Among the various types of web hosting accounts, VPS hosting sits between shared and dedicated hosting. Unlike many beginner-friendly shared hosting plans you can choose managed or unmanaged VPS.
It's more versatile and scalable than shared hosting and less complex and expensive than dedicated hosting.
If you're looking for the best web hosting service and you want to upgrade from shared to VPS hosting, it might seem difficult. After all, there are hundreds of hosts offering virtual server hosting.
In this article, we compare ten top hosts that provide top-rated VPS hosting. We explain what VPS hosting is so even if you're new to this type of web hosting.
You'll know how it differs from shared hosting and dedicated hosting and how to choose a VPS service. As with any hosting service, it's most important to consider the provider's performance and reliability.
You can get a VPS even cheaper than shared hosting, but you'll have to pay more than twice as much to get dedicated hosting's performance and reliability.
That said, the best VPS hosting ideally sits in between these two tiers of service. It offers the advantages of both — without sacrificing either. And more importantly, it offers features that no other web hosting service can match.
Lets get in to it.
VPS hosting
A VPS (Virtual Private Server) is a hosting service that uses virtualization technology to provide you with dedicated (private) resources on a server with multiple users.
What is VPS Hosting?
A VPS (Virtual Private Server) is a hosting service that uses virtualization technology to provide you with dedicated (private) resources on a server with multiple users. This means that, unlike shared web hosting, your website won’t be affected by other sites’ traffic and security issues.
VPS hosting is a great solution for websites that need more performance and reliability than shared hosting can provide. Instead of sharing resources with hundreds or thousands of other sites, VPS servers give you full access to private hardware and software resources dedicated exclusively to your website.
This means that the traffic, storage, and server consumption of another website won’t have any impact on your website or performance. You can rest assured knowing that you will get the most out of your investment when using VPS hosting.
One of the primary advantages of VPS hosting is its scalability and flexibility. If you want to add new features or upgrade your existing services, it's easy to do so in a few clicks on the control panel.
Moreover, if you ever experience high levels of visitor traffic — no problem. Additional virtual machines can be allocated quickly to meet the changing needs of your site without having to reconfigure existing hardware or move data between servers.
What are The Top VPS Hosting Providers
Here are the best VPS hosting providers:
1. Dreamhost
Dreamhost's VPS hosting is a premium solution that runs faster than their shared hosting. It's incredibly scalable and feature-rich — with industry-leading performance levels.
The fact that Dreamhost is an independently owned company provides ample comfort that they aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
Plus, they boast an impressive A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and 4.8 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot. Both of these ratings speak to their reliability and trustworthiness. Dreamhost also offers a variety of shared hosting plans to suit both individuals and businesses.
But if you're looking for something a little more powerful, the company also offers VPS plans that support more complex projects.
Dreamhost's VPS plans are robust and flexible, with no contract required. You can easily cancel at any time if your needs change, or upgrade if you grow.
The VPS plans are easy to scale up or down as needed and when you add memory or storage, they don't take long to provision. You can also customize your server using any Linux-based application.
Dreamhost Key Features
- Managed Performance, Security, & Updates
- Unhindered performance with your server resources
- Quick & easy to use custom control panel
- Unlimited bandwidth & traffic
- Expandable RAM & storage
- SSDs, email, SSL, & unlimited domains included
- US-Based VPS
Dreamhost Pricing
Dreamhost VPS gives you options to lower your cost of hosting by a 3-year deal starting from $10/month for 1GB RAM, 30GB SSD Storage, Unlimited Websites, and traffic (managed VPS). This is great if you are just starting in VPS hosting.
It's a great way to grow your business with great technical support from a great team at Dreamhost.
Dreamhost
Offers one of the best fully managed VPS hosting and an easy to use interface.
Starts @ $10/month
2. HostGator
Among our top picks for the best cheap VPS hosting services is Hostgator. HostGator offers a variety of features that make it stand out from the crowd.
HostGator doesn't offer managed VPS accounts, but does include several extras in its plans.
- Free website transfers;
- Free automated backups
- cPanel control panel licenses for all accounts; and
- a free SSL certificate for the first year of your plan.
HostGator's managed VPS hosting makes scaling your VPS as easy as upgrading to the next tier. The upgrade process is automatic, and you don't have to manage server configurations or any other technical details.
Hostgator Key Features
- Unlimited MySQL Databases
- Subversion Repository (SVN)
- Server Side Includes (SSI)
- Support for PHP 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3
- HostGator Portal Control Panel
- Full Unix Shell
- Access to Raw Log Files
- Crontab Access
- Full CGI Access
- Canned CGI Scripts
- Reseller & Sub Accounts
- Secure Shell (SSH) Access
- IPv6 Support
- Rails, Python, Perl Support
- Unlimited SFTP Users
Hostgator Pricing
HostGator's cheapest VPS package is $23.95 per month for a double-core, 2GB system. This is far more than most shared web hosts offer. However, you get what you pay for, so these packages are well suited to high-traffic sites that need a lot of resources.
HostGator offers three, Linux-based VPS hosting tiers:
- Snappy 2000 ($23.95/month): 2 CPU cores, 2GB RAM and 120GB disk space.
- Snappy 4000 ($34.95/month): 3 CPU cores, 1GB RAM and 50GB disk space.
- Snappy 2000 ($49.95/month): 4 CPU cores, 2GB RAM and 120GB disk space.
The basic Snappy 500 package may seem expensive at first glance, but it includes features unseen on many VPS platforms.
A dedicated IP address and SSL certificate for secure e-commerce transactions. Unlimited subdomains; and a free website transfer.
Hostgator
Offers one of the best fully managed VPS hosting and an easy to use interface.
Starts @ $23.95/m
3. Inmotion Hosting
InMotion Hosting is a VPS host that’s frequently recommended by the WordPress community. The company provides a solid VPS hosting plan, with features that make it well worth the price. InMotion Hosting’s virtual servers are built on Linux-based operating systems.
InMotion Hosting's entry-level plan gives 4 TB of bandwidth, which is more than most other VPS hosts. Its top-tier plan is relatively less competitive. But it's a respected host that provides a respectable stable of features. This is a great e-commerce host, as InMotion Hosting's servers are optimized for PCI compliance and top-level security and fast loading speeds, and solid uptime.
InMotion Hosting is is among our top picks in VPS hosting because the West Coast-based company started in 2001 has been delivering a solid service ever since.
InMotion offers a variety of plans for both Windows and Linux users. It does not, however, offer dedicated plans, so if you need more robust hosting capabilities and security, it may be better to start with another provider.
InMotion Key Features
- Free website migration
- Monitoring of your server resources
- Optimized for eCommerce
- SSH and DDoS protection
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- 5c Panel Licenses
- Free SSL certificate
- Free WHM license
- 3 Dedicated IPs
InMotion Pricing
InMotion Hosting offers a $19.99 entry-level VPS plan with 4TB of disk space and unlimited bandwidth, both impressive for the price. But it's the company's top-tier VPS plan, which starts at $59.99, that keeps it competitive.
With a dedicated IP, SSD storage, and 20GB of RAM, this is the ideal VPS for e-commerce users. This is also thanks to its high level of PCI compliance and easy integration with payment providers such as PayPal.
InMotion
Offers one of the best fully managed VPS hosting and an easy to use interface.
Starts @ $19.99/m
5. GoDaddy
GoDaddy has an A+ rating from the BBB and 4.5 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot. While the site is perhaps best known for buying domain names, it also offers a variety of web hosting services. These include WordPress, WordPress eCommerce, and reseller hosting. However, it does not offer cloud hosting.
GoDaddy's prices are higher than many of its competitors that offer similar packages. But the company makes up for this with the quality of customer support.
Users have access to 24/7 customer service via live chat, email, or phone and can get answers to their questions almost immediately.
In addition to being highly responsive, GoDaddy's customer service representatives are very knowledgeable about every aspect of web hosting and domains.
GoDaddy is one of the most well-known website hosts in the world. Its branding is prevalent throughout professional sports stadiums and in commercials for many major television networks.
It has more than 17 million customers in over 120 countries and is one of the largest web hosting providers in the world.
You can start with the Economy plan ($3.99 per month) and upgrade at any time if you need more resources or a dedicated IP address for your online store.
GoDaddy Key Features
As far as features go, GoDaddy’s plans include unlimited bandwidth, storage, and email addresses; a free domain; and a free SSL certificate.
- Great performance with SSD powered Virtuozzo for high speed
- Easy admin using cPanel/ WHM and a WordPress toolkit
- Full access control to your server
- Backups and recovery
- Global servers in North America, EMEA, and Asian pacific
- Easily scalable
- Free SSL certification with advanced DDoS protection
GoDaddy Pricing
GoDaddy’s pricing ranges from $3.99 to $54.99 per month when you sign up for a 3-year plan. This applies to unmanaged VPS hosting. you can choose plans based on high performance on RAM.
While that isn’t the cheapest option among our best cheap web hosts, it’s still a great price when you consider that you get three years of support with GoDaddy.
Other hosts like Dreamhost usually charge more for this service especially, PHP support. VPS plans also support Linux hosting.
GoDaddy
Offers one of the best fully managed VPS hosting and an easy to use interface.
Starts @ $10/month
6. A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting has a sterling reputation. The BBB gives the company an A+ rating, and TrustPilot rates it 4.5 out of 5 stars. And, to sweeten the deal, A2 offers many exclusive features with every plan:
- SSDs,
- site migration,
- an SSL certificate, and
- Cloudflare CDN are all included in the price.
It offers 24/7 live chat support and provides each customer with SSD, site migration, an SSL certificate, and Cloudflare CDN.
If you're looking for something faster, more secure, and gives you more flexibility than shared hosting, a VPS might be right for you. We've reviewed many VPS hosting services and included the best of the bunch in this guide.
A2 Hosting offers high-performance plans that are well-suited to power user sites — whether they're a budding entrepreneur's first website or a small business owner's online presence — at an affordable price.
It also has plans available for bigger companies and businesses with high traffic volumes.
A2 Hosting Key Features
- Unmanaged VSP - Self configure your server
- Command Line Management
- Managed Hardware & Network
- Choice Of Operating System
- Full Root Access
- Managed VPS Host Guard Server management
- EASY cPanel Control Panel
- Managed Hardware & Network
- 24/7/365 Guru Crew Support
- Available Root Access
- Managed Server Security
Dreamhost Pricing
Pricing for managed VPS starts from $33.99 for a 4GB RAM, 150GB SSD storage, 2TB transfer, Free SSL Certificates, and Free site migrations.
A2 Hosting
Offers one of the best fully managed VPS hosting and an easy to use interface.
Starts @ $10/month
7. Hostinger
Hostinger's VPS solutions offer low prices and a no-frills, highly-secure service, alongside a highly redundant server network and excellent scalability, for when your website needs to grow.
More powerful plans offer wider amounts of bandwidth and other tools. (Up to 12TB Bandwidth)
Hostinger offers one of the cheapest VPS plans on the market. The company's larger VPS plans offer more bandwidth and more storage.
Hostinger's VPS services are hosted on cloud servers that utilize RAID technology to ensure maximum redundancy. There's also free Cloudflare CDN access included in all plans. This helps to boost loading speeds even further, as well as 24/7 support via live chat or ticketing systems.
If you're unhappy with the service within 30 days of signing up, you can get your money back with no questions asked - although this is limited to annual plans only.
In short, Hostinger offers cheap VPS hosting paired with excellent security guarantees. It's not the most feature-packed option out there but it does represent an excellent value proposition for smaller businesses looking for reliable VPS hosting.
Hostinger Key Features
- All plans come with SSD disk space
- 100Mb/s Network with a 99.99% server uptime guaranteed
- Full Root access to enable VPS server customization
- Dedicated IPv6 block infrastructure for secure and efficient hosting
- Regular backups and instant restore
- Different supported systems including CentOS, Ubuntu, Fendora, Debian, and Suse
Hostinger Pricing
Hostinger ranks as one of the cheapest VPS plans starting at $3.95 for a 1TB bandwidth, 1GB RAM, and 20GB SSD storage space.
Hostinger
Offers one of the best fully managed VPS hosting and an easy to use interface.
Starts @ $10/month
8. BlueHost
Some people will tell you that Bluehost is a great beginner’s host, and there is some truth to that. However, it is also one of the best options for intermediate users as well.
Bluehost offers a full range of hosting services at reasonable prices. The service offers a variety of packages, from shared hosting with one gigabyte of space and unlimited bandwidth to fully managed VPS hosting.
The basic Bluehost VPS plan comes with 1 CPU core, 30GB SSD storage, 2GB RAM, and 1TB of bandwidth. The advanced VPS plan offers two CPU cores, 60GB SSD storage, 4GB RAM, and 2TB bandwidth.
The ultimate plan comes with four CPU cores, 120GB storage, 8GB RAM and 3TB bandwidth.
The main selling point of Bluehost's VPS plans is that they're fully managed. That means you don't have to worry about any of the technical aspects of running your server. So, it's perfect if you're just getting started with VPS hosting.
Bluehost Key Features
- Unlimited website and domains.
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- Dedicated server resources
- Simple dashboard to manage your server
- SSD storage improves the stability of your server
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Bluehost Pricing
Overall, Bluehost’s VPS hosting plans are affordable enough to give you a lot of bang for your buck. The basic plan offers enough resources for sites that are getting up to 10k monthly visits or more. You’re getting excellent value out of this package given that it costs only $19.99 per month.
Bluehost
Offers one of the best fully managed VPS hosting and an easy to use interface.
Starts @ $10/month
9. Contabo
Contabo is a Germany-based hosting provider that offers VPS and dedicated servers. It's one of the best VPS hosting providers on the market, but it's also one of the fastest-growing. Contabo has more than 100,000 customers now from almost 200 countries.
Contabo is super affordable, with its VPS plans starting at just $6.99/mo. Plus, it's also more than liberal with its server resources, and all of its plans are well-equipped. C
ontabo offers free opt-in for Webmin to help with hosting management. However, its native dashboard is slightly outdated.
If you're looking for a reliable host that won't break the bank, Contabo is definitely worth checking out.
But don't take my word for it – keep reading to find out more about this company's strengths and weaknesses in my comprehensive review below. Or jump to our summary page to see if Contabo is the right host for your website.
Contabo Key Features
- Powerful and affordable VPS servers
- New fast NVMe storage
- Strong server and data center security
- Servers across 3 continents
- Unmetered bandwidth
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Contabo Pricing
Contabo's VPS offerings are extremely affordable and start at just $6.99/mo. However, the real value lies in the higher-tier plans, which have unlimited traffic and more server resources to offer.
Contabo has four VPS plans:
- VPS S ($8.49/mo on a monthly basis, $6.29/mo on a yearly basis)
- VPS M ($13.99/mo on a monthly basis, $12.59/mo on a yearly basis)
- VPS L ($22.99/mo on a monthly basis, $17.99/mo on a yearly basis)
- VPS XL ($40.99/mo on a monthly basis, $32.99/mo on a yearly basis)
All of Contabo's VPS plans come with free setup, unlimited traffic, and 24/7 support thorugh email and call.
While Contabo offers Windows virtual servers, their functionality is limited, so we will focus solely on the Linux virtual servers here.
10. Liquid Web
Liquid Web is a managed hosting provider, which means that they do everything they can to keep you from having to deal with the technical stuff.
Besides offering the standard array of website hosting services, Liquid Web also offers private cloud servers, dedicated servers, and other services usually reserved for larger businesses.
Liquid web offers a wide range of managed hosting plans. These include VPS (Virtual Private Servers), cloud servers, dedicated hosting, and more.
On top of this, Liquid Web is one of the few companies that offer “bare metal” servers. These are servers that don’t run on a virtual layer but are instead dedicated to only running your site.
Liquid Web Key Features
- 24/7 On-site Support via Phone/Chat/Email
- Proactive Monitoring by Default
- Off Server Backups By Default
- Multi-level DDoS Protection
- Fast SSD Storage
- Cloudflare CDN
- Gigabyte Bandwidth
- Plesk and cPanel to easily manger your server
- Full Root Access to your VPS hosting environment
- Dedicated IP
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Liquid Web Pricing
Prices start from $25 billed every 2years, for a 10TB bandwidth, 40GB SSD storage, 2vCPU cores for plesk, linux, CentOS 7, or cPanel Admin. 100GB cyber backups are included in the pricing
Liquid Web
Offers one of the best fully managed VPS hosting and an easy to use interface.
Starts @ $10/month
How to Find the Best VPS Host for You
Finding the best VPS host for you and your website requires careful consideration of two key factors - the resources you need and how much you’re willing to spend. Your choice will likely come down to an analysis of various features and prices to determine which plan best meets both your needs and your budget.
Generally speaking, the more features or higher performance demanded, the higher the cost of the plan. For instance, if you require a high amount of RAM, disk space, and storage then be prepared to pay more accordingly.
To ensure cost-effectiveness it can help to consider upfront where scalability is needed. This way future expansion plans can be taken into account when deciding on a VPS plan. If changes are necessary at some point down the line then it's also important to keep in mind how easy it is to upgrade or downgrade existing plans with your chosen hosting provider.
Ultimately by carefully evaluating these two main points – resources required and price – you’ll find the perfect VPS plan for your website quickly and with minimal effort.