6 of the Best VPS Hosting Providers in 2022

A virtual private server (VPS) is the Rolls-Royce of website hosting. It’s your own space on the web that’s under your complete control. However, this means you’ll want to treat your choice of the best VPS hosting providers with care. A poor decision and purchase can have a negative impact on your site, its traffic, and your income.

As such, this post will look 😎 at some of the best VPS hosting providers on the market. We’ll compare each one in a number of areas, and provide a handy table to see the differences at a glance.

The best VPS hosting providers – in summary

If you only want a quick 🏎️ overview of what each VPS hosting provider offers, you’ll want to take a look at the table below.

This won’t tell the full story. For that, you’ll want to read 📒 the deeper entry for each host further on in this article.

The best VPS hosting providers in 2022

Over the rest of the article, we’re going to look at some of the best providers that offer VPS hosting. The list is in no particular order, so you’ll want to take in each of the options here.

We’re going to split 🪓 each host down into a few areas too. At the end, we’ll offer our summary table again. At this point, you’ll know which VPS host is right for you:

1. Liquid Web
2. DreamHost
3. DigitalOcean
4. SiteGround
5. Bluehost
6. InMotion Hosting

1. Liquid Web

First off, Liquid Web provides managed VPS hosting with flexibility.

You can choose between Linux and Windows servers, and with a former, you get even greater choice. For example, you have options for two different operating systems (OSs,) and can select from three different control panels.

Server power is solid too. However, as you move through the different pricing tiers, you’ll receive greater ‘grunt’ to power your sites.

Customer Support ☎️

Liquid Web are proud of their support provision, and there’s a lot on offer. They guarantee responses for live chat, telephone, and on the help desk in under a minute. Liquid Web offers round-the-clock support for all users.

There’s also a knowledge base to help you ‘self-serve’ your query, and a content hub that offers longer-form guidance, white papers, webinars, and much more.

Pricing 💳

There are a bewildering number of VPS plans to choose from here. Linux server types have eight tiers to choose from, based on whether you want to bundle other software in with your server. You will look to spend $25–145 per month, but this relies on you shelling out for two years upfront.

For Windows-based servers, there are four pricing tiers. You’ll look to pay $65–190 per month for the privilege, but again, you’ll have to pay two years upfront.

2. DreamHost

DreamHost is one of the recommended WordPress hosts, so it has an undeniable pedigree.

What’s more, its VPS hosting package offers good coverage. You have access to an SSDs for your storage, near-unlimited bandwidth, and managed provisions.

The advanced features on offer are good too. For instance, you can use either IPv4 or IPv6 addresses, choose between Apache or Nginx servers, and can use a number of different languages within the server itself. Regardless of whether you use PHP7, Python, Perl, or Node.js, you have a solid core server that will support it.

Customer Support ☎️

DreamHost provides a number of ways to solve your queries, but in most cases, you’ll raise a ticket from your control panel. Our experience of this is fantastic, with quick response times around the clock. Independent reviews also have a lot of good things to say.

The knowledge base has a lot of helpful articles too, and we can always find a relevant entry before we have to hit the other support channels. Speaking of which, there’s also a community forum. It’s a busy part of the site, and can offer lots of value for quick questions relating to others’ experiences.

Pricing 💳

There are four plans to choose from here, between $15–120 per month. This price reduces depending on how long you commit for: three-year billing means you pay $10–80 per month.

3. DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean provides stellar unmanaged cloud VPS hosting – it’s an industry-standard that is hard for others to beat.

The provider offers shared and dedicated ‘Droplets’ – its nomenclature for server space. Within that split, you have a number of other variants to help you find the exact server setup you need.

While you only get to use Linux servers, there are a number of OSs you can opt for. You’re even able to upload a custom OS, in case you have a favorite that DigitalOcean doesn’t provide.

Customer Support ☎️

It’s hard to judge customer support for a company you never have to contact! DigitalOcean is a solid VPS host, but if you do need them, you’re in luck.

In contrast to other hosts, DigitalOcean provides different tiers of support. A free tier offers email-only support with a 24-hour reply turnaround. However, you can spend more to get a dedicated agent, quicker response times, and more.

There’s also a weighty documentation hub that serves as another reason not to contact support. We can often find the answer here, and it means we haven’t ever had to contact DigitalOcean’s support channels – fingers crossed.

Pricing 💳

DigitalOcean is another provider that offers enough tiers to make your head spin. However, the difference here is that you won’t consider many of them.

Instead, you’ll want to opt for a Droplet that starts from $4 per month. The more grunt you need from your server, the higher the cost: it tops out at $96 per month.

4. SiteGround

If you want guaranteed resources, near-automatic scaling, and stellar support, SiteGround should be at the top of your list.

Its cloud hosting offers much of the same quality as its other hosting options. You’ll get Git and WP-CLI support, along with staging functionality. SiteGround also provides a dedicated Internet Protocol (IP) address and a free content delivery network (CDN) too.

Customer Support ☎️

Here’s a spoiler: SiteGround’s support provision is a gold standard. In all our dealings with the support team, we have never had a bad experience. You can open a ticket from the dashboard, or jump onto a live chat instance. Regardless, replies are fast, detailed, and always end with a resolution.

There’s less in the way of documentation or a knowledge base. However, this isn’t a problem due to the fantastic level of support through the other channels.

Pricing 💳

SiteGround offers a clear set of pricing tiers for its VPS hosting. Each one offers a lot of power, likely more than the needs of most. You’ll spend $100–400 per month here, although this does reduce if you choose to opt for up to year.

5. Bluehost

You’ll likely know Bluehost as a budget WordPress host that’s great for first-time users. However, its VPS offering can give you a super upgrade on standard shared hosting.

This is a no-frills option that doesn’t pack in lots of advanced features. However, it does offer you managed and dedicated resources, SSDs, and round-the-clock support.

Customer Support ☎️

Bluehost offers telephone and live chat support, but no email option. This isn’t as flexible as other hosts, although there is a good knowledge base on hand to help.

Despite the killer VPS offering that’s easy on the wallet, Bluehost’s support provision could do more for customers. Other users seem to agree too, although if you have experience with VPS hosting, this will be less of a factor.

Pricing 💳

Much like its regular plans, Bluehost’s pricing is straightforward and cheap for the initial year. From there, those heavy discounts rise to a standard rate.

You’ll spend $20–60 per month for the first year, which rises by 50% for the second and third years. Yes, that’s correct: you only get this initial rate if you sign up for a three-year plan.

6. InMotion Hosting

InMotion Hosting offers managed VPS packages that give you a lot of power under the hood, but less in the way of extra functionality.

Even so, you have technical features that will ensure your server and site run fast. For example, it uses Brotli file compression, Nginx server architecture, and SSDs. Combined with the fantastic server specifications, you have no reason to expect your site to run slow.

Customer Support ☎️

InMotion offers a comprehensive support package. You can contact them through email, telephone, live chat, and support tickets. There’s also a YouTube channel and community forum. What’s more, there are lots of articles to browse through to find the answer to your question.

On the whole, InMotion offers lots of busy support channels, which will help you resolve your query fast.

Pricing 💳

InMotion Hosting have four plans to choose from. It will cost $26.99–79.99 per month. However, there are lots of options to sign up for a longer-term period. If you do so, you can expect to see a discount. A three-year period sees these prices drop to $17.99–53.99 per month.

Best VPS hosting FAQs

You might have a number of questions 🙋 about VPS hosting that we’re going to attempt to answer here. We can’t cover every question, but between the below and the deep dives above, you should have enough information to investigate further later.

What does VPS hosting provide?

VPS hosting gives you a slice of space on a server much like other types. However, the difference here is that the service uses ‘virtualization’ to offer you private and dedicated resources for your space. This lets the hosting company optimize the number of servers it runs, while you can run your site on a virtual machine.

As such, the experience will be as straightforward as other hosting types, but with greater benefits of shared hosting.

What can you expect to pay for the best VPS hosting?

VPS hosting can range in price from $5 per month for a cheap unmanaged VPS to hundreds or even thousands per month. It really just depends on the resources that are allocated to your account.

Why is VPS hosting expensive compared to other types?

While the cost difference is smaller than in previous years, running a VPS is a significant financial commitment. This is because of the virtualization technology involved. It will cost much more for the host to run servers, and there will be less availability. Combined, all of this means you’ll expect to pay more – we think it’s worth the outlay.

Do you need technical knowledge to run a VPS server?

Not necessarily. You will always have Super Admin privileges on your server slice, but the host also has a vested interest to make sure the whole server operates well for its user base. As such, you might choose a managed VPS plan, which will see the host give you more server maintenance.

Is there a difference between managed and unmanaged VPS hosting?

Yes – with an unmanaged VPS, the host will literally only support the server hardware itself. You’re responsible for maintaining all the software, including the operating system and web server. Obviously, this requires some technical know-how on your part.

With a managed VPS, the host will manage the basic software for you and also often provide other helpful features such as backups and security hardening.

All things equal, a managed VPS will always cost more than an unmanaged VPS for these reasons.

A recap of the best VPS hosting providers of 2022

This post has looked 🔍 at six different VPS hosts. Here’s our table again to help you choose the best option.

In our opinion, 🧑‍🏫 you’ll want to choose a solution such as DreamHost for your first VPS. It’s reputable, cheap, and offers a lot of scope. 👉 If you have more experience, Liquid Web could perform well. For top-end performance on an unmanaged VPS server though, DigitalOcean gets top billing.

Do you think we should include other VPS hosting providers that are not on this list? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!