Keys to Our Top Linux Hosting Reviews — How We Rate the Best VPS Plans for Linux
Security, stability, the support of an extensive developer community — the list of Linux benefits goes on and on for many hosting shoppers. The popular operating system has become such a pull factor for customers that most of the top hosts broadcast features like CentOS, automatic patches, and Linux-friendly software as mainstays of each VPS hosting service.
As someone who just searched “best Linux VPS” or the like, you’re left with a lengthy list of options to sift through. Here, we walk you through our methods for evaluating each Linux VPS server above, so you can make an informed decision for your upcoming project.
Linux Server Points of Comparison
Let’s hash out the details of Linux server hosting. We’ll unveil the features we look for, the hosts who deliver them best, and how the top offerings compare to those of competitors.
1. Hardware
A VPS host is only as good as their hardware. A major perk of VPS hosting is a larger pool of dedicated server resources — so why wouldn’t you want the best of the best?
We look into the RAM, the storage specs, and disk space allowances in each VPS plan we review. Category leaders tout free SSDs that boost your server with added speed, and Liquid Web has RAID-protected SSDs available for free within its VPS hosting server.
2. Software
If you’re searching “Linux VPS web hosting,” software is obviously important to you. The hosts we hold in highest regard in this niche offer business-class software to support their world-class hardware.
For starters, you might find enterprise-class CentOS 6 with InMotion, but then you should also look for other Linux-friendly applications and scripts compatible with the hosting plan. With hosts like Bluehost or JustHost, the Apache web server comes standard, and iPage pre-installs popular programming scripts for you.
3. Security and Monitoring
Since reliability and performance are cornerstones of a quality VPS hosting experience, security and network monitoring features are crucial to Linux VPS shoppers. Customers expect round-the-clock server monitoring as a minimum.
Free Linux OS security patches come standard with InMotion. Most hosts offer beefed-up security for managed VPS service customers, but Liquid Web’s Heroic Support™ team goes the extra mile for each VPS hosting plan. Built-in backups are included with Liquid Web plans, along with enhanced security for your server.
4. Uptime Guarantee
We can’t drive this point home enough: Uptime, uptime, uptime! It matters! To break it down, a 99.9% uptime guarantee is an industry norm, but, frankly, isn’t up to snuff for most of our VPS or dedicated hosting shoppers. Hosts who guarantee five nines (99.999%) or better are significantly more worth your time and money.
Hosts like InMotion or Bluehost are good for an excellent-but-not-stupendous uptime rate of 99.99%, and — hold onto your socks — Liquid Web promises 100% uptime. The hosting company experienced 99.995% uptime.
5. Technical Support
Customer support can be the most frustrating factor of a hosting experience. It’s a feature that distinguishes the good hosts from the great across all hosting niches.
Hosts who handle technical support best are known for their teams’ accessibility, timeliness, helpfulness. Liquid Web surpasses most with promises to respond to chats and phone calls in less than a minute.
At the virtual server level, hosting is divided into managed and unmanaged VPS services. A web host will give site owners more flexibility to install a different Linux distribution if they choose, but won’t help as much on physical server maintenance and software support as with a managed VPS plan.
6. Price vs. Features
Last, but most certainly not least, we have to look at the overall value of a Linux VPS hosting package. The quality and quantity of features offset by the pricing determines a host’s worth to a potential customer. Whether you want managed services, a WordPress VPS hosting plan, or just a virtual machine with CentOS installed, InMotion leads in high-value VPS hosting.
Features The Best Linux VPS Hosting Providers Share
As you have probably gathered from our reviews, each top Linux hosting provider has several key offerings in common. The features listed below are particularly noteworthy for VPS users:
- Choice of Linux operating system
- cPanel, root, and SSH access
- OS security patches, updates, and monitoring
- Instant provisioning and reliable scalability
- Linux-friendly software (e.g., Apache, PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby)
- FTP accounts and MySQL databases
Of course, this list is not comprehensive. The leading web hosts for Linux fans tout these standard features and a host of others to streamline your Linux hosting experience.
Cost Comparison: Free Linux VPS Hosting vs. Quality, Cheap Alternatives
Buyer beware: As with any service you find online, free Linux VPS hosting options are advertised, but you’ll be sadly disappointed by the limited RAM, lackluster, or nonexistent, support, and limited customization options. You’re much better off opting for a quality, low-cost VPS provider like InMotion for your affordable Linux hosting needs.
Hosting Linux VPS Sites Is Simple With the Top Web Hosts
Premier Linux hosting services abound with the top hosts listed above — and now you understand our reasoning for thinking so highly of them. With instant server provisioning and daily billing from the expert-recommended providers, you can have a fully functional Linux project up and running in virtually no time at all.
The question remains: Which of the best Linux VPS hosting providers is your top choice? If you’re realizing you’re not quite ready for a virtual private server, no worries. Hop on over to our Linux shared hosting plan reviews, and go from there.
