8 Best VPS Hosting Providers 2024 | Compared & Reviewed
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The very best VPS host on our shortlist is Bluehost. This is due to it being consistently cheap yet feature-rich and being the most trusted by our users with a whopping 4.9 out of 5 for customer reviews. We also recommend HostGator as a fantastic VPS host, offering unlimited bandwidth across all plans and the best help and support in all seven categories of our research!
However, there are plenty of great options out there. We took a look at a wide range of hosting providers, their performance, the tools they offered, and what set them apart from the rest. Below are the VPS hosting providers that wowed us during our research:
The 8 Best VPS Hosting Providers Are:
- Bluehost – Best overall VPS hosting provider
- HostGator – Best for help and support
- InMotion – Best security
- IONOS – Best performance
- Hostinger – Affordable plans
- DreamHost – Best uptime
- GoDaddy Hosting – Great value for money
- A2 Hosting – Best for storage
Compare the Best VPS Hosting Providers Side by Side
Here are the maximum features offered by each hosting provider. Read on for a more detailed breakdown, and to see which we’d recommend for who:
Bluehost HostGator InMotion 1&1 IONOS Hostinger DreamHost GoDaddy Hosting A2 Hosting 8GB 8GB 16GB 12GB 32GB 8GB 16GB 32GB 4 4 8 6 8 N/A 8 8 3TB Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited 32TB Unlimited Unlimited 4TB YES YES YES YES YES NO YES YES 80GB 240GB 360GB 240GB 400GB 240GB 400GB NVMe 450GB 99.98% 99.9% 99.98% 99.99% 99.99% 100% 99.99% 99.9%
Visit Bluehost Visit HostGator Visit InMotion Visit IONOS Visit Hostinger Visit DreamHost Visit GoDaddy Visit A2 Hosting
- RAM (Random Access Memory) – what fuels your site and allows it to work.
- CPU (Computer Processing Units) – cores within the server that process information.
- Bandwidth – the amount of data that can flow between the server, the internet, and your site.
- Root Access – the ability to customize your server by installing extra software through Android.
- Storage – the amount of space you have for things on your site (content, media, web pages, etc.)
- Uptime – how consistently your site is working online. To find out more, check out our guide to what is uptime.
For a lot of sites, the amounts shown in this table will be excessive and unnecessary. More often than not, the most important things to consider are uptime and cost.
#1. Bluehost – Best overall VPS hosting provider
Bluehost
Best overall VPS hosting provider
- Affordable
- Strong features
- Unlimited domains
Paid Plans: $1.99 - $119.99 / month
Pros
- Unlimited domains across all plans
- Great help and support
- Great WordPress integration
Cons
- Low storage on VPS plans
- Lots of add-ons at checkout
Bluehost is better known for its WordPress hosting, but it still has everything you need from a VPS service. And if you’re yet to purchase a domain name, Bluehost throws in unlimited domains across all its plans. Pretty generous, huh? That’s the thing with Bluehost, it just does everything well. Consistently ranking in the top three across our different research categories, Bluehost is a great all-rounder and, more importantly, our choice for the best VPS hosting provider.
Bluehost Gallery
Bluehost’s pricing begins at $23.99 per month (for a 12-month contract) or $29.99 per month on the Standard plan. It’s a great entry plan for people who want a hands-off hosting experience, but without the larger price tag. For those needing bigger sites, the Enhanced plan comes with double the storage (60GB) for just $11 per month more ($34.99). The Ultimate plan caps it off for $83.99/month, offering even more in the way of support and features.
Unlimited domains across all plans is bellissimo, and 99.98% is a good uptime guarantee. An issue with Bluehost’s plans is that they don’t scale up as far as some other providers. The most storage on offer is 80GB which, compared to A2 Hosting’s highest offering of 450GB, is slightly disappointing, but this is reflected in the lower price range. You can move to a dedicated server if you outgrow the VPS plans Bluehost has to offer.
#2. HostGator – Best for help and support
HostGator
Best for help and support
- Very reliable service
- Good range of features
- Expensive renewal prices
Paid Plans: $3.95 - $159.99 / month
Pros
- Very heavy discounts for first term
- Unlimited bandwidth across all plans
- Best support we've tested
Cons
- Slow server response time
- No SSL certificate
- Not great value for money
HostGator has strong features, unlimited bandwidth, and tons of storage. What lets HostGator down is its value for money – expensive renewal costs take a reasonable $34.99/mo price to $83.99/mo! That is enough to put off those on a tight budget, although it does offer heavy discounts (75%) for the first term.
Save 75% On Shared Hosting
HostGator is giving you 75% off its shared hosting plans, plus one year free domain registration. Don’t miss this amazing discount!
HostGator Gallery
- Snappy 2000: Starts at $34.99, renews at $83.99
- Snappy 4000: Starts at $51.99, renews at $119.99
- Snappy 8000: Starts at $93.99, renews at $146.99
While its discounted prices offer a pretty good deal, you can see how the price leaps after this first term.
Things aren’t all totally cozy, however. For all its features, HostGator ends up having pretty slow server response times, which could affect your site in the long run.
#3. InMotion – Best security
InMotion
Best security
- Great security
- Excellent support team
- 5 cPanel licenses
Paid Plans: $3.49 - $539.99 / month
Pros
- 90-day money-back guarantee
- 3 free IP addresses
- Free migration for WordPress sites
Cons
- Expensive in the long run
- No Windows hosting (Linux only)
- Not all plans have unlimited bandwidth
InMotion sets the bar pretty high when it comes to VPS hosting. Its features alone scored the second-highest on this list in our research testing, and it’s easy to see why. All plans come with free backups, root access, and up to eight CPU cores with five cPanel licenses included.
There’s also help available 24/7 via phone, live chat, and a ticketing system, plus a 90-day money-back guarantee. While it may have dropped a point in overall score, going from 4.5 to 4.4 out of 5, InMotion is still a solid choice for all VPS-hungry readers.
InMotion Gallery
InMotion offers fantastic discounts, so it’s worth signing up for an even longer plan to make the most of them, however, if you aren’t sure you want to commit to a longer-term, InMotion offers a 6-month contract for the same price of $14.99.
InMotion’s renewal prices range from $44.99 to $197.99 depending on which plan you sign for, and for how long. They can seem expensive compared to some providers (such as Hostinger) but come packed with storage and bandwidth, so are good value.
At the top end, you get eight CPU cores, 16GB of RAM, and 360GB of storage with unlimited bandwidth. If you need a VPS host that can handle everything you can throw at it data-wise, InMotion is your provider!
It’s worth noting, however, that InMotion only offers Linux hosting, not Windows hosting.
Additionally, unlimited bandwidth is not available on all plans, meaning this really great feature is sadly locked behind a paywall.
It performed well in our user testing earning a 4.4 out of 5, most likely down to the fact that the staff receives over 160 hours of training to help them deal with all number of issues and inquiries!
You can request a migration from the support team once you’ve signed up to a plan. They don’t place any limitations on the size or nature of the site, and the process takes 2-5 business days.
#4. IONOS – Best performance
IONOS
Best performance
- Best site speed
- Great uptime
- Hidden costs
Paid Plans: $0.5 - $35 / month
Pros
- Fantastic server response time
- Cheap plans
- 99.99% uptime
Cons
- Third-party backup subscription
- Fees for Windows hosting
- No email or live chat support
IONOS is the speed demon of the VPS hosting world, offering a server response time of only 286.11. To put that into context, Bluehost has a server response time of 825.375 – nearly four times slower! As well as cheap starting prices and unlimited bandwidth on all plans, IONOS is a provider to look out for!
IONOS Gallery
- VPS XS – $2/month
- VPS S – $3/month (for 6 months, then $5/month)
- VPS M – $4/month (for 6 months, then $9/month)
- VPS L – $10/month (for 6 months, then $15/month)
- VPS XL – $15/month (for 6 months, then $28/month)
- VPS XXL – $30/month (for 6 months, then $50/month)
There is also a one-time $10 set-up fee for all these plans. IONOS is still great value for what you get, but just be careful the extra fees don’t add up.
If you think you need even more storage and processing power, IONOS offers RAM and CPU extensive variations on its plans. If power is what you need, IONOS has you covered.
Power isn’t the solution to everything, however. IONOS lacks its own backups service, using third-party Acronis instead which will incur an additional fee. This is a running trend with IONOS, from the $10 starting fee and the fee for using Windows, a lot of IONOS is hidden behind secret paywalls.
#5. Hostinger – Affordable plans
Hostinger
Affordable VPS plans
- Alternative to Bluehost
- 4 plans available
- No domains
Paid Plans: $2.99 - $109.99 / month
Pros
- Cheap starting price
- Multilingual customer support
- Cheap starting price
Cons
- No free domain
- No phone support
- Only 1 dedicated IP address
Hostinger offers stripped-back VPS plans at super low prices. There are some compromises (namely uptime), but it’s recently moved up in our VPS web host rankings, due to increased storage and bandwidth across its plans. Previously Hostinger’s storage ranged from 20GB-250GB across eight plans, but now it ranges from 50GB-400GB across four plans. Its bandwidth, which used to start at 1TB on the lowest plan, now starts at 4TB, giving users on a budget more scope to play with.
With these increased allowances, Hostinger is a super affordable way for a smaller site to access the benefits of VPS hosting, without the price tag.
Hostinger Gallery
There are four plans to choose from in total. Check out the 12-month pricing below, plus renewal prices after the year is over:
- KVM VPS 1 – $5.49 per month, renews at $8.49/mo
- KVM VPS 2 – $7.49 per month, renews at $11.49/mo
- KVM VPS 4 – $11.99 per month, renews at $24.99/mo
- KVM VPS 8 – $24.99 per month, renews at $47.99/mo
With Hostinger, we recommend checking out the 24-month subscriptions if you’re on a budget, since it unlocks really affordable prices. On a 24-month contract Hostinger’s plans range from $4.99 to $19.99 per month, which is the price range you’ll see displayed on Hostinger’s website. Of course, a two-year commitment may not be right for you, so think carefully before choosing.
As always, the more expensive plans provide more features. For example, Hostinger’s cheapest KVM VPS 1 plan offers 4GB of RAM, 50GB of storage space, and 4TB of bandwidth. In comparison, the most expensive plan provides 32GB of RAM, 400GB of storage, and 32TB of bandwidth.
We were pleased to see Hostinger increase its feature allowances over the years; it used to only offer 1TB of bandwidth on its cheapest plan.
However, no web host is perfect, and Hostinger has its drawbacks. Our main disappointment is that Hostinger doesn’t give you a free domain when you sign up, and only offers one IP address. With four different plans, you’d maybe expect Hostinger to offer more.
It’s not all bad though. Hostinger does offer free weekly backups on all its plans, and has data centers located worldwide, so you can choose a server location that best suits you and your audience. It also comes with a whole plethora of control panel providers, operating systems, and applications, including but not limited to:
- cPanel
- Ubuntu
- Django
- Node.js
- Plesk
- Minecraft
Like Goldilocks, there’s no need to fear your VPS hosting is under or over-powered for your site because Hostinger will most likely have an option that is just right.
You can access live chat when you’re logged into your account, and this is available 24/7 and in a wide range of languages, which is a plus.
#6. DreamHost – Best uptime
DreamHost
Best uptime
- Affordable VPS plans
- 97-day money-back
- 100% uptime
Paid Plans: $2.95 - $379 / month
Pros
- 100% uptime guaranteed
- 2nd best site speed
- Generous trial period
Cons
- No direct phone support
- No root access on VPS
- Doesn’t use cPanel
DreamHost comes in swinging with a very bold claim right out of the gate: 100% uptime. Is this true? Well, DreamHost tells you not to worry about it because it’ll reimburse you for any downtime you do experience. It’s also towards the cheaper end of the pricing spectrum, with a starting price of only $10 per month. It’s seen the most dramatic increase in overall score on this list, jumping from 3 out of 5 in our pre-2023 ratings to 4 out of 5!
DreamHost Gallery
- VPS Basic – $13.75/mo
- VPS Business – $27.50/mo
- VPS Professional – $55.00/mo
- VPS Enterprise – $110.00/mo
If these plans don’t tickle your fancy, then there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee.
That said, 100% uptime is still hugely important, as is having the second highest site speed. All in all, the benefits outweigh the negatives.
#7. GoDaddy Hosting– Great value for money
GoDaddy
Great value for money
- All-in-one platform
- Good value-for-money
- Great help and support
Paid Plans: $9.99 - $20.99 / month
Pros
- Cheap plans for VPS
- Unlimited bandwidth
- 2nd best server response time
Cons
- Slow site speed
- More expensive for Windows users
- No domains
GoDaddy Hosting? “But I thought it was a website builder?” I can hear you ask. And you would be right, valued reader. GoDaddy’s usual MO has been its website builder and domain service, but it has a hosting provider too, and it’s not too shabby. Its VPS hosting provides four plans for its users and while they may not blow you away, they will at least leave you satisfied.
GoDaddy Hosting Gallery
If you’re planning to host with Windows, then there’s an extra $5 added to the monthly fee. Here’s the breakdown for a 12-month term:
- 1vCPU – $11.99/month (Linux only)
- 2vCPU – $23.99/month ($30.99/month Windows)
- 4vCPU / 8GB RAM – $47.99/month ($57.99/month Windows)
- 4vCPU / 16GB RAM – $59.99/month ($69.99/month Windows)
- 8vCPU / 16GB RAM – $83.99/month ($103.99/month Windows)
- 8vCPU / 32GB RAM – $119.99/month ($139.99/month Windows)
- 16vCPU / 32GB RAM – $155.99/month ($185.99/month Windows)
- 16vCPU / 64GB RAM – $199.99/month ($229.99/month Windows)
The security on offer isn’t anything to sniff at either, with free SSL for a year, DDOS protection, and real-time 24/7 monitoring for its VPS plans. While it may not be a star, GoDaddy is a reliable and safe choice for all your hosting needs.
Bizarrely, the one thing you might expect GoDaddy Hosting to have, integration with its sister services, is nonexistent. When VPS hosting providers like Bluehost or HostGator can provide unlimited domains but the company known for its domains for over 25 years can’t…it just seems like a missed opportunity.
#8. A2 Hosting – Best for storage
A2 Hosting
Best for storage
- Secure servers
- Most storage on offer
- Expensive plans
Paid Plans: $6.59 - $529.99 / month
Pros
- 400GB NVMe storage space
- Managed and unmanaged VPS hosting plans
- Free VPS-only expert migration
Cons
- Expensive starting plans
- No 24/7 help and support
- Slow response time
A2 Hosting is a little on the overpriced side as far as VPS hosting is concerned. While it offers a decent range of features and the most storage on offer for any VPS provider, it is hard to justify its $42.99 a month starting price. That said, if you can foot the bill and want the extra space and security then A2 Hosting is definitely a suitable option – made all the easier through its free site migration service.
A2 Hosting Gallery
However, for all you readers at home who are probably not so tech-savvy that you could manage your own server, we recommend the managed plans. There are six plans to choose from – three “standard” plans and three more featuring A2’s Turbo speed. The three standard plans range from $24.99 – $44.99 per month.
The VPS Turbo plans, adorably called Mach 8-32, cost between $54.99 and $74.99. These plans have stripped back on storage and cores, focusing instead on speed, with “up to 20x faster Turbo Servers.”
It generally matches up pretty well to competitors like InMotion, but loses points in a couple of areas – namely for its slow server response time. This means users could be waiting longer waiting for things to load on your site.
However, A2 Hosting’s support fell below our expectations in testing, due mostly to its lack of email and community center, plus no 24/7 support. This is disappointing as A2 used to have email support, so it’s sad to see it gone.
Failing this, you can opt to carry out the migration yourself, and A2 Hosting has guides to assist with this.
How to Choose the Right VPS Hosting
Most people turn to VPS hosting once they’ve outgrown their shared hosting plan, so you want to make sure you aren’t going to run into that same issue any time soon. That said, VPS hosting can also get pretty expensive, so you don’t want to be paying for more than you need.
Here’s a reminder of the key factors to look out for, depending on your needs:
1. High Uptime Guarantee
You want the guaranteed uptime to be as high as possible, because this means your site will be down for the least amount of time. Those 0.01% differences can amount to a couple of hours, so consider how much of a disaster this kind of outage would be for your site.
2. Plenty of Bandwidth
Bandwidth controls how much traffic your site can handle, while still maintaining good load speeds. If you experience big spikes in traffic (e.g. an ecommerce store with a large social media following), having plenty of bandwidth is essential. Sites with a fairly steady stream of traffic don’t need to worry as much about this.
3. Enough Storage
Calculating the total size of your website isn’t the easiest, but you can get a rough idea by running a ‘typical’ page through a web page size checker tool, and then multiplying this by the number of pages on your site.
If you have a lot of hi-res images or self-hosted videos, this is likely to drive up your storage needs significantly.
4. Help and Support
It’s easy to overlook help and support when choosing your plan, but if something goes wrong with your website, you’ll soon regret not giving this more consideration! HostGator has the best help and support of any provider we’ve tested, but all of the providers on this list (apart from the final two – Hostinger and A2 Hosting) offer 24/7 support via live chat, phone, or both.
5. Migration Services
If you’re not hugely tech confident, signing up to a VPS provider that will migrate your site for free can be a huge weight off your shoulders.
Summary: Best VPS Hosting
You should now have a really clear idea of the best VPS hosting options, and know what each one is particularly good at. To recap, here’s that list again:
The 8 Best VPS Hosting Services:
Bluehost is our winner, but it was a very close battle between it and HostGator. Both of them offer great features, affordable prices, support, and uptime across all of VPS hosting, so we gave both of them an overall score of 4.6 out of 5.
In times like these, we turn to you, our audience, and see how these providers have been rated by online users. Through this market analysis, we see that Bluehost steams ahead with an incredible 4.9 out of 5 compared to HostGator’s 4 out of 5.
InMotion is especially good for anxious folk due to its outstanding security features while up-and-comer IONOS gives the best performance of any VPS hosting provider we’ve tested.
The only way you’re ever going to know for sure, though, is by testing them out. Every provider has a money-back guarantee, so it’s worth trialing one for a month or so to see what you think.
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