- #1. Bluehost – Best overall VPS hosting provider
- #2. HostGator – Best for help and support
- #3. InMotion – Best security
- #4. IONOS – Best performance
- #5. Hostinger – Affordable plans
- #6. DreamHost – Best uptime
- #7. GoDaddy Hosting– Great value for money
- #8. A2 Hosting – Best for storage
- How to Choose the Right VPS Hosting
- Summary: Best VPS Hosting
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.
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:
- VPS hosting is a good upgrade to make once you’ve outgrown shared hosting plans
- Bluehost is our top VPS provider, with plans ranging from $46.99 to $94.99/month
- HostGator, InMotion (for WordPress sites), Hostinger, and A2 Hosting (if your current site uses cPanel) offer free migration services
- DreamHost is the only provider to guarantee 100% uptime
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:
Heads up! Don’t be alarmed if you can’t see the InMotion VPS plan we’ve featured in the table above on their website. It’s only available when you contact their sales team directly, either via live chat or phone. Just ask for their 14GB RAM plan.
- 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 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 is ideally-suited to WordPress websites needing VPS hosting.
Bluehost is the most trusted provider by users, most likely due in fact to its quality help and support.
Here’s a quick overview of the different VPS plans on offer.
Bluehost’s pricing begins at $46.99 per month (for a 36-month contract) 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 (200GB) for $65.99 per month. And, the Ultimate plan caps it off for $94.99/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.
#2. HostGator – Best for help and support
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 $53.99/mo! That is enough to put off those on a tight budget, although it does offer decent discounts (up to 36% off) for the first term.
HostGator is a well-known hosting provider, and its VPS plans impressed us with their generous storage allowances and reliable uptime.
HostGator offers new customers heavily-discounted introductory prices. These are the 12 month cycle prices
But be sure to pay attention to how much your plan will renew at after the first term – it’s quite a steep jump!
HostGator has three VPS plans:
- Snappy 2000: Starts at $34.99, renews at $53.99
- Snappy 4000: Starts at $53.99, renews at $83.99
- Snappy 8000: Starts at $82.99, renews at $128.99
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.
#3. InMotion – Best security
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 impressed us with its free migration service, generous features, and ability to support multiple websites.
InMotion received a commendable 4.4 out of 5 for VPS hosting in our independent hosting research.
InMotion definitely isn’t the cheapest VPS hosting option, but you do get a lot for your money.
InMotion is perfect for any up-and-coming businesses or large personal sites. It offers four different pricing plans, which range from $14.99 to $44.99 per month (for a 1-year term).
InMotion offers fantastic discounts, so it’s worth signing up for an even longer plan to make the most of them.
InMotion’s renewal prices range from $26.99 to $121.99, 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.
#4. IONOS – Best performance
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 puts you on call with a live consultant for all help and support. There is no email or live chat, however.
IONOS provides plans for a number of different requirements, such as optimization for Memory or CPU, letting users customize their service.
IONOS provides hosting on both Linux and Windows. However, there is an up to $60/month charge for using Windows on some plans.
IONOS is tied with Bluehost as the cheaper VPS hosting provider on this list with an impressive 3.9 out of 5. It has six plans, with the lowest plan, the VPS XS, starting at only $2 a month. They follow up in size order, going from:
- VPS XS – $2/month
- VPS S – $3/month (for first year of a 3-year term, then $5/month)
- VPS M – $4/month (for first year of a 3-year term, then $8/month)
- VPS L – $8/month (for first 18 months of a 3-year term, then $15/month)
- VPS XL – $14/month (for first 18 months of a 3-year term, then $30/month)
- VPS XXL – $22/month (for first 18 months of a 3-year term, 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.
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.
#5. Hostinger – Affordable plans
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 is an extremely affordable VPS host, with prices starting from $4.99/mo on a 24-month subscription.
One of Hostinger's key advantages is the number of data centers it has worldwide; perfect if you have international traffic!
The low price does come with some compromises though, including a lack of phone support.
Hostinger’s strength lies in its very cheap plans, which start from less than $5 if you choose a 24-month subscription.
There are four plans to choose from in total. Check out the 24-month pricing below (with Black Friday deals in place), plus renewal prices:
- KVM 1 – $4.99 per month, renews at $9.99/mo
- KVM 2 – $6.49 per month, renews at $12.99/mo
- KVM 4 – $9.99 per month, renews at $24.99/mo
- KVM 8 – $19.99 per month, renews at $49.99/mo
As always, the more expensive plans provide more features. For example, Hostinger’s cheapest KVM 1 plan offers 1 vCPU core, 4GB of RAM, 50GB of storage space, and 4TB of bandwidth. In comparison, the most expensive plan provides 8 vCPU cores, 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.
Hostinger is very cheap, which pairs with its improved features to make it a good value option for users on a budget. We awarded it 3.8 out of 5 for price, which is an improvement on its previous score, and makes it a better value option than HostGator and InMotion.
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.
Hostinger also lacks some key support channels, for example there’s no phone support or community center.
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.
Hostinger offers a free migration service, however, it also provides a guide to migrating your site manually, or with a plugin.
#6. DreamHost – Best uptime
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 (for a three year term). 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 offers unlimited bandwidth across all its VPS plans, making it a good option for websites which experience large spikes in traffic.
Here’s a quick look at how its four plans compare for other features. Here it shows the prices for a 3-year contract.
Dreamhost offers a service to hire a pro to help you manage your site. However, it has no phone support, so all communications would be online.
DreamHost has four simple VPS plans. The prices are split across monthly, yearly, and 3-year contracts. Let’s take a look at the cheapest three-year term prices:
- VPS Business – $10/mo
- VPS Professional – $20/mo
- VPS Enterprise – $40/mo
- VPS Premier – $60/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.
#7. GoDaddy Hosting– Great value for money
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 offers a large range of hosting options from shared to VPS as well as WordPress integration.
GoDaddy provides four plans for its VPS hosting. The most expensive plan will get you 400GB of storage and 16GB of RAM.
With so many services under the belt, GoDaddy is inundated with customers asking for help. Luckily, GoDaddy provides some of the best services available with its Help Center.
GoDaddy’s pricing is great value for what it offers, coming in second for value, joint with Hostinger at 3.8 out of 5. The cheapest plan begins at $8.99/month (for a 36-month term) which is a tremendous value. For that, you get 40GB 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 of GoDaddy’s VPS plans for a 36-month term:
- 1 vCPU /2GB RAM – $8.99/month
- 2 vCPU / 4GB RAM – $17.99/month
- 4 VCPU / 8GB RAM – $34.99/month
- 4 vCPU / 16GB RAM – $44.99/month
- 8 vCPU / 16GB RAM – $64.99/month
- 8 vCPU / 32GB RAM – $89.99/month
- 16 vCPU / 64GB RAM – $149.99/month
- 32 vCPU / 128GB RAM – $219.99/month
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!
#8. A2 Hosting – Best for storage
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 $38 per 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.
There are six managed and six unmanaged VPS hosting plans to choose from.
You can find out how to use A2’s free migration service through its knowledge base on its website.
A2 Hosting is the only provider in this post to offer both managed and unmanaged VPS hosting options.
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 $9.99/month (Linux) or $29.99/month (Windows).
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 four Linux plans to choose from, ranging from $38 to $60.50 per month (billed annually). The Managed Windows VPS hosting plans range from $139.99 to $369.99 per month (billed annually).
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.
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, 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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