VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting is a form of web hosting that lets you rent a piece/chunk of a bigger physical dedicated machine instead of paying full price. VPS servers, also called Virtual Machine, usually come with dedicated IPv4 address and virtually infinite IPv6 addresses. They are ideal for hosting Magento eCommerce sites, Android/iOS apps backend, and even dynamic WordPress sites with high traffic volume.
In a VPS server environment, the resources such as processing power CPU, SSD Disk space and RAM are more generously split/distributed to the users compared to Shared Web Hosting. VPS is also referred to as VDS (Virtual Dedicated Server), the only difference is that the CPU core is dedicated in VDS which has a different use case such as; hosting Game Servers, video encoding or hosting cryptocurrency nodes. Many Virtualization technologies are used to create VPS/KVM machines such as VMware, QEMU, VirtualBox though we won’t get into the advanced part.
Over my internet journey, I have tried and tested many VPS server providers from cheapest to so-called premium high-end ones, and I have curated a list of best VPS hosting with cost to performance ratio so you don’t have to spend countless hours looking for a suitable one.
My Top 5 Handpicked and Cheap VPS Web Hosting Providers for 2023
I have personally reviewed these web-hosting providers for hosting my Mobile Applications, CPU/Memory intensive applications, VPN servers, cryptocurrency trading bots, as well as hosting WordPress blogs. I have also attached their Linux hardware benchmarks which include Network through put, Disk IO, CPU frequency, Virtualization support and other vital information. The benchmarks were done using popular script called YABS (yet another bench script) and operating systems were Debian or Ubuntu.
5. LiteServer
LiteServer is a Netherlands-based hosting provider that has been around for more than a decade. Their services have been rock solid and the performance has been consistent with barely any downtimes. The have NVMe based Virtual Machines with high Disk I/O and their plans have huge bandwidth up to 15+ TB which is plus point if you’re intending to bandwidth intensive websites. LiteServer also offers HDD storage VPS at decent price. I have personally used them for hosting my sites, pretty much satisfied. [Benchmark]
Available Locations: 🇳🇱 Netherlands. Starts from €6.00 per month.
4. Netcup
Netcup is a German based provider known for its stability. They have divided their VPS products into two categories (vServer and Root Server). The first one has the conventional Virtual Machine with vCPU and the latter is equivalent to the VDS with dedicated CPU and improved network (2.5 Gbps port), they offer tons of RAM and bandwidth 80 TB which you won’t find normally with other hosting providers. I have put Netcup at number 4 because of their unorthodox user control panel, billing practices, and forced German language in their Hosting Wiki (manual). [Benchmark]
Available Locations: 🇩🇪 Germany, 🇦🇹 Austria. Starts from €3.25 per month
3. BuyVM / Frantech
BuyVM started as a small company which over the time grew due to its customer friendly business practices and top notch support. BuyVM offers truly high performance dedicated CPU VPS servers with unmetered bandwidth, Backups and BGP sessions, on top of that they offer free DirectAdmin control panel, Softaculous & Blesta with all their plans. Their hosting packages are irresistible and out of stock most of the time. I have put BuyVM at #3 because they need to up their stock game. [Benchmark]
Locations Available: 🇱🇺 Luxembourg, 🇺🇸 Las Vegas, Miami, New York. Starts from $3.50 per month.
2. Hetzner
Hetzner is a giant when it comes to high performance yet cheap VPS hosting. They have been around since 1997. Besides the usual VPS hosting, they offer dedicated servers auction, their hosting panel panel is a work a art, smooth and easy to work it. They have APIs for automating VPS creation and straightforward hourly billing. Although the performance of Hetzner VPS is somewhat same as previous contenders, I give them Spot #2 due to their value added services and sleek interface. [Benchmark]
Locations Available: 🇩🇪 Germany, 🇫🇮 Finland and 🇺🇸 USA, starts from €3.79 per month
1. VultrÂ
Vultr has earned its reputation of being a solid cloud hosting with its presence in multiple datacenter locations worldwide, they are consistently innovating and introducing new products such as Kubernetes, GPU rental, and high frequency VPS servers with powerful AMD/Intel CPUs. They also offer a wide range of App Images while creating a Virtual Machine. Their pricing is a bit on the premium side but the support and performance has been consistent during my usage. I give Vultr top spot because of their number of locations and support for multiple payment methods such as cryptocurrency and gift-codes. [Benchmark]
Locations: 30 Locations worldwide, starts from $5.00 per month
