VPS Hosting

How to choose a VPS host

Managed or unmanaged?

Most VPS plans are unmanaged: you install software, apply updates and secure the server. Cloudways runs managed hosting on top of cloud providers, which costs more but removes sysadmin work. If you cannot manage a firewall and backups, choose managed.

What do you get for the money?

Compare vCPU count, RAM, NVMe or SSD storage, bandwidth allowance and network speed. Contabo is known for generous specs at low prices, while DigitalOcean, Vultr and Linode (Akamai Cloud) charge more but have developer tooling and many locations. Hetzner is popular in Europe for price and performance.

Hourly or monthly billing?

DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode and Hetzner bill by usage, which suits tests and short projects. Long-term plans, such as Hostinger VPS, have lower monthly prices in exchange for a commitment. Check renewal prices.

Backups, snapshots and extras

Backups and snapshots are often extra. Look at the cost of additional IPs, DDoS protection and control panels such as cPanel.

Location and support

Choose a data centre near your users. Support quality and response times differ widely at the cheap end, so read recent reviews.

Which operating system and control panel?

Linux distributions are the norm, and some providers also offer Windows at a higher price. Control panels such as cPanel add licence fees. If you manage a single app, a command line and a firewall are enough.

How is bandwidth handled?

Some providers include a large transfer allowance, others charge per terabyte after a limit. Check overage costs if you run video, downloads or a busy API.

Which one should you pick?

Choose Hetzner or Contabo for price, DigitalOcean, Vultr or Linode for developer tooling and many regions, and Hostinger VPS or InterServer for a hosting-company experience. Pick Cloudways if you want managed servers. Start with the smallest plan that runs your workload and scale up.

Common mistakes

Leaving a server unpatched is the biggest one. Another is skipping backups because the provider has good uptime. Uptime does not protect you from your own mistakes.