FriendHosting Bulgaria VPS Review 2026: Routing, Native IP and Streaming Tests

FriendHosting Bulgaria VPS: benchmark verdict

FriendHosting's Bulgaria location is a distinctive entry-level European VPS option: KVM virtualization, an up-to-1 Gbps port, relatively accessible pricing, and Bulgarian native data-center IP space. This review deliberately separates facts verified on the provider's live website in 2026 from the results of one previously tested server. A benchmark is a snapshot, not a service-level guarantee. For users in China, this is best treated as a regional-IP or content-access machine rather than a low-latency China-facing server.

Short recommendation: consider a short billing term if you need a Bulgarian IP, regional streaming, or access to AI platforms, especially from China Mobile. China Telecom and China Unicom users, and anyone with latency-sensitive applications, should test the Looking Glass and their own routes first. “Unlimited traffic” is subject to published fair-use and throttling provisions.

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Company background and the Bulgaria facility

The official company page identifies the operator as Friendhosting LTD, says FriendHosting was founded on April 20, 2009, and publishes Bulgarian registration number 204173795 with an address in Burgas, Bulgaria. The site advertises a broad location footprint rather than a single facility, listing Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Greece, Spain, Romania, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Czechia, Switzerland, several United States cities, Ukraine, Japan, Brazil, and additional locations.

The Bulgarian service covered here is associated with Telepoint in Sofia. FriendHosting's facility page describes Telepoint as a Sofia data center founded in 2009 and mentions physical access controls, backup power, cooling and fire-safety systems, plus ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 standards. Those statements are official descriptions, not an independent VPSDex certification of uptime or compliance. A Bulgaria Looking Glass is linked by the provider and should be used before ordering.

Live 2026 plans versus the older tested promotion

Prices currently displayed by the official site

At research time, the public Progressive NVMe VDS page displayed the following monthly configurations. Hourly billing is also offered. The page advertises approximately 3% off for three months, 5% for six months, and 10% for twelve months. Location availability, taxes, add-ons, and the final charge must still be checked in the cart.

• Micro+ NVMe: 1 vCPU, 512 MB RAM, 10 GB NVMe, one IPv4, port up to 1 Gbps, €3.49 per month.
• Start NVMe: 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 10 GB NVMe, one IPv4, port up to 1 Gbps, €4.49 per month.
• Plus NVMe: 2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 20 GB NVMe, one IPv4, port up to 1 Gbps, €8.49 per month.
• Profi NVMe: 4 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 35 GB NVMe, one IPv4, port up to 1 Gbps, €17.25 per month.

The historical table and its price conflict

The source benchmark recorded an older table with 1 core/512 MB/5 GB at €2.8 monthly, 1 core/1 GB/10 GB at €3.6, 2 cores/2 GB/20 GB at €4.25, and 4 cores/4 GB/35 GB at €13.8. It described a 1 Gbps port, IPv4 plus IPv6, hourly billing, and a Welcome coupon. However, the narrative in the same source called the tested entry plan €3.2 per month after the coupon. The historical material therefore conflicts with itself.

Honest pricing note: describe the old campaign only as “about €2.8–3.2/month, final checkout price prevails.” The current public entry price is €3.49/month, and the displayed disk is now 10 GB NVMe rather than 5 GB. Coupon validity, a possible location surcharge, and automatic IPv6 allocation must be confirmed in the live order form.

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Hardware and storage benchmark

The tested guest detected KVM, matching the official FAQ for Progressive VDS. Its single virtual CPU showed a frequency around 2.30 GHz. The operating system saw roughly 454 MB of usable RAM and no default swap. Seeing less than the nominal 512 MB is normal after virtualization and system reservations, but the usable capacity remains extremely tight. A minimal distribution, strict service limits, careful logging, and a small swap file or zram are sensible.

Sequential storage performance was about 621 MB/s. That is sufficient for static sites, monitoring, small proxies, and lightweight databases, but one script run depends on cache, block size, host contention, and time of day. It must not be read as a sustained minimum. The guest reported about 9.7 GB of disk even though the older plan table said 5 GB. This is explicitly a reading from the tested machine, perhaps caused by a plan revision or a special instance. It does not prove that every old 5 GB order was upgraded. The live plan now happens to advertise 10 GB NVMe.

• Virtualization: KVM, consistent between guest detection and the official FAQ.
• CPU: one virtual core at roughly 2.30 GHz on the tested instance; no fixed CPU model is promised here.
• Memory: about 454 MB visible to the guest, with no swap configured by default.
• Disk: approximately 9.7 GB visible and about 621 MB/s sequential performance in the source test.
• Practical scope: appropriate for light services, not for memory-heavy panels or large databases.

Throughput, latency, and packet loss

The test reached roughly 400 Mbps on downloads toward China, while uploads to Asian test points generally exceeded 200 Mbps. These are encouraging bursts from an up-to-1 Gbps port, not committed international bandwidth. Test server selection, cross-border congestion, TCP tuning, and peak-hour load can change the outcome substantially.

Average latency across Chinese networks was about 279 ms. That is consistent with the physical distance from Bulgaria and with the detours observed on some forward paths. It is acceptable for background transfers, video, and many API tasks, but poor for competitive gaming, highly interactive remote desktops, voice applications sensitive to jitter, or transaction systems.

The sampled domestic probes showed essentially no packet loss. This is a positive data point, but it only describes that measurement window. Buyers should run longer MTR tests during weekday and weekend evening peaks. ICMP rate limiting at an intermediate router should not be confused with end-to-end application loss; the destination result and sustained TCP behavior matter more.

China Telecom, Unicom, and Mobile routing

Forward path from China

• China Telecom: the observed route detoured through the United States before reaching Europe, making the path longer than necessary.
• China Unicom: the sample also crossed the United States before Europe. This is not a China-optimized European route.
• China Mobile: the path entered Europe through Germany and was comparatively direct, giving Mobile the clearest advantage of the three.

Return path to China

The sampled return routes used ordinary direct public backbones: China Telecom 163, China Unicom AS4837, and China Mobile CMI. “Direct” means that the return trace did not show an obvious reverse detour across another continent. It does not mean premium CN2 GIA, Unicom 9929, or CMIN2. BGP paths are dynamic, so these observations can change without notice.

China Mobile users are therefore the most likely to exploit the available international throughput. Telecom and Unicom may still receive data over a reasonable return path, but the American detour on the forward side increases connection setup and first-byte times. Return routing matters for server-to-user downloads, while a poor forward path remains relevant to uploads, acknowledgements, and applications that open many short sessions.

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IP reputation, streaming, and AI access

The tested address was recognized as Bulgarian native IDC space and received a low-risk, relatively clean reputation result. It unlocked the Bulgarian region of TikTok and Netflix, some European streaming services, and performed well with common AI platforms. “Native” here describes geolocation and routing characteristics observed for that address; it does not guarantee that every newly assigned subnet will have identical database records.

From China Mobile, a YouTube connection score above 90,000 was observed and 4K playback was smooth. China Telecom and China Unicom may be substantially slower because of routing and congestion. Netflix, TikTok, streaming vendors, and AI companies continuously update ASN, proxy, and fraud-detection databases. No hosting provider can guarantee that a particular IDC IP will remain accepted indefinitely.

• Strong use cases: Bulgarian regional content, European account environments, AI platforms, and an uncommon European IP location.
• Main risk: an IDC address can later be labeled as a proxy, and different FriendHosting subnets may have different histories.
• Best practice: begin hourly or monthly, then verify the assigned IP, ASN, DNS behavior, account region, and the exact services you need.

Payment methods and important terms

The source material listed Alipay, UnionPay, Mastercard, and major cryptocurrencies. The publicly accessible official site visibly supports Visa and Mastercard branding, but Alipay, UnionPay, and the exact cryptocurrency gateways could not be fully cross-checked on a public page without an authenticated billing session. They should therefore be treated as a source record, not a permanent promise. The live funding or checkout screen is authoritative, and gateways may differ by country, verification state, or transaction amount.

Official terms require 100% prepayment and state that there is no free trial. Refund requests are conditional, while promotional payments, add-ons, domains, dedicated servers, and other direct expenses may be excluded. Identity verification can be requested. The acceptable-use provisions prohibit spam, DDoS attacks, Tor, cryptocurrency mining, port scanning, and other listed activities. Users should read the current agreement and AUP before deploying a workload.

What “unlimited traffic” really means

Marketing summaries often call these plans unlimited, but the provider's terms publish fair-use thresholds. For Progressive SSD VDS, the Micro and Start tiers may be limited to 25 Mbps after 1 TB in a month. At 2 TB they may be permanently reduced to 5 Mbps. Larger tiers have their own thresholds and reductions. Hourly billing has daily traffic allowances; excess traffic is listed at €2.5 per TB. In practical terms, traffic is not necessarily cut off at a fixed quota, but sustained 1 Gbps without limits is not promised.

This distinction matters for mirrors, public downloads, high-volume proxies, and media distribution. A small website or personal tunnel may never reach the threshold, whereas a workload continuously pushing hundreds of megabits will. Capacity planning should use the written policy rather than the port's maximum link speed.

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Advantages

• A relatively uncommon Sofia, Bulgaria location with native Bulgarian IDC addressing.
• KVM, NVMe, and ports up to 1 Gbps, with both monthly and hourly billing for low-risk testing.
• About 621 MB/s storage and approximately 400 Mbps China download bursts on the tested instance.
• Particularly useful China Mobile performance in the sample, including smooth 4K YouTube playback.
• A clean tested IP with useful Bulgarian streaming and AI-platform compatibility.
• The operator publishes its company identity, address, terms, facility page, and Looking Glass.

Disadvantages

• About 279 ms average latency to China, unsuitable for latency-sensitive domestic applications.
• China Telecom and Unicom forward traces detoured through the United States.
• Only about 454 MB was visible on the tested 512 MB guest, and no swap was configured by default.
• The old campaign table, old narrative, and live 2026 prices do not agree.
• “Unlimited” traffic is constrained by explicit fair-use throttling rules.
• Streaming and AI access can change when platforms update their IP databases.

Who should buy it?

This VPS makes sense for users seeking a less common European native IP, Bulgarian local content, AI-platform access, a lightweight crawler or monitoring endpoint, a static site, or a low-resource proxy. It is particularly interesting to China Mobile broadband users based on the sample. Hourly billing is useful for validating a subnet and route before committing. A Sofia location can also be practical when the audience is in southeastern Europe.

It is a poor fit for low-latency websites aimed at mainland China, real-time gaming, interactive remote desktop work, latency-sensitive trading, memory-intensive applications, or workloads intended to sustain a full 1 Gbps continuously. Telecom and Unicom users who cannot tolerate the American forward detour should select a product with explicitly documented bidirectional China optimization.

Buying checklist and final verdict

• Start hourly or monthly rather than choosing a long prepaid term immediately.
• Record the assigned address, ASN, geolocation, and city as soon as the instance is provisioned.
• Test your exact streaming and AI accounts; generic unlock scripts are not enough.
• Run ping, MTR, upload, and download checks from your own Telecom, Unicom, or Mobile connection at peak hours.
• Review the current traffic thresholds and prohibited-use policy for your workload.
• If applying Welcome, trust only the amount shown by the checkout. The old €2.8–3.2 campaign is not the current public guarantee.

Overall rating: 3.9/5. FriendHosting Bulgaria VPS earns its place through affordable European hosting, Bulgarian native IP utility, and good observed China Mobile performance—not through premium China routing. With realistic expectations about 279 ms latency, Telecom and Unicom detours, traffic throttling, and the temporary nature of content unlocking, it can be an effective specialized tool. For a general China-facing production site, a geographically closer or explicitly optimized route is the safer choice.