Compared to other VPNs?

Yes, it's Xen that makes Linode more expensive. But only partly so. The other reason is that you get much better CPU and I/O (disk) performance, and probably better support, too – although I can't judge the other provider's quality of support.

With the other VPS provider that you linked to, you'd actually need to buy the 7.50-euro package to get 512M of guaranteed RAM. Also, Apache tends to use more RAM on OpenVZ than it does on Xen even with the same configuration. This has to do with the way OpenVZ calculates memory usage. So 512M on Xen can be actually quite a bit more than 512M on OpenVZ.

Also, the OpenVZ system might fail to deliver the "guaranteed" ram, not to mention the burst, if the host machine is oversold. It may suddenly become very slow as other users also approach their limits. After all, OpenVZ is just a jailed shell on steroids. The architecture of OpenVZ always leaves it vulnerable to load spikes, unless the provider really knows what they're doing and takes proactive steps to throttle and/or move around heavy users.

Of course the exact performance characteristics depends on the provider, and there are some pretty reliable OpenVZ providers out there. But in general, cheap OpenVZ providers rarely compare favorably to Linode. You get what you pay for.

Linode is best in terms of quality of service. It is not expensive, You must go for it, If you can manage an unmanaged service.

Don't get attracted by price tag. Their may be some interesting points behind it. Where as Linode offers 99.99% uptime guarantee.

I'd concur.

Being a totally blind Linode.com customer, I can tel you that Linode is accessible.

So if you have any blind friends who are interested in using Linode have fun with that!

I can help out as well if any have questions to ask as well. :)

God Bless.