8 Best VPS Hosting Providers 2023 | Compared & Reviewed

Bluehost may not seem like one of the cheapest platforms for VPS hosting at first. HostGator begins at $23.95, for instance. What sets Bluehost apart, however, is it has no extra renewal costs. What you pay for the first 12 months is what you will continue to pay, tieing with IONOS as having the best pricing for VPS hosting in our research with a 3.9 out of 5.

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.

Bluehost scores 3.8 out of 5 for features in our testing, putting it in third place for features overall.

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.

Bluehost has 24/7 help and support, and it’s some of the best we’ve tested. It exceeded our expectations of ‘good’, with the support team being quick to answer our questions, and doing so in a friendly (and accurate) way. Support is on hand via live chat, email, and phone, but sadly there is no active Community Center.

VPS users unfortunately don’t qualify for Bluehost’s free migration service, and technically also can’t use the $149 ‘expert transfer’ option (although we’re assured this is possible ‘in some circumstances’ for VPS plans). Of course, you can still carry out this process yourself with the help of a Bluehost guide, and the support team is still available if you get stuck.

HostGator has three VPS plans:

• Snappy 2000: Starts at $23.95, renews at $79.95
• Snappy 4000: Starts at $34.95, renews at $119.95
• Snappy 8000: Starts at $54.95, renews at $149.95

While its discounted prices offer a pretty good deal, you can see how the price leaps after this first term.

HostGator scores the highest with features in our research with a 4.3 out of 5, beating both Bluehost and InMotion. These features have a heck of a bite, too – the Snappy 2000 plan has 120GB storage, and when you consider you can lock in the $23.95 price for three years, it’s a good value option. HostGator also offers unlimited bandwidth and domains across all its plans and a 99.9% uptime…what more could you want?

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.

HostGator provides round-the-clock support via 24/7 phone and live chat, and there’s also an email option. There’s also a knowledge base and community center. We find that the website as a whole is one of the easiest to navigate. All in all, HostGator scores 4.9 out of 5 in our research for help and support – the best we’ve tested!

HostGator does offer free website transfers, but there are some conditions to this that are worth getting ahead of before applying.

InMotion is perfect for any up-and-coming businesses or large personal sites. It offers four different pricing plans, which range from $24.99 to $87.99 per month.

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 just $19.99.

InMotion’s renewal prices range from $69.99 to $136.99 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.

With 3.9 out of 5 in our feature research, InMotion sits firmly in second place. It packs a lot of power into each plan, giving you plenty of room to grow as well as three free IP addresses, creating a service that is at the same time sturdy yet accessible.

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.

InMotion offers help and support via phone, email, and 24/7 live chat. It even offers skype calls and has a vast ‘knowledge center’ for some DIY troubleshooting.

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!

InMotion offers free migration for WordPress sites, and has guides available for migrating non-WordPress sites.

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.

IONOS is tied with Bluehost as the cheaper VPS hosting provider on this list with an impressive 3.9 out of 5. It has five plans, with the lowest plan, the VPS S, starting at only $2 a month. They follow up in size order, going from:

• VPS S – $2/month
• VPS M – $4/month (for 6 months, then $7/month)
• VPS L – $8/month (for 6 months, then $15/month)
• VPS XL – $2/month (for 6 months, then $25/month)
• VPS XXL – $18/month (for 6 months, then $35/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.

IONOS’ biggest draw is its speed and uptime. As a hosting provider, these are the factors that you and the visitors to your site will notice the most. No one likes a slow website. In fact, a slow-loading website can lead to a 32% increase in bounce rates. Bandwidth can also affect your website’s loading speed, so be grateful that IONOS offers unlimited bandwidth on all of its plans.

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.

IONOS is unusual in having no email or live chat support. Instead, customers are encouraged to speak to one of its trained consultants for any queries. This may be great news to some, and bad news for others, depending on your predilection for social interaction.

IONOS does not have its own migration service, and instead, users must migrate to it manually. It does offer free domain and email migration, however.

DreamHost has four beautifully simple VPS plans. No renewals, no extra costs. Feels nice, doesn’t it? The prices are split across monthly, yearly, and 3-year contracts. Let’s take a look at the yearly prices:

• 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.

Aside from its 100% uptime, what else can DreamHost do? Well, not as much as you might hope. It is the only provider on this list not to grant you root access on its VPS plans. If this is something you want, you’ll need to consider a cloud hosting plan, instead. There’s also no cPanel support, instead using its own service.

That said, 100% uptime is still hugely important, as is having the second highest site speed. All in all, the benefits outweigh the negatives.

DreamHost has 24/7 live chat and email support, but no phone support. If you had plans to talk to a real human, you won’t find it here.

DreamHost can move your website onto its servers for a $99 fee, or there’s the option to move it yourself with DreamHost’s Automated Migration Plugin.

GoDaddy’s pricing is great value for what it offers, coming in second for value in our testing with 3.8 out of 5. The cheapest plan begins at $5.99/month (renews at $7.99/month), which is a tremendous value. For that, you get 20GB of storage and unlimited bandwidth, sitting it perfectly in the middle between the pricey but feature-heavy Bluehost and the cheap but slim IONOS.

If you’re planning to host with Windows, then there’s an extra $5 added to the monthly fee. Here’s the breakdown:

• 1vCPU – $5.99/month (Linux only)
• 2vCPU – $23.99/month ($28.99/month Windows)
• 3vCPU – $47.99/month ($52.99/month Windows)
• 4vCPU – $83.99/month ($88.99/month Windows)

GoDaddy is competent in all areas, but there’s also nothing it particularly succeeds at either. Its major plus is its attachment at the hip to the larger GoDaddy entity, granting it a large amount of support and upkeep. There’s also a 1-click WordPress install on all its plans, as well as unlimited bandwidth.

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.

Help and support is something GoDaddy has always been strong at, across all its platforms. While it doesn’t offer email support, it has 24/7 phone and live chat support, as well as an extensive knowledge base and community center.

GoDaddy does not have an automatic migration service. However, it has clear guides informing users how to move their site to GoDaddy through the use of an FTP, which you can check out here!

A2 Hosting is unique in that it splits its prices into two different categories: managed and unmanaged. Unmanaged means you get an “empty box” of sorts where you can reconfigure your server to your liking. If you’re happy to take on a little more work with your web hosting, A2 Hosting offers some really affordable unmanaged VPS hosting plans starting from just $6.49/month.

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 $42.99 – $73.99 per month, with the price rising to $69.99 – $119.99 per month thereafter, making A2 Hosting one of the more expensive entries on this list.

The VPS Turbo plans, adorably called Mach 8-32, cost between $69.99 and $124.99 a month and renew between $139.99 and $239.99. These plans have stripped back on storage and cores,  focusing instead on speed, with “up to 20x faster Turbo Servers.”

A2 Hosting has both Windows and Linux VPS hosting plans on offer and received a score of 3.5 out of 5 for its VPS features. It also has the most storage space of all the builders we have tested with 450GB NVMe on the Mach 32 plan.

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.

If you do choose the cheaper unmanaged plan, you may need extra help. Luckily, A2 Hosting has the Knowledge Base for all user queries.

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.

A2 Hosting will migrate your site to its servers for you, but it’s worth noting that it will only carry out the migration if your current hosting provider uses cPanel (the most common web hosting control panel software)

Failing this, you can opt to carry out the migration yourself, and A2 Hosting has guides to assist with this.

Hostinger’s strength lies in its very cheap plans, which start from just $3.49. There are eight plans to choose from.

• VPS 1 – $3.49/month
• VPS 2 – $4.99/month
• VPS 3 – $7.99/month
• VPS 4 – $9.99/month
• VPS 5 – $23.95/month
• VPS 6 – $38.99/month
• VPS 7 – $57.99/month
• VPS 8 – $77.99/month

With Hostinger, you can get started with a VPS plan for under $5, however, it’s worth bearing in mind that the cheaper the plan, the fewer features you’ll get for your money. For example, Hostinger’s VPS 1 plan only offers 1GB of RAM, 20GB of storage space, and 1TB of bandwidth.

Although Hostinger is very cheap, we wouldn’t necessarily call it good value for money – in fact, it only scores 2.9 out of 5 for value in our research.

This is because its starting plans are lacking in features, so you’ll have to deal with some compromises, particularly in the way of bandwidth and storage. If you want a better feature showing, we’d recommend considering the VPS 5 plan or above.

Hostinger also doesn’t give you any domains when you sign up and only offers one IP address. With eight different plans, you’d maybe expect Hostinger to offer more.

It’s not all bad though. Hostinger does offer free backups on all its plans and a whole plethora of control panel providers! Including but not limited to:

• cPanel
• Webuzo
• Webmin/Virtualmin/LAMP
• VestaCP
• Plesk Onyx

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.

Hostinger also lacks some key support channels. There’s no phone support or community center, and none of the channels offer 24/7 service.

You can access live chat when you’re logged into your account, and this is available in a wide range of languages, which is a plus.

Hostinger offers a free migration service, however, it also provides a guide to migrating your site manually, or with a plugin.