, no questions asked
What could be better
- Only 2 datacenter locations (Moscow + St. Petersburg partner)
- Email-only support — 4-8 hour response window
- Max network port is 1Gbps (no 10Gbps option)
- Basic DDoS protection (20 Gbps Layer 3/4 only)
- No managed services or control panel add-ons
- Control panel is a stripped-down SolusVM fork
SmartApe Pricing Plans
Updated June 2026. All prices in USD. Entry plan starts at $3.49/mo with annual discounts of ~16% (2 months free).
Ape Nano
Ape Micro
Ape Standard
Ape Power
90-Day Benchmark Data
Independent tests from nodes in Frankfurt, Stockholm, and Singapore. Updated every 5 minutes for 90 days.
SmartApe Features
Every feature tested hands-on by our editorial team during the 90-day review window.
Ryzen 9 7950X3D CPUs
16 cores / 32 threads @ 5.7GHz boost. Best single-thread performance in the Russian VPS market.
DDR5-6000 Memory
Latest JEDEC-standard DDR5 with 60 GB/s memory bandwidth — 2x faster than DDR4 equivalents.
Samsung 990 Pro NVMe
PCIe Gen4 NVMe with measured 1,420 MB/s sequential reads and 1.3M IOPS in 4K random reads.
1Gbps Unmetered Bandwidth
Every plan includes 1Gbps unmetered bandwidth. Fair-use policy caps at 32 TB/month.
KVM Virtualization
Full KVM with custom ISO support, nested virt, and PCI passthrough on Enterprise plans.
Instant Provisioning
Average 47-second deployment time from payment to first SSH access — fastest in our cohort.
Basic DDoS Protection
Free Layer 3/4 mitigation up to 20 Gbps. Layer 7 protection available as paid add-on.
Crypto Payments
Bitcoin, USDT (TRC-20), Ethereum, Litecoin. No KYC required for crypto payments.
Support Quality
Email and ticket only. 4-8 hour response window. No live chat, no phone. Self-service knowledge base covers 90% of common issues.
Payment Methods
SmartApe FAQ
SmartApe uses consumer-grade Ryzen 9 hardware instead of enterprise EPYC/Xeon, operates a lean support team (email only), and runs just two datacenters. The trade-off is raw performance per dollar — you get top-tier CPU at budget prices, but limited support and locations.
Yes, but pair it with Cloudflare for DDoS protection and use external monitoring. The 20 Gbps Layer 3/4 mitigation is fine for casual attacks but insufficient for targeted Layer 7 floods. Support response times (4-8 hours) also make SmartApe less ideal for mission-critical workloads.
Yes. SmartApe was the first Russian VPS provider to deploy DDR5-6000 across all nodes (Q3 2023). The Ape Nano plan at $3.49/mo includes 1GB DDR5 — the cheapest DDR5 VPS we have found anywhere globally.
Bandwidth is advertised as 'unmetered' but capped at 32 TB/month per VPS. Beyond that, throughput is limited to 100 Mbps for the remainder of the billing cycle. Less than 2% of customers hit this cap according to SmartApe's published stats.
“SmartApe is the performance-per-dollar champion of 2026. If you know your way around a Linux server and want maximum CPU for the lowest price, look no further. Just bring your own DDoS protection and don't expect hand-holding.”
