HostingAdvice Presents the 2025 Web Developer Choice Awards Winners for Dedicated, DDoS, VPS, and Performance

HostingAdvice officially revealed its first round of Web Developer Choice Awards winners.

These four hosts were selected based on real developer feedback, with categories including Best Dedicated Hosting, Best VPS Hosting, Best DDoS Protection, and Best Performance.

The goal of these awards is to highlight the hosts that consistently deliver everything from security and reliability to speed and scalability to those working at the front and backend.

The winners were handpicked by 1,000 developers. Full methodology was published last week, so today’s update adds the winners — and here’s what they had to say.

Best Dedicated Hosting: InMotion Hosting

Some may say dedicated servers are disappearing, but developers disagree. In a market dominated by cloud hype, InMotion Hosting was chosen for its impeccable dedicated hardware.

“While some in the industry are reducing their focus on dedicated hosting, we’re leaning in,” said InMotion Hosting’s Trey Faison. “Winning the ‘Best Dedicated Hosting’ award reflects how committed we are to keeping reliability, performance, and real human expertise front and center for our customers.”

That reliability comes from a mix of enterprise-level Xeon CPUs, NVMe storage, and unmetered bandwidth. InMotion also offers full root access and sysadmin time (via Launch Assist) during setup, which developers voted as a major differentiating factor.

Another notable feature is InMotion’s Premier Care package, which is backed by proactive monitoring, automated backups, and 24/7 expert support. That last one is important because it proves that dedicated servers aren’t just for the most technically savvy, but that there’s room for managed partnerships, too.

Best VPS Hosting: Hosting.com

The rise of VPS hosting underscores that it’s no longer just for hobbyists. Developers voted Hosting.com as the best VPS provider for its flexible resource control and scalability.

Hosting.com’s VPS plans range from managed Linux to unmanaged, both of which give developers root access (depending on the plan), up to 13 Linux operating system choices, and optional cPanel.

Its Turbo platform offers LiteSpeed web servers, NVMe storage, HTTP/3, QUIC, ESI (Edge Side Includes), with HostingAdvice’s testing showing up to 20x faster page loads.

Hosting.com did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Best DDoS Protection: Liquid Web

Unsurprisingly, security continues to be a baseline expectation — but with today’s evolving threats, thanks to the advancements in AI, the risks are only contiunuing to grow.

Liquid Web has rightfully earned the recognition for best DDoS protection because of its layered defenses against faster, smarter cyberattacks.

“We’re honored to receive HostingAdvice’s Best DDoS Protection Hosting award,” said LiquidWeb’s CTO, Ryan MacDonald.

He added: “At Liquid Web, we continually adopt the latest technologies to ensure our hosting solutions exceed industry standards for performance and protection. Most importantly, it reaffirms our promise to give customers peace of mind, so they can focus on growing their businesses while we safeguard their digital presence.”

Liquid Web’s DDoS protection stands out because it’s built directly into its infrastructure, rather than added on through a third-party tool. It guards against Layer 4 attacks up to 10 Gbps (for the Advanced plan) and includes real-time monitoring and scrubbing to keep malicious requests away.

Liquid Web’s DDoS protection stands out because it’s built directly into its infrastructure, rather than added on through a third-party tool.

Liquid Web also offers tiered protection options — Standard, Advanced, and Premium — so developers can choose the right level at which they expect to be targeted.

Best Performance: DreamHost

Performance is quite literally the name of the game for web hosts, which makes it a constant uphill battle to prove who’s the best. But seasoned developers don’t care about starter packages or clever slogans, and that’s why they chose DreamHost.

“At DreamHost, our team is laser-focused on providing best-in-class performance and reliability. This means making deep investments in our server and network infrastructure,” said Patrick Lane of DreamHost.

He added: “We measure everything that can be measured (including our competitors’ performance) and work tirelessly to outperform on the metrics that matter most to our customers.”

This all comes down to its consistently proven track record: DreamHost’s 100% uptime guarantee (and will reimburse customers if not), SSD-backed architecture that is 200% faster, advanced caching (not for shared), and continuous monitoring to catch even the smallest issues or risks.

While monumental, this is just the start.

Altogether, HostingAdvice will unveil 23 awards across six categories — covering everything from security and reliability to managed services and site builders. Each category represents exactly where developers are putting their trust.

In the meantime, follow the Web Developer Choice Awards homepage to track updates and find out which hosts are rising to the top in 2025.