Picking a US VPS Location: LA vs New York Latency in Real Tests

hdx360

I've been running a small site and testing US VPS locations to decide where to host. The short version: it depends on where your visitors are.

Los Angeles is noticeably faster for visitors in Asia-Pacific. New York wins for Europe and the US East Coast. The difference isn't small — on my tests it was tens of milliseconds, which adds up on every page load.

I wrote up the full numbers (ping times from a few locations, and how I tested) here: https://www.vpsmvp.com/%e7%be%8e%e5%9b%bdvps%e6%9c%ba%e6%88%bf%e5%ae%9e%e6%b5%8b%ef%bc%9a%e6%b4%9b%e6%9d%89%e7%9f%b6%e4%b8%8e%e7%ba%bd%e7%ba%a6%e5%bb%b6%e8%bf%9f%e5%b7%ae%e5%a4%9a%e5%b0%91.html

If your audience is mostly in Asia, LA is the safer pick. If it's mostly Europe or the US East Coast, go New York. What has your experience been — do you pick location by latency, price, or something else?