9 Cheapest VPS Providers (April 2024)

Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting started in the early 1990s. But the idea of server virtualization was introduced two decades earlier when the internet was young and vastly unexplored.

VPS server hosting came into the picture because developers and system administrators wanted more control over their hosting environments. They couldn’t get that with shared hosting.

Since then, VPS has played a more significant role in hosting. Today, individuals and businesses choose VPS hosting because it offers more stability, privacy, and control at a fraction of what they would pay for a dedicated server. Here, I offer a more in-depth look at some of the cheapest VPS providers that still offer high-quality service.

VPS hosting plans at IONOS are so cheap they seem similar to shared server prices. When I find a hosting provider that’s this affordable, the first thing I do is determine if the deal is too good to be true.

I found that the hosting plans at IONOS are cheap because the company divides its servers into smaller units. Take, for example, the base cheap Linux VPS hosting plan. It has one virtual CPU core, one gigabyte of memory, and 10 gigabytes of storage.

The base cheap Linux VPS plan at IONOS has similar resources to a shared server, not a VPS. Most VPS plans tend to have more powerful hardware. But what most people forget is that privacy, stability, and control are the key characteristics of a good VPS. The hardware aspect is secondary to these. That’s because we all want a stable network, but our storage needs may be wildly different.

By dividing the hardware into smaller slices, IONOS makes VPS hosting more affordable. With its VPS hosting service, you get almost the same hardware specifications as you would with a shared hosting plan but with more control and privacy.

Before we go further, note that in the context of web hosting, the phrase “cheap” is more about the value you’ll get versus the amount you’ll pay for it. For example, A2 Hosting doesn’t seem cheap when compared to IONOS. But that’s not how you decide what’s best for you.

A2 Hosting offers more powerful hardware than IONOS — which is why it costs more. For example, the base VPS plan has up to 16 gigabytes of memory. That’s 16 times more space than what the IONOS base plan offers. By any standard, A2 Hosting offers cheap web hosting, but even more so given the amount of resources you receive in return.

Pricing aside, A2 Hosting is the self-proclaimed king of speed. Its Turbo-boosted servers, coupled with the powerful hardware, make this host incredibly fast.

A resource-demanding project would perform well in such an environment. A video streaming platform is a good example of a project that consumes a lot of memory and storage and requires high processing power. And that service would fit right in with A2 Hosting.

Kamatera offers VPS hosting with a twist. Rather than storing your website or files on a single server (like a standard VPS), Kamatera uses cloud-based servers.

The key difference here is the setup. With traditional VPS, you depend on only one server. Most of the time, it works perfectly. But imagine your marketing efforts finally start paying off and your site traffic booms. That’s where Kamatera steps in with its supreme scalability.

If your website suddenly gets more traffic, you need to upgrade your hosting hardware, usually with a click of a button. But it would be ideal to have a web server that expands and contracts its hardware and other resources on demand.

That’s what cloud hosting does. You don’t need to click buttons to upgrade your resources. The server automatically knows when it’s time to scale up or down. It works similar to an elastic material, hence the term “server elasticity.” That’s exactly what Kamatera offers — at affordable rates.

Let’s face it — the hype around artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t fading anytime soon. Just when you think you’ve seen and heard it all, something new walks through the door. It’s about time we begin to accept that AI is the future.

Web hosting companies are now harnessing the power of AI in many different aspects. Some, like GoDaddy, use AI to provide better domain name suggestions. At Hostinger, AI plays a different role: It helps you build your website.

This Kernel-based Virtual Machine provider offers a built-in AI assistant to help users create content, design websites, troubleshoot problems, and more on its KVM VPS environment. All Hostinger VPS hosting packages come with an AI assistant.

This company’s hardware and resources are also impressive. They include NVMe storage for better performance, multiple CPU cores (between one and eight) for faster processing speeds, weekly backups, a generous memory package (four gigabytes to 32 gigabytes), and full root access.

Standard VPS hosting is great if you just want to plug in a website or web application and move on with your other projects. Let’s say you’re a web developer working on a project that requires more control, stability, and privacy. In that case, any good VPS should provide the perfect hosting environment.

Other times, you may want something more specific. For example, a VPS that supports WordPress hosting or one that only runs Windows applications and platforms. That’s where InterServer VPS comes in.

With InterServer, you have so many different VPS environments to choose from. From Windows to Linux, CentOS to Ubuntu, WordPress to Webuzo, and cPanel to DirectAdmin, InterServer brings variety to your project.

In fact, this host supports more than 400 scripts and applications, making it incredibly developer friendly. You can even use it to build online gaming servers.

We talked about cloud hosting earlier with Kamatera’s VPS plans. AccuWebHosting is also a cloud VPS hosting provider, but it is slightly different from Kamatera.

For starters, AccuWebHosting offers both Windows and Linux-based servers. That means server compatibility issues should be the least of your worries.

Some of AccuWebHosting’s cloud services derive from the three most powerful cloud hosting providers by market share — Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure. You’ll spend a little more for these servers because the companies have invested in state-of-the-art hosting infrastructure. And Google intends to spend more than $30 billion on upgrading its global cloud infrastructure.

Each AccuWebHosting VPS package comes with a 99.9% uptime guarantee, regular security audits, free weekly backups, full SSH access, support for unlimited websites and business email accounts, fully redundant hardware, and free SSL certificates. You get plenty of value for your money with AccuWeb.

Cloudways, a DigitalOcean company, works similarly to InterServer and AccuWeb Hosting. This company partners with the big three: AWS, GCP, and DigitalOcean, to bring you some of the best VPS hosting services.

The pricing depends on what you put on your plate. One important note is that hosting plans under DigitalOcean cost less than those provided by AWS and Google Cloud.

Ultimately, you are the biggest beneficiary of the Cloudways partnership with industry bigwigs. First, you get variety, an underrated aspect of web hosting. If you don’t find your preferred server at DigitalOcean, AWS or Google Cloud may have it.

Also, all cloud VPS plans at Cloudways come with free SSL certificates, dedicated firewalls, staging environments, automated backups, regular security patching, 24/7 server monitoring, and full SSH and SFTP access. That makes this VPS an excellent choice for agencies or organizations of all sizes.

InMotion Hosting should be the top choice for projects that require more resources and better hosting infrastructure. Like A2 Hosting, InMotion has powerful hardware, which also justifies the price. You’ll notice its standard VPS package costs almost twice as much as you would spend with other hosts.

But remember, don’t just look at the price; look at what you’re getting for that price instead. Take InMotion’s base VPS plan as an example; it offers four CPU cores, four gigabytes of memory, 90 gigabytes of SSD VPS storage, two dedicated IPs, and free SSL certificates. That’s a powerful server, perfect for an application or website that requires fast data retrieval, such as an eCommerce business.

In the world of business, first impressions are everything. You should have a server that processes information quickly and returns it to the user. No potential client wants to wait more than three seconds to view your products or services.

That’s not just a random number; it’s actually backed by research. Remember, you’re not the only one with an online store. You compete with drop shippers, small local businesses, and even industry giants like Amazon and eBay. How fast your website processes data, and the quality of your products or services, will influence buyer actions. An InMotion Hosting VPS server brings plenty of computing power to your project.

Even if you understand the benefits of VPS hosting, you also need to know how to make it work for your project. That’s an important question Liquid Web answers with three different VPS hosting packages: fully managed VPS, core VPS-managed, and unmanaged VPS hosting.

The fully managed VPS hosting plan is exactly what it sounds like. You take care of your project as the VPS host focuses on server management. The fully managed plan is like hiring a personal driver (VPS experts) to drive you around as you take care of business (your website). Because you’re basically hiring the driver for a full-time role, you pay more than you would for a part-time driver.

The Core VPS-managed option is the middle ground. The host manages certain aspects of the server as you focus on your web project. Sticking with the car example, it’s like hiring a mechanic for major repairs, but you have responsibility for minor maintenance such as oil changes, ensuring the tags are up-to-date, and replacing windshield wipers. Of course, since the individual works on your car part-time, you won’t pay the same rate you would for a full-time role.

The unmanaged VPS plan is for those who don’t need any help managing their server. You are in charge of everything, from complex hardware repairs to simple fixes. But that doesn’t mean you’re alone. You can always reach out to the web host if you need help troubleshooting certain issues. This approach gives you total control of your server, a perfect option for tech-savvy users — including web developers.

Virtual private server hosting doesn’t really have a textbook definition. But in simple terms, it’s a hosting environment comprising virtual servers.

The key phrase here is virtual private. This means the server lives in a virtual environment that’s also private.

The hosting company uses virtualization technology, such as VMware’s vSphere, to partition these servers into mini servers to suit your hardware requirements.

Perhaps the easiest way to understand virtual private server hosting is by thinking of a pizza. You can purchase your pizza by the slice instead of paying for the whole pie. This lets you have your very own lunch without others eating off your plate — and you save money.

That’s how a VPS works. Rather than offering the entire server to you, the host slices it up into smaller portions.

Now, that doesn’t mean you’ll only have one slice. You may decide to have two slices instead of one. This is common for larger organizations that require more resources.

That’s why a VPS is highly scalable, which is just a fancy way of saying you can have more than one slice. The private aspect of a VPS comes in the sense that you own that slice of pizza. You won’t share it with anyone else as you would in a shared hosting environment.

A VPS can cost anywhere from a few dollars to hundreds of dollars per month. Some VPS hosting providers, like IONOS, have monthly plans that cost less than $5.

Keep in mind that the price depends on the hardware and other resources, not just the fact that it’s a VPS. To prove this point, IONOS has VPS hosting plans that cost less than some shared hosting plans at A2 Hosting. That’s because it all boils down to the resources and hardware.

The base VPS hosting plan at IONOS, for example, gives you 10 gigabytes of NVMe storage. At A2 Hosting, the base shared hosting plan has 100 gigabytes of SSD storage.

Some VPS plans may cost hundreds of dollars monthly, but those are usually housed on high-performance servers. You may need that type of power for a popular, resource-intensive project.

Another important thing to keep in mind is that VPS options are more affordable than ever, thanks to cloud hosting.

Cloud VPS providers such as Kamatera offer pay-as-you-go pricing. This means you’ll enjoy the privacy of a VPS but only pay for the server resources you consume during the billing period. And with a price-lock guarantee, you won’t have to worry about paying more than you budget for.

Yes, you can get a VPS for free, but here’s what you need to know:

Maintaining a VPS costs a lot of money and requires tons of resources. That’s why good VPS providers such as Kamatera, IONOS, Cloudways, and Flywheel will give you a free trial rather than promise a completely free hosting environment.

Those that claim to offer 100% free servers are usually not reliable. You’ll likely deal with spammy ads, terrible performance, weak security, and no privacy guarantee.

This Reddit thread is a good example of why you shouldn’t trust any host that claims to offer free servers with no strings attached. I’ve heard about and witnessed cases of so-called free hosts randomly deleting servers, which tells you there’s nothing private about such environments.

Alternatively, opt for a VPS with a money-back guarantee. Flywheel, for example, will give you a 60-day money-back guarantee. That means if you don’t like the service, you can request your money back within 60 days of signing up.

Another option is to find a VPS with ultra-low starting prices. IONOS and Kamatera are my top picks.

Amazon is a multi-billion-dollar company with powerful cloud hosting infrastructure. So its hosting services will likely cost less than standard VPS providers. That said, it’s not about the company. Rather, it’s about the specific hosting services provided.

The unofficial rule is that the more hardware and resources you need, the higher the price. That explains why IONOS is a cheap VPS provider since it offers scalable servers with as few as 10 gigabytes of NVMe SSD storage.

The server operating system will also determine the final price of VPS hosting. A Linux-based server, for example, is usually cheaper than a Windows server. That’s because Linux is open-source, meaning the web host will install it for free.

Windows VPS hosting, on the other hand, requires a license. In that case, the web host will factor licensing fees into the final cost.

Absolutely. With a VPS, you have more network stability. That’s because you don’t share your server hardware with other users on the network.

Imagine sharing an apartment with your friends (shared hosting). Yes, it’s cheaper because you also share the bills and utilities. But you shouldn’t expect total privacy.

You share the same kitchen, bathroom, balcony, and other common areas. Also, depending on the number of rooms available, you may even share a bedroom.

A VPS is like renting a mother-in-law suite. You may have your own bathroom, mini-kitchen, closet, and other amenities. Ultimately, your space feels more private, and you have more control over it.

Years ago, a VPS host was quite expensive. Part of the reason was that the service was only associated with powerful hardware. Today, companies including Kamatera and IONOS offer incredibly affordable VPS hosting packages that make it well worth the investment. As I noted earlier, some VPS plans are even cheaper than what you pay for shared hosting.

Would you rather pay extra to get a sense of privacy? Also, would you invest in a scalable and stable server if you had the opportunity?

If your answer is, “Yes, of course I would,” then a VPS is well worth it.

Although a VPS host may be worth it, your choices will determine whether you’ve made the right investment. When looking for a good VPS plan, consider:

• The nature of your web project, be it an eCommerce store, a web application, or even a small business website. This will also determine the kind of hardware and resources you need. For example, if the project requires a lot of data handling, you need a VPS with a good amount of storage, decent memory, and multiple CPU cores for faster processing.
• The amount of money you’re willing to spend on a VPS. Most VPS providers offer cheaper plans if you sign long-term contracts, usually between one and three years.
• The hosting provider’s reputation. Opt for VPS companies with good ratings in the market.
• Your technical skills. If you need help managing the server, a managed VPS plan should be a great fit. Unmanaged plans work best for individuals with some technical background, such as web developers, reseller hosting providers, and system administrators.
• The quality of customer support. You may need some help further down the line; knowing where and how to get it is important.

Of course, these are not the only factors to consider when finding the best VPS hosting provider. But they should help point you in the right direction.

You won’t get these qualities by sharing a server with other users on the network. That’s why you need a VPS in the first place. Understandably, VPS hosting is a broad topic. If you’d like to learn more about it and how it can benefit your web project, this VPS hosting guide by one of our web hosting experts should get you started.