VPS (virtual private server) hosting takes your websites to the next level.
New and smaller websites typically use shared hosting — which means you share an entire server with other websites. It’s affordable but it limits how much your site can scale as your business grows.
With VPS hosting, you’re still sharing a physical server with other websites, but you have dedicated resources like RAM and CPU reserved for your site on a virtual server all to yourself.
This allows your website to grow and accommodate more traffic.
After extensive research and personal hosting experience, we’ve narrowed down the top VPS web hosting services on the market today.
In this article, we give you an in-depth review of each one and share our methodology for finding the best VPS hosting provider for your next website.
The 7 Best VPS Hosting Options to Consider:
- InMotion – Best overall VPS hosting provider
- Bluehost – Most feature-rich VPS hosting service
- DreamHost – Best for unlimited bandwidth
- Liquid Web – Best for managed VPS hosting
- HostGator – Most scalable VPS hosting service
- A2 Hosting – Best VPS hosting for developers
- HostPapa – Best VPS hosting for enterprises
When it Makes Sense to Invest Into VPS Hosting Services
VPS hosting isn’t for everyone.
If you’re starting a new website from scratch, shared hosting will be a better option for you 99% of the time. VPS plans are better for bigger websites with higher volumes of traffic.
Once your site starts eclipse more than 50,000 visitors per month, you should look for a good VPS host.
Even if you’re in the 20k-30k monthly traffic, you could consider a VPS plan if you’re unhappy with the current performance of your website. If you’re experiencing slow loading times and poor uptime rates because other websites on your shared server are crashing your site, it’s time to invest in VPS hosting.
VPS hosting is commonly used by growing ecommerce websites that can’t afford downtime and poor site performance.
Methodology For Choosing The Best VPS Hosting Service
There are certain factors that must be taken into consideration when you’re shopping around for a VPS hosting service. I’ll explain the methodology that we used to come up with providers in this guide.
You can weigh these elements against your personal needs to find the best VPS host for your website.
Performance
Whenever you’re evaluating a web hosting service, performance should be the first thing that you look at. I’m referring to things like uptime rates and speed.
If your site is slow or unavailable, what’s the point?
Every web host on our list provides reliable performance. However, some definitely excel in one category over another. For example, A2 Hosting is known for its speed.
Lots of hosts will promise a 99.9% uptime or higher. However, failure to meet that promise usually just results in a credit to your account.
Server Resources
The purpose of upgrading to a VPS plan is to gain access to dedicated server resources. There are four main resources that you should evaluate when you’re shopping around for VPS plans:
- CPU — The number of processing units within your server to compute information.
- RAM — The amount of memory accessible by your CPUs.
- Bandwidth — The amount of data flowing between your website and sever.
- Storage — Available space for content on your website (images, videos, landing pages, etc.).
You’ll see a wide range of options based on different plans. Consider choosing a VPS plan that makes it easy for you to scale your server resources as needed. This way, you’ll only have to pay for the resources you’re using, and you can prepare for potential traffic spikes.
For example, if you’re running a flash sale or a promotion that’s going to drive extra traffic to your site, you can ramp up your resources to maintain high performance.
Optional Root Access
VPS plans are typically offered one of two ways; managed or unmanaged. There are some hybrid options between the two, like the A2 Hosting Core VPS.
Developers and expert website administrators who want complete control and customization typically lean towards unmanaged services. These will always come with full root access.
However, some managed services also come with optional root access. This is ideal for anyone who needs a hands-off approach to web hosting, but still wants the ability to make custom changes at the server level.
If you don’t know what root access is and you don’t have a developer on your team—don’t worry about this. A fully managed VPS service will be just fine for you, with or without root access.
Customer Support
You need your web host to be available whenever you run into problems.
Your website is live 24/7/365. If you have a problem in the middle of the night, on the weekend, or during a holiday, getting ahold of your hosting provider ASAP is crucial for resolving the issue.
In many cases, you won’t have to worry about too many problems with a fully managed plan. But there are still circumstances when you’ll want to get assistance.
For those of you switching from one provider to another as you upgrade to VPS hosting, look for a host that offers free migrations.
Price
For the most part, VPS hosting plans are all roughly in the same price range. The biggest factor impacting your price will be the amount of resources you need.
Fully managed plans are typically cheaper than unmanaged hosting, but it’s worth paying extra for superior service.