| VPS hosting | From (per month) | Storage (GB) |
|---|---|---|
| HostGator | $19.95 | 120 |
| Scala Hosting | $14.95 | 50 |
| Liquid Web | $15.00 | 40 |
| Bluehost | $17.99 | 30 |
| InMotion Hosting | $17.99 | 45 |
| Hostwinds | $8.24 | 30 |
Choosing the best VPS hosting providers could be a smart choice if you need more than basic web hosting but can't afford a dedicated server or don't want to deal with the complexity of these beasts.
Buying a VPS (Virtual Private Server) plan means that you get your very own virtual server environment. You have full control over the operating system, the extensions and apps you install, and all their settings.
Each physical server will still host multiple VPS customers, but not as many as with shared web hosting, and typically each VPS will be allocated a share of key resources – RAM, storage space, CPU cores – for their use alone.
This can be easier to manage than you might think. Many VPS plans include standard tools like cPanel to help monitor and configure your site. Some hosts will manage the service for you, monitoring for problems like a crashed service, and fixing them as soon as they're detected.
We've tested and compared these VPS hosting providers across factors like the uptime guarantee, bandwidth, storage, hardware performance, and customer support. We also looked at their pricing plans and configuration options, among other things.
VPS prices and specs vary from a few dollars a month to hundreds, depending on your requirements and your level of expertise. There's a lot of choice out there, but don't panic – our list of the best VPS providers will point you in the right direction.
We've also reviewed the best blogging platforms and the best SEO tools.
2023's best VPS hosting deals
Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
The best VPS hosting providers of 2023 in full
HostGator delivers an impressive range of hosting services, ranging from domains to dedicated servers at very competitive prices and backed by a 99.9% uptime guarantee. This applies as much to their VPS hosting as any of their other hosting options.
HostGator offer three specific VPS hosting plans, starting with the Snappy 2000, which comes with 2GB RAM, 2 cores of CPU, and 120GB of diskspace. The allocations are generous and should accommodate all but the most demanding websites.
An upgrade from that, if required, is the Snappy 4000, which upgrades RAM to 4GB and storage to 165GB. For more demanding sites that don't yet require their own server, you can opt for the Snappy 8000, which comes with 8GB RAM, 4 cores CPU, and 240 GB storage.
Pricing depends on whether you pay monthly or commit to one of their annual plans. For example, the Snappy 2000 VPS hosting plan costs $29.95 if you only want to pay from month to month, but if you commit to a 3-year contract it comes down as low as $19.95 a month.
Additional benefits include a 45-day money-back guarantee, not to mention free transfers for new accounts within the first month after you’ve signed up. There’s lots to like here considering the minimal impact on your wallet, if you're happy to commit.
- Read our HostGator review
ScalaHosting offers VPS users an affordable but impressive control panel option, with its SPanel packed with everything that is needed to move away from cPanel.
Its VPS range is extraordinary based on its configurability. Scala Hosting’s managed VPS plans start at $14.95 a month for the first term (whatever length you choose), $31.95 on renewal, for a 2 CPU core, 4GB RAM, 50GB SSD and unlimited bandwidth setup, with a choice of US or European data centers.
With its cheapest plan, Scala Hosting also offers free website migration, full 24/7 management, a free domain, softaculous one-click installer, as well as free SSL certificates.
Scala Hosting’s platform gives you the flexibility to choose your preferred provider while simplifying the way you manage your cloud servers. It also has a “Build your own Cloud-Managed VPS” feature that lets you personalize the features you need to charge you accordingly.
The provider’s sPanel VPS control panel is designed specifically for web design agencies, web developers, ecommerce sites, and domain resellers using a managed VPS.
If you’re looking for significantly faster load times and more robust cybersecurity than traditional hosting, Scala Hosting might just be the choice for you.
- Read our ScalaHosting review
Liquid Web is a premium web hosting provider which has been offering top quality managed solutions for more than 20 years, and now handles 500,000 sites for more than 32,000 customers worldwide.
The company doesn't try to beat the competition on price, instead focusing on delivering comprehensive products which will deliver quality results.
The cheapest Liquid Web plan may cost $59 a month (you can reduce that to $15 a month by paying for 2-years), for instance, but that gets you 2GB RAM, 40GB storage, a very generous 10TB of bandwidth, and 100GB backup.
There are lots of configuration options. Instead of just telling you that you're getting CentOS 7, Liquid Web allows you to select CentOS 6, Debian 8, Ubuntu 14.04 or 16.04, and often with multiple options of their own: cPanel, Plesk, CloudLinux and more.
This is a managed product, too. Liquid Web fully supports the base operating system, and the support team will proactively restore failed services as soon as they're detected. Getting a managed VPS with other providers could cost you an extra $30 a month, or more.
If your VPS still has issues, there's speedy 24x7x365 support from knowledgeable professionals who will do their best to solve your problems at speed.
Liquid Web may not have the most appealing headline prices, but it's still cheaper than many others considering the features you get, and the excellent support will help keep your site running smoothly down the line.
- Read our Liquid Web review
Bluehost has been around for quite some time and always offered powerful plans for a variety of users, and their VPS range is no different.
You have three plans to choose from, with the cheapest plan starting at $17.99 per month for the first term and $29.99 per month on renewal. That gets you 2 CPU cores (2x Xeon Gold 5220), 30GB SSD storage, 2 GB RAM, 1 TB bandwidth and one IP address. The top-tier plan called Ultimate, gives you 4 CPU cores (2x Xeon Gold 5222), 120GB SSD storage, 8 GB RAM, 3 TB bandwidth and two IP addresses, and it’s priced at $57.99 per month for the first term and $119.99 per month on renewal.
All plans come with a free SSL certificate and a 1-year domain. You also get unlimited subdomains and email accounts, and cPanel is included too. Domain privacy and protection, and SiteLock are categorized as optional add-ons, so you’ll have to pay extra if you need them.
Support is available 24/7 so if you encounter any difficulties you’ll be able to call them at any time of the day. All in all, Bluehost is a capable provider for both newbies and experienced users so they are definitely worth a try.
- Read our Bluehost review
Check out a few VPS hosting providers and it's easy to be tempted with low headline rates, but don't be fooled – companies use a range of tricks to keep their charges down.
The hardware specs of a starter product are often kept unrealistically low, for instance, to keep the price right down. Important items – backups, cPanel – may be expensive extras. And even then, the headline rate may only apply if you pay for two or three years upfront, increasing dramatically on renewal.
InMotion Hosting is refreshingly different. Its baseline VPS 2GB plan has a special 6 month term price of $17.99 per month. The product has a better specification – 2GB RAM, 45GB SSD storage, 4TB bandwidth, 1 dedicated IP – than some high-end plans from other providers, backups and a cPanel licence are included for free, and there's a 90-day money-back guarantee.
A recent VPS refresh from InMotion Hosting brings dedicated CPU cores to their VPS plans. The 2GB VPS offers two full CPU cores with options ranging up to 14 Cores!
Welcome bonus touches include a feature called Launch Assist, which essentially means you get two hours of free time with one of InMotion's server administrators. Whether you need to change domain settings, configure cPanel, migrate WordPress or database files, they can help you get the job done.
Put it all together and you're getting a very capable set of VPS hosting plans. If you'd prefer a package that comes with unexpected surprises, rather than hidden catches, we'd give InMotion a try.
- Read our InMotion Hosting review
Some VPS hosts focus on first-time users, others go for big business, but Hostwinds does its best to appeal to everyone. This means offering both managed and unmanaged plans.
Additionally, along with support for the usual Linux variants – CentOS, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian – you can choose Windows Server 2008, 2012 or 2016 for only a $5 a month premium. That's very good value, and if you're more familiar with Windows than Linux, it could save you from lots of management hassles later on.
Managed Linux VPS plans start from $8.24 for 1 core and 1GB RAM, which is a little low but decent for starter websites, with plans increasing resource allocations at a reasonable pricing rate.
For unmanaged Linux, plans start from just $4.99 for the same 1 core and 1GB RAM spec. However, there are far more VPS hosting plans available for unmanaged Linux, with the top tier offering as much as 16 cores and 96 GB of RAM.
Windows plans follow a similar pattern, though for managed VPS with a single core and 1GB RAM pricing starts a little more at $12.74. Unmanaged options are similar in terms of specs to the unmanaged Linux, though pricing again is a little higher at $10.99 a month. Whichever you're after, Hostwinds offers plenty of choices.
- Read our Hostwinds review
Best VPS hosting FAQs
How to choose the best VPS hosting providers for you?
When choosing the best VPS hosting provider for yourself, you'll want to consider several factors.
For starters, what's the hosting provider's uptime guarantee? Even a few hours of downtime could cost you business, so you'll want to pick a provider with an appropriate uptime guarantee that'll suit your requirements.
You'll then want to consider the bandwidth, which determines your website's loading speeds. If you get plenty of traffic every month, make sure you choose a high bandwidth provider. Make sure to check whether the provider's offering sufficient storage, and keep in mind that your storage needs will increase with time.
You'll also want to select a provider with an appropriate pricing plan for you and check if they offer accessible and reliable customer support.
How we test the best VPS hosting providers
We've evaluated the best VPS hosting providers across various points. We first looked at their bandwidth, uptime guarantee, configuration options, and pricing plans.
We assessed their hardware, like how much RAM, disk space, and CPU they offered, and analyzed their overall performance, speed, and reliability. Based on this (and a few other aspects), we determined what types of users would be best suited for the different VPS hosting providers.
We looked at whether they had a money-back guarantee and how long the window for a refund was. We also considered the quality of support they offered, how promptly they responded to queries, and whether support was available 24/7.
Is VPS hosting better?
As VPS Hosting is a hosting solution for websites and applications, server resources are isolated for individual users.
As a result, VPS users experience more consistent performance, which translates to more responsive and faster websites, which is ultimately a win-win for those who choose VPS hosting.
Ultimately, VPS hosting has become a popular choice because it is generally lower in cost than dedicated hosting but provides better security and performance in comparison to basic shared hosting.
If you are an SaaS provider, game maker, programmer, or own a company that has outgrown its shared hosting but needs a secure and affordable backup environment, VPS hosting may just be the best option for you.
Shared hosting vs VPS hosting: Which one is for you?
Shared hosting is a type of hosting plan which can house thousands of websites on a single server. Known to be the most affordable web hosting option on the market, shared hosting is similar in the notion that there are a lot of people sharing limited resources.
VPS hosting is a hosting service which houses websites in dedicated sections on the server. Despite the fact that there are also several amenities which are shared, you are responsible for the property maintenance and repairs.
When looking at a side-by-side comparison of shared hosting vs VPS hosting, one major advantage of VPS hosting is higher performance with increased bandwidth and resources, which lets your website load at a faster speed.
Standard shared hosting packages are cheap and user-friendly, but they can also be slow, inflexible, and don't have the power or functionality that professional and business users often need.
We recommend using shared hosting if you want to launch your website quickly, you have a limited or restricted budget, or if you want to grow over time.
We recommend using VPS hosting if your website has large amounts of traffic, you want greater freedom, performance, and speed, or if you want to install custom software and have full root access.
What is cloud VPS hosting?
In a dedicated hosting environment, the entire resources of the server are utilized by a single tenant, instead of being spread across multiple users or hosted websites. This means that your website can leverage the server's full CPU, RAM, bandwidth, and storage resources, as it doesn't share them with other sites. The benefit from a singular use of such resources to a hosted website cannot be overstated.
While Virtual Private Server (VPS) is also home to a number of clients, it simulates an environment where each client appears to be on a uniquely dedicated machine. It achieves this virtual separation through the use of a hypervisor. Unlike a shared hosting server, with VPS you can stake a claim to resources such as RAM and bandwidth, notwithstanding any other websites and users who you share the server with.
This means that you will always have at least the agreed upon resources available to you at all times. The hypervisor technology also permits VPS clients to borrow resources from one another, such that clients which need more resources are allotted resources from other clients that aren’t using their assigned allocation of resources. In this manner, a VPS hosting guarantees availability of resources, and thus performance, which isn’t possible with a shared hosting server.
In recent years, cloud VPS hosting has presented itself as a viable alternative to dedicated or VPS hosting. Cloud VPS shines as a viable hosting solution because it provides for the ideal mix of performance, security, reliability and costs. You pay only for what you use.
By their very nature, shared hosting plans will be of little use to businesses and professionals. Cloud VPS would appeal to those websites and online ventures which seek flexibility to handle sudden spikes in visitor traffic, without letting costs spiral out of control.
Is cloud hosting the same as VPS hosting?
Typically, no. VPS stands for Virtual Private Server - a type of service where the host splits a physical server into multiple virtual copies and allocates a fixed amount of system resources to each one.
Cloud hosting is a hosting solution that works via a network and enables companies to consume the computing resource like a utility.
However, cloud hosting and VPS hosting aren't mutually exclusive. There is an option for a web hosting provider to offer VPS hosting on a cloud infrastructure, which then, in turn, provides cloud-based VPS hosting services.
This combination usually produces high levels of performance and reliability in the virtual server environment, particularly in regards to hosting sites.
Why use cloud VPS hosting?
You should consider a cloud VPS hosting solution if you find dedicated hosting solutions cost-prohibitive, but require vast resources, and also expect your online venture to grow significantly in a short span of time, and need to accommodate the surge in traffic.
Apart from striking the right balance between performance and costs, there are many reasons for opting for cloud VPS hosting.
Firstly, it provides for better performance capabilities with the help of dedicated resources. Your website/application responds faster because they are not waiting for resources to be freed up for processing.
Also, cloud VPS hosting can be self provisioned, which means that any spike in traffic or unexpected demand on resources can be handled quickly and efficiently by the administrative tools at your disposal. The distributed nature of cloud VPS hosting also ensures high availability and most hosting providers offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee on their cloud VPS plans.
