by 
Table of Contents
VPS hosting is offered by many of the top hosting providers and is a suitable choice for websites that find a shared hosting solution no longer accommodate its needs.
If your traffic levels are substantially rising, then a shared solution will eventually no longer meet your needs
With a VPS hosting solution, there are fewer users sharing the server, giving you more processing power, memory allocation, hard disk space, and bandwidth.
Each user on the VPS receives a virtual machine with an independent operating system.
Therefore, sites using VPS hosting receive a similar service experience to those using a dedicated host, at a more affordable price.
Below, you will find 4 of the best VPS hosting options with a mix of Canadian and global companies. For any other hosting recommendations, go to our web hosting category page.
1. Hostinger
Highlights
- Over 29 million users across 178 countries
- 24 x 7 Support – Email / Live Chat
- No phone support
- 30 day money back guarantee, no questions asked
- Average response time of 50 seconds to Support requests on live chat
- Privately owned European company founded in 2004
Hostinger Reviews and Rating
Rated 4.4 out of 5 on TrustPilot by over 2,000 customers.
Hostinger VPS Hosting Features
- Full root access
- OS choices of CentOS, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian or Suse
- Semi-managed service
Hostinger currently offers 6 different tiers of VPS service. We’ll touch on their VPS 1 and VPS 2 plans.
| Hostinger VPS 1 | Hostinger VPS 2 |
|
|---|---|---|
| CPU Cores | 1 | 2 |
| Memory (RAM) | 1GB | 2GB |
| SSD Storage | 20GB | 40GB |
| Bandwidth | 1TB | 2TB |
| Dedicated IP | 1 | 1 |
| Full Root Access | Yes | Yes |
| Money Back Guarantee | 30 days | 30 days |
Their highest plan, VPS 6, offers 8 cores, 8GB of memory, 160GB of SSD storage, 8TB of bandwidth, a dedicated IP address, full root access, and a 30-day money back guarantee.
Hostinger VPS Prices in USD
VPS 1:
$3.95 per month – 48 month term
$4.25 per month – 24 month term
$4.95 per month – 12 month term
$9.95 per month – No commitment
VPS 2:
$8.95 per month – 48 month term
$9.95 per month – 24 month term
$12.45 per month – 12 month term
$19.95 per month – No commitment
Renewal prices may vary.
See Full Plan and Price List
Hostinger Data Centers
Hostinger serves customers from 8 data centers in 7 different locations strategically placed around the globe:
- USA
- UK
- Singapore
- Netherlands
- Brazil
- Lithuania
- Indonesia
Summary
Hostinger has emerged as a strong global competitor in the hosting space, headquartered in Europe with data centers in various parts of the world.
Hostinger offers terms of up to 48 months / 4years on their VPS hosting plans, allowing you to get their basic VPS offering for under $5 USD per month – not bad at all if you can foresee your need for a VPS for the considerable future.
With a strong claim of an average support response time on live chat of 50 seconds, Hostinger has made a strong commitment to support customers.
A team of experts is readily available to help with questions, issues and general enquiries.
Their localized services and rock bottom prices have led to tremendous growth with the company now serving over 29 million users.
Hostinger placed at number 846[1] on the Financial Times 1000 list of Europe’s fastest growing companies in 2020.
Learn more at Hostinger.com
2. HostPapa
Highlights
- Canadian business privately owned and operated
- Canadian data centers as well as global data centers
- 500,000+ websites hosted
- 24 x 7 Support – Phone / Email / Live Chat
- Call centers are North American based
- In business since 2002
- Based in Burlington, Ontario
HostPapa Reviews and Rating
Rated 4.6 out of 5 by over 10,000 actual verified customers at ShopperApproved.com
HostPapa VPS Hosting Features
- VPS will be ready to use within 60 seconds of ordering
- Full root access
- Proprietary VPS management portal and easy options to scale to multiple servers
- Free migration from existing hosting
HostPapa has 6 different tiers of VPS service, we’ll focus on their first 2 tiers, Mercury and Venus.
| HostPapa Mercury | HostPapa Venus |
|
|---|---|---|
| CPU Cores | 4 | 4 |
| Memory (RAM) | 2GB | 4GB |
| SSD Storage | 60GB | 125GB |
| Bandwidth | 1TB | 2TB |
| Dedicated IP | 2 | 2 |
| Full Root Access | Yes | Yes |
| Money Back Guarantee | 30 days | 30 days |
Their highest plan, Jupiter, offers 12 cores, 32GB of memory, 1TB of SSD storage, 8TB of bandwidth, 2 dedicated IPs, full root access, and a 30-day money back guarantee.
HostPapa VPS Prices in CAD
Mercury:
$19.99 per month – 36 month term
$29.99 per month – 12 month term
$39.99 per month – 3 month term
$49.99 per month – No commitment
Venus:
$59.99 per month – 36 month term
$69.99 per month – 12 month term
$74.99 per month – 3 month term
$79.99 per month – No commitment
HostPapa calls out that your renewal prices will be the same as those you pay initially.
See Full Plan and Price List
HostPapa Data Centers
HostPapa serves customers globally from 3 strategically placed data centers. While with their shared hosting you can pick your data center at checkout, VPS hosting does not provide that option.
- Toronto – Main Data Center
- California, USA
- Amsterdam, Europe
Summary
HostPapa is a local Canadian company, based in Burlington, Ontario that’s been in business for close to 20 years.
They’ve become a household name in Canada when it comes to hosting and bring a strong VPS offering to market. While they do have a global presence, their main data center is located in Toronto.
With a variety of different tiers and terms, you can get going with a HostPapa VPS for $19.99 a month on a 36 month term. And you can get going fast, with your VPS being available almost instantly after ordering.
When it comes to support, HostPapa is one of the few hosts that offers phone support from North American call centers, in English, French, Spanish and German.
HostPapa boasts over 500,000 websites hosted, so they’re very well experienced, and their sales and support teams are readily available to help with all of your needs.
Learn more at HostPapa.ca
3. Namecheap
Highlights
- Global customer base with 10 million domains under management across millions of customers
- 24 x 7 Support – Submit a Ticket / Live Chat
- No phone support
- 30 day money back guarantee for new customers
- Privately held US based company founded in 2000
Namecheap Reviews and Rating
Rated 4.7 out of 5 by over 1.8 million actual verified customers at ShopperApproved.com
Namecheap VPS Hosting Features
- Full root access and choice of Operating System (OS)
- Add-on for managed service available for a hands off approach to maintaining your server
- Free migration completed by Namecheap to move your existing website to Namecheap VPS hosting
Namecheap offers 2 different VPS hosting plans, the Pulsar and the Quasar.
| Namecheap Pulsar | Namecheap Quasar |
|
|---|---|---|
| CPU Cores | 2 | 4 |
| Memory (RAM) | 2GB | 6GB |
| SSD Storage | 40GB | 120GB |
| Bandwidth | 1TB | 3TB |
| Dedicated IP | 1 | 2 |
| Full Root Access | Yes | Yes |
| Money Back Guarantee | 30 days | 30 days |
Namecheap VPS Prices in USD
Pulsar:
$7.88 per month – 12 month term
$8.88 per month – 3 month term
$9.88 per month – No commitment
Quaser:
$13.88 per month – 12 month term
$14.88 per month – 3 month term
$15.88 per month – No commitment
Renewal prices may vary.
See Full Price Details
Namecheap Data Centers
- USA – Phoenix, Arizona
- UK – Close to Nottingham
Namecheap serves customers mainly from their Phoenix, Arizona based data center, which is where their headquarters are.
Customers have the option of choosing which data center they prefer to be hosted in.
VPS services however are only available from their Phoenix data center.
Summary
Namecheap originally started as a domain registrar in 2000.
Since then, they’ve added a strong suite of hosting and other services and have become a one stop shop for hosting, domain and email needs.
As a budget-friendly hosting provider, Namecheap gets you onto a VPS for less than $10 a month which is very reasonable.
As an existing customer of Namecheap hosting services, all around they offer a great product.
Service has been excellent, support staff is very knowledgeable and quick to respond and pricing is budget friendly.
Compared to others in the market, Namecheap takes a different approach and the maximum term it offers on hosting plans is 12 months or 1 year, whereas others are offering rock bottom prices but on 48 month / 4 year terms.
While savings for longer terms are not a bad thing, this comes down to your needs and requirements as well as your confidence in the host being the correct long-term partner for you.
Learn more at Namecheap.com
4. IONOS
Highlights
- Largest hosting company in Europe
- Global customer base with 12 million domains under management across over 8 million customers
- 15 facilities in 9 countries globally
- 24 x 7 x 365 Support – Phone / Email / Live Chat
- In business since 1988, originally founded as 1&1.
IONOS Reviews and Rating
IONOS is rated 4.1 out of 5 by over 12,000 customers on TrustPilot
IONOS VPS Hosting Features
- Full root access along with ability to add on Plesk Obsidion management software to control your server effortlessly
- Choice of Linux – Ubunti, OpenSuse, Debian, CentOS or Windows operating server
- Leverages VMware virtualization, one of the best offerings on the market, to ensure isolation, autonomy and security
IONOS offers 5 different tiers of VPS service, ranging from VPS S (Small) to VPS XXL (Extra extra large).
We’ll focus on their first 2 tiers, VPS S and VPS M.
| IONOS VPS S | IONOS VPS M | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU Cores | 1 | 2 |
| Memory (RAM) | 512MB | 2GB |
| SSD Storage | 10GB | 80GB |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Full Root Access | Yes | Yes |
| Money Back Guarantee | 30 days | 30 days |
Their highest plan, VPS XXL, offers 6 cores, 12GB of memory, 240GB of SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth, full root access, and a 30-day money back guarantee.
IONOS VPS Prices in USD
VPS S:
$1 per month – NO TERM!
VPS M:
$5 per month – NO TERM
$2 per month for the first 6 months, then $5 per month – 12 Month Term – Billing is monthly not annually
Renewal prices may vary.
See Full Price Details
IONOS Data Centers
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- Piscataway, New Jersey
- London, England
- Frankfurt, Germany
- Berlin, Germany
- Karlsruhe, Germany
IONOS has a number of data centers, with strategically placed locations on the east and west coast of the United States.
They also have superior coverage in Europe through their main data centers in Germany, as well as secondary locations in London.
Customers can choose the data center they prefer to be located in at time of purchase – US, UK or Europe.
Summary
IONOS originally started their hosting business as 1&1 in 1988.
1&1 has a very long history and strong brand presence, and those who were dabbling with websites in the early 2000s will clearly recall them from that far back.
Over the years, they’ve grown to become Europe’s largest hosting provider (as per their website), offering hosting services to over 8 million customers from data centers in the US, UK and Europe.
After their merger with ProfitBricks in 2018, the new company, IONOS by 1&1 was formed.
They’ve continued to deliver on their core competencies and maintain the standards that they had developed many years ago.
Their VPS hosting offer is of particular interest, allowing you to secure a virtual server for only $1 per month, and easily scale up from there as your needs increase.
IONOS only offers terms to a maximum of 12 months – Another welcome gesture when companies are extending their contracts to 36 and 48 months.
How Does VPS Hosting Work?
VPS web hosting is a single server running several different containers that can each run their own operating system and therefore becoming virtual machines on a larger physical server.
Each virtual machine is in its own container.
This is achieved by mainly by software and a VPS host makes the most efficient and effective use of server and computer resources like memory, bandwidth, and processing power.
When you purchase VPS hosting, you’re purchasing the right to use one of these containers on a dedicated server.
You end up getting many of the same advantages as a dedicated hosting solution, for a fraction of the cost.
A VPS also provides more flexibility with the operating system, allowing users to choose the software installation running the OS.
The host installs each set of software individually, providing independent operation of all sites on the server.
The host allocates memory and CPU time throughout the shared server space, ensuring that you have adequate resources for maintaining your site.
A VPS comes with a setup that accommodates any size site.
If you’re sharing resources with a larger website on the same server, there should be no lag in performance, even if the larger site requires more server resources.
The host guarantees you the server resources you’re paying for in your service-level agreement.
However, when implementing a VPS hosting solution, you have options for managed and unmanaged services, which can affect your site performance and maintenance.
With a managed solution, the server team takes care of the server maintenance and updating, for a fee of course.
However, with an unmanaged system, you’re responsible for the maintenance yourself. That’s fine if you have an onboard IT department.
However, if you have no experience managing a hosting solution, you might find the VPS dashboard challenging to navigate.
Security patches, software updates, server configuration, and other maintenance tasks require technical skills.
You’ll need to hire a specialist to take care of that for you or choose a managed solution.
What to Consider When Choosing a VPS Host?
When signing up with a hosting company, make sure you validate their reputation.
There are hundreds of providers out there and plenty of fly-by-nights that won’t be around in a year.
Make sure you select a web host with a solid track record.
Search around social media and forums to find out what people are saying about the best hosting companies.
Don’t hesitate to ask them for references that you can speak to.
Your hosting company should also be able to >scale with your business through a flexible service offering to accommodate you as you grow.
Do I Need VPS Hosting?
Consider purchasing VPS hosting if your business is growing beyond the capacity of shared hosting services.
That means, your traffic is substantially going to increase over the next few months or you have specific resource needs from a server to run your application where a shared solution won’t cut it.
VPS hosting solutions give you more control over the server and its resources.
You can create customized configurations for your websites and gain root access to the server for enhanced control over the allocation of your resources.
Managed VPS vs Unmanaged VPS
It’s important to understand the differences between managed and unmanaged VPS services so you can accurately compare service offerings when looking for your new host.
Unmanaged VPS
An unmanaged VPS is a good choice for firms with existing IT staff or skilled technicians who can maintain and manage servers.
Your team installs and monitors the server, completing all security patches, site updates, and technical aspects involved with your server’s upkeep and maintenance.
An unmanaged solution is cheaper than a managed option. However, you’ll end up paying for those management fees somewhere, whether it’s with employees or with your hosting costs.
Managed VPS
A managed VPS hosting solution is a great option for website owners with little to no technical expertise.
With a managed solution, the hosting provider takes care of all maintenance and updating of your server.
You never have to lift a finger, and they keep the server running in tip-top condition.
A managed solution offers you the initial setup of your server and all maintenance duties throughout the life of your service-level agreement.
If you don’t know your way around a server room or if you have no interest in hiring for the skill on your own team, it’s a better idea to go with a managed solution.
VPS vs Shared Hosting
VPS hosting solutions are a step up from shared hosting.
With a shared hosting solution, if one site on the server is hogging resources, it will slow down your site.
Other tenants on a shared solution can also cause the entire server to crash, bringing your site down because of their errors.
VPS comes with a higher price tag than shared hosting, but you get more server resources, better stability for your site, and next to no downtime.
VPS vs Cloud Hosting
Comparing VPS and cloud hosting, the biggest difference between the two is the service’s scalability.
A VPS solution is a good choice if your need for server resources isn’t going to grow exponentially and you have a good confidence level as to what your trajectory looks like.
However, if your business requires a flexible solution that scales quickly, a cloud solution is better.
Cloud hosting gives you unlimited server resources, with a dashboard allowing you to reallocate resources from other servers on the network as necessary, reducing downtime.
1] https://www.ft.com/content/691390ca-53d9-11ea-90ad-25e377c0ee1f
