The 5 Best VPS Hosting Providers 2023 (Uptime & Server Speed Revealed!)
The best VPS hosting offers you reliable uptime, fast speed, and ample resources (RAM, storage, bandwidth, etc.) at reasonable prices. They’re great for websites looking to handle high traffic or for more flexibility.
Our #1 VPS hosting provider goes to Hostinger – with up to 8 CPU cores, 8GB RAM, 160GB SSD, and 8TB bandwidth!
After sifting through over 45 web hosts, we present to you our top 5 favourite VPS providers. We examined the uptime, server speed, and features for each VPS host, and documented them all in their own individual review (linked below).
5 Great Virtual Private Servers Hosting
- Hostinger – Best overall VPS web host
- Dreamhost – Best Value VPS hosting
- ScalaHosting – Best VPS with cPanel alternative
- SiteGround – Best premium VPS web host
- HostPapa – Best Supported VPS host
Note
All prices shown are based on a 12-month plan introductory rate unless stated otherwise.
1. Hostinger
https://www.hostinger.com/
Overall Uptime
100%
Server Speed
A+
Price (USD)
$3.99/mo
Key Features
- 20GB SSD
- 1TB bandwidth
- 100 MB/S Network
- IPv6 Support
- 1GB RAM & 2GB Burst RAM
“30x faster than the average shared hosting services at an incredibly low introductory price!”
Hostinger provides an 8-tier plan for their VPS hosting services, which you can choose to fit the needs of your website.
Their VPS 1 plan offers the basic specs with 1,000 GB (aka 1TB) of bandwidth, 20 GB of disk space, and about 1 GB of RAM. If you want more, you can opt for VPS 8 plan which gives you a whopping 16 GB of RAM, 250 GB of disk space and 12,000 GB of bandwidth. Each plan has the latest Intel Xeon processors and terabytes of NVMe SSD storage.
As well as being some of the cheapest VPS plans in the market, the other key strength of Hostinger VPS hosting is that they are 30x faster than the average shared hosting services. This puts them as one of the fastest VPS hosting providers on the market, so if speed is important to you, then Hostinger is a great choice.
Also, their price is ridiculously low for a VPS of this calibre. It’s excellent value for money – you can’t go wrong with Hostinger.
Head over to Hostinger review to find out more!
2. Dreamhost
https://www.dreamhost.com/
Overall Uptime
100%
Server Speed
A+
Price (USD)
$13.75/mo
Key Features
- 30GB SSD storage
- Unlimited transfer
- 1GB RAM
- 100% uptime
- 97-Day money-back
“Exceptional server performances with high uptime & low TTFB.”
Dreamhost is a world-famous brand that’s been around since 1997, picking up an official WordPress endorsement along the way. However, their VPS plans are also fantastic – especially for growing businesses!
To start with – their servers are pretty cutting-edge. Their new virtual private servers utilize high performance SSD hard drives, said to be 20x faster than standard SATA disk drives. Sure enough – DreamHost recorded outstanding response times across our speed tests.
But aside from speed, we love that DreamHost’s VPS plans give you plenty of room to play with. All plans come with unlimited websites, bandwidth and email, and use a highly-scalable system for managing RAM and storage. It’s perfect for growing businesses: once you’ve outgrown your pants, simply upgrade to a bigger size in a few easy clicks.
As the cherry on top, DreamHost also offers 100% uptime guarantee and 97-day money-back-guarantee, which whoops the competition on both fronts.
Our only gripe is that we wish Dreamhost had datacenters outside the US. Whilst speeds are supersonic for any audiences near that region, response times do slow down within Asia and Australia. Plus, bear in mind they don’t give you root access, which can be limiting for some users.
Read more in our complete DreamHost review.
3. ScalaHosting
https://www.scalahosting.com/
Overall Uptime
100%
Server Speed
A+
Price (USD)
$39.95/mo
Key Features
- 2 Core & 4GB RAM
- 50GB SSD storage
- SPanel WHCP
- SShield Security
- cPanel migration compatible
“ScalaHosting’s SPanel is a strong selling point and offers VPS users many value-added features.”
ScalaHosting is a reputable service provider in an industry inundated with mediocre performances. It is not just excellent in terms of quality of product and service, but a true innovator when it comes to technology.
The company has spent years working on a viable cPanel alternative and successfully launched it recently. Scala Managed VPS Cloud customers can now benefit from SPanel and its associated tools.
Aside from acting as an all-in-one web hosting control panel, SPanel brings into play two other key utilities – SShield and SWordpress manager.
The former helps users manage cybersecurity threats in real-time. According to their in-house tests, SPanel is able to block 99.998% of attacks. For an included free utility, that is an incredible success rate.
SWordPress gives WordPress site owners a strong single-point management interface for all their WordPress needs via the SPanel interface. You can install, uninstall, update and more here.
Overall, this host offers fantastic value for money with generous resource provisions and reliability that is backed by a solid uptime guarantee.
March 2022 update
It’s great to see Scalahosting has kept continually upgrading their sPanel – they’ve recently launched a range of improvements based on user suggestions, including two-factor authentication, a control panel API and improved user access!
See more at our complete ScalaHosting review!
4. SiteGround
https://www.siteground.com/
Overall Uptime
100%
Server Speed
A+
Price (USD)
$90/mo
Key Features
- 40GB SSD storage
- 5TB data transfer
- 4 Cores & 8GB RAM
- GIT Integrated
- Apache/NGINX & CentOS
“SiteGround offers solid server performance for premium sites.”
A great hosting company that offers solid server performances with quality live chat support, SiteGround fits both new and experienced users that want to transition into VPS for their website.
SiteGround’s cloud plan is in the same bracket with VPS. It is fully managed with dedicated resources to create and manage separate control panels
The cloud plan also offers a number of key features that are essential for VPS services such as a free CDN for improved speed, the ability to choose server locations, and 24/7 VIP customer support.
Always reliable and known for their speed, SiteGround is one of our top recommendations if you value site load speed, stability and sales.
Read our in-depth SiteGround review for more information!
5. HostPapa
https://www.hostpapa.com/
Overall Uptime
100%
Server Speed
A+
Price (USD)
$29.99/mo
Key Features
- 60GB SSD storage
- 1TB bandwidth
- 4 cores & 2GB RAM
- Free VPS migration
- Root level access
“Managed and self-managed VPS hosting with great customer support!”
Our final host on this list is HostPapa – a Canadian company which has continued to wow us over the years with their speeds. And their VPS plans don’t disappoint!
They offer 5 tiers of VPS, all of which support unlimited domains and websites. And whilst VPS can sometimes get a bit complicated for beginners, HostPapa does its best to streamline and make managing everything a whole lot easier. For example – users get the option to install a familiar dashboard, like cPanel.
They also throw in the Softaculous script installer, which lets you easily install over 400+ apps, including WordPress! And if you want a more ‘managed’ version of VPS hosting, you can just opt for a plan that includes ‘managed’ perks – e.g. automatic patch updates.
In fact – HostPapa’s support is probably our favorite thing about their service. Not only do you get 24/7 tech support, you can even request a 30-minute ‘training session’ to ask the ‘PapaSquad’ any questions you have!
The downside? They don’t have any datacenters that are near to Asia or Australia. Still, coverage in Europe and North America is great.
Find out more at our HostPapa review.
What is VPS Hosting?
VPS (or Virtual Private Server) hosting is a unique hosting technology that sits nicely between the standard shared web hosting and dedicated server services.
It’s best-suited for businesses that require a hosting plan that provides more server power, functionality, and flexibility than shared servers but without the price tag of dedicated servers.
In other words, VPS hosting gives you the best of both worlds. You get more of everything, but at a price that’s not too outrageous.
Here’s a quick rundown of the basics but if you’re hungry for more, there are tons of amazing VPS hosting guides that you can check online.
More about VPS hosting
VPS allows you to house your website in virtual compartments in a physical server. While that might sound mighty close to a shared hosting server, it’s actually quite different because you have your very own operating system, dedicated resources (CPU and RAM), and dedicated storage in a virtual private server.
So, it’s perfect if you need the benefits of a private server, but prefer to keep costs low.
What’s different between VPS and other hosting type?
“Is there really any difference?”
Of course there is, and it’s bigger than you think!
To give you a better understanding of the differences, let’s take a look at the inner workings of each hosting service.
Shared server hosting
With a shared server hosting, your website is hosted on a single physical server along with hundreds of other websites. It’s often the cheapest hosting plan but also the most limiting as you’re sharing all your server resources with other users.
It’s almost like living in an apartment with housemates. It’s all fun and games until someone hogs the toilet.
Yes, I’m talking about you, Karen. Stop hogging the toilet.
Generally speaking, shared server hosting is better suited for smaller websites that don’t require a lot of bandwidth or server resources. Most providers will manage the server maintenance which makes it easy to use for those without technical knowledge.
The downside is that you have very limited resources and if you end up with a bad user, they’re probably gonna end up hogging all the resources, causing your website to suffer slowdowns.
Do you know what happens when your website slows down? It reduces conversions. That’s something nobody likes.
Virtual private server (VPS) hosting
You never truly understand freedom until you move out of the apartment with your shitty toilet hogging friends and move into a loft of your own.
Good riddance, Karen!
This is what VPS hosting is like. You have the entire apartment to yourself, and while you’re still housed in a physical server with other users, your server resources are yours and yours alone.
With VPS, you won’t have to worry about having bad users hogging server resources as you’re isolated from each other, despite sharing the same physical server.
This means your site will perform faster, resulting in more CONVERSIONS and SALES.
You also have better security with VPS as all of your data is separated from other users, which reduces a hacker’s chances to access your website.
The best part?
VPS typically costs about a fraction of a dedicated server. Essentially, you’re getting the benefits of a private server, minus the exorbitant price.
Dedicated server hosting
When you reach a certain point in life, you’ll want to live in a luxurious mansion with toilets that are bigger than your old apartment’s living room.
And that is exactly what dedicated servers are. You basically have the entire server to yourself with access to as much resources as you need, but just like owning a house, dedicated servers are the most expensive option out of all the hosting services.
Since you have the entire physical server to yourself, you’ll have access to all of the server resources without needing to share or partition it with other users. You also have total control over all aspects of your server, including the operating system, hardware, and so forth.
It’s the most powerful hosting service but also the most expensive and is generally recommended for users that run high profile websites with high traffic, which requires large bandwidth.
Should You Switch To VPS hosting?
Some of you might be wondering whether or not you should make the switch to a VPS.
Honestly, if you’re running a small or hobby website, then it’s most likely no.
HOWEVER.
If you’re experiencing any of the things that we’ve listed below, then that should be a good indication that you’re living with housemates isn’t exactly the best option for you:
- Your website starts to slow down or your users are experiencing slow loading pages.
- You’re getting high amounts of traffic regularly.
- You keep seeing the “Internal Server Error” or the “50X” message.
- You have sensitive data stored on your website.
- You’re considering or are running an online store.
- You want to install a custom application or software.
- You keep getting the “Service Unavailable” error when you load your website.
Also, if you’re running a business or a service, then you’ll probably want to make the switch. VPS hosting is typically more reliable and faster than shared hosting, and the extra speed will help increase sales and conversions.
Wrapping up: Which VPS Web Host Is Best?
To wrap up, here is a recap of our top VPS web host:
We’ve mentioned it before and we’ll mention it again – there’s no such thing as the perfect VPS provider (at least, none that we know of). However, Hostinger does come pretty close, with great offering at an affordable rate.
Regardless of which VPS you decide to go with, the 5 that we’ve listed above are currently the best providers around as they give you great customer service, server performance, reliability, overall ease of use and most importantly, speed.
If you value conversions and sales, the speed of ANY of these top 5 VPS services will help. All of them are great options and ultimately, it all depends on the needs of your website, the features you want, and the budget you have.
