#cloudflare hosting

[hostinginfoh]

What Is Cloud Flare: How To Protect Your Website

What is Cloud Flare? 

So Cloudflare is a content delivery network (CDN) and distributed domain name server service that provides improved website performance and obviously security.

Cloudflare speeds up and protects millions of websites, APIs, SaaS services, and other properties connected to the Internet.

To Read full Article Click here HostingInfoh

[myresellerhome]

How Cloudflare Protects Your Website from Cyber Threats?

The protection of your company is not merely a priority in the current digital environment; rather, it is an absolute requirement. For the purpose of protecting the sensitive data of your firm and preserving the faith of your customers, it is essential to locate a security solution that is both sturdy and thorough. Cyber dangers are always evolving. A game-changing platform that goes beyond conventional security measures, Cloudflare offers a dynamic and adaptable approach to protecting your company from cyber-attacks. Cloudflare is a cloud-based security solution.

What exactly is safety on a website?

The techniques, tactics, and procedures that are aimed at protecting and securing a website and the data that it contains are collectively referred to as website security. Different types of cyber security risks, such as distributed denial of service attacks, SQL injection assaults, and malware, can be avoided with the use of these preventative measures.

Cybersecurity threats can have a wide-ranging and devastating impact on businesses. These threats can result in economic costs, such as a loss of revenue and expenses for remediation; a damaged brand reputation as a result of poor media coverage and a loss of trust; and regulatory costs, such as significant fines for failing to protect personally identifiable information (PII).

What does it mean to secure web applications?

The technique of defending websites, programs, and application programming interfaces (APIs) from assaults is referred to as web application security. When it comes to protecting businesses from cyber vandalism, data theft, unethical competition, and other undesirable repercussions, it is a broad discipline, but its ultimate goals are to ensure that web applications continue to work without any problems.

Due to the fact that the Internet is a worldwide network, web applications and application programming interfaces (APIs) are vulnerable to attacks from a wide variety of locales; these attacks can range in scale and complexity. Web application security, as a result, incorporates a wide range of solutions and spans a significant portion of the software supplier chain.

Why is it vital to properly secure a website?

For the purpose of protecting organizations from cyber threats, the implementation of website security measures is essential. Blocking potential risks is beneficial to organizations since it:

Prevent any disruptions to the business

The deployment of targeted bot attacks or distributed denial of service assaults by attackers can result in considerable disruption to business operations by causing website outages or slowing down performance. E-commerce companies may incur additional expenses as a result of this.

Safeguard any sensitive information

Names, addresses, phone numbers, and other sensitive personal information, as well as financial details such as credit card information, are frequently found on websites or hosted on websites. Information that has been compromised can result in a major loss of trust from customers, as well as legal complications and potential financial damages.

Make your website more visible and improve your SEO

Google and Bing are two examples of search engines that punish firms for having websites that are either infected or not secure. By adopting measures to safeguard their websites, businesses can improve their search engine optimization (SEO) and ensure that their websites will be indexed in the appropriate manner.

Ensure compliance with the regulatory requirements

There are a number of federal and international standards that the majority of organizations are required to comply with. Some of these regulations include HIPAA, Payment Card Industry, and GDPR. In the event that compliance is not met, severe fines and penalties will be imposed.

How does Cloudflare secure our websites?

Safety and security

Known for its stringent security procedures, Cloudflare protects your website from a wide range of threats, including data breaches, bot assaults, and distributed denial of service attempts. At the same time that they reduce disruptions, these characteristics guarantee a high level of security. Cloudflare's connection to your website not only protects your website but also protects the DNS system that your website uses.

Because Cloudflare's DNS set is the only one that other people see when they query your domain name, this prevents your actual nameservers from being disclosed. Moreover, Cloudflare gives users the ability to set firewalls with individualized rules, which offers an additional layer of protection.

The security of WAF

When was the last time your website was subjected to an attack? Your website will continue to function normally and securely thanks to Cloudflare's ability to detect and stop any attempts at hacking. Cloudflare is able to successfully block malicious requests from reaching your server by filtering out spam assaults at the name-server level. Creating a safe and secure online environment for your website, it protects it from distributed denial of service attacks, SQL injections, and spam comments among other threats.

Free SSL Certificates Available

Cloudflare offers a free SSL Certificate to ensure that the data that is transmitted between your website and its visitors is kept secure. Because search engines give preference to websites that are safe, this not only improves the protection of sensitive information but also has the potential to increase your website's rankings in search engines.

Content delivery network

With Cloudflare's global network, which is spread out across several data centers all over the world, you can rest assured that the content of your website will be delivered with an unprecedented level of speed and efficiency. The impact of localized cyber-attacks is mitigated, and the danger of downtime is reduced, thanks to this distributed architecture, which simultaneously provides an additional layer of security.

Organization of Bots

As bots continue to advance in their level of sophistication, it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate between genuine traffic and malicious bots. The Bot Management feature of Cloudflare makes use of sophisticated algorithms to detect and eliminate unwanted bot activity. This helps to preserve resources and ensure that your online services continue to function without interruption.

A Security Model Based on Zero Trust

The conventional idea of blindly trusting entities that are part of your network is challenged by Cloudflare, which embraces the zero-trust security approach. To reduce the likelihood of unwanted access and potential security breaches, Cloudflare verifies each and every user and device before granting access to the system.

Protection against DDoS attacks

DDoS assaults, which are also known as distributed denial of service attacks, have the potential to render a company inoperable by flooding its servers with an excessive amount of traffic. Cloudflare's robust distributed denial of service (DDoS) prevention technologies neutralize these attacks, ensuring that your online presence continues to be uninterrupted even during the most sophisticated attacks.

How can a website be made safe?

There are numerous approaches to website security. Technical measures, code and design, access control and user management, and backup and recovery plans are the four areas that contain many of the best practices.

Technical measures include the implementation of solutions and tools to protect a website. These include Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates for encryption, web application firewalls (WAF) to filter and block malicious traffic, security plugins or software to scan for threats, content delivery networks (CDN) to block distributed denial of service attacks, and the implementation of regular updates and patches to the content management system (CMS), plugins, and website themes.

Best practices in coding and design can help reduce the vulnerability of a system. The use of input validation to protect against SQL injection attacks, the safe storing of user passwords, secure user authentication and session management, and the reduction of the amount of third-party code use are some examples.

The process of managing who has access to the backend of a website is referred to as using access control and user management. The usage of robust passwords and the implementation of two-factor authentication are all examples of access control. Other examples include restricting administrative access, periodically assessing user access, deleting redundant user permissions, and establishing strong passwords.

Businesses are able to better prepare for the worst-case circumstances by implementing backup and recovery plans. Data backups should be performed on a regular basis, backup recovery techniques should be tested, and backup data should be protected. These are excellent practices.

Conclusion-

DDoS mitigation, a Web Application Firewall, API protection, DNSSEC, Managed SSL/TLS, Bot management, client-side protection, and more are just some of the security services that are offered by Cloudflare, which operates a worldwide network that spans 330 cities and provides most of the services listed above. It is possible for these services to stop attacks near to their origin because they are all designed to operate from any data center that is part of our network.

By virtue of the fact that they are connected with our website performance services, the addition of new security precautions does not slow down traffic at any point. All of these services are also compatible with a wide variety of website infrastructures, and they can typically be set up in a matter of minutes after being requested.

Janet Watson

MyResellerHome MyResellerhome.com We offer experienced web hosting services that are customized to your specific requirements. Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram

[earthleave]

Strange Clouds! 😱 | WATCH OUT For These Clouds 😨 | #viral

শহরের ভিতর এমনই সূর্যাস্ত। ইতিহাস কোনদিকে যাচ্ছে!!! ❤️🌩️🇧🇩

[jcmarchi]

HostArmada Review: The Most Customer Centric Hosting Platform Yet?

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/hostarmada-review-the-most-customer-centric-hosting-platform-yet/

HostArmada Review: The Most Customer Centric Hosting Platform Yet?

When I decided to switch my hosting provider, I stumbled on HostArmada and decided to give them a shot. It was a risky choice, though. Emerging providers are, sometimes, not recommendable because of their unproven reliability and limited track record. But HostArmada proves to be different. Entirely different. 

HostArmada swept me off my feet with its advanced security and performance-focused features out-of-the-box. What’s more, their servers are hosted on LiteSpeed web servers – almost 11X faster than the Apache servers! As a website owner and developer, I’ve evaluated and tested different hosting providers to find the best fit for my clients and projects. I can boldly say it’s one of the best new hosts I’ve reviewed, and you’ll soon find out why. 

In the rest of this HostArmada review, I’ll conduct real-life tests to evaluate this host’s features, pricing plans, performance and customer support. I also included other vitals to help you make an informed decision. Ready? Let’s get started! 

HostArmada Review

HostArmada made its debut into the hosting industry five years ago. fresh to the scene. Though they’re still fresh to the scene, they have quickly climbed the ranks to become one of the most popular and reliable web hosts on the internet. In fact, this host is often pitted against industry giants like BlueHost, Hostinger and A2 Hosting…all because of its reliability, speed and performance. 

Of course, since they’re less than a decade in the game, one would expect basic features out-of-the-box. However, during my research, I discovered that each feature/tool on their platform is designed to give you a stress-free, secure and optimized web performance. 

Like every A-list provider, HostArmada offers all kinds of web hosting you’ll need – WordPress, shared reseller, VPS, and dedicated hosting services. In addition, they also provide open source and development hosting for developers and programmers. 

Whichever plan you choose to settle for, you’ll enjoy all the default hosting features such as free SSL certificates, WAF & network firewall, daily backups, etc. They don’t offer free trials or demos, but you get a 45-day money-back guarantee period to decide if they’re worth your investment. 

The company snagged a 4.9 star review from over 800 users on TrustPilot: 

HostArmada Rating – my personal take

Do your research. You’ll find hundreds (if not thousands) of web hosting providers, each promising secure, reliable, and fast performance. In my experience using and reviewing web hosts, I’ve discovered that a sheer number of them aren’t true to their words. Even the best of them sometimes fall short of their claims. 

To evaluate each comparatively, I developed a personal web hosting review system that examines key factors such as performance, reliability, customer support, pricing and features. I use a 1 – 5 grading system, with one as the lowest and five as the highest a provider can get. 

Quality My rating Why I gave this score Features and specs 4.9 Free SSL, backups, DoS/DDoS protection, NGINX & LiteSpeed web servers, SSD servers, and unlimited email accounts are a few features you’ll enjoy when you sign up with this provider. However, I gave them this score because their best features (LiteSpeed servers, for instance) are only available on the highest plans.  Pricing 4.5 HostArmada is one of the cheapest providers in the market, starting at $2.49/mo. You’ll enjoy many of their enterprise-grade features at this price (best if you’re just getting started online!) However, I discovered that the discounts only apply when you’re paying for a longer duration. This is why I awarded them this score.  Performance stats  4.7 I tested HostArmada’s performance and discovered they have an incredible loading speed (240ms) and uptime (100%). I’ve encountered hosts within the same price bracket with better performance stats, so I gave them a 4.7 here.  Ease of use 4.6 HostArmada has an attractive and user-friendly interface, an advantage for beginners and pros looking for a stress-free platform. But they still rely on the traditional cPanel for backend management, which is quite old-fashioned for me. This is why I gave them this score.  Customer support guarantee 5.0 Reach out to HostArmada’s support team at this second, and they’ll respond soon. Aside from their quick responses, they also offer up to five levels of customer support – email, phone, live chat, ticket and knowledgebase. This is why they have a 5.0 here.  

HostArmada Hosting Plans & Pricing – 2024

Just like every other A-grade web host, HostArmada offers all the major types of web hosting – shared, reseller, wordpress, VPS and dedicated hosting. 

They also have service-specific hosting plans, such as WooCommerce, Magento, Node.js, Open Source, and development hosting. As I shared earlier, you’ll get a 30-day money-back guarantee (this is only available for yearly payments). They also operate on a pay-as-you-go basis, so you don’t have to worry about cancellation fees.  

Here’s a summary of their hosting packages.

HostArmada’s Shared Hosting Plans

Start Dock

Space offered – 15 GB SSD storage

Bandwidth – 30 GB

Number of websites – 1 website allowed 

Price – $2.49/month 

Web Wrap

Space offered – 30 GB SSD storage

Bandwidth – 6GB

Number of websites – Unlimited websites allowed 

Price – $4.11/month 

Speed Reaper

Space offered – 40 SSD storage

Bandwidth –  90 GB

Number of websites – Unlimited websites allowed 

Price – $2.49/month 

Want the best value for your money? Opt for HostArmada’s Web Wrap plan. For $4.11/month, you can host multiple websites simultaneously without worrying about performance lags or downtime. You’ll get all the default hosting features, up to 14 days of daily backups,  4 CPU cores, three free website transfers, unlimited email accounts and many others. 

Who’s is this for? 

HostArmada’s shared hosting plans are perfect for digital nomads seeking a portfolio website. It’s also an excellent choice for small and medium-sized business owners with up to 120,000 monthly visitors. The Speed Reaper plan features LiteSpeed servers, so you may consider this if performance is your priority. 

HostArmada’s WordPress Hosting Plans

Start Dock

Space offered – 15 GB SSD storage

Bandwidth – 30 GB

Number of websites – 1 website allowed 

Price – $2.49/month 

Web Wrap

Space offered – 30 GB SSD storage

Bandwidth – 6GB

Number of websites – Unlimited websites allowed 

Price – $4.11/month 

Speed Reaper

Space offered – 40 SSD storage

Bandwidth –  90 GB

Number of websites – Unlimited websites allowed 

Price – $2.49/month 

HostArmada’s WordPress hosting plan is almost similar to the shared hosting plan, so I’ll also recommend the Web Wrap Plan if you want the best value for your money.  

Who’s it for? 

WordPress is the largest CMS (content management system) in the world. It’s suitable for all kinds and sizes of businesses, whether large or small. The large community also makes it easier to find solutions to issues faster. HostArmada’s WordPress plans are fully managed and coupled with WordPress-specific features to give you the best digital experience. 

HostArmada’s Reseller Hosting Plans

Sitedust

Space offered – 15 GB SSD storage

Bandwidth – 3 TB

Number of websites – Unlimited websites

Price – $21/month 

Protoseller

Space offered – 80 GB SSD storage

Bandwidth – 6 TB 

Number of websites – Unlimited websites 

Price – $28.02/month 

Web Giant

Space offered – 110 SSD storage

Bandwidth –  9 TB

Number of websites – Unlimited websites 

Price – $35.03/month 

Site Nova

Space offered – 200 SSD storage

Bandwidth –  12 TB

Number of websites – Unlimited websites 

Price – $53.96/month 

If the shared plans are not enough for you, HostArmada’s reseller plans are the way to go. The Web Giant Plan has multiple advanced features, including cPanel & WHM, free WHMCS, LiteSpeed cache plugin, 110 GB SSD storage, 9 TB bandwidth and more. 

Who’s this for? 

HostArmada’s reseller hosting plans are an excellent choice for web developers/designers who want to add web hosting as a complementary service … or anyone who needs to manage multiple websites simultaneously with minimal to no downtime. All plans allow you to enjoy the speedy performance of LiteSpeed web servers, HTTP/3 protocols, advanced caching, free white label, etc. 

HostArmada’s VPS Hosting Plans

Web Shuttle

Space offered – 50 GB SSD storage

Bandwidth – 2 TB

Number of websites – Unlimited websites

Price – $29.95/month 

Web Voyager

Space offered – 80 GB SSD storage

Bandwidth – 4 TB 

Number of websites – Unlimited websites 

Price – $35.73/month 

Web Raider

Space offered – 160 SSD storage

Bandwidth –  8 TB

Number of websites – Unlimited websites 

Price – $46.73/month 

Site Carrier

Space offered – 320 SSD storage

Bandwidth –  16 TB

Number of websites – Unlimited websites 

Price – $74.23/month 

VPS plans are your best bet if you’re tired of shared servers but need a reliable and scalable alternative without overcommitting on costs. HostArmada VPS plans are built to handle resource-intensive projects. 

For a balance between costs and features, go for the Web Raider VPS plan. This gives you access to all the features on lesser plans, cPanel and WHM, up to 5 TB bandwidth, 160 GB SSD space and Nginx web server caches for faster load times. 

Who’s this for? 

If your website traffic is growing sporadically, it’s likely a sign that you need VPS hosting. Compared to other types of plans, HostArmada VPS hosting is designed to provide redundant and scalable cloud hosting solutions. On all plans, you’ll enjoy all fully managed hosting services, hosting features, full root access, a minimum of 2 CPU cores, five free cPanel accounts, and advanced caching features. 

HostArmada’s Dedicated Hosting Plans

Lift off

Space offered – 160 GB SSD storage

Bandwidth – 5 TB

Number of websites – Unlimited websites

Price – $81.95/month 

Low orbit

Space offered – 320 GB SSD storage

Bandwidth – 6 TB 

Number of websites – Unlimited websites 

Price – $114.95/month 

High Orbit

Space offered – 640 SSD storage

Bandwidth –  32 TB

Number of websites – Unlimited websites 

Price – $180.95/month 

HostArmada’s Low Orbit plans offer a well-balanced combination of performance, resource capacity, flexibility and affordability. The 8-core AMD EPYC  Cores, 16 GB RAM, and 320 GB SSD storage keeps your websites and applications running smoothly and efficiently, even under heavy use. 

Who’s this for?

Do you need a server that can accommodate your large web traffic? Then dedicated hosting might be right for you! More specifically, it is important to protect user data from the risks of a shared server. Agencies, developers, and IT professionals looking to manage their client’s websites on one platform can also opt for a dedicated server. 

HostArmada’s Open Source Hosting Plans

Start Dock

Space offered – 15 GB SSD storage

Bandwidth – 30 GB

Number of websites – 1 website allowed 

Price – $2.49/month 

Web Wrap

Space offered – 30 GB SSD storage

Bandwidth – 6GB

Number of websites – Unlimited websites allowed 

Price – $4.11/month 

Speed Reaper

Space offered – 40 SSD storage

Bandwidth –  90 GB

Number of websites – Unlimited websites allowed 

Price – $2.49/month 

HostArmada’s open-source hosting plans are a combination of their shared hosting plans and Open Source-specific features. If you’re just starting with them, I recommend you opt for the Web Wrap plan because it gives you access to advanced features at a friendly price. Their services are fully managed, so you don’t have to worry about installing or updating your applications, visual themes, and modules. 

Who’s this for? 

The HostArmada open-source plans are designed for tech startups, developers, enterprise organizations, service providers, and anyone who needs to build or manage open-source projects efficiently. 

HostArmada’s Development Hosting Plans

Start Dock

Space offered – 15 GB SSD storage

Bandwidth – 30 GB

Number of websites – 1 website allowed 

Price – $2.49/month 

Web Wrap

Space offered – 30 GB SSD storage

Bandwidth – 6GB

Number of websites – Unlimited websites allowed 

Price – $4.11/month 

Speed Reaper

Space offered – 40 SSD storage

Bandwidth –  90 GB

Number of websites – Unlimited websites allowed 

Price – $2.49/month 

AAs you can see, this is also similar to the shared and open-source hosting plans. I recommend the Web Wrap plan to enjoy rich features at a friendly cost. Luckily, HostArmada’s plans are scalable, so you can seamlessly move to higher plans as your needs grow.

Who’s this for? 

Well, you guessed right. The HostArmada Development Hosting plan is designed for developers or other IT professionals needing a developer-friendly hosting environment. You have full access to developer tools such as PHP, SQL, Python, Node.js, SSH access, WP – CLI, etc. 

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s get into the exciting parts. 

HostArmada’s Features 

Here are some of the top features offered on all the HostArmada plans: 

Free website transfer and SSL certificates 

Unlimited databases and FTP accounts

Multiple PHP versions 

24/7 human support 

Free drag and drop SiteBuilder 

Free WAF & IP Firewall 

AMP EPYC CPU Cores 

Daily backups

Yes…all of these are default hosting features. What makes HostArmada different from other providers in the same category? 

For me, it’s their commitment to innovation and providing advanced and modern performance-based features at a competitive price. In fact, all their services pass ten levels of quality assessment before they are released to users! 

For starters, I love how they invest in advanced speed-enhancing features. They use the latest AMD Epyc processors, identified as the fastest CPU processors compared to the AMD architectures. At the core of their services is the LiteSpeed web server, which outperforms Apache and Nginx servers combined! 

Do you know that most of their services are fully managed? This means if you have other pressing business commitments or are growing beyond your capacity, you don’t have to worry about losing revenue because they manage the technical side of your web hosting. 

Their quality customer support makes them top my list. As a website owner, I’ve had my fair share of struggles with web hosts with subpar customer service. Seeing HostArmada’s distinctive performance is a breath of fresh air. See what other users have to say:  

Impressive!

HostArmada’s Performance

You’d hardly find a web host who’s upfront about its performance metrics. A good number of them promise reliable performance and speed with minimal downtime. How do you validate this? 

Personally, I always recommend trying out the host’s performance before committing for the long term. Sometimes, you’ll find hosts willing to give you a demo or free trial to eliminate all guesses. HostArmada doesn’t offer any of these, so I’ll share my experience with this web host after purchasing their shared hosting plan. 

For this test, we’ll focus on three vital performance metrics: 

Uptime measures the reliability of your web host. It is the percentage of time your website is accessible to users. No web server is perfect, but a good uptime is 99.0% – 99.99%.  

Load time measures how your web page loads when users click on the URL. A good loading time should be >3s. 

TTFB measures the time a user takes to receive the first byte of data from your web server. Google recommends a TTFB of 800ms or less. 

In a sentence, the faster (or lower) the load time and TTFB, the faster the server delivers your web data to users when they click on the URL. A good uptime also means your website will experience little to no downtime yearly, which is an advantage if you’re in the eCommerce or SaaS niche. All these metrics improve your search engine performance and conversion rates.  

HostArmada uses NGINX & LiteSpeed web servers, has advanced caching features, SSD storage drives, high-performance AMD EPYC CPU Cores, and integrates with CloudFlare CDN (content delivery network) – all of which are designed to boost your performance above others hosted on average providers. 

In addition, all the websites are hosted on the cloud, which means improved scalability, reliability and flexibility! They also promise a 99.9% uptime, which means your website will always be accessible except during scheduled maintenance. 

Let’s validate their claims! 

I used GTMetrix to test a website hosted on HostArmada and these were the results: 

HostArmada’s performance didn’t fall short of my expectations! Their servers responded in 293ms (0.293s), which is impressive. The overall performance was 99%, which is super impressive. 

To test their uptime, I used Uptime Robot to evaluate their performance in the last 30 days. Here’s what I got: 

So far, their website has been experiencing 100% uptime, which validates their 99.99% uptime claims.  

HostArmada’s Customer Support

HostArmada offers six levels of customer support – knowledgebase, tutorials, live chat, email, phone and ticket. 

Let’s examine each in detail: 

Knowledgebase 

Are you new to web hosting? No problem! HostArmada has a rich resource that caters to almost all vitals on its platform. This includes DIY how-to articles on web hosting, open-source applications, billing and many more: 

There’s also a search bar to help you find solutions to issues swiftly. 

Tutorials: 

If you prefer DIY solutions, you’ll love the detailed articles provided in the HostArmada Learning Center on how to get started or manage your website on their platform. They have a guide on almost all web hosting-related topics and website-relevant topics like how to use Google Analytics: 

Support Ticket:

HostArmada also allows users to submit queries via an online ticket, although this is only available to paid users. 

Phone:

If you prefer a faster response, HostArmada allows you to speak directly with any of their expert support team via phone. However, there are call charges for locations outside the US. 

Live Chat: 

HostArmada also allows you to chat live with their hosting experts 24/7/365. The live chat button is tucked at the bottom right corner of their website so that users can easily submit queries. 

I initiated a chat to inquire about their services and test their response time. I got a response almost immediately. 

Email

Lastly, if all other channels are unresponsive, you can reach out to them via email. You can easily create support tickets on their website that will automatically be forwarded to your email for further assistance. 

The best part is that you can chat with specific agents for an even faster response. For example, if you’re experiencing issues related to payments, you can contact the sales department instead. 

HostArmada’s security features

I personally love how HostArmada prioritizes the security of websites hosted on their platform. They go beyond the surface-level free SSL certificates and backups to provide top-of-the-line security features, even on their smallest plans. 

Their security checks begin with their web servers. Unlike other hosts, they built a security system that checks every IP address connecting their web servers for threats and cyber attacks. For example, they reduce/eliminate the risks of DDoS attacks by establishing a ‘Connection Limit’ for each IP address. This limit reduces the number of requests sent from a single IP address. 

Another advantage is their all-round security system – Environment Security Fleet – that secures user web hosting accounts and their associated files. They use advanced network firewalls (with reCAPTCHA protection) and WAF, intrusion detection and prevention systems, malware scanning, and OS patch management features to protect your website from further attacks. 

Amazing! 

There’s a caveat, though. HostArmada’s daily backups are limited (7 for the smallest shared hosting plan). I’ve seen other providers with similar features provide unlimited daily backups. I hope they can improve on this in the future. 

HostArmada’s website builders

Another thing I love about this provider is how they’ve made it easier for anyone to kickstart their digital journey. They have an extensive domain directory where you can find and register the perfect domain for your business: 

You can register your domain name for one year without paying any charge: 

And when it’s time to build your website, you can opt for any of their plans to access their custom drag-and-drop website builder — HostArmada Website Builder: 

You can also build your website with one-click on any of their affiliated CMSs – WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, PrestaShop, and Magento.

Note: If you’re choosing a specific website builder, for instance, WordPress, opt for the web hosting service that specializes or offers support for that platform. HostArmada has WordPress, WooCommerce, and Magento Hosting plans. 

User-Friendliness – Ease of use

HostArmada has a modern and intuitive user interface. I find it attractive at first glance, likely because of the blue, purple and pink pastel colors. The icons and texts are also well placed, which makes it easy for anyone to operate, even for beginners. Having a modern design is only one part of the puzzle. Let’s see how easy it is to register and manage an account on HostArmada:  

Registering an account with HostArmada

To have full access to any of HostArmada’s hosting features, you have to pay for any of their hosting plans. Here’s how: 

Step 1: 

Navigate to the top menu bar and click ‘Hosting.’ Proceed to choose any hosting plan from the list. Next, select your preferred package and click ‘Get Started.’

Step 2: 

You’ll be redirected to a domain selection page. Here, you can either register a new domain, transfer your domain from another registrar or use your existing domain and update your nameservers: 

Step  3:

Next, choose your billing cycle and data centers. You’ll likely see upsells on this page to improve your web performance: 

Then, click ‘Preview Order’ to make payments. 

Step 4: 

Next, review your orders before making payments. I noticed they added an ID protection to the checkout by default. Although it’s useful, I don’t like how it was pre-selected: 

Step 5: 

Lastly, you’ll be redirected to the checkout page to make payments for your order. Here, input your name, billing address and billing details. They accept only two forms of payment – PayPal and Credit Card. Once you’ve imputed all the necessities, click on ‘Complete Order.’ 

HostArmada’s Control Panel

As you can see, HostArmada has an intuitive user interface. I would have loved it if they built a custom control panel to match. 

However, they use the traditional cPanel to reduce the friction in learning for their web users. This can easily be accessible via the ‘Client Area’

Here, you’ll find all the functionalities to set up and manage your account, including setting up email accounts, installing WordPress in one-click, creating databases, etc.  

HostArmada is also compatible with WHM for managing multiple cPanel accounts simultaneously. This is a great feature if you’re buying reseller, VPS or dedicated hosting plans: 

Installing WordPress on HostArmada

Installing WordPress on HostArmada is equally effortless. As with other hosting providers with cPanel, you can find and install WordPress in one-click with the Softaculous Auto Installer. 

To do this, log into your cPanel account and navigate to the Software section, where you’ll find the Softaculous Apps Installer: 

Once you click on it, you’ll be directed to the Softaculous Dashboard, where WordPress is listed under ‘Top Scripts’

Proceed to click on the WordPress icon:  

Before you install it, you’ll be required to configure some things. Navigate to the ‘Software Setup’ section to do this. First, choose the WordPress version you wish to install: 

Next, enter the site name/ description and create an admin account. Make sure you use details you can easily remember when creating your admin account. 

Lastly, select your preferred WordPress theme and click ‘Install’ 

Voila! You’ll get a congratulatory message once it’s installed:

Server FootPrint and CDS

While fast loading times and uptime are excellent performance metrics, you also need to consider the server footprint of a web host before making any commitments. This is because the closer your host server is to your target audience, the faster your website will load for users in that location. You also need to consider how widespread the data centers are. Web hosts with large server footprints offer better global coverage, which means users from different regions can experience optimal performance when navigating your site. 

In addition, if your web host uses a content delivery network (or CDN), it significantly improves loading times by reducing the time to the first byte. 

HostArmada has 23 data centers in 5 continents, including North America, Europe and Asia.  Their web servers are also powered by CloudFlare CDN, one of the biggest and most reliable in the market. 

Conclusion: Do We Recommend HostArmada?

HostArmada might be less than a decade old, but its performance, specs, competitive pricing and customer support make it one of the best in the market. I definitely recommend it! 

Whether you’re just launching a new website or a tech startup needing robust infrastructure and reliable support, HostArmada is a good start. Plus, their newness is an advantage. Since they’re already making strides in the hosting industry, I believe they still have better features and updates coming up. Don’t miss out!!  

Visit HostArmada →

FAQs

What is the speed of HostArmada? 

HostArmada claims their infrastructure is connected with 7000 Mbps (Gbps). This means that their servers can handle large volumes of data flow, even during peak hours. This means a better user experience and higher chances of topping the search results. 

HostArmada vs Hostinger: Which is better? 

HostArmada and Hostinger are reputable providers, each with strengths and service offerings. The difference between the two largely depends on your specific needs and the feature combination these providers have to meet your needs.  

For performance, I’ll opt for HostArmada. They both have an impressive load time. However, Hostinger doesn’t offer SSD storage in any of their plans. 

If you’re looking to save costs, Hostinger is the way to go. Their plans start at $2.99/month (plus an extra three months free), while HostArmada costs $2.49/month (for a triennial payment). 

Overall, I’ll pick HostArmada over Hostinger because of their rich feature list, advanced performance and security technologies and excellent customer support. 

What are some HostArmada’s alternatives? 

If you’re thinking of using other HostArmada’s alternatives, try out Siteground, BlueHost, ScalaHosting, and Cloudways. 

[mynewchapterinlife]

Time to Call for your helping hands 大家幫幫手

To be honest, I have not established any New Year’s resolutions for the past few years. The main reason was that I often aim high but lack the ability eventually. Nevertheless, I still need to setup some new initiative for the year to come.Last year, the focus was on bicycle maintenance and repair, which costed me quite a bit. This year, I believed saving is more essential. My plan is to migrate…

[ao3org]

We've temporarily disabled the ability to request a new account invitation as a preventative measure due to a spam attack. If you already have an invitation, you can still use it! However, anyone currently in the queue will not receive an invitation until we turn it back on.

Additionally, we have temporarily disabled the form on the Technical Support & Feedback page and taken the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports page offline. Anyone attempting to access the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports will receive an error page about being blocked from archiveofourown.org, but don't panic -- this is not the case! It's just the default error displayed by Cloudflare. You can continue to access the rest of the site as normal.

Lastly, the Organization for Transformative Works' donation page -- which is hosted by a third party provider -- is currently offline due to a DDoS attack. This is the only donation form the OTW uses, so please be cautious of scammers impersonating AO3 or the OTW to solicit donations. We are unable to take them at this time.

July 11, 2023 - 23:50 UTC

[pressplaytech]

Cloudflare or Not? That’s the Bloody Question!

Let’s get one thing straight - the internet’s a wild beast, and without the right tools, you’re just a sitting duck waiting for a cyber-shitstorm. Enter Cloudflare, the digital bouncer promising to keep the riff-raff out of your cyber pub. But is it really all it’s cracked up to be? Or should you be casting your eyes towards the dashing hero, Astro Agency? Let’s dive in, shall we?

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Cloudflare

First up, the good bits. Cloudflare is like that mate who’s always got your back in a bar brawl. It’s got a robust DDoS protection that keeps your website safer than a pint in a nun’s hands. Plus, with its CDN services, your website loads faster than a greased weasel, no matter where your audience is.

But, hold your horses! It ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. Cloudflare, bless its digital socks, can be a bit of a diva. If it throws a tantrum (read: false positives), it can block legit visitors, making your website as welcoming as a fart in a spacesuit. And let’s not forget the occasional outages - when Cloudflare goes down, it takes your site with it, like a drunken mate dragging you out of the club.

Why Astro Agency Could Be Your Digital Knight

Now, let’s gab about Astro Agency, the unsung hero in this digital drama. These blokes understand that one size doesn’t fit all. Unlike Cloudflare’s often one-track mind, Astro Agency offers tailor-made solutions faster than you can say “Bob’s your uncle!” They get down and dirty with your specific needs, crafting a digital armour that fits you like a glove.

With Astro Agency, you’re not just another face in the crowd. Their customer support is like having a personal butler for your website. Any problem, big or small, they’re on it like white on rice. No more shouting into the void with generic support tickets.

The Verdict? Go With the Underdog!

So, what’s the final word? Cloudflare’s got its perks, sure. It’s like that popular kid in school - everyone knows it, and it does a decent job. But if you’re after something that fits you like a bespoke suit, it’s time to give a nod to Astro Agency.

In this digital world where one size definitely does not fit all, Astro Agency comes out as the bespoke tailor, crafting solutions that fit your needs like a glove. So, toss out the cookie-cutter approach and let Astro Agency be the wind beneath your digital wings.

There you have it, a comparative look at Cloudflare and Astro Agency, served up with a side of cheeky banter. Remember, in the wild west of the web, it’s not just about having a bouncer, but having the right bouncer who knows your name and your favourite drink. Cheers!

[reseptivaras]

cloudflare nameserver albert.ns.cloudflare.com

[tinypandacakes]

Attn authors on AO3! Just learned about this on a writing discord I’m in and thought I’d share.

A new website, https://rivd.net/, has cropped up and has been shown to have stolen/scraped works from Ao3, which are being scraped and uploaded at a rather impressive speed.

At this time, it isn't clear if site owners have wised up and have started taking the fics down, as the site requires an account and also the current *justified outrage* at this has led to an apparent overload on the site's servers, meaning they've basically shut down the search and privatized their fanfiction category.

The best way to protect your work if it has not already been scraped is by locking it to all logged out users. It’s unfortunate as guest comments and kudos are so precious to us authors, but it will protect your works from being scraped.

Further information can be found in this Reddit thread and the below screenshots: https://www.reddit.com/r/AO3/comments/1dvyvqm/ao3_fics_being_uploaded_to_rivd_by_a_bot/

NOTE: DO NOT USE RIVD's DMCA TAKEDOWN FORM. You SHOULD NOT be required to provide your *government ID* to protect your intellectual property. This is borderline a phishing scam. RIVD is hosted by Cloudflare, who have a system for reporting abuse on sites which use their services which can be found at the following site: https://www.cloudflare.com/trust-hub/reporting-abuse/.

Thank you @punemy-spotted for compiling all this info and helping get the word out.

[dnpbeats]

laylo, email domains, and danandphiltour.com

okay so i've been trying to think of why dan and phil would even use the tour email in the first place (assuming they knew we'd see it), regardless of if the project is a tour or not! so i've been looking into how laylo works and if dan and phil were the ones who picked the email domain, if they knew we'd see it, etc.—the answer is yes, they did. they had to manually enter the domain they wanted the emails to be sent from, as well as the email that replies are received at. all of my information comes from this page on laylo's website, including the video :)

disclaimer: i'm not an expert on this stuff! i'm just making educated guesses based on the information available to me. if somebody has firsthand experience with this and i'm dead wrong, please feel free to let me know. also i'm not trying to sway people one way or another if they're announcing a tour or not—just presenting info on how laylo works and a possible reason for why they started with certain emails and then switched to others

for the sake of clarity: original emails were sent from "news@mail.danandphiltour.com" and the reply email was "dh@danielhowell.com." after a bit (a couple of hours maybe) the emails were switched. currently they get sent from "news@laylo.danandphilshop.com" and the reply email is "danandphilshopweb@gmail.com"

okay, so, long story short: when dan and phil (or whoever they had doing this for them/helping them) set up their laylo account, the email page looked like this:

they would have been prompted to send emails from whatever domain they chose, meaning when they entered danandphiltour.com, they did it fully knowing that people would see the emails sent from it. if it is a tour that they don't want spoiled, or if it isn't a tour at all, why would they even pick this domain to send emails from?

my best guess is that it's because danandphilshop.com is hosted through shopify, and danandphiltour.com is just a webpage hosted by cloudflare (as far as i can tell the dnptour website itself is just an html/css page). if you watch the video from laylo, they talk about how certain domain providers have special tricks you have to do when editing the DNS settings. the example given in the video is squarespace, and they have a few more domain providers listed where issues can come up. while shopify isn't one of the ones listed, it's a similar type of host to squarespace. it's not hard to imagine that there are similar (but not identical) tricks to changing DNS settings for shopify. for comparison, squarespace's page on DNS settings is pretty similar to shopify's. in a world where it's difficult to get the custom domain working with shopify, it would make sense if they tried to use other domains they own that weren't hooked up to shopify—namely, danandphiltour.com

(note that the method for editing DNS settings on cloudflare seems to be pretty similar to the other two listed above. the reason why i'm guessing that clouldflare might be more straightforward than shopify is because shopify is a whole platform with a lot going on in the backend (similar to squarespace), whereas cloudflare is just hosting the domain. but again this is just me guessing!)

so yeah, that's my guess as to why they chose to use dnptour as the email knowing people would see it! as to why they changed it, who knows. maybe for whatever reason they wanted to use dnpshop and just couldn't get it working in time, maybe it was because people were getting the wrong idea with the tour email, maybe it was because people were getting the right idea with the tour email! but i think the reason they used it in the first place is probably just that they were having trouble with the dnpshop domain and were like fuck it let's try dnptour and that went more smoothly :)

as to why the reply to email was originally dan's email and then it switched to the random-ass dnpshop gmail—no guesses on that, if anyone has any thoughts lmk 😂

[azuremist]

Cohost sucks, too (but not for the reasons that one user said)

So, you may recall a person on tumblr saying that Cohost sucks, which accused a transfem on the cohost team of predatory behavior. That was transmisogynistic bullshit, and was blatantly untrue.

But cohost does suck. Just for reasons unrelated to that.

Listing everything loosely in an order of “weird and sort of annoying” to “holy fuck”:

Tag capitalization is determined by how the first person who used the tag capitalized it

You have to personally email support and wait for them to get back to you if you want to delete your account

They call themselves a “not for profit” or “non profit”, despite being registered as a for profit LLC

There is only one moderator for this site of 30k+ users, which means reports aren’t responded to for weeks at a time

Staff and the userbase have a very odd parasocial relationship. The staff chronically overshares, call users their ‘friends’, and have gotten mad at users for reporting too many things on weekends, after hours, or holidays (with the subtext being that you should not expect them to do anything after hours). They even publicly post about how they are worried about paying rent because of the site’s financial situation, which is frankly disgusting. Especially when you see people in the comments barely able to scrape up the $5 USD to give them for the subscription service.

A member of staff publicly bragged about how Cloudflare forgot to bill them for hosting, which is not only wildly unprofessional, but could likely get them sued. (And Cloudflare could, at any time, ask them for the money they owe, for the record.)

Staff say that they want to be transparent with financials, but are incredibly inconsistent about financial updates

The platform is losing $10k-40k USD each month

Meanwhile, staff currently pays themselves $94k USD a year, per person. Sure, that’s not as much as the average person with their job title… but Cohost is losing tens of thousands of dollars each and every month, so that doesn’t really apply.

On top of the previous two points, staff doesn’t accept volunteers, and they’ve consistently implemented features that make no difference to the financials of the company

TL;DR:

The cohost staff are tech people who wanted to do a startup, got a loan from a rich friend, and is doing nothing to make the site sustainable. Meanwhile, they’re paying themselves almost $100k USD a year while still guilt-tripping their dirt-poor, largely queer userbase.

It sucks, because I really believe Cohost could succeed. You know what, no — I know Cohost could succeed. Between the Elon Musk-ification of Twitter (who has deemed Tweeting “I hate trans people” fine, but automatically blocks people from Tweeting “I hate cis people” for hate speech), and the owner of tumblr going mask-off transphobic Zionist… Right now, maybe more than ever, there is a serious niche of ‘social media for queer fandom nerds’, just waiting to be filled! And on the surface, Cohost is perfect!

And I like everything about Cohost… except for how it’s being managed. I want to see it succeed, because it could be amazing, if the people behind it just made better decisions. But, ultimately, I do not trust the people running Cohost to help it realize its potential.

Alas, it seems this isn’t the tumblr alternative we are looking for.

[canmom]

Hypothetical Decentralised Social Media Protocol Stack

if we were to dream up the Next Social Media from first principles we face three problems. one is scaling hosting, the second is discovery/aggregation, the third is moderation.

hosting

hosting for millions of users is very very expensive. you have to have a network of datacentres around the world and mechanisms to sync the data between them. you probably use something like AWS, and they will charge you an eye-watering amount of money for it. since it's so expensive, there's no way to break even except by either charging users to access your service (which people generally hate to do) or selling ads, the ability to intrude on their attention to the highest bidder (which people also hate, and go out of their way to filter out). unless you have a lot of money to burn, this is a major barrier.

the traditional internet hosts everything on different servers, and you use addresses that point you to that server. the problem with this is that it responds poorly to sudden spikes in attention. if you self-host your blog, you can get DDOSed entirely by accident. you can use a service like cloudflare to protect you but that's $$$. you can host a blog on a service like wordpress, or a static site on a service like Github Pages or Neocities, often for free, but that broadly limits interaction to people leaving comments on your blog and doesn't have the off-the-cuff passing-thought sort of interaction that social media does.

the middle ground is forums, which used to be the primary form of social interaction before social media eclipsed them, typically running on one or a few servers with a database + frontend. these are viable enough, often they can be run with fairly minimal ads or by user subscriptions (the SomethingAwful model), but they can't scale indefinitely, and each one is a separate bubble. mastodon is a semi-return to this model, with the addition of a means to use your account on one bubble to interact with another ('federation').

the issue with everything so far is that it's an all-eggs-in-one-basket approach. you depend on the forum, instance, or service paying its bills to stay up. if it goes down, it's just gone. and database-backend models often interact poorly with the internet archive's scraping, so huge chunks won't be preserved.

scaling hosting could theoretically be solved by a model like torrents or IPFS, in which every user becomes a 'server' for all the posts they download, and you look up files using hashes of the content. if a post gets popular, it also gets better seeded! an issue with that design is archival: there is no guarantee that stuff will stay on the network, so if nobody is downloading a post, it is likely to get flushed out by newer stuff. it's like link rot, but it happens automatically.

IPFS solves this by 'pinning': you order an IPFS node (e.g. your server) not to flush a certain file so it will always be available from at least one source. they've sadly mixed this up in cryptocurrency, with 'pinning services' which will take payment in crypto to pin your data. my distaste for a technology designed around red queen races aside, I don't know how pinning costs compare to regular hosting costs.

theoretically you could build a social network on a backbone of content-based addressing. it would come with some drawbacks (posts would be immutable, unless you use some indirection to a traditional address-based hosting) but i think you could make it work (a mix of location-based addressing for low-bandwidth stuff like text, and content-based addressing for inline media). in fact, IPFS has the ability to mix in a bit of address-based lookup into its content-based approach, used for hosting blogs and the like.

as for videos - well, BitTorrent is great for distributing video files. though I don't know how well that scales to something like Youtube. you'd need a lot of hard drive space to handle the amount of Youtube that people typically watch and continue seeding it.

aggregation/discovery

the next problem is aggregation/discovery. social media sites approach this problem in various ways. early social media sites like LiveJournal had a somewhat newsgroup-like approach, you'd join a 'community' and people would post stuff to that community. this got replaced by the subscription model of sites like Twitter and Tumblr, where every user is simultaneously an author and a curator, and you subscribe to someone to see what posts they want to share.

this in turn got replaced by neural network-driven algorithms which attempt to guess what you'll want to see and show you stuff that's popular with whatever it thinks your demographic is. that's gotta go, or at least not be an intrinsic part of the social network anymore.

it would be easy enough to replicate the 'subscribe to see someone's recommended stuff' model, you just need a protocol for pointing people at stuff. (getting analytics such as like/reblog counts would be more difficult!) it would probably look similar to RSS feeds: you upload a list of suitably formatted data, and programs which speak that protocol can download it.

the problem of discovery - ways to find strangers who are interested in the same stuff you are - is more tricky. if we're trying to design this as a fully decentralised, censorship-resistant network, we face the spam problem. any means you use to broadcast 'hi, i exist and i like to talk about this thing, come interact with me' can be subverted by spammers. either you restrict yourself entirely to spreading across a network of curated recommendations, or you have to have moderation.

moderation

moderation is one of the hardest problems of social networks as they currently exist. it's both a problem of spam (the posts that users want to see getting swamped by porn bots or whatever) and legality (they're obliged to remove child porn, beheading videos and the like). the usual solution is a combination of AI shit - does the robot think this looks like a naked person - and outsourcing it to poorly paid workers in (typically) African countries, whose job is to look at reports of the most traumatic shit humans can come up with all day and confirm whether it's bad or not.

for our purposes, the hypothetical decentralised network is a protocol to help computers find stuff, not a platform. we can't control how people use it, and if we're not hosting any of the bad shit, it's not on us. but spam moderation is a problem any time that people can insert content you did not request into your feed.

possibly this is where you could have something like Mastodon instances, with their own moderation rules, but crucially, which don't host the content they aggregate. so instead of having 'an account on an instance', you have a stable address on the network, and you submit it to various directories so people can find you. by keeping each one limited in scale, it makes moderation more feasible. this is basically Reddit's model: you have topic-based hubs which people can subscribe to, and submit stuff to.

the other moderation issue is that there is no mechanism in this design to protect from mass harassment. if someone put you on the K*w*f*rms List of Degenerate Trannies To Suicidebait, there'd be fuck all you can do except refuse to receive contact from strangers. though... that's kind of already true of the internet as it stands. nobody has solved this problem.

to sum up

primarily static sites 'hosted' partly or fully on IPFS and BitTorrent

a protocol for sharing content you want to promote, similar to RSS, that you can aggregate into a 'feed'

directories you can submit posts to which handle their own moderation

no ads, nobody makes money off this

honestly, the biggest problem with all this is mostly just... getting it going in the first place. because let's be real, who but tech nerds is going to use a system that requires you to understand fuckin IPFS? until it's already up and running, this idea's got about as much hope as getting people to sign each others' GPG keys. it would have to have the sharp edges sanded down, so it's as easy to get on the Hypothetical Decentralised Social Network Protocol Stack as it is to register an account on tumblr.

but running over it like this... I don't think it's actually impossible in principle. a lot of the technical hurdles have already been solved. and that's what I want the Next Place to look like.

[artfight]

Sorry not a question- but I think the website being so slow in the first days of artfight is part of the charm <3

I’m very excited for July! Thank you so much for all the work you put in to hosting this event :)

It's almost tradition at this point. Where would we be without our 504 Cloudflare error...

We're excited for what this year will bring! We hope you have so much fun!!!

[uupdirector]

PSA TO DISCORD USERS ON DESKTOP!! PLEASE REBLOG TO SPREAD AWARENESS!

Discord's hosting service; Cloudflare, had a bit of a funky issue going on that appeared to be IP Blocking users upon logging in on Desktop, but don't be alarmed! The common fix is to simply restart your computer, and it should be working again! Worked for me, and God - believe me, it scared me too at first 😭

[jcmarchi]

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 →

Visit Ultahost →

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 →

Visit StableHost →

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.

[deramin2]

Boyfriend and I rushed to watch Critical Role Cooldown and apparently so did everyone else because Beacon has a Cloudflare error for both of us (Error 524: timeout from host server). They Critter Hug of Deathed themselves.