Virtual private servers (VPS) are a strong hosting middle ground that blends affordability and power. These top, tested picks let you build a site with ease.
VPS Web Hosting. The many web hosts and their hosting tiers can make it difficult for you to find a Goldilocks plan that’s just right. For example, your website may require more power than what simple shared hosting delivers, but you don’t want to go all-in on expensive dedicated hosting. The middle ground between the two is virtual private server (VPS) hosting.
Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks
HostGator VPS Web Hosting
Why We Picked It
HostGator’s excellent shared hosting earned the company a PCMag Editors’ Choice award, but don’t sleep on its VPS offerings. HostGator’s VPS plans come in several affordable price tiers, and while they lack Windows server options, they make up for it with top-notch flexibility and scalability.
Who It’s For
As businesses grow and thrive, traffic to their websites typically grows with it. If you are expecting a traffic surge, or just want more control over your server environment, HostGator is an ideal host, since you can easily tick the options that you need to expand your plan.
PROS
- Numerous feature-rich hosting plans
- Excellent shared hosting offerings
- Good for novice webmasters
- Useful site-building software and e-commerce tools
- Helpful, 24/7 customer service
- Outstanding uptime
CONS
- Not all plans have a Windows Server option
- Some annual plans cost more than paying month by month
SPECS
| Unlimited Monthly Data Transfers – VPS | ✅ |
| Maximum RAM – VPS | 8 GB |
| Maximum Storage – VPS | 240 GB |
| Linux Servers | ✅ |
| Windows Servers | ✅ |
| 24/7 Customer Support | ✅ |
InMotion Web Hosting
Why We Picked It
InMotion has a dense feature-set and reasonable pricing for its shared, dedicated, reseller, and VPS plans, which will satisfy a wide range of hosting needs. In addition, the company offers fantastic uptime and customer service. As a result, InMotion stands strong as a well-rounded web host, and a PCMag Editors’ Choice pick.
Who It’s For
InMotion’s VPS plans come packed with several excellent features, including unlimited monthly data transfers for all but the basic tier. Even better, InMotion’s VPS plans let you build an unlimited number of websites. This makes InMotion an excellent choice if you have several projects in the pipeline that require web hosting.
PROS
- Excellent uptime
- Many hosting types
- All plans offer unlimited email
- Unlimited data transfers with all Shared and WordPress plans
- Lengthy, money-back guarantee
- Easy-to-use website-building software
CONS
- Lacks Windows servers
- Not all plans have month-to-month payment options
SPECS
| Unlimited Monthly Data Transfers – VPS | ❌ |
| Maximum RAM – VPS | 32 GB |
| Maximum Storage – VPS | 640 GB |
| Linux Servers | ✅ |
| Windows Servers | ❌ |
| 24/7 Customer Support | ✅ |
DreamHost Web Hosting
Why We Picked It
DreamHost has numerous novice-friendly VPS tools that make the site-building experience easy and accessible. Yet, it also delivers impressive shared, WordPress, dedicated, cloud, and VPS options to help your site grow according to its needs. This makes DreamHost a web host we can easily recommend as an Editors’ Choice-worthy service.
Who It’s For
Companies looking to expand their traffic. After all, hosting your website on a VPS server gives you more resources and computing power to work with than inexpensive shared hosting. DreamHost notably offers unlimited monthly data transfers with all of its plans, which is a fantastic perk.
PROS
- Strong security features
- Extensive domain-management tools
- Excellent cloud hosting offerings
- Unlimited data transfers per month
- Generous shared hosting money-back guarantee
- Useful WordPress staging feature
CONS
- Shared Starter plan lacks email
- No telephone support
- Lacks Windows-based servers
SPECS
| Unlimited Monthly Data Transfers – VPS | ✅ |
| Maximum RAM – VPS | 8 GB |
| Maximum Storage – VPS | 240 GB |
| Linux Servers | ✅ |
| Windows Servers | ❌ |
| 24/7 Customer Support | ✅ |
AccuWeb Hosting
Why We Picked It
There are many worthwhile web hosting services vying for your dollar, and AccuWeb ranks highly among them due to its many, feature-rich hosting plans. The company’s VPS plans are particularly stacked, and they come with unlimited email accounts at each tier.
Who It’s For
AccuWeb’s unlimited email accounts are especially valuable for businesses with a large number of employees, or webmasters managing multiple sites at once. If you are an entrepreneur hunting for a host that works well with your communication tools (say, email newsletters), AccuWeb’s unlimited email accounts is an option well worth considering.
PROS
- Great budget-friendly shared hosting options
- Excellent dedicated hosting plans
- Offers a choice of Linux or Windows servers
- Helpful customer service
CONS
- Limited email accounts with some plans
SPECS
| Unlimited Monthly Data Transfers – VPS | ❌ |
| Maximum RAM – VPS | 8 GB |
| Maximum Storage – VPS | 100 GB |
| Linux Servers | ✅ |
| Windows Servers | ✅ |
| 24/7 Customer Support | ✅ |
Liquid Web Hosting
Why We Picked It
If your online business requires juggernaut hosting, Liquid Web has the brawn to keep it operational. Liquid Web has a fantastic selection of cloud, dedicated, WordPress, and VPS packages, though these services come at a premium price point. It lacks lower-cost, shared web hosting, but makes up for it with superb, well-managed, enterprise-level plans.
Who It’s For
Liquid Web offers excellent, fully managed VPS plans, making it a recommended solution for new businesses that need extra support or experience with back-end server issues. With Liquid Web’s managed VPS plans, you receive server setup, administration, OS updates, hardware management, and basic security.
PROS
- Robust dedicated, VPS, cloud, and reseller packages
- Prorated VPS plans
- Powerful, high-end server specs
- Terrific customer service
- Excellent uptime in testing
CONS
- Lacks shared hosting plans
- Expensive, with few refund options
SPECS
| Unlimited Monthly Data Transfers – VPS | ❌ |
| Maximum RAM – VPS | 16 GB |
| Maximum Storage – VPS | 200 GB |
| Linux Servers | ✅ |
| Windows Servers | ✅ |
| 24/7 Customer Support | ✅ |
Ionos Web Hosting
Why We Picked It
Though Ionos has earned our Editors’ Choice award for its stellar cloud hosting plans, its myriad other hosting options are also outstanding. Its VPS hosting, in particular, caters to small businesses and enterprises with power Linux- or Windows-based servers.
Who It’s For
If you need OS flexibility from your web host, keep Ionos in mind. You can choose between Linux or Windows servers with its VPS plans, which is a fantastic option that not all hosts offer. Better still, Ionos’ VPS tiers aren’t expensive, and include unlimited monthly data transfers.
PROS
- Dependable uptime in testing
- Excellent cloud hosting packages
- Linux- or Windows-based servers
- Easy-to-use website creation tools
CONS
- Lacks reseller hosting plans
- Relatively sparse email options
SPECS
| Unlimited Monthly Data Transfers – VPS | ✅ |
| Maximum RAM – VPS | 12 GB |
| Maximum Storage – VPS | 240 GB |
| Linux Servers | ✅ |
| Windows Servers | ✅ |
| 24/7 Customer Support | ✅ |
What Is a VPS Used For?
Your VPS-hosted site lives in a partitioned server area that has its own operating system, storage, RAM, and monthly data transfer limits, so you can expect smoother, more stable site performance. The sites with which you share your server are far less likely to affect your site—or even take it down altogether—than they would be on a shared server. Knowing how VPS setups operate is just the first step, however. You still need to familiarize yourself with the essential features needed for building a rock-solid, VPS-hosted website.
Is There Any Free VPS?
As a result of VPS hosting’s hybrid nature, its cost isn’t quite as low as shared hosts’ fees, but it’s not nearly as high as dedicated hosts’ fees. You can expect to pay between $20 per month and $100 per month, depending on the configuration. Shared web hosting, on the other hand, is extremely cheap hosting; you can often set up shop for less than $10 per month. Dedicated web hosting will typically set you back $100 per month or more.
Most VPS hosts only offer servers running Linux-based operating systems; you’ll need to dig a bit to find Windows-based VPS hosting. This is important to note if you’re planning on running software that requires a Microsoft-compatible environment. That said, Linux-based VPS hosting will save you a few bucks; Linux servers usually cost $10 to $20 less than Windows servers.
How to Choose a VPS
Once you register your website’s domain name, it’s time to start picking the specs for your server. Web hosts typically offer multiple VPS plans that have varying amounts of email capability, RAM, storage, CPU power, domain hosting, and monthly data transfers.
The plans typically include website builders that let you quickly create a face for your site without much—or even any—coding required. A solid web host should offer at least 4GB of RAM, 100GB of storage, and an ample volume of monthly data transfers.
If you expect a significant amount of website growth, then you should look for a web host that has as many unlimited offerings as possible. For example, Hostwinds—the PCMag Editors’ Choice for VPS hosting—offers unlimited email, domains, and monthly data transfers.
Note: however, that you should read the fine print to make sure that you understand what the host means by “unlimited,” as it can vary from company to company.
Speaking of email and limits, you’ll want the ability to create an unlimited number of accounts. Should your website grow significantly, you’ll appreciate being able to scale your email accounts without spending additional money.
Web hosts typically place a cap on the amount of storage per email account. In other words, you may be able to create an unlimited number of email accounts, but each one may have a 10GB storage cap. Take time to investigate a potential web host’s email offerings so as not to be surprised by its messaging limitations. Again, find out what the unlimited gotchas might be.
Typically, a web hosting service gives you the option of selecting either a traditional hard drive or a solid-state drive as your website’s storage medium. Traditional hard drives have large capacities and lower prices, but they aren’t quite as resilient as their SSD counterparts.
Solid-state drives, on the other hand, are often faster and more reliable than HDDs, but they cost more and have smaller storage capacities. Unless you truly need blazing speed, a traditional hard drive should get the job done.
VPS Uptime and Downtime
All the features we’ve detailed to this point are valuable to the web hosting experience, but none matches the critical importance of site uptime. If your site is down, clients or customers will be unable to find you or access your products or services. It doesn’t matter how great the features are, or how good it looks; if your site is down, it might as well not exist.
Which VPS Is Best?
If you want reasonably priced server space that won’t load pages at a snail’s pace when a neighboring site gets a huge traffic spike, VPS is a good option for your business. We’ve reviewed many VPS hosting services and included the best of the bunch in this guide. You should look into a dedicated server if you want to build a website on an even stronger foundation and can afford the bill.
If you’re just getting started in web hosting, make sure to check out our primer on how to create a website. If, on the other hand, you think you’re ready to start your own web hosting company, you should check out our guide to reseller hosting. The Best Courses for Learning How to Build Websites offers terrific video instruction for people who prefer that style of learning.
FAQs :
What’s the difference between cloud hosting and VPS?
The biggest difference between VPS and cloud hosting is that a VPS is set up on a single physical server, while cloud servers are set up on multiple networked physical servers. On a cloud server, you can increase or decrease your resources as needed.
What’s the difference between shared hosting and VPS hosting?
Shared hosting splits resources on a single server among many users, while VPS hosting creates virtual server space with dedicated resources for each user. Usually, a VPS carries fewer users, so there’s less strain on the physical server.
What is managed VPS hosting?
Managed VPS hosting is similar to shared hosting in that the provider offers help with configuration and maintenance of your VPS. Setup, security and updates can all be handled by your host. It’s also a slightly more expensive option than unmanaged hosting.
Is VPS hosting secure?
VPS hosting services offer the same type of security measures that you would find with other types of hosting services. This includes measures such as firewalls, backup software, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack protection, server hardening and frequent scanning for vulnerabilities as well as constant updates and patches made to the software.
How many websites can I host with a VPS?
Technically, you can host as many websites as you’d like on a VPS. The only limitation that should exist with your VPS is your total allotment of resources.
Why is VPS hosting so expensive?
A VPS plan comes with a portion of resources dedicated to your sites alone, so you pay for that exclusivity. A managed VPS plan often costs more because tech support is also dedicated to your virtual space, whereas an unmanaged plan is more affordable because the technical details are your responsibility. If VPS hosting servers are too expensive for you right now, consider the best cheap web hosting services.
Do I need VPS hosting?
As your business grows and your site traffic increases, you may need to consider upgrading from a shared server to a VPS. It may also be necessary to opt for a VPS if you have plans to build a more complex website that shared hosting can’t support.