Best cheap VPS hosting deals of 2023

When it comes to web hosting (opens in new tab), the best cheap VPS hosting bridges the gap between shared and dedicated hosting. Shared hosting (opens in new tab) is where your account is one of many small accounts sharing a web server. A dedicated server (opens in new tab) is where you rent the entire server, so that it is dedicated to your business.

VPS hosting (opens in new tab) offers a mix of both worlds, where only a handful of VPS accounts share the same server, but come with all software management responsibilities you would get with a dedicated server – hence the name, Virtual Private Server (VPS).

This offers a number of advantages, not least that more resources are available to your account under a VPS that wouldn’t be available with a shared hosting account. Additionally, shared hosting accounts tend to be rigid in their software outlay, which means they often cannot cater for customized server or software settings – something that isn’t a problem with a VPS hosting account.

Even better, because you are only renting a fraction of a web server, you only pay a fraction of the price. So you have the benefits of significantly more resources and customization options, all at a competitive cost. So while VPS costs more than shared hosting, it’s not often by much, and VPS hosting is almost always cheaper than dedicated hosting.

However, if you worry that server management is beyond your IT skills, have no fear – many VPS hosting companies provide both managed and unmanaged options. This means you can pay a little extra to ensure your VPS server settings are looked after after the hosting company’s system administrators, so you don’t have to get your hands dirty.

To determine the best budget VPS hosting options, we compared various providers on aspects like their uptime guarantee, security, and pricing. We also assessed their technical features, like the CPU cores, amount of RAM, storage, and bandwidth, along with other factors.

Here we’ll look at some of the cheapest VPS hosting deals out there.

We’ve also reviewed the best disaster recovery service (opens in new tab).

The best cheap VPS hosting deals of 2023 in full:

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Hostwinds logo

(Image credit: Hostwinds)

Starting from only $5.17 per month with no gimmicks, you will be very hard pressed to find a cheaper VPS deal with managed hosting. Hostwinds (opens in new tab) doesn’t do half measures when it comes to VPS and while you will be able to get more cores elsewhere, Hostwinds’ offer feels more balance.

You get one core, 1GB of RAM, 30GB SSD storage space, 1TB bandwidth with a 1Gbps port (which allow for burstable traffic) plus 99.9999% uptime guarantee, the highest we’ve ever seen at this price, which translates into a maximum downtime of 31.56 seconds.

You do get root access and a huge choice of Linux distros (and versions). Unlike some cheaper competitors, you do not have to pay for a few essential things (WordPress daily backups and cPanel) and you still can enjoy free website transfers, and a long 60-day money back warranty.

IONOS logo on blue background

(Image credit: IONOS)

2. Ionos 1&1 vServer VPS M

Outstanding VPS hosting that’s backed by one of the world’s biggest hosting brands

Our expert review:

Specifications

CPU Core:

RAM (GB):

Storage (GB):

50 SSD

Bandwidth (TB):

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VISIT SITE

Reasons to buy

Plenty of flexibility

Choice of location for data center

99.9% uptime guarantee

Reasons to avoid

–

Price jump after 12 months

IONOS brings a European flavor to the lower-end of the VPS market with its Virtual Server Cloud M (opens in new tab) offering. At $5, it is one of the cheapest on the market, although note that the price increases by 100% after the first 12 months.

You get one virtual Intel Xeon E5 core, 1GB of RAM, 50GB of SSD grade storage and unlimited traffic over a 100Mbit connection (that’s 30TB per month). You can choose the location of your data center (US, Spain or Germany) and you have a choice of Linux distro (albeit more limited than VPSCheap); Windows is also available as an option.

As expected you get full root access, snapshot backup as an option, an SSL Wildcard certificate, Plesk Onyx control panel and the web host guarantees a ‘four-nines’ uptime (99.99%), not bad for such a cheap hosting package. You get one IPv4 (but not IPv6) address and 500GB storage spread across 250 email boxes.

Alibaba Cloud ECS Starter Package screenshot of homepage

(Image credit: Alibaba Cloud ECS Starter Package)

3. Alibaba Cloud ECS Starter Package

Ideal VPS hosting if you want to serve a Chinese audience

Our expert review:

Specifications

CPU Core:

RAM (GB):

Storage (GB):

40 SSD

Bandwidth (TB):

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Visit Site

Reasons to buy

Temptingly cheap

19 data centers across the globe

A bunch of free products

Reasons to avoid

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Limited on the bandwidth front

As the designated data center partner for the Olympics committee, Alibaba Cloud happens to be the biggest cloud provider in China and its ECS (opens in new tab) (Elastic Compute Service) – which is its take on the VPS concept – is being aggressively marketed online as a compelling alternative to Amazon’s more expensive Lightsail VPS.

With 19 data center regions located worldwide and a starting price of only $4.50 per month, it is one of the cheapest VPS deals around. You get one vCore CPU, 1GB memory, 40GB of SSD storage, 1TB of data transfer plus a free anti-DDoS Basic service, automatic snapshots, and triplicated backups.

The data is far lower than the competition which means that the ECS starter pack is ideal for non-bandwidth hungry applications.

As with other rivals, it uses Intel Xeon E5 processors and SSDs, paired with Linux. It is also the only provider that serves the billion-plus Chinese audience directly (although you will need to apply for an ICP license to deploy your website).

Hetzner CX11 screenshot

(Image credit: Hetzner)

4. Hertzner CX11

The cheapest VPS hosting in the world – by far!

Specifications

CPU Core:

RAM (GB):

Storage (GB):

20 NVMe SSD

Bandwidth (TB):

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Visit Site

Reasons to buy

Uses Skylake Xeon CPUs

No minimum contract

Impressively cheap for core package

Reasons to avoid

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Datacenters are in Europe

Hetzner (opens in new tab) might not be a well-known brand outside its home country (Germany) but this internet web hosting company punches above its weight despite having only 200 employees. It uses Skylake Xeon processors rather than the older Broadwell models and bundles 20TB of data with all its tiers. You pay by the month and there’s no minimum contract period.

Even the cheapest tier (CX11 for €2.49, about $2.82) comes with 2GB of RAM, 20GB of drive space (NVMe SSD), and one vCPU, with data centers located in Germany and Finland, which is great if you like strict European data protection regulations.

Hertzner manages to keep prices low by offering only core features with its own proprietary cloud console. You have to pay for everything else including backup snapshots (€0.01 per GB per month) and IP address (€1 per month).

OVH screenshot of homepage

(Image credit: OVH)

5. OVH VPS SSD 2

A decent VPS hosting for memory-hungry applications

Our expert review:

Specifications

CPU Core:

RAM (GB):

Storage (GB):

40 SSD

Bandwidth (TB):

Unlimited traffic over a 100Mbps port

Reasons to buy

SSD 2 plan gives you 4GB RAM

Uptime guarantee of 99.95%

Anti-DDoS protection and more

Reasons to avoid

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Not novice-friendly

OVH is the third European company in our list and the only one of that trio from outside Germany. At $6.87 per month (for the annual plan) for the VPS SSD 2 (opens in new tab) package, it includes local RAID-1, 40GB SSD space, one vCore, and uniquely for this price, 4GB RAM, which is four times what Alibaba Cloud or Ionos provides.

Five European data center locations are available plus one North American. Uptime guarantee is 99.95%, slightly worse than, say, the Ionos package, and OVH is good at communicating what is available in its bundles.

Unlimited traffic over a 100Mbps port is included, as is anti-DDoS protection, KVM, root access, IPv4/IPv6 IP and free ready-to-go packages like WordPress, PrestaShop or CozyCloud.

Although it’s easy to setup, OVHcloud doesn’t provide any free trials or money-back guarantees with its services.

Liquid Web VPS Hosting screenshot

(Image credit: Liquid Web)

6. Liquid Web VPS

Budget VPS hosting with solid support and infrastructure

Our expert review:

Specifications

CPU Core:

Custom

RAM (GB):

Custom

Storage (GB):

Custom

Bandwidth (TB):

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Visit Site

Reasons to buy

Excellent support

Strong hardware

Configuration options

Reasons to avoid

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No free trial

Liquid Web offers managed VPS services (opens in new tab), so if you want more resources and power than a normal shared or reseller hosting plan, but don’t want the hassle of command line management of your own server, this could be ideal for you.

While a lot of companies aim to provide the lowest priced hosting, this can often come at the expense of poor or limited support, which can cause frustration in the event of a problem. Liquid Web is one of the companies that prices in the mid-range but provides top range support, so in the event of any issue you can usually be assured of a fast response.

Their VPS plans are priced according to the resources you want, such as the number of processors, RAM, harddrive space, etc. and all come with 10TB of monthly bandwidth, DDoS protection, WHM/Cpanel, and SSD storage.

And we consider the merits of shared hosting vs VPS hosting if you are deciding over which one is right for your needs

How to choose the best cheap VPS hosting for you?

When choosing the best cheap VPS hosting you’ll want to start with considering your technical needs — the number of CPU cores, amount of RAM, storage, and bandwidth.

You’ll want to check the overall ease of setup, the number and location of the data centers, and the uptime guarantee. If your website receives heavy traffic, it’ll help you to opt for hosting providers that offer unlimited traffic.

Lastly, look out for pricing plans, minimum contracts, and customer support, among other things.

The best cheap VPS hosting: How we test

To test the best cheap VPS hosting, we looked at their pricing plans, contract requirements, and overall quality of hosting. We evaluated their technical specifications, like the CPU cores, RAM, storage, and bandwidth they offer.

We checked their security features, uptime guarantee, and configuration options too. Read how we test, rate, and review products on TechRadar (opens in new tab).

Round up of today’s best deals