Best VPS hosting providers of 2019
Standard shared website hosting packages are cheap and user-friendly, but they're also slow, inflexible, and don't have the power or functionality that professional and business users often need.
If you need more than a basic host but can't afford a dedicated server or don't want to deal with the complexity of these beasts, VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting could be a smart choice.
Buying a VPS plan means that you get your very own virtual server environment. You have full control over the operating system, the extensions and apps you install, and all their settings. Each physical server will still host multiple VPS customers, but not as many as with shared hosting, and typically each VPS will be allocated a share of key resources – RAM, storage space, CPU cores – for their use alone.
This can be easier to manage than you might think. Many VPS plans include standard tools like cPanel to help monitor and configure your site. Some hosts will manage the service for you, monitoring for problems like a crashed service, and fixing them as soon as they're detected.
Takes all the headache out of the process
Clear and simple plans
Low starting prices
Extras will cost you
Shopping for a VPS host often means staring at some huge product comparison table and trying to figure out which of its many plans works for you.
Namecheap makes life easier by providing only two plans, and making it extremely clear exactly what you're getting in each case.
Prices start low at only $14.07 per month on the annual plan, but that still gets you 2GB RAM, two CPU cores, 40GB of storage, 1000GB bandwidth and one dedicated IP.
Buying add-ons can improve these baseline specs. If you need more dedicated IPs, for instance, you don't have to upgrade to a new plan – Namecheap will add extra IPs to your product for only $2 each.
The service isn't quite as cheap as it sounds. The starter plans aren't managed, for instance (the host doesn't look after them for you), and they don't include a cPanel licence. Adding both of those capabilities will cost you an extra $36 a month.
VPS poetry? InMotion is certainly a strong provider…
Well-specified plans
Some really smart features
Not cheap
Check out a few VPS hosting providers and it's easy to be tempted with low headline rates, but don't be fooled – companies use a range of tricks to keep their charges down.
The hardware specs of a starter product are often kept unrealistically low, for instance, to keep the price right down. Important items – backups, cPanel – may be expensive extras. And even then, the headline rate may only apply if you pay for two or three years upfront, increasing dramatically on renewal.
InMotion Hosting is refreshingly different. Its baseline VPS-1000HA-S plan doesn't have the most eye-catching price at $27.99 per month over two years, but it's easy to see why the company asks this much. The product has a better specification – 4GB RAM, 75GB storage, 4TB bandwidth, 3 dedicated IPs – than some high-end plans from other providers, backups and a cPanel licence are included for free, and there's a 90-day money-back guarantee.
There's an unusual feature in what InMotion calls "unlocked CPU cores". Rather than having access to one or two cores only, you're able to spread your processing load across all cores on the server, a major performance boost for tasks involving a lot of simultaneous processing.
Welcome bonus touches include a feature called Launch Assist, which essentially means you get two hours of free time with one of InMotion's server administrators. Whether you need to change domain settings, configure cPanel, migrate WordPress or database files, they can help you get the job done.
Need lots of choice? Then look no further
Wide range of plans
Impressive configuration options
Entry-level plan is a bit underpowered
Some VPS hosts focus on first-time users, others go for big business, but Goolhost does its best to appeal to everyone with no less than 10 different VPS hosting plans.
The low-end Tier One plan looks a little underpowered to us, with just 2GB RAM, one CPU core, 30GB of disk space and 1TB traffic. But it's cheap at $9.89 per month for the initial term, $10.99 on renewal, and you can extend it significantly without spending a huge amount.
The more realistic Tier Four includes 6GB RAM, 100GB drive space, two CPU cores and 2TB of traffic. It's also significantly more expensive at $31.49 a month for the starting term, $34.9 a month afterwards, but still competitive with other providers.
Meanwhile the top-of-the-range Tier Ten product gets you 96GB RAM, 16 CPU cores, 750GB storage and 9TB of traffic for an initial $339.29 a month, $376.99 on renewal. You probably don't need anything like that, but this does show there's plenty of scope for upgrading your site over time.
Every plan has some appealing configuration options. In particular, along with support for the usual Linux variants – CentOS, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian That's very good value, and if you're more familiar with Windows than Linux, it could save you from lots of management hassles later on.
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