The Best VPS Hosting Providers of 2023

Hostinger is one of the best hosting companies if you are starting out with a website and seek relatively low prices with an included domain. Its extremely beginner-friendly interface, low hosting rate, and reliable uptime make it the go-to provider for shared hosting.

While Hostinger isn’t the cheapest option on this list (IONOS has them beat on that point), it’s one of the most well rounded overall. Hostinger is one of our favorite hosting providers of 2023 because it performs well. It offers multiple hosting plans, from entry-level ones geared toward beginners to small business hosting.

Most plans even qualify for a free domain name for the first year of service which is a great addition for those just getting started. All hosting packages come with a free shared Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate from Let’s Encrypt SSL that will provide your site with significant security. It also ensures your site is following best practices regarding security, which Google confirms is important for proper SEO.

No matter the plan you pick, Hostinger is a rock solid option for hosting your next project at an affordable rate.

Who is Hostinger best for?

Hostinger is great for a wide variety of users, though business owners may be particularly drawn to it. Small businesses and entrepreneurs will find a service that has a high level of polish but is affordable, with great options for scaling as your business grows.

Recent updates to Hostinger

While Hostinger has been around for over a decade, it is committed to continuous improvement with new technology and features to meet your needs. It added improved WordPress migration, making it easier to import your site from another service as well as updating WordPress security.

Hostinger pricing

There are a few VPS options to choose from, with the lowest priced VPS1 plan starting at $3.99 per month. As your needs grow there are plans you can upgrade to that offer you more server resources such as additional RAM, storage, and bandwidth.

DreamHost is one of the oldest and most reliable hosting services. Offering top-class hosting packages at reasonable prices, DreamHost has a particularly great uptime guarantee, ensuring that your website will always be up.

While other providers on this list offer a 100% uptime guarantee, claims like this usually carry some significant caveats. DreamHost doesn’t guarantee your site will never go down, but it offers significant compensation for any downtime which may occur — you’ll receive credit for a free day of service on your next renewal for each hour your site is down.

It offers a lot of hosting options, including shared, VPS, cloud, and dedicated servers, allowing you to choose what best fits your needs. Basic VPS hosting includes 1GB of RAM, 30GB of solid-state drive (SSD) storage, unlimited websites, unlimited bandwidth, and a free SSL certificate.

DreamHost provides its customers with top-of-the-line hosting plans at bargain prices. Regardless of the plan you choose from DreamHost, you will get access to excellent features, including pre-installed WordPress and a free domain for one year.

Who is DreamHost best for?

I think DreamHost is a great choice for clients from small businesses to large e-commerce websites. Its hosting plans fit personal website builders’ needs. In particular, it is good if you are just starting with shared hosting, as you’ll have a full 97-day money-back guarantee.

Recent updates to DreamHost

DreamHost continuously works on upgrading all its services. Many changes were made to the websites section of DreamHost, including a new tech stack, the ability to change domains, WordPress Migrations feature, and DNS Propagation Check to check DNS status. DreamHost also revamped its user interface (UI) and redesigned the control panel.

DreamHost pricing

DreamHost’s lowest priced VPS plan is its “VPS Basic” plan, which has an introductory rate of $10 per month. If you outgrow this plan there are plenty of ways to up your service at a reasonable rate of increase.

Liquid Web is a web hosting provider specializing in VPS and dedicated hosting solutions. The company has second-to-none support and many additional custom options to help you set up your website.

Liquid Web’s dedicated and VPS hosting services are impressive, its support structure is helpful and fast, and there are a ton of options for those looking to customize their experience or needing specific tool integrations.

Liquid Web’s “24/7/365 Human” support was stellar. Every time I reached out to live chat, I got a quick response from a real person, and my issue was resolved — even at odd times and on the weekend. This is especially useful for beginners feeling a little lost in getting started.

Liquid Web partnered with Nexcess in 2019 to add managed hosting services to its portfolio. If you’re less interested in purchasing a whole server and instead want to jump straight to a content or commerce app like WordPress, this may be a good option.

Who is Liquid Web best for?

Liquid Web is a good choice for small businesses or individuals making their first foray into VPS or dedicated hosting. It is also great for beginners who don’t know how to get started — Liquid Web’s support is excellent and will point you in the right direction.

Recent updates to Liquid Web

Liquid Web has recently made the following improvements to its services:

• Control panel updates: Liquid Web’s control panel is split between a legacy panel (manage.liquidweb.com) and a more modern one (my.liquidweb.com).
• Partnership with Nexcess: It added managed hosting options to its product portfolio by partnering with Nexcess in 2019. Managed hosting options are great if you just want the hosting software (for example, WordPress) without the responsibility of managing an entire server.

Liquid Web pricing

There are a number of hosting options with Liquid Web, though you would probably be most interested in the VPS plans. An introductory, managed VPS plan starts at $15 per month ($360 billed up front for two years of service) and includes 40GB SSD Disk Space, 10TB of bandwidth, Plesk, InterWorx, or cPanel, and 100GB Acronis Cyber backup.

IONOS excels in innovation, reliability, and user experience. But the introductory rate will likely spark your interest — $2 per month for a VPS plan is unmatched in the industry.

While other hosting providers on this list offer lower prices than IONOS over the long haul, you can’t beat its $2 per month introductory offer on the VPS Linux XS plan. This plan comes with 1 vCore CPU, 1GB of RAM, and 10GB of SSD storage and you can add on to your plan options such as backup and recovery by Acronis.

Reliability is also excellent with IONOS. My tests revealed the IONOS servers had an average uptime of 99.995% over the previous 30 days, which is higher than what it claims. Assured reliability is just one of the many benefits of hosting with IONOS, making it a good choice for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), Windows developers, and WordPress professionals.

Who is IONOS best for?

After extensive testing I found that IONOS is ideal for fledgling companies, providing a good balance between cost-effectiveness and dependability. Plus, it’s super easy to scale when ready.

Recent updates to IONOS

IONOS has just revamped its WordPress hosting service with a new emphasis on providing an isolated environment for increased speed and security. It is also developing a new feature that will simplify importing pre-existing projects.

IONOS pricing

IONOS offers a wide range of VPS plans which start at $2 per month and up. The more you’re willing to pay, the more RAM, storage space, and bandwidth you’ll be granted.

Hostwinds may be one of the lesser-known providers on this list, but its service is still excellent. It caters to a smaller-scale audience, and the no-nonsense plans and pricing mean you’ll know exactly what you’re getting before you pay.

Out of all of the options on this list, none give you the granular control over your hosting plan like Hostwinds. It offers shared, business, or VPS hosting — plus cloud and dedicated servers —with 10 or more scalable plans for each option. There are over 40 VPS plans alone with 10 available for both Windows and Linux hosting and slightly pricier variations of each in the managed category. It’s a variable buffet of options.

Despite the number of options on the table, it’s simple to see the differences. Broadly speaking, the more you pay per month the more server resources you have access to — CPUs, RAM, storage, and bandwidth. Linux VPS plans are cheaper than Windows plans. 

But even if you’re looking for a fully managed Windows plan, the lowest priced option is still only $12.74 per month. Granted, you’re not getting as much storage, processing power, or bandwidth as some of the other providers, but if you’re just starting out you probably won’t need all that extra power anyway. 

Who is Hostwinds best for?

After putting it through its paces, I think Hostwinds will work well for those in the market for small-scale focused hosting. This includes SMBs, individuals, or entrepreneurs.

Recent updates to Hostwinds

Hostwinds is constantly working to improve its services. Recently it has made some quality of life improvement to the cPanel. It has also updated its CPSs and removed a lot of outdated legacy equipment, making room for better and more reliable systems.

Hostwinds pricing

There are many plan options with Hostwinds — which can be great if you’re looking for something incredibly specific, but can also be a little overwhelming. The lowest priced VPS hosting plan starts at $4.99 per month, but is an unmanaged Linux hosting plan. A Windows hosting plan will run you almost double at $10.99 per month.