12 Best VPS Hosts With DDoS Protection (April 2024)

DDoS attacks occur when a bad actor sends malicious traffic to a server in an attempt to bring it down. Several infamous DDoS attacks have made national news in recent history. Like when a 15-year-old boy took down Yahoo!, Dell, eBay, and other big-name websites in the infamous Mafiaboy attacks of 2000. Or when a teenager almost crashed an entire county’s 911 service.

Surprisingly, though, the largest DDoS attack on record almost went unnoticed — if it weren’t for Google disclosing how it mitigated the 2.54 terabits-per-second attack. The reason this DDoS attack wasn’t a success for cybercriminals is because of the DDoS protection Google had on its servers.

Every website requires sufficient DDoS protection. I’ve operated small blogs that still had DDoS protection because you never know when a service you use could fall between DDoS attackers and your website. If you’re connected to a server that gets attacked, your site may go down, too.

You especially want to protect your self-managed VPS or dedicated server. To make it easy, I’ve conducted extensive research on the topic and compiled the best VPS hosts with DDoS protection.

Most VPS hosts use the Linux operating system since it’s cheaper than Windows. My research shows you can find the cheapest web hosting with DDoS protection if you stick with Linux VPS hosting. Check out my recommendations below.

While exploring Hostinger, I realized just how many free offerings come with its Linux VPS hosting plans. For security, Hostinger provides a firewall and DDoS protection for no extra charge. The DDoS protection offered by Wanguard does an excellent job of filtering malicious traffic. I even noticed Hostinger allows firewall rules based on protocol, port, and source, which aren’t always available from other hosts.

I recommend Hostinger’s Linux VPS product for startups and smaller websites looking to scale up quickly (and to make a website fast with its website builder) or perhaps to keep the budget lower without sacrificing performance and security. KVM virtualization costs less than $5 per month, yet you still receive one vCPU core and substantial RAM, NVMe disk space, and bandwidth.

With both Linux and Windows VPS hosting, I recognize Hostwinds as one of the most flexible VPS hosts with full DDoS protection. For the cheapest price, go with Linux VPS hosting (starting around $8 per month). You can then purchase an add-on DDoS protection IP to serve as your public-facing IP. These IPs are constantly monitored and filter out malicious traffic. Unlike Hostinger’s free DDoS protection, you must pay for the DDoS security from Hostwinds.

Besides that, Hostwinds has decent pricing, but not as good as Hostinger, considering Hostinger provides more gigabytes of RAM and disk space for cheaper. However, I do like Hostwinds if you want pricing flexibility since it sells 10 VPS plans.

InMotion Hosting sells Linux VPS hosting with a respectable price tag and plans that start with at least four vCPU cores and four gigabytes of RAM. You even receive 90 gigabytes of SSD storage. Although that’s nice, competitors like Hostinger give you NVMe storage in lower plans — you must upgrade to the eight-gigabyte VPS plan from InMotion for NVMe storage.

InMotion uses Corero for its DDoS-protected hosting, which monitors for DDoS attacks in real time while filtering the bad traffic. I found InMotion more expensive than Hostwinds and Hostinger, but I noticed its introductory plans had higher RAM and more vCPU cores, making it a better value than Hostinger. So, if you’re on a tight budget, skip InMotion. However, if you need the extra power, I consider it one of the best value hosts for VPS hosting with DDoS protection.

As one of the best VPS hosts with DDoS protection, InterServer takes VPS hosting up a notch with its cloud VPS offering. If you enjoy VPS servers, I suspect you’ll find cloud VPS hosting even more appealing due to its distributed network of servers.

InterServer’s DDoS protection offers active filtering, an instant activation tool, and more than one terabits-per-second protection, so this works well enough for small to large businesses. When compared to other VPS hosts, InterServer’s cloud hosting keeps costs low and flexible with 16 VPS hosting plan options. You get a stronger starting value on RAM and storage space from InMotion, but I like how many pricing options are available with InterServer cloud hosting.

Liquid Web includes DDoS protection in all VPS plans. Those plans start at around $20 per month and have great flexibility to customize the memory and CPU. The DDoS protection monitors your server in real time.

Along with root access, an integrated firewall, and easy scalability, I recommend the hosting provider as a powerful and secure VPS for rapidly scaling businesses and agencies with hundreds of clients. The initial plans look more costly than Hostinger and Hostwinds, but every user starts with at least two vCPUs, making it more powerful than those competitors.

I suggest that everyone on a budget start their search for a DDoS-enabled VPS with A2 Hosting. The introductory hosting service for unmanaged VPS plans costs less than $3 per month. That, however, comes with some downsides. Yes, it’s cheap, but A2 Hosting keeps transfer rates and SSD storage on the low end. It’s suitable for smaller sites, but even Hostwinds gives you more SSD storage.

However, for the anti-DDoS defense, I find A2 Hosting well prepared for a DDoS attack. A2 Hosting offers reinforced DDoS protection for monitoring and blocking DDoS attacks. Equipped with Cloudflare’s redundant content delivery network, DDoS attacks become even less prevalent — and the Cloudflare content delivery network has special modes, like Under Attack mode, which users can enable in certain situations.

HostGator sells reasonably priced Linux VPS plans starting with at least two gigabytes of RAM and two cores. It only has three pricing plans, so you get simplicity but less scalability. I like the hosting service most for small businesses with minimal technical know-how.

HostGator, by default, includes DDoS-protected hosting. The company hardly says anything about how it does that, so I can’t guarantee whether it has real-time monitoring or DDoS VPS traffic filtering. I’d argue your best protection comes from HostGator SiteLock Security, which has an extra monthly fee but includes security monitoring and constant DDoS mitigation.

I usually point users toward Linux VPS hosting for cost savings, but sometimes Windows makes sense if you want to integrate your VPS server with Windows tools. If that’s the case, look at my favorite Windows VPS hosts with DDoS protection.

Expect to pay around double the price for a Liquid Web Windows VPS when compared to its Linux counterpart. I recommend Liquid Web’s Windows VPS for regular Windows users who need significant power from their servers. Even the smaller VPS hosting plan options boast 100 gigabytes of SSD storage, four vCPU cores, and a Plesk Obsidian dashboard.

The DDoS protection with Windows VPS plans is no different from the DDoS security in the Liquid Web Linux plans. I appreciate how it monitors your site in real time and shields it from attacks.

I’ve already covered the Hostwinds Linux offerings, so now it’s time to look into what it has for Windows users. Its Windows VPS offers just as many plans for businesses interested in rapid scaling, and its pricing is only a few bucks more than the Linux version.

Similar to its Linux plans, Hostwinds unfortunately charges for its DDoS protection. The good news is that you know exactly what you’re getting. I like that I have full control over my IP address and can set filters and rules to ensure proper protection from DDoS attacks.

The Windows VPS solutions from IONOS start at around $12 per month, and they deliver servers with at least two vCores and NVMe storage. All plans provide DDoS protection. I found that IONOS protects from bandwidth congestion, large-scale DDoS attempts, and standard third-party access that may be malicious.

As with most Windows hosts, I recommend IONOS Windows VPS hosting if your organization already uses Windows tools. Otherwise, consider one of the Linux hosts suggested earlier. Having said that, the pricing from IONOS is rather impressive; many of its plans provide significant amounts of CPU and RAM while keeping costs lower than Linux options like InMotion and Liquid Web.

GoDaddy sells both Linux and Windows VPS plans, but I prefer it for the Windows options since there are far more powerful Linux alternatives. I initially thought GoDaddy provided the cheapest Windows VPS on my list, but you actually can’t get a Windows server with its introductory plan. Therefore, your pricing starts at around $18 per month.

The hosting is comparable to Hostwinds and IONOS, with solid levels of RAM and NVMe SSD storage, and the DDoS security comes standard. This protection gives you a dedicated IP with 24/7 network monitoring. Hostwinds is the only other host I could find with a dedicated IP for DDoS security, but Hostwinds charges for it.

During my research, I found that AccuWebHosting claims DDoS mitigation for attacks between one gigabit per second and three gigabits per second. That’s enough to protect any business, even some enterprise organizations. However, it only provides that security if you purchase a DDoS add-on for your Windows VPS. That DDoS add-on could cost you $100 or more per month, making it less appealing.

However, AccuWebHosting includes a free version of its DDoS protection for all Windows VPS servers. In addition, I appreciate the simplicity and power of AccuWebHosting’s Windows VPS plans. They’re ideal for small businesses with no need for advanced scaling, particularly since many elements — like full root access and automated backups — all come standard or run in the background.

On its own, VPS (virtual private server) hosting improves upon shared hosting since users receive a blocked-off part of a server, allowing greater control over the VPS environment and increased security. The virtual server creates what I’d consider as close as you can get to dedicated server hosting without paying the dedicated hosting prices.

Reputable virtual server providers should have DDoS protection. Some options include Hostinger, Hostwinds, and InMotion. DDoS protection helps detect and minimize instances of DDoS attacks on your server.

These attacks come from malicious actors who try to flood a server or website with overwhelming traffic to where the server fails. Therefore, DDoS-protected VPS hosting ensures you have safe, high-performance hosting.

DDoS protection is just one slice of the web security pie that website owners should have on their plates. From a personal perspective, I find DDoS attacks to be the most terrifying threats, even with a managed VPS.

They give an unwarranted sense of accomplishment because of the increase in traffic, they’re incredibly difficult for the average person to pick out, and these attacks can take down a website within minutes.

With more than 36,000 DDoS attacks per day, and increasing every year, every website owner should opt for the best DDoS-protected VPS possible.

For some of the best and cheapest dedicated servers around — starting at $69.99 per month — InMotion Hosting offers dedicated hosting with Intel® Xeon® hardware and servers with at least four cores. The servers have auto-updates that go along with Corero DDoS protection.

When compared to other hosts with DDoS dedicated servers, A2Hosting claims its detection works 20 times faster. I also recommend Liquid Web and IONOS for dedicated servers with DDoS protection.

IONOS uses an advanced IP firewall to block suspicious traffic on a dedicated server, KVM VPS plan, or cloud server. The dedicated servers from Liquid Web cost more than IONOS and InMotion, but when compared to InMotion, it makes sense. Liquid Web provides more cores and other resources than InMotion. Alternatively, IONOS keeps its server resources in line with what Liquid Web provides for much cheaper.

Whenever I research DDoS protection, spam defense, or any type of security measures for hosting, I stumble upon products I figure most people have never heard of before.

I can say the same for DDoS protection on VPS hosting services. You may see something advertised like Corero DDoS protection or Fastly DDoS mitigation. What does that mean? And if you’re deciding on a DDoS service for your own dedicated server, which should you choose?

To help you decide, here are my favorites and what they offer:

• Cloudflare DDoS Protection: A reputable, recognizable name in cybersecurity, Cloudflare has a simple interface and various features for blocking transport and network-layer attacks.
• Akamai Prolexic: Works with two other Akamai products to protect internet-facing assets. The main product focuses on cloud-based protection for the fastest response.
• Fastly DDoS Protection: Ideal for large-scale DDoS attacks thanks to its multi-terabit-per-second network capacity.
• AWS Shield: Can protect against application, transport, and network-level attacks. It also comes standard for AWS customers.

Remember, if you purchase a hosting plan from one of the providers I mentioned above, you don’t have to choose a separate DDoS protection service — your host will take care of it for you.

After exploring so many DDoS-protected VPS hosting options, it’s clear to me you shouldn’t have to pay extra for DDoS protection. I might stray away from options that fail to disclose how the DDoS technology works, but ideally, you pay for managed VPS hosting and get everything you need.

Start your search with a Linux hosting provider to save money. Hostinger, InMotion, and Hostwinds offer the best starting values. If you must have a Windows VPS, my pick is IONOS for the best and cheapest Windows hosting.