VPS (Virtual Private Servers), as a hosting option, sit between shared hosting and dedicated servers in the overall hierarchy of web hosting. However, while they share a lot of features with dedicated servers, their prices tend to be much lower, almost in line with shared hosting.
So it isn’t surprising that they are the preferred option for those who are not afraid to get dirty with code and OS updates. VPS, as you might guess, is not for novices, but will provide a far more scalable platform if you want to develop a website or a service that will gain significant traction or attract significant traffic.
We’ve listed the best VPS deals on the market in this article. If you’ve found something better and worthy of inclusion, please do get in touch with us.
The best cheap VPS hosting deals on the market are…
1. VPSCheap SSD Premium
Great for those looking for computational performance
Premium performance for relatively little
Generous allocation of resources
Accepts Bitcoin/Ethereum
At $6.99 (£5.30) per month, you will be very hard pressed to find a cheaper VPS deal with as many cores. VPSCheap’s SSD Premium tier offers a whopping four-core processor where other providers offer only one. The company uses Intel Xeon CPUs for its virtual servers, probably E5, although the firm has yet to get back to us with more details.
You get a generous amount of resources as well, namely 2GB of ECC RAM, 50GB SSD space, unmetered network usage (which translates into around 30TB per month on the 100Mbit line) and an IPv6 address.
It is one of the few providers we came across that accepts Bitcoin/Ethereum and has a short 30-day money-back guarantee, and while you do get root access and a huge choice of Linux distros (and versions), you have to pay for a few things (Softaculous, daily backups and cPanel). You can also opt for a full managed server and premium support option which adds $25 (£19) per month and gives you more peace of mind.
2. 1&1 Cloud M VPS
Outstanding value and backed by one of the world’s biggest hosting brands
Plenty of flexibility
Choice of location for data center
99.9% uptime guarantee
1&1 brings a European flavor to the lower-end of the VPS market with its Virtual Server Cloud M offering. At $4.99 (£3.80), it is one of the cheapest on the market, although note that the price increases by 100% after the first 12 months.
You get one virtual Intel Xeon E5 core, 1GB of RAM, 50GB of SSD grade storage and unlimited traffic over a 100Mbit connection (that’s 30TB per month). You can choose the location of your data center (US, Spain or Germany) and you have a choice of Linux distro (albeit more limited than VPSCheap); Windows is also available as an option.
As expected you get full root access, snapshot backup as an option, an SSL Wildcard certificate and the web host guarantees a ‘three-nines’ uptime (99.9%), not bad for such a cheap hosting package. You get one IPv4 (but not IPv6) address and 500GB storage spread across 250 email boxes.
Alibaba Cloud ECS Starter Package
3. Alibaba Cloud ECS Starter Package
Ideal if you want to serve a Chinese audience
Temptingly cheap
18 data centers across the globe
Limited on the bandwidth front
As the designated data center partner for the Olympics committee, Alibaba Cloud is the biggest cloud provider in China and its ECS (Elastic Compute Service) – which is its take on the VPS concept – is being aggressively marketed online as a compelling alternative to Amazon’s more expensive Lightsail VPS.
With 18 data center regions located worldwide and a starting price of only $4.50 (£3.40) per month, it is one of the cheapest VPS deals around. You get one vCore CPU, 1GB memory, 40GB of SSD storage, 1TB of data transfer plus a free anti-DDoS Basic service, automatic snapshots, and triplicated backups.
The data is far lower than the competition which means that the ECS starter pack is ideal for non-bandwidth hungry applications. As with other rivals, it uses Intel Xeon E5 processors and SSDs, paired with Linux. It is also the only provider that serves the billion-plus Chinese audience directly (although you will need to apply for an ICP license to deploy your website).
4. Hertzner CX11
The cheapest VPS in the world – by far!
Uses Skylake Xeon CPUs
No minimum contract
Impressively cheap for core package
Hetzner might not be a well-known brand outside its home country (Germany) but this internet web hosting company punches above its weight despite having only 200 employees. It uses Skylake Xeon processors rather than the older Broadwell models and bundles 20TB of data with all its tiers. You pay by the month and there’s no minimum contract period.
Even the cheapest tier (CX11 for €2.49, about $2.90 or £2.20) comes with 2GB of RAM, 20GB of drive space (NVMe SSD), and one vCPU, with data centers located in Germany and Finland, which is great if you like strict European data protection regulations.
Hertzner manages to keep prices low by offering only core features with its own proprietary cloud console. You have to pay for everything else including backup snapshots (€0.01 per GB per month) and IP address (€1 per month).
5. OVH VPS SSD 2
A decent choice for memory-hungry applications
SSD 2 plan gives you 4GB RAM
Uptime guarantee of 99.95%
Anti-DDoS protection and more
OVH is the third European company in our list and the only one of that trio from outside Germany. It is also the only firm that offers a discount when you sign up for an annual plan. At $6.87 (£5.20) per month for the VPS SSD 2 package, that includes local RAID, 40GB SSD space, one vCore and uniquely for this price, 4GB RAM, which is four times what Alibaba Cloud or 1&1 provides.
Five European data center locations are available plus one North American. Uptime guarantee is 99.95%, better than, say, the above 1&1 package, and OVH is good at communicating what is available in its bundles.
Unlimited traffic over a 100Mbps port is included, as is anti-DDoS protection, KVM, root access, IPv4/IPv6 IP and free ready-to-go packages like WordPress, PrestaShop or CozyCloud.
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