Transparency

You have to trust me on the numbers

Every result here comes from a server I create, running code I wrote, reporting back to a database I control. Nothing technical stops me from nudging one provider's scores up or another's down, and nothing on this page can prove I don't (I don't). Here's what you can check without taking my word for it:

• Geekbench uploads its result to the Geekbench Browser straight from the test server. When the upload works, the run page links to it, so you can hold my number up against Geekbench's copy.
• Every run downloads YABS from a pinned commit and checks its SHA-256 before running it, and every published run uses the same flags, whatever the provider.
• Run pages keep the output the server sent back while it ran. Open Live output and switch to Raw to see the lines as they came in.
• Failed runs stay public and never count toward averages. Runs I cancel, and runs whose server disappeared at the provider mid-run, don't get a public page.

Hosts can game this

A provider can put my servers on a quiet host machine, or on newer hardware than you'd get, and I can't see that from inside the VM. Every benchmark site has this problem. It's easier for a provider that knows which account is mine, and one that's given me credits definitely knows. Then again, an account that creates a server, runs it flat out, and deletes it on a schedule probably isn't hard to spot.

I don't have a fix for this. Rerunning plans on a schedule evens out bad luck, but a provider doing it on purpose can do it every time.

No ads, no sponsors

There are no ads on RackCensus and no sponsored placements. Providers can't pay to rank higher or to get a result taken down, and they can't run custom promos here. Prices come from each provider's public pricing, either through its API or entered by hand from its site.

Referral links

A link to a provider can be a referral link. If you sign up through one, the provider may pay me, in cash or account credit, and that helps pay for the servers.

Every link out to a provider goes through a /go/ address on this site so I can count clicks. I store the page you came from and your browser's user agent, not your IP address.

None of them forward to a referral link right now.

Having a referral link doesn't change what gets tested, how often, or how anything is sorted.

Credits and emails with providers

I may take credits from a provider to cover testing its plans. A provider that gives me credits gets tested the same way as one that doesn't, and its results get published, good or bad. Referral rewards paid as account credit count as referral revenue, not credits.

Every email between me and a person representing a provider gets published on the provider emails page.

What it costs

Every run is a real server that costs real money. The monthly reports add it up by provider, in the month each run was queued (UTC). That includes runs without a public page and smoke runs, the short disk-only runs I start by hand to check a provider integration. Providers I don't list on the site still count, in one row without their names.

The cost is an estimate: the hourly price at test time, times how long the server was up from the create request to the confirmed delete, or the monthly price for plans billed by the month. It's worked out from list prices, not invoices, so the actual bill can be a little different.

Where this site is hosted

RackCensus runs on a host that isn't listed here, so none of its plans or results show up on the site.