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jcmarchi · 9 months ago

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BlueHost Review – The Best WordPress Host Yet?

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BlueHost Review – The Best WordPress Host Yet?

If only one web host had the bragging rights for being the best WordPress host on the market, it’d be BlueHost. Whether you are a webmaster or are looking to migrate your existing website to a new provider, you have definitely heard of BlueHost.

Many of the websites I have managed including my personal ones have been hosted on BlueHost and I will share my personal thoughts on my experience with them.

In the rest of this BlueHost review, we’ll go in-depth into the core features you get with the host’s plans, how affordable their packages are, how easy it is to use their platform for your website’s management, how responsive their support is – all the good stuff!

So if you are considering BlueHost, this is the only guide you’ll need.

BlueHost Review – The Host’s History

BlueHost is just a little over 2 decades old and was found in 2003. Since then, the company has grown into an empire currently powering over 2 million domains around the globe. BlueHost has impressive accolades to their name – they are the longest running number 1 WordPress.org recommended host. Their hosting plans are WordPress-heavy with everything you need to create, manage, and promote your website.

The host provides a variety of hosting packages – shared hosting, VPS hosting, cloud hosting, dedicated hosting, WordPress and WooCommerce hosting. BlueHost also provides emails, a domain registration engine, and marketing tools and services that you can pay for as addons. On every hosting package you go for on BlueHost, you get a free SSL, free domain name registration, access to live chat with their agents, free CDN and free WP themes. Aside from their most basic shared plan, you also get Malware Scanning and daily backups to powerful SSD drives.

BlueHost caches customer websites across a network of servers in 6 locations around the world. Nearly 13,000 people have reviewed BlueHost on TrustPilot and they score a pretty impressive 4.1.

BlueHost Pros and Cons

BlueHost is recommended directly by WordPress

They provide hosting plans for every website need

Their plans are pretty affordable

Website essentials are provided for free

They have vast complementary services

BlueHost is incredibly easy to use for beginners

Excellent uptime

Their servers get slow sometimes

Not privately owned

Many out-of-the-box addons are only free for the first year

BlueHost Rating – How I Score The Host

We’ve discussed BlueHost’s rating on TrustPilot. However, what’s my personal take? Considering the host’s prices, features, real-life performance, user friendliness, customer support convenience, how will I rate each core consideration on a scale of 1-5. It makes sense to actually take a dive into some of the host’s core features and see how well they score.

And if you think about it, given that there are thousands of hosting providers on the market, having a ‘standardized’ rating of each host enables you to compare different providers fairly.

So if you want a simple outline out all that BlueHost has to offer and how I’ll score them, let’s take a look. Note that these scores are based on my personal opinion and experience with the host and may change as the host improves on their offerings:

Quality My rating Why I gave this score Features and specs 5.0 Virtually every kind of hosting, free SSL, domain, email, CDN & WP themes, and third-party marketing tools built-in make BlueHost an absolute beast. Pricing 4.8 With BlueHost’s shared plans starting at $2.95/month, the host is really affordable. However, I’d give them a 4.8 because, after the first year, the subscription prices quadruple. Performance stats 4.7 BlueHost is known for their 100% uptime guarantee. With each of their plans providing SSD storage, you are also guaranteed high-speed website data delivery. However, after several speeds, the average server response time was around 400 ms which is great but not the fastest. Ease of use 4.9 BlueHost uses the modern cPanel for your website’s backend and a visually appealing design on the frontend that’s also incredibly intuitive for even hosting newbies. However, many hosts also now offer custom control panels that are even easier to use than cPanel. Customer support guarantee 5.0 BlueHost offers an excellent customer support guarantee – you can reach their agents via phone and live chat, and you can learn how to use their products as well as other WordPress specific answers on their Academy page, knowledgebase, and blog.

BlueHost Hosting Plans & Pricing – 2024

BlueHost offers shared hosting, VPS hosting, cloud hosting, dedicated servers, WordPress hosting, WooCommerce hosting, and cloud hosting for WordPress. For every plan you subscribe to, you are protected by a 30-day money back guarantee to give you enough time to decide if it meets your need

And when you decide to commit to a particular plan, BlueHost accepts payment via card – Visa, Mastercard, DISCOVER, American Express – and Paypal.

BlueHost’s shared hosting plans

BASIC

Storage space – 10 GB SSD storage

Number of websites – 1 website

Features – Free CDN, SSL, domain, and email, custom WP themes

Price – $2.95/month

CHOICE PLUS

Storage space – 40 GB SSD storage

Number of websites – 3 websites

Features – Everything in BASIC plus daily backups, domain privacy, malware scans

Price – $5.45/month

ONLINE STORE

Storage space – 40 GB SSD storage

Number of websites – 3 websites

Features – CHOICE PLUS plus eCommerce specific features

Price – $9.95/month

CLOUD

Storage space – 225 GB SSD storage

Number of websites – 50 websites

Features – Unmetered bandwidth, priority support, WAF, caching, DDoS protection

Price – $29.99/month

BlueHost recommends their CHOICE PLUS shared hosting plan for new customers. You can host 3 websites with 40 GB of SSD storage, charged at $5.45/month for the first year.

Who this is for:

BlueHost’s shared hosting plans are best suited for new websites that are not yet pulling in a lot of traffic. New websites or websites that are only meant to serve content to a few target personas fit this bill nicely – think portfolio websites, parked pages, landing pages, etc. However, BlueHost actually integrates a cloud plan CLOUD to allow upgrade seamlessly should your resource demand increase.

BlueHost’s VPS hosting plans

STANDARD

Memory – 2GB RAM

Number of CPUs – 2 core CPU

Bandwidth – Unmetered bandwidth

Price – $31.99/month

ENHANCED

Memory – 4GB RAM

Number of CPUs – 2 core CPU

Bandwidth – Unmetered bandwidth

Price – $41.99/month

ULTIMATE

Memory – 8GB RAM

Number of CPUs – 4 core CPU

Bandwidth – Unmetered bandwidth

Price – $71.99/month

As usual, BlueHost recommends their intermediate ENHANCED VPS hosting plan to webmasters. For just $10/month extra on their STANDARD plan, you get double the RAM and 45 GB of extra storage.

Who needs BlueHost’s VPS hosting?

BlueHost’s VPS plans are excellent for you if your website is growing and you are maxing out your shared resources. VPS hosting gives you more resources and also gives you a dedicated virtual engine, even though you are still sharing the same physical server with other websites. VPS hosting plans are great for blog websites, growing eCommerce stores, and websites that handle sensitive user data.

BlueHost’s cloud hosting plans

CLOUD 1

Number of websites – 1 website

Storage space – 10 GB SSD storage

Computing power – 2vCPU computing power

Price – $29.99/month

CLOUD 10

Number of websites – 10 websites

Storage space – 125 GB SSD storage

Computing power – 20vCPU computing power

Price – $49.99/month

CLOUD 25

Number of websites – 25 websites

Storage space – 175 GB SSD storage

Computing power – 75vCPU computing power

Price – $89.99/month

CLOUD 50

Number of websites – 50 websites

Storage space – 225 GB SSD storage

Computing power – 150vCPU computing power

Price – $109.99/month

Who needs BlueHost’s cloud hosting plans?

Fun fact: BlueHost just launched their cloud hosting plans!

BlueHost’s cloud hosting plans cater to websites that experience sudden spikes in traffic and need resources on demand. Like the idea of paying for only the resources you use? Then these plans are for you. Ecommerce websites selling seasonal products and web apps find cloud hosting plans invaluable.

BlueHost’s dedicated hosting plans

STANDARD

Cores/thread – 4 cores/8 threads

Memory – 8GB RAM

Storage – 1 Terabyte HDD storage

Price – $91.98/month

ENHANCED

Cores/thread – 8 cores/16 threads

Memory – 16 GB RAM

Storage – 2 Terabyte HDD storage

Price – $121.88/month

PREMIUM

Cores/thread – 8 cores/ 16 threads

Memory – 30 GB RAM

Storage – 2 Terabyte HDD storage

Price – $141.99/month

BlueHost recommends their intermediate ENHANCED dedicated hosting plan. A dedicated server with 16 GB of RAM, 2 Terabytes of storage, and unmetered bandwidth, for $121.88/month.

Who is BlueHost’s dedicated hosting for?

BlueHost’s dedicated hosting plans give you a whole server to yourself. All of the server’s resources – storage, bandwidth, storage, memory – are yours. BlueHost’s dedicated hosting plans make the most sense if your website receives tons of traffic and you need the most security – your website doesn’t share these resources with any other website.

You can choose a managed dedicated hosting plan or if you have an IT team that can manage your dedicated servers, you can request complete control over your website’s servers.

BlueHost’s WordPress hosting plans

BASIC

Storage space – 10 GB SSD storage

Number of websites – 1 website

Features – Free CDN, SSL, domain, and email, custom WP themes

Price – $2.95/month

CHOICE PLUS

Storage space – 40 GB SSD storage

Number of websites – 3 websites

Features – Everything in BASIC plus daily backups, domain privacy, malware scans

Price – $5.45/month

ONLINE STORE

Storage space – 40 GB SSD storage

Number of websites – 3 websites

Features – CHOICE PLUS plus eCommerce specific features

Price – $9.95/month

CLOUD

Storage space – 225 GB SSD storage

Number of websites – 50 websites

Features – Unmetered bandwidth, priority support, WAF, caching, DDoS protection

Price – $29.99/month

BlueHost’s WordPress plans exactly mirror their shared hosting plans albeit with WordPress-heavy features optimized to accelerate creating and managing your WordPress website. They recommend their CHOICE PLUS plan that accommodates 3 websites, gives you 40 GB of SSD storage, daily backups, and malware scanning.

Who is BlueHost’s WordPress hosting for?

Plan to build your website on WordPress or you currently have one? BlueHost’s plans offer affordable hosting with WordPress essentials for your website. You get custom WordPress themes, the BlueHost WONDERSUITE – an AI-powered website setup stack, WordPress pre-installed, WordPress-tailored support, and so much more!

BlueHost’s WooCommerce hosting plans

ONLINE STORE

Storage – 40 GB SSD storage

Ecommerce features – Store website, analytics, Yoast SEO, YITH integration, daily backups for WordPress and Jetpack, online payments enablement

Price – $9.95/month

ONLINE STORE + MARKETPLACE

Storage – 100 GB storage

Ecommerce features – All in ONLINE STORE plus multi-channel selling through third-party platforms – Ebay, Amazon, eBay, etc.

Price – $12.95/month

BlueHost’s WooCommerce hosting plans are billed annually or triannually.

Who needs BlueHost’s WooCommerce hosting plans?

BlueHost’s WooCommerce hosting plans build upon their WordPress plans and give you eCommerce functionality. Plan to build an eCommerce store or migrate your store from another platform, then these plans are for you. You can choose the ONLINE STORE if you only plan to use your website as your point of sale. If you plan to harness other Ecommerce platforms, then the ONLINE STORE + MARKETPLACE is just the one for you.

BlueHost’s Features

Let’s take an overarching overview of the features that BlueHost offers across most of its plans:

SSD storage

Free domain, SSL, WP Themes, and professional email

Free CDN

Unmetered bandwidth

BlueHost WonderSuite website builder

1-click WordPress acceleration and WordPress built-in

BlueHost offers most of the features typical of a leading provider, however, they stand out because they are first a WordPress host – their shared hosting plans are actually all WordPress plans.

BlueHost Performance Tests

To test BlueHost’s performance, we will perform real tests on websites hosted by the provider to determine their average server response speed, performance score, and uptime.

The quicker the server response is, the more quickly any website hosted on them will load whenever a user tries to visit that website. Pages that load under 2 seconds have a bounce rate of 9% but that figure shoots to 38% once the load time is more than 3 seconds.

So it’s incredibly important that you choose a host with very quick server response times as this contributes to your overall website load time. Another important factor to consider is the web host’s uptime or reliability.

The uptime simply measures the amount of time your web host’s servers are running – and in turn, your website is available online. The industry standard for uptime is 99.9%.

Here were the results of the tests I carried out on BlueHost:

To measure the web host’s server speeds, I considered the time to first byte (TTFB) and after several tests, the average TTFB was 490 ms. This is a decent score but other hosts like SiteGround have more impressive figures.

The overall performance of the website was 99% which is excellent.

To test BlueHost’s uptime, I used Uptime Robot to investigate the website’s availability over the past month:

BlueHost’s servers have a 100% uptime and their websites have been available for the same portion of the time.

BlueHost’s Customer Support

What support portals are available on BlueHost? And how easy would it be to reach an agent when you have inquiries to make or errors to troubleshoot? Let’s see.

BlueHost has a thriving support hub where you can get in touch with their agents 24/7 via:

Phone

BlueHost has phone lines for it sales department, customer support, and international phone lines for customers calling from abroad.

Live chat

I was quite impressed because for many hosts you need to be a paying customer first before you can reach out to their support agents. On BlueHost, you can chat with an agent live to make inquiries about their services or seek support.

I tested BlueHost’s live chat to see how quickly I would get the help I wanted. When you initiate the chat, you are first attended to by a chatbot that asks for what category the inquiry you want to make falls under:

Next, you are asked to provide your name and are redirected to speak with a human agent. In this test, the agent connected with me in less than 20 seconds which is impressive:

I asked a couple of questions and they seemed very knowledgeable in the technical details about BlueHost’s plans:

Overall, I was satisfied with their live chat support and you’d find it invaluable as a customer.

WordPress Academy

It’s only natural that WordPress’s number 1 host has an academy page dedicated to WordPress tutorials. BlueHost’s academy page has 14 lessons and you can take them for free even without creating an account with BlueHost. You only need to fill in your email address.

Knowledgebase

BlueHost’s search engine enabled knowledgebase contains resources and information on managing your account, email, their different packages, DNS, WordPress, domain names, and so much more.

BlueHost Blog

And finally, the BlueHost blog with informative articles on generic industry topics every website owner will find useful irrespective of your industry.

BlueHost’s Security Features

There are bad actors everywhere, more so online. BlueHost gives you a host of security features out-of-the-box to protect your brand and your website from cyberattacks and malware.

On even the most basic plans, you get a free SSL certificate to give your website the ‘HTTPS’ badge of trust. You also get a free CDN built-in to cache your website content across their network of servers and improve your website performance.

For their higher-tier shared hosting plans, your website is backed up daily to protect your data. BlueHost also gives you access to their built-in malware scanner and domain privacy free for the first year. Domain privacy protects your personal information from being shown publicly on the WHOIS database.

BlueHost’s premium hosting plans also give you DDoS protection and a web application firewall(WAF). You can also buy security software as addons to all your plans on BlueHost including CodeGuard Basic and SiteLock Essentials both billed at $2.99/month each.

BlueHost’s Website Builder – WonderSuite

BlueHost’s website builder, WonderSuite is powered by AI to simplify designing your website. WonderSuite encapsulates several AI-powered products including:

WonderStart

BlueHost’s WonderStart simplifies creating your website by asking you a number of specific questions right from the beginning, instead of having to fill them at each stage.

The AI powered tool then finds the right themes and fills in your details automatically.

WonderTheme

WonderTheme generates website samples based on the business niche, themes and font you choose in WonderStart so you know exactly what your website’s final look will be.

WonderBlocks

WonderBlocks is BlueHost’s drag-n-drop website design interface that allows you customize the themes and webpages in a few clicks. Fill in the content blocks with page essentials like a contact form and photo gallery.

WonderCart

WonderCart is BlueHost’s website design tool for eCommerce websites. With WonderCart, you can customize your eComm website pages and your checkout pages to drive more sales and conversions.

BlueHost’s User-Friendliness

BlueHost is known as one of the easiest web hosts to use, especially for new webmasters. Let’s take a look at how to create an account with the host, what its control panel looks like, and how to setup WordPress on BlueHost:

How to register an account on BlueHost

Like with any other host, to register an account with BlueHost, you simply buy one of their hosting plans:

Step 1

Navigate to one of their hosting plans and click on “Select”. You’ll be redirected to the domain page.

Step 2

On the domain setup page, you can put in your domain name if you have or specify a new one you’d like to register in BlueHost’s domain search engine on the left.

If you don’t want to setup a domain yet, you can just click on “I’ll create my domain later”

Step 3

On the checkout page, fill in your account creation details:

Next, your billing schedule from the dropdown – month, annually, or a 3-year plan:

Choose any additional services you want as addons, fill in your payment details, and click ‘Submit’. And that’s it!

Once your payment is confirmed, you will have your BlueHost account created.

BlueHost’s modern control panel

Managing your account and website backend on BlueHost is fairly easy and the host features a modern cPanel to help you do just that.

To access your CPanel, from your main dashboard, simply click on ‘Hosting’ and cPanel. You will then be redirected to the login page.

BlueHost’s cPanel allows you to set up new email accounts, organize your website files, access your DNS settings, manage your database, configure your security settings, and so much more.

How to install WordPress on BlueHost

BlueHost comes with WordPress built in and only requires a few clicks to install the software and assign it to your website.

Step 1

To install WordPress on BlueHost, from your dashboard, click on ‘Hosting’ and then ‘Add site’ to set up a new website on your account.

Step 2

Click on ‘Install WordPress’ and click ‘Continue’. You’ll then be directed to fill in your site title. However, you can also click ‘skip for now’ to move right on to the next step.

Step 3

Enter your domain name or use a temporary domain name and click ‘Continue’. WordPress will now begin to install.

Finally, click ‘Login to WordPress’.

BlueHost makes it incredibly easy to access your WordPress website. Once set up, you won’t need to login to your WordPress portal anymore but can directly access your website from your hosting dashboard.

What are some of BlueHost’s complementary services?

BlueHost offers some of the most comprehensive complementary services on the market. Some of them include:

Website design services

Digital marketing services

Professional email setup

Access to third-party suites like Google Workspace

Premium WordPress services

BlueHost’s complementary services help consolidate all your website’s needs in one place. You can use one provider to purchase a domain name, get hosting, design your website, get professional email addresses, get marketing services, etc.

Conclusion: Do We Recommend BlueHost?

We put BlueHost through its paces to see if its packages are worth considering. BlueHost is easily one of the best hosting providers on the market – they not only provide hosting plans but a truckload of complementary services that simplify setting up and managing your website.

If you plan to create a website using WordPress, BlueHost is indeed the best host for you. When you check out their WordPress-specific features and WonderSuite website builder, you’ll see why they have retained the title of WordPress no. 1 recommended host.

My only criticism of BlueHost would be they can do better in terms of performance and server response time.

Visit BlueHost →

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jcmarchi · 9 months ago

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10 Best VPS Hosting Providers

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/10-best-vps-hosting-providers/

10 Best VPS Hosting Providers

If you’re looking to upgrade from your shared hosting plan to a VPS (Virtual Private Server) package, chances are your website is starting to do traffic numbers that exceed the capacity of your current plan. So, first, congrats! Now, it’s time to choose a VPS provider and this is the only guide you’ll need!

I like to call VPS hosting “the poor man’s dedicated hosting” – basically, with a VPS plan, you get to enjoy the perks of dedicated hosting – resources reserved just for you, exceptional scalability, exclusive IPs, you name it – for just a few dollars per month more than what you’re used to with a shared plan.

However, like shared hosting, VPS is also incredibly common and thanks to the thousands of hosting providers on the market, your options can be overwhelming. But you don’t have to worry, that’s what this guide is for.

We’ll expand on how VPS hosting works, who should consider buying a VPS hosting plan, and then show you the 10 very best VPS hosting providers in 2024 and the qualities that make each provider stand out in the market. At the end of this guide, you’ll be armed with all the necessary info to zero in on the VPS provider just for you.

10 Best VPS Hosting Providers At A Glance

Hostinger

BlueHost

ScalaHosting

A2Hosting

Ultahost

Stablehost

Verpex

DreamHost

HostGator

IONOS

What Is VPS Hosting and How Does It Work?

VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting combines the best of both worlds of shared hosting and dedicated hosting. In a VPS hosting environment, you still share a physical server with other websites, however, using virtualization technology, the physical server is ‘split’ into several virtual machines or servers, each with its own dedicated amount of resources – RAM, storage, CPU.

When you pay for a VPS hosting plan, the entirety of the virtual server’s resources are dedicated to your website. Each virtual server acts as a completely independent machine and can have different operating systems, storage space, etc., even though they are all on the same physical server.

A key difference between VPS hosting and shared hosting is there are usually far less websites hosted in a VPS environment (typically 5-20) on one server than in a shared plan where hundreds of websites share one server.

So when you really think about it, a VPS hosting plan is actually a form of ‘dedicated hosting’ only that you still share the same physical server. VPS hosting also gives website owners benefits like dedicated IPs – each virtual server can have its own IP address, shielding you from the consequences of your neighbors being flagged by search engines.

Who Is VPS Hosting For?

VPS hosting is the most popular kind of hosting for websites looking to upgrade from their shared hosting plan. If your website’s traffic is growing rapidly and you’re having more frequent disruptions, it may be time for a VPS hosting plan.

The virtualization technology that powers VPS hosting also makes it incredibly scalable. Many hosting providers allow you to adjust the amount of resources you want per time, hence VPS hosting makes a lot of sense for websites that experience traffic spikes often – e.g: eCommerce stores during seasonal sales and discount holidays.

VPS hosting is also more secure than shared hosting. Each virtual server is independent of the others, hence, attacks on one website will not affect your own website. This makes VPS hosting great for websites that need premium security – websites and databases that store sensitive customer data.

The 10 Best VPS Hosting Providers in 2024

Decided that a VPS plan is right for you? Ready to see our list of the very best VPS hosting providers? Let’s dive right in!

With Hostinger’s most basic VPS plan starting at $4.99/month, the provider gives most others a run for their money. Hostinger offers four VPS hosting packages KVM 1, KVM 2, KVM 4, and KVM 8 giving you 1-8 vCPUs, 4-32 GB RAM, 50-400 GB high-performance NVMe storage, and between 4-32 GB of bandwidth.

Every VPS plan with Hostinger promises premium performance with AMD processors and their KVM virtualization ensures that the hardware resources allocated to you are exclusively yours. Hostinger’s servers also peak at a record speed of 300 megabytes per second, making them excellent for resource-demanding tasks like gaming and streaming.

Backups of your website are taken weekly and should you encounter any errors, you can easily restore your website to a previous version. Hostinger’s VPS plans also allow you to choose the operating system you want to use as well as your control panel, giving you even more customization options.

A built-in firewall comes with all VPS plans for excellent DDoS protection. And what’s more? Hostinger allows you to upgrade your plans to a higher tier easily as your website grows.

One unique feature that comes with Hostinger’s VPS plans is the built-in AI assistant that guides you through most tasks when setting up and managing your VPS account. You also get 1-click installs on the most popular OSs, control panels, and applications.

And finally, in terms of server footprint, Hostinger’s servers are spread across Asia, Europe, North America, and South America ensuring your website performs superbly wherever your target audience is. In my Hostinger review, the host’s servers responded in an impressive 243 ms and had a 30-day uptime of 100%.

Here’s why you should choose Hostinger:

Their VPS plans are some of the most affordable

You get access to their AI assistant

1-click installs for popular software

Backups ensure website security

Exceptionally scalable plans

If you perform resource-demanding activities

Overall, if you are looking for a VPS plan on a budget that still delivers with premium features, Hostinger is your best bet!

Read Review →

Visit Hostinger →

2. BlueHost (Best pre-purchase support)

BlueHost is another well-known name in the hosting industry and is up there amongst the horde of VPS providers. BlueHost provides just three VPS hosting packages STANDARD, ENHANCED, and ULTIMATE, giving you between 2-8GB RAM, 120-240 SSD storage, and unmetered bandwidth on all plans.

With BlueHost’s VPS plans, you can host as many domain names as you want, have access to their signature VPS dashboard to manage your plans, all the while being backed by their 24/7 VPS-specialized support portal.

With your single BlueHost account you can manage your VPS plans as well as other services like shared and dedicated hosting, as you please. You are also granted root access and can create passwords for specific access to different environments in your servers. One thing I like about BlueHost’s VPS plans in particular is even before you pay for a package, you can reach out to their customer support agents via chat or phone call and get the best recommendations for your website.

In my BlueHost review, the host’s servers responded in 400 ms which is decent but not the most impressive. However, their 99.9% uptime guarantee is rock-solid.

Here’s why you should choose BlueHost:

BlueHost is especially great for WordPress websites

Website essentials are provided for free

They offer many useful complementary services

BlueHost is very beginner-friendly

They boast excellent uptime

If your website is built on WordPress, then BlueHost may just be the best host for you.

Read Review →

Visit BlueHost →

3. ScalaHosting (Best custom VPS plans)

The ability to create custom plans just for you and your website is one feature I like to see and Scalahosting’s VPS plans are a cocktail of such great features. The host offers four VPS hosting packages Build 1, Build 2, Build 3, and Build 4, with Build 1 starting at $29.95/month.

You get 2-12 CPU cores, 4-24 GB RAM, 50-200 GB NVMe SSD storage, automatic backups, and unmetered bandwidth on all plans. And my favorite feature – Scalahosting allows you to build a custom VPS plan by setting the number of cores, amount of RAM, and storage you need.

Once you pay for one of their VPS plans, you have access to their support agents 24/7 via live chat or support ticket. What’s more? Migrating your website to Scalahosting is free of charge. They are also one of the very few hosts to offer an unconditional anytime money-back guarantee.

Managing your VPS plans and website in general is super easy with SPanel – Scalahosting’s native control panel. The provider also takes your security seriously – you get a free SSL certificate, their SShield firewall, powerful caching for faster website load speeds, remote daily backups, and anti-spam protection.

Scalahosting’s VPS plans are also especially great for developers giving you access to staging tools, tweak your PHP versions, web servers managers, a NodeJS manager, easy CloudFlare integration, and over 400 1-click installs, through SPanel.

Here’s why you should choose Scalahosting:

Allows you to create custom plans

Exceptionally developer-friendly

SPanel is very easy to use and highly functional

Offer free website migrations

Anytime money back guarantee is unmatched

Choose Scalahosting if you want to be able to scale your resources at your own pace or if you are a web developer.

Read Review →

Visit Scalahosting →

4. A2Hosting (Best high-performance host)

A2Hosting is one of the most impressive VPS hosts on the market both in terms of performance and out-of-the-box features. They offer six managed VPS plans – three with their high-performance servers and three with the signature Turbo servers.

With these plans, you can get between 4-32 GB of RAM, 150-500 GB SSD or NVMe SSD storage, 2-8 CPU cores, and 2-4 TB data transfer. Their most basic VPS plan starts at $35.99/month while their Turbo basic plan starts at $54.99/month.

Some of the hosting goodies you get out-of-the-box – 24/7/365 support, free website migration by A2Hosting’s agents, free SSL certificates, the Imunify360 Security Suite, CloudLinux OS, and cPanel.

With A2Hosting’s managed VPS plans, the provider takes care of most of your website’s maintenance, sets up your security, and performance tweaks. You also get a free dedicated IP address that’s unique to your virtual server, ensuring a unique identity in the eyes of search engines.

A2Hosting’s unmanaged VPS plans are tuned for developers who are comfortable with code and want strong root access to customize their servers fully. In my A2Hosting review, the provider’s servers responded in an excellent 102 ms and also held up to their 99.9% guarantee proving their incredible performance.

Here’s why you should choose A2Hosting:

Very powerful servers

A2Hosting provides multi-channel support

They provide a custom control panel for WordPress

A2Hosting’s Turbo plans promise exceptional speed

Free features out-of-the-box

A2Hosting allows you to configure server locations.

Choose A2Hosting if you want high-performance servers and the most free features out-of-the-box.

Read Review →

Visit A2Hosting →

5. Ultahost (Best collaboration feature)

Ultahost is another provider that offers very affordable VPS hosting plans with their most basic VPS BASIC starting at $5.5/month. You get between 1-4 CPU cores, 1-6 GB RAM, 30-100 GB SSD NVMe storage, and a dedicated IP address on each plan.

Their VPS plans are categorized by the control panel you decide to use – Hestia & CyberPanel, Plesk and cPanel. And when setting up your plan, you can choose between 7 popular operating systems for your convenience.

On each of Ultahost’s VPS plans, you get unmetered bandwidth, a dedicated firewall, free backups, free SSL certificates, an IP whitelisting feature, their auto healing servers, the BitNinja Security suite, free website transfers, and a free CDN pre-installed. Your website data is also stored on SSD NVMe drives ensuring premium performance and you also get full root access for server-level configurations.

Another great feature that comes with Ultahost’s VPS plans is its team collaboration portal – you can conveniently share limited or full access to your VPS servers or applications among your team team members to enhance productivity and seamless workflow.

In terms of support, Ultahost connects you with its agents via live chat, an active community of customers and experts, an extensive knowledgebase, and a ticketing system. In my Ultahost review, the provider’s servers started sending data back in an impressive 128 ms, proving their high-speed performance.

Here’s why you should choose Ultahost:

Their plans are very affordable

Backups are free unlike many other providers

They offer Node.JS socket

Several operating system options

Unique team collaboration feature

Extensive support portals

Choose Ultahost if you want to grant other team members access to your server with specific roles.

Read Review →

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Stablehost is another decent VPS host and provides only unmanaged VPS hosting split into five tiers. Their most basic plan VZ 1GB starts out at $10.95/month making them quite affordable.

You get between 1-16 of RAM, 1-8 CPU cores, 40-300 GB of storage, and 2-16 TB of data transfer across their plans. Stablehost’s SSD storage disks promise high performance and on each VPS plan, you are guaranteed level 3 customer support from trained agents.

With Stablehost’s VPS plans you are in charge of installing your own operating system. What’s more? You don’t get a control panel built-in, but you do get a VPS control panel that allows you to tweak your VPS package. To get cPanel, you’ll have to purchase their management add-ons which include a WHM/cPanel license.

All Stablehost’s VPS plans also come with SSH and full-root access giving you complete control over how you tweak your virtual server. If you are just getting into VPS hosting and are not code-savvy, Stablehost is probably not for you. However, if you are a web dev who wants command-line-level access, then you’d feel right at home.

In my Stablehost review, the web host’s servers sent the first byte of data in 300 ms which is dancing right on the line between ‘quick’ and ‘could be better’.

Here’s why you should choose Stablehost:

Gives you total control over your servers

No server setup fees included

Straight-to-the-point VPS packages

High-level customer support

Choose Stablehost if you want complete control over your servers – setup, security, management, control panel, etc. – as all their plans are unmanaged.

Read Review →

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Founded in 2018, Verpex is one of the new kids on the block, but their VPS hosting packages prove you can do great stuff in little time. Verpex offers managed and unmanaged VPS plans for Linux-based servers and Windows-based servers with their most basic managed Linux server starting at $23.4/month.

You get between 4-16 GB of RAM, 80-320 GB of SSD storage, and 2-8 Xeon CPU cores. And on every package, you enjoy high-performance NVMe disks, unmetered traffic, access to cPanel/WHM, and free daily backups.

Once you buy one of Verpex’s VPS plans, you have dedicated support agents who you can reach out to 24/7 via live chat and email. Their support will also give you a free consultation to help you choose the best hosting type and tier for your website.

Some of the other features you get include a free SSL and built-in firewalls for your website. You can also choose between cPanel, Plesk, or DirectAdmin for your account management. Daily backups ensure your website’s most recent data is stored so you can easily reverse changes to these restore points.

If there’s one other thing that makes Verpex stand out, it’s their server footprint. Their servers are spread across 12 data centers around the world, giving your website excellent performance to global users. In my Verpex review, the host’s servers responded in 400 ms which wasn’t as impressive as I expected but still decent overall.

Here’s why you should choose Verpex:

Wide server footprint guarantees excellent performance

Offers managed and unmanaged for Linux and Windows

High-performance NVMe on all plans

Free website migration and consultation

Provides daily backups

Choose Verpex, especially if you are targeting a global audience for your business.

Read Review →

Visit Verpex →

Founded in 1996, DreamHost is one of the oldies on the market and gives you sage-level VPS hosting plans. Their VPS packages are mostly managed, taking the technical aspects of server management out of your hands, however you can still choose unmanaged plans. The provider has four VPS plans, with the most basic starting at $13.75/month for a yearly payment schedule.

1-8 GB of RAM, 30-240 GB of SSD storage, unmetered traffic, a free SSL certificate, and the ability to host unlimited websites are some of the great features you get. What’s more? DreamHost’s VPS plans allow you to create as many professional emails (@ yourdomain) as you need.

You can quickly scale your resource demand grows in between their VPS plans or to a completely different hosting category like cloud or dedicated hosting. DreamHost is also one of the few hosts on this list that give you a custom control panel, further simplifying your website management.

Some of the more advanced features include unlimited IP addresses, the ability to configure user access, 1-click installs for some of the most popular apps (WordPress and co.), SSH access, and several others. You can also easily reach out to DreamHost’s agents via live chat and email.

One slam-dunk feature I like about DreamHost is the sheer number of complementary services they offer. You can hire their experts for website design and branding, web development, website management, marketing services, and training.

Here’s why you should choose DreamHost:

One of the most reputable hosts on the market

They offer excellent complementary services

Custom control panel is incredibly easy-to-use

Unlimited email setups

Choose DreamHost if you want a web host that’s well known and also provides complementary services so you can consolidate all of your website’s critical infrastructure.

Visit DreamHost →

HostGator is another VPS hosting provider you should definitely consider – they offer three VPS hosting plans giving you between 2-8 GB RAM, 2-4 CPU cores, and 120-240 SSD storage – with their most basic plan starting at $36.99/month.

Unmetered bandwidth, free migration, unlimited domains and emails, make HostGator’s VPS plans a great choice. You also get full root access to configure your desired CMS, powerful Intel and AMD servers, the Softaculous script installer built-in, cPanel/WHM, and a free SSL.

As you’d expect, scaling your plans in between VPS packages is super convenient. HostGator also offers expert server guidance where an agent guides you through the server setup process. There are also a ton of advanced features for web devs and IT professionals who want even more control.

HostGator also has a thriving support hub, allowing you to reach out to their agents via phone, live chat, and Twitter(X).

Here’s why you should choose HostGator:

Offers expert server setup guidance

Unmetered bandwidth, domains and emails

Softaculous installer for popular apps

Thriving support hub

Visit HostGator →

IONOS is hands-down the most affordable VPS hosting provider on the market right now with their most basic VPS Linux XS plan starting at $2/month. You can enjoy between 1-24 GB RAM, 1-12 vCPU cores, and 10-640 GB SSD storage across their plans.

On every plan, your servers are backed by NVMe disks ensuring extremely low latency. I also like the fact that you can choose to pay per month or per year as your budget enables.

Some of the goodies? You can choose your preferred data center location, accommodate unmetered traffic, and up to 1 GBit/s bandwidth. For security, you get a free SSL certificate out-of-the-box, plus firewall management and an optional cloud backup solution for 6.5 cents per GB/month.

You can between several Linux and Windows operating systems, have access to Cloud Panel and cPanel, and can assign up to 2 email addresses with 2GB inbox storage each, and also have a free dedicated IP address assigned to you.

IONOS is also one of the very few hosts on the market that offers dedicated support. Once you buy one of their VPS plans, you have a particular support agent assigned to you and you can reach out via phone, chat and email, without paying any extra fees.

Here’s why you should choose IONOS:

The most affordable VPS host on the market

Offers dedicated support like no other

Allows you to choose your data center location

A wide range of VPS plans for easy scaling

Comes with a ton of out-of-the-box features

Choose IONOS if you want the cheapest VPS hosting plans you can find, ever, but still don’t want to compromise on performance.

Visit IONOS →

How We Chose The Best VPS Hosting Providers

We’ve seen some of the very best VPS providers on the market so how did we choose them? What were some of the qualities we looked out for that can also help you zero in on the one for you out of these ten we listed? Let’s see them:

Server specs

The very essence of a VPS plan is to be the ideal upgrade from your shared plan for your growing website. When considering the VPS hosts, we focused on providers that gave you virtual servers with as much storage space, memory (RAM), number of CPUs (cores), and bandwidth as possible.

On our list, A2Hosting and IONOS offer the most storage at 500 GB and 640 GB respectively. We were also on the lookout for providers that gave you NVMe SSD storage for superior performance – NVMe (nonvolatile memory express) drives deliver the highest throughput or transfer data the quickest.

Pricing and plans

Another appeal of VPS plans is they give you the benefits of dedicated hosting at a steal, so choosing hosting providers that offer the most affordable VPS plans is important. IONOS, Hostinger, UltaHost, and StableHost are some of the most affordable VPS providers on the market with plans starting at $2/month, $4.99/month, $5.5/month and $10.95/month respectively.

With these VPS hosting plans, you don’t need to get a budget shock especially coming from a shared plan. You’ll only be paying a few $ extra per month for powerful VPS services.

Support

If you are migrating to a VPS hosting plan for the first time, you should only go for a managed plan. You also want a provider that handles as much as the technical aspects of your website for you and provides personalized support along the way.

All the providers we showcased give you support and access to their agents via one or several of these portals – live chat, phone, email, tickets, etc. They also have documented resources where you can find answers to commonly asked questions by other VPS customers for convenient self-service.

Scalability

And finally, we looked out for providers that allow you to upgrade your plans and scale your resources as your website grows to accommodate traffic. Some of the providers we also listed allow you to create custom plan to fine-tune the amount of resources you pay for even further and control how much you spend.

And their scalability isn’t restricted to VPS plans only. As your website grows even more, you’ll be able to conveniently transition to a cloud or dedicated hosting plan from these providers.

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