While shared hosting is the most cost-effective solution for hosting your website files, Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting is ideal for websites that require greater security and enhanced speed and performance.
Since I’ve been building websites for several years now, I can personally attest and vouch that the best Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting providers feature security and more resources than shared hosting at an affordable cost.
After working with several hosting providers, I’ll share my insight to provide you with the best possible platform that suits your needs.
Table Of Contents
Top VPS Hosting Services Compared
Having experienced hosting services of several companies, I found out that the following platforms are among the best VPS providers.
Hostinger
WordPress, Cloud, Dedicated hosting
Kamatera
Cloud and VPS hosting
Hostwinds
VPS, Cloud and Dedicated Server hosting
1. Hostinger (Editor’s Choice)
Hostinger has been providing web hosting services since 2004, and its VPS hosting plans are among the best in today’s market.
With eight different VPS hosting plans available, you can choose from a range of resources available.
Apart from that, every plan includes a dedicated IP address and full root access.
Pricing is also affordable if you commit to a few years upfront.
When I was comparing their plans, I learned that the cheapest VPS hosting package starts as low as $2.49/month, which is on par with low-cost shared hosting.
Compared with other hosting services, Hostinger’s VPS packages offer more resources and increased security.
After using Hostinger on our trial website, I discovered that the hosting service is ideal for people who have just started out developing a blog. It costs less but provides features you’ll need to create a website.
Top Features
| RAM | CPU Cores | SSD Storage | Bandwidth | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VPS 1 | 1GB | 1 Core | 20GB | 1TB |
| VPS 2 | 2GB | 2 Cores | 40GB | 2TB |
| VPS 3 | 3GB | 3 Cores | 60GB | 3TB |
| VPS 4 | 4GB | 4 Cores | 80GB | 4TB |
| VPS 5 | 6GB | 6 Cores | 120GB | 6TB |
| VPS 6 | 8GB | 8 Cores | 160GB | 8TB |
| VPS 7 | 12GB | 8 Cores | 200GB | 10TB |
| VPS 8 | 16GB | 8 Cores | 250GB | 12TB |
Pricing
| Promotional Price | Renewal Price | |
|---|---|---|
| VPS 1 | From $2.49/mo | From $8.99/mo |
| VPS 2 | From $4.49/mo | From $13.99/mo |
| VPS 3 | From $7.49/mo | From $19.99/mo |
| VPS 4 | From $8.99/mo | From $29.99/mo |
| VPS 5 | From $23.95/mo | From $79.95/mo |
| VPS 6 | From $38.99/mo | From $109.99/mo |
| VPS 7 | From $57.99/mo | From 164.99/mo |
| VPS 8 | From $77.99/mo | From $219.99/mo |
Dedicated IP on every plan- Full root access to every VPS hosting plan
- Low-cost plans to get started
- Great deals if you buy many years in advance
- Beginner friendly
- Flexible Plans
- 24/7 multi-lingual live chat support
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Free migration service
Dedicated IP on every plan- Underpowered entry level plans (low storage)
- Can be expensive if you don’t choose long-term plan
- Expensive renewal costs on higher tiers
- Maximum of 8 CPUs – might be limited for power users
- No phone support
Underpowered entry level plans (low storage)2. Kamatera
Kamatera Express is a VPS hosting service ideally suited to developers seeking to deploy enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure. With Kamatera, you can deploy a server in a matter of seconds. It is one of the best VPS hosting providers ou there.
What I found exceptional is that I was able to customize server capacity and hardware components for as little as $4 a month. It is also compatible with a range of operating systems, including:
- Centos
- Windows
- BSD
- Linux
- Ubuntu
Unlike other enterprise-level solutions out there, Kamatera also offers a simpler solution for people who are not developers.
You can choose from a range of feature-packed, affordable VPS hosting packages that offer custom options for server locations and operating systems.
Top Features
We like that Kamatera leverages the cloud to offer VPS hosting services. Some of its top features include:
- Cloud block storage
- Cloud private network
- Scalable VPS servers
- Cloud firewall to protect against cyber threats
- Load balancers
- And more
Pricing
Kamatera’s pricing is scalable and matches with the customizations you select for your servers. They have two pricing methods: simple and customized.
The simple pricing option breaks up their services into three tiers with some customization options available.
| Small Plan | Medium Plan | Highest Plan | |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | 1x Type-A CPU with 2667MHz | 1x Type-A CPU with 2667MHz | 2x Type-A CPUs with 5333MHz |
| RAM | 1024 MB | 2048MB | 2048MB |
| Storage | 20GB SSD | 20GB SSD | 30GB SSD |
| Traffic Capacity | 5TB Internet Traffic | 5TB Internet Traffic | 5TB Internet Traffic |
| Locations | 13 global locations | 13 global locations | 13 global locations |
| Operating System | 56 options available | 56 options available | 56 options available |
| Price | From $4/month | From $6/month | From $12/month |
- Can easily scale up or down
- Uptime over 99.95%
- No hardware maintenance needed
- Cloud-based VPS
- 24/7 support through live chat, tickets, phone, and email
- Over a dozen servers worldwide
- Can be confusing for beginners
- Analysis paralysis with so many options and customizations
- Managed plans are a little expensive starting at $54/month
Above all, they offer leading cloud-based technology that can be accessed for as little as $4/month.
3. Hostwinds
Hostwinds has over 40 VPS web hosting plans for managed and unmanaged Windows or Linux installations.
From my experience hosting a dozen of my clients’ websites using Hostwinds, the hosting service is geared towards IT pros at an affordable price.
It offers a broad range of customizable options so you can get the exact server configuration you’re after.
With such a great range of customizability and flexibility, Hostwinds is suited to many different types of businesses and websites.
Top Features
- CPU Options: All plans offer a choice of 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, or 16 CPUs
- RAM Options: All plans offer a choice of 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 32, 64, or 96 GB
- Storage Options: All plans offer a choice of 30, 50, 75, 100, 150, 200, 300, 400, 500, or 750 GB
- Bandwidth Options: All plans offer a choice of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, or 9 TB
- Supported Linux Installations: CentOS, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian
- Supported Windows Installations: 2008, 2012 or 2016
Pricing
| Virtual Private Server Prices | Promotional Pricing | Renewal Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Linux Unmanaged | None. | From $4.99/mo |
| Windows Unmanaged | None. | From $10.99/mo |
| Linux Managed | From $8.24/mo | From $10.99/mo |
| Windows Managed | From $12.74/mo | From $16.99/mo |
Although the above prices are reasonable and fairly low, each of the above plans has multiple tiers with incrementally increased CPU, RAM, storage, and bandwidth.
The mix of all these options is why Hostwinds has won multiple awards for VPS hosting services and is one of our favorite VPS hosting providers.
- Extensive level of choice
- Highly configurable
- Linux & Windows options
- Great all-rounder
- Only 72-hour money-back window
- Not 100% beginner-friendly
- Support can be too technical at times
4. Scala Hosting
Scala Hosting is a multi-award winning company offering cloud VPS hosting packages.
Drawing from my experience with Scala Hosting, I was able to choose from managed or unmanaged setups and each come with a wide range of features to customize resources and server setup.
What we like the best about Scala is the feature-rich packages they offer. For instance, very few hosting companies offer VPS servers with up to 24 CPU cores.
The higher the CPU cores, the better their server’s performance and resource allocation.
Thankfully with Scala, you can build your own cloud VPS without the regular limitations for how big you can scale your hosting package.
Top Features
The self-managed VPS plans include the following features:
- CPU cores: between 4 and 24 CPU cores
- RAM: from as little as 8 GB up to 64 GB
- SSD storage: the lowest available is 240 GB up to 2 TB
You can also add additional resources if you need even more power and resources. Additional CPU cores start at $6 each per month, RAM starts at $2/mo and extra disk space is only an extra $1/mo.
You can also select your preferred operating system.
Now, if you’re after a fully-managed plan, you’ll get:
- CPU cores: as few as two CPU cores, maximum of 24
- RAM: as little as 4 GB, maximum of 128 GB
- SSD storage: minimum 50 GB, maximum 2 TB.
CPU cores: as few as two CPU cores, maximum of 24In fact, the managed VPS plans are so generous with their features we named them our top pick for fully-managed VPS service when we reviewed the best managed hosting providers in today’s market.
Pricing
Self-Hosted Pricing:
Fully-Managed Pricing:
Scala’s pricing is very versatile and changes according to the combination of options you select.
The managed VPS plans are cheaper than the self-hosted plans.
While the monthly bill is definitely lower, you’ll be receiving less feature-wise.
- Powerful servers with up to 24 CPU cores available
- Fully managed VPS available
- Free website migration
- Free advanced security
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Somewhat expensive
- The features can be overkill for small projects
- Too many options for beginners to choose
- Not 100% beginner-friendly
5. Liquid Web
Liquid Web doesn’t offer shared hosting. Instead, it pours its resources into VPS hosting solutions.
It is an ideal hosting solution for designers, developers, and agencies who are seeking to grow their businesses or clients’ websites.
In fact, Liquid Web claims that its VPS hosting is more affordable, secure, and faster than AWS, Rackspace, and Digital Ocean (leading providers of cloud hosting and infrastructure solutions).What’s impressive is that these aren’t unsubstantiated marketing claims either.
Check out their Cloud Spectator Performance Report and see for yourself how well Liquid Web’s VPS performs [1].
Top Features
Liquid Web offers two types of VPS hosting service: managed VPS and private VPS parents.
Between the two, managed VPS is the product most similar to the types of VPS packages other companies offer.
However, if you’re looking for the kind of resources a private data center could offer you, but for a fraction of the cost, definitely take the time to check out their private VPS parent services.
Managed VPS features:
- Linux & Windows servers
- 100% uptime service level agreements
- RAM: From 2 GB to 16 GB
- CPU Cores: Between 2 and 8
- SSD Storage: From 40 GB to 200 GB
- Generous 10TB Bandwidth on all plans
You can also choose to bundle in other services and save on your monthly costs across the lot. Liquid Web’s bundles include:
- Threat Stack Oversight Detection System
- Cloudflare Pro
- Premium Business Email Service
- 100GB Acronis Cyber Backups
Pricing
Our team discovered through using this hosting service that its Linux servers work out more cost-effective than their Windows servers do. You can also save a great deal by paying for a long-term plan in advance.
In the below chart, the top figures are discounted rated offered when you sign up for 2 years up front. The figures below that are the prices when paid monthly.
| Linux | Linux Bundle | Windows | Windows Bundle | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 GB RAM | $25/mo - $59/mo | $40/mo - $79/mo | N/A | N/A |
| 4 GB RAM | $35/mo - $99/mo | $50/mo - $119/mo | $65/mo - $134/mo | $100/mo - $169/mo |
| 8 GB RAM | $45/mo - $139/mo | $65/mo - $159/mo | $85/mo - $174/mo | $120/mo - $209/mo |
| 16 GB RAM | $105/mo - $189/mo | $145/mo - $219/mo | $145/mo - $224/mo | $190/mo - $249/mo |
- Expert support, through and through
- Includes security, firewalls, and backups
- Generous features
- Team of 250+ specialists & developers
- Free website migration
- 30-day moneyback guarantee
- 24/7 on-site support via phone, chat and email
- Can be overkill for beginners and SMBs
- Need to pay in advance to get cheaper prices
6. InMotion Hosting
Many VPS web hosting providers offer low cost entry level plans at the expense of the features and resources available.
InMotion Hosting takes a different approach, and it’s why we believe they offer the best value for money when it comes to virtual private servers.
Top Features
For as low as $19.99/month on their managed VPS plans, you get started with 4GB RAM, 2 CPU cores, and at least 2TB of bandwidth.
Not to mention the range of free features you can get as well, including:
- At least 2 dedicated IPs
- Free SSL
- Free Website Transfers & Server Setup
- 5 cPanel Licenses
- Free WHM License
- Root access
- Unlimited email
For a feature-rich VPS hosting solution that’s also reasonably priced, InMotion is the way to go.
Pricing
| 4 GB RAM | 8 GB RAM | 12 GB RAM | 16 GB RAM | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Promo | Renewal | Promo | Renewal | Promo | Renewal | Promo | Renewal | |
| 1 Month | $29.99/mo | $69.99/mo | $59.99/mo | $99.99/mo | $69.99/mo | $116.99/mo | $79.99/mo | $136.99/mo |
| 6 Month | $29.99/mo | $59.99/mo | $59.99/mo | $89.99/mo | $69.99/mo | $116.99/mo | $79.99/mo | $136.99/mo |
| 1 Year | $24.99/mo | $59.99/mo | $39.99/mo | $86.99/mo | $49.99/mo | $106.99/mo | $59.99/mo | $126.99/mo |
| 2 Year | $24.99/mo | $59.99/mo | $39.99/mo | $86.99/mo | $49.99/mo | $106.99/mo | $59.99/mo | $126.99/mo |
| 3 Year | $19.99/mo | $59.99/mo | $39.99/mo | $86.99/mo | $49.99/mo | $106.99/mo | $59.99/mo | $126.99/mo |
InMotion’s hosting becomes more expensive as time goes on. It’s best to purchase a 3-year term in advance however, when it’s time for renewal, be prepared for pricing to increase significantly.
- Free domain name
- Free migrations for WordPress sites
- Free SSL certificates
- Unlimited websites & emails supported
- Unlimited monthly bandwidth available
- Dedicated IP addresses
- Root access available on all plans
- Loads of extra features you can’t always find with other companies
- 99.99% uptime guarantee
- Free website transfers
- Relatively expensive after initial discounts
- No Windows hosting, only Linux
- Free backups aren’t always included (though they’re quite inexpensive)
How We Picked the Best VPS Hosting Provider
We picked the best VPS hosting provider based on how they fared on the research and comparison our team conducted.
1. Bandwidth and Storage
To determine the bandwidth and storage capacity of each hosting service provider, we navigated their individual websites to verify the actual figures.
Almost all hosting providers offer 20GB to 40GB of SSD storage for their lowest plan and a bandwidth of 1TB to 9TB.
2. Customer Support
We visited the website of each hosting provider to ascertain 24/7 customer service and verify response time, while considering customer feedback.
After calling their customer support, we discovered that majority of the hosting services have reliable tech support.
3. Features
The web hosting providers each offered a variety of features designed to accommodate the needs of each client. They include RAM, CPU cores, SSD storage and bandwidth.
They include bigger RAM for larger websites, 1 to 24 CPU cores to handle both simple and complex sites and high bandwidth.
4. Uptime and Performance
We checked and validated the uptime of each provider by navigating through their websites and comparing the performance history.
After putting it to the test, we determined that majority of the hosting services has an uptime rating of 99.9%, which is a reliable performance figure.
How to Find the Best VPS Hosting for Your Website
To find the best VPS hosting for your website, search and compare the features of the top Virtual Private Servers and decide based on their capacity.
Two factors stand out when you are looking for the best VPS hosting for your website – cost and features.
Once you’ve compared the top services that are available, determine how much you are willing to spend each month. Consider the basic cost of the base plan, renewal amount and payments for additional features or services.
With a virtual private server, you can enjoy the advantages of a dedicated hosting at a more affordable price.
VPS hosting offers numerous benefits, and the specific features each provider will determine which will best meet your website operations.
Compare and consider the reliability, resources, performance, scaling, security and maintenance of each VPS web host.
What are the Benefits of VPS Hosting?
Based on my interaction with several companies, VPS Hosting offers a wide range of advantages that include the following:
1. Improved Performance
VPS hosting offers improved performance compared to shared hosting. It allows for more resources to be dedicated to a single website.
This means the website can run faster, with less impact than other websites on the same server.
2. Higher Reliability Levels
VPS hosting provides a dedicated server environment with fewer users. This results in fewer chances of server overload.
Additionally, VPS hosting offers more control over the server. The control allows more efficient resource allocation and better performance.
3. Better Security
With VPS hosting, your data storage is on a dedicated server, which means it is not accessible by other websites. The server helps to protect your data from malicious attacks, as well as from other websites’ vulnerabilities.
Additionally, VPS hosting offers more robust firewalls and encryption protocols. So, it is much more difficult for hackers to gain access to your data.
4. Enhanced Scalability
With VPS hosting, you can easily scale up or down your server resources to meet the changing needs of your website. The scalability is especially useful for businesses that experience seasonal or unpredictable spikes in web traffic.
VPS hosting allows you to customize your server environment to meet specific needs, such as adding extra RAM or disk space. This flexibility makes VPS hosting a great choice for businesses needing quick and easy server resource adjustment.
5. Higher Storage and Bandwidth
VPS hosting offer increased storage and bandwidth compared to shared hosting plans. This allows for more flexibility in data storage and transfer, as well as accommodating larger websites.
6. Greater Control and Customization of the Server
You can install and configure any software you need to run your website. You can also adjust server settings and parameters.
FAQs
What’s the Difference Between Managed And Unmanaged VPS Hosting?
The difference between managed and unmanaged VPS hosting lies in the level of support and server management provided by the hosting company.
In a managed VPS, the hosting provider will oversee server maintenance, security patches and performance optimization while with unmanaged VPS, you will be responsible for the maintenance of your site.
Is VPS Web Hosting Better Than Shared Hosting?
VPS hosting is better than shared hosting because of overall performance and reliability. However, the plan is costly.
Shared hosting will work out better for people with small websites that don’t get much traffic. As your website grows, VPS hosting will be a better option to migrate your websites to.
What is the Best VPS for You?
The best VPS for you will depend on your website needs. Opt for a hosting service with more memory, better performance and great flexibility if you own a business that requires higher features.
And with the number of innovative companies out there today, I opted for cloud VPS solutions, it helped me leverage cloud infrastructure for my project.
If you’re looking for the next-best thing after shared hosting, but you’re on a limited budget, we suggest you check out Hostinger’s affordable VPS plans to get you started.
Our #1 Recommendation: Hostinger
Load Time
Support
Disk space
Security
Pricing
