HostAdvice experts performed an independent study on the Best VPS Hosting providers for all types of users.
When it comes to virtual private server hosting, you can choose from managed and unmanaged solutions for your website. This article will focus on managed VPS hosting and show you its advantages and disadvantages, what it is, and more. Also, we based our research on thousands of independent user reviews, surveys, and tests to deliver you the best managed VPS providers on the market.
if you want to cut to the chase and don’t have the time to read the entire article, here is our selection of the top 10 managed VPS hosting providers.
Short on Time? Check Our Top 10 Managed VPS Hosting Providers
- HostArmada – Best Managed VPS Hosting Overall
- Cloudways – Best Managed Cloud VPS Hosting
- Kamatera – Most Scalable Managed VPS Hosting
- Verpex – Best Managed WordPress VPS Hosting
- FastComet – Best Managed Linux VPS Hosting
- A2 Hosting – Best Managed cPanel VPS Hosting
- ChemiCloud – Best Managed eCommerce VPS Hosting
- ScalaHosting – Best Cheap Managed VPS Hosting
- Hostinger – Best Managed VPS for Unlimited Bandwidth
- Ultahost – Most Flexible Managed VPS Hosting
Managed VPS hosting is also ideal for beginners since it does not require you to have any technical knowledge or skills. Namely, it eases your work and allows you to focus on your website and its content. Most users start their hosting journey with a shared hosting plan. However, as your site’s traffic increases and your business becomes more popular, a low-level hosting plan will not be able to handle your increased website traffic. You will need to switch to a more powerful web hosting service when this happens.
A managed VPS hosting plan is a solution that can help you handle spikes in traffic. It is a type of virtual private server hosting that comes with excellent support and superb value for money.
The Best Managed VPS Hosting Services of 2022 (Bought and Tested):
Read on for detailed reviews of the Managed VPS hosts listed above.
HostArmada offers excellent, fully managed SSD cloud VPS hosting, which allows you to have unlimited control. Overall, it is the best managed VPS provider on the market with which you can scale easily and grow your business!
- Overall Score: 5.0
- Performance: 5.0
- Security: 5.0
- Customer Support: 5.0
- Features: 5.0
- Pricing: 4.9
With HostArmada, you will get excellent, round-the-clock technical support and robust security measures backed by a seven-day money-back guarantee!
Research Findings:
Performance: You will get a full ROOT level of access on-demand, allowing you to have complete control over your site. Also, you will get cloud-powered VPS with 99.9% uptime, fast-paced SSD storage, and nine data centers.
Security: HostArmada offers free SSL, free daily backups, enhanced caching, free malware scans and removals, brute-force protection, hotlink protection, and WAF & IP Firewall protection with all of its plans.
Customer Support: 24/7 support via live chat, phone, a ticketing system, Fast Case Escalation, free website analysis & optimization, compensation for mistakes, ten-minute ticket response time, and more!
Features: free website migration, 1-click application installer, Nginx web server cache, cPanel & WHM, Reboot Watchdog, KVM Virtualization, AI-based Web Application Firewall, and more!
Pricing: You can choose from four managed VPS hosting plans, starting at $41.21/month for one core CPU, 2GB RAM, 50GB SSD storage, 2TB Bandwidth, 40Gbps speed in, and 2,000 Mbps speed out.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Excellent, round-the-clock technical support;
- Excellent website optimization;
- Remotely stored free daily backups;
Cons:
- Renewal prices are higher (but still worth the money regardless)
If you are looking for a feature-rich, reliable, and easy-to-use managed VPS hosting plan with excellent support to boot, look no further; HostArmada is the right choice for you! And if you don’t like what it offers, you can always get your money back thanks to its seven-day money-back guarantee!
If you are looking for unmatched performance, reliability, and choice with 24/7 support, look no further! Cloudways guarantees all of that and more and offers worry-free, top-notch managed cloud VPS hosting!
- Overall Score: 4.6
- Performance: 4.7
- Security: 4.6
- Customer Support: 4.7
- Features: 4.6
- Pricing: 4.6
Cloudways lets you pick from five top-tier cloud providers, including Digital Ocean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, and Google Cloud. It works on a pay-as-you-go basis and allows you to scale up and down at all times.
Research Findings:
Performance: Excellent cloud infrastructure backed by top-tier managed cloud hosting providers. It allows you to enable Cloudflare Enterprise and get performance-enhancing features for an additional price. You can choose from more than 60 data centers worldwide and optimize your site’s performance to the fullest!
Security: Cloudays’ managed cloud VPS plans come with managed backups, 1-click restore, 1-click free SSL installation, dedicated firewalls, regular OS & patch management, Cloudflare Enterprise CDN, optimized stack with advanced cache, server & app monitoring, auto-healing servers, and more.
Customer Support: All of Cloudways’ VPS plans come with 24/7/365 customer support which is available via live chat and ticket support. You can also pay extra for Advanced and Premium support.
Features: With Cloudways, you will be able to choose from five managed cloud hosting providers, including Digital Ocean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, and Google Cloud. You will also get 1-click installs, 1-click restore, Memcached, Varnish, Redis, built-in WordPress & Magento cache, built-in MySQL Manager, Cloudflare add-on, and more.
Pricing: The price of your plan depends on which managed cloud hosting provider you choose. The lowest plan starts at $10/month for DigitalOcean hosting, 1GB RAM, 1 Core CPU, 25GB storage, and 1TB bandwidth.
Pros & Cons:
Pros:
- Excellent performance and speed;
- Compatible with Magento, WordPress, WooCommerce, Joomla, Drupal, and Prestashop;
- Pay-as-you-go pricing allows you to pay only for the resources you consume.
Cons:
- You cannot use cPanel or Plesk since Cloudways offers its own control panel (however, its control panel has an easy-to-use and simple interface)
Cloudways hosting offers a wide range of cloud hosting options that can fit all kinds of budgets. Also, offers a free trial with no credit card required. So, if you are looking for ultra-fast and reliable managed cloud VPS hosting, stop waiting around and try Cloudways for free right now!
Kamatera offers excellent VPS hosting solutions – both managed and unmanaged. To get managed virtual private server hosting from Kamatera, you will need to enable it first. Everything else is lightning fast and easy with Kamatera!
- Overall Score: 4.9
- Performance: 4.9
- Security: 5.0
- Customer Support: 4.9
- Features: 4.8
- Pricing: 4.8
Kamatera allows you to choose between its three pricing plans or create your own customized server by choosing exactly which features and services you want. Thus, it is excellent for scalability and allows you to scale your resources as you grow!
Research Findings:
Performance: Kamatera offers a 99.95% uptime guarantee, SSD storage, and 13 high-end data centers across four continents, including data centers in Santa Clara, Toronto, New York, Dallas, London, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt, Tel Aviv, and Hong Kong.
Security: Kamatera offers excellent security and privacy measures to which you can add an extended daily backup service as well.
Customer Support: Premium 24/7 customer support via phone & email, blog, and more!
Features: Kamatera offers instantaneous server deployment, swift scaling up and down, a simple management console & API, unlimited storage, a cloud firewall, and more.
Pricing: Kamatera offers a 30-day free trial to its users. After the free trial ends, you can pay by the minute or on a monthly or hourly basis. Its prices start at $4/month. However, you will have to pay more for the managed version of its VPS hosting.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Excellent options for fast and hassle-free scalability;
- Instantaneous server deployment;
- 30-day free trial;
Cons:
- You will have to pay extra to get daily backups for your site (but the price that you need to pay for daily backups is quite affordable)
Kamatera is an excellent solution for up-and-coming businesses starting out small but wanting to go big. Also, it is absolutely free to try, so it won’t cost you a penny to hop on and try it out immediately!
Verpex offers excellent, fully managed cPanel cloud servers, managed WordPress VPS hosting solutions, and managed Magento hosting. With its custom-built Kubernetes control panel, you can easily host your WordPress site and use high-performing themes and plugins like WooCommerce, Divi, and more!
- Overall Score: 4.9
- Performance: 4.9
- Security: 4.9
- Customer Support: 4.9
- Features: 4.8
- Pricing: 4.8
With its reliable, SSD-powered managed cloud hosting and its easy-to-use custom-built control panel, Verpex is an excellent hosting solution for all kinds of businesses, both large and small!
Research Findings:
Performance: You can choose between Apache or LiteSpeed servers, get fast-performing SSD storage, a 99.99% uptime guarantee, and more. Also, Verpex has data centers all around the world, more specifically in Canada, the USA, Brazil, the UK, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Singapore, and Australia.
Security: Verpex will back up your site twice a day every day, is full PCI compliant and includes offsite backups, SSL certificates, and more. Also, all of its managed cloud servers are backed by CloudLinux and the Imunify Web App Firewall.
Customer Support: 24/7 support via email, live chat, and phone support available from Monday through Friday from 8 am to 5:30 pm EST, an extensive knowledge base, and more!
Features: All of its managed VPS plans include dedicated resources, unlimited websites, offsite backups, 30 cPanel accounts, cPanel/WHM, Redis and Memcache, Softaculous, unlimited traffic, an App installer, and more!
Pricing: You can choose from three managed cloud cPanel servers, starting at $39.50/month for 80GB dedicated SSD storage, 4GB RAM, two dedicated Xeon vCPUs, and unlimited traffic. Verpex also offers a seven-day no-questions-asked money-back guarantee on its recommended VPS plans.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Excellent performance – 99.99% uptime guarantee;
- 24/7 customer support;
- Excellent availability with numerous data centers on four continents;
Cons:
- Renewals cost significantly higher than what you will pay for the first month, almost double (but the benefits still outweigh the costs)
Verpex is a top-tier managed VPS hosting provider that will take care of everything for you and offers excellent support, performance, and security in all of its VPS plans. So, what are you waiting for? Check out Verpex today and enjoy its seven-day money-back guarantee in case something goes south (which I highly doubt it will)!
FastComet is a fantastic managed cloud hosting solution for personal and small business websites. It is also ideal for those who are looking for Linux VPS hosting and want excellent customer support to boot!
- Overall Score: 4.8
- Performance: 4.8
- Security: 4.8
- Customer Support: 4.9
- Features: 4.8
- Pricing: 4.7
FastComet will take care of your whole server infrastructure and will manage everything for you. That way, you will be able to focus on your business and devote your time to expanding it as much as possible.
Research Findings:
Performance: FastComet offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee, fast-paced SSD storage, scalable solutions, nine enterprise-grade data centers, and 200 Global CDN Anycast Network access points.
Security: Free web and CSF Firewall, brute-force protection, DDoS detection & protection, malware detection & removal, free Personal SSL encryption non all plans, complete account isolation, up to 30 free daily backups, free full data snapshots upon request, and IP Reputation botnet attacks filter.
Customer Support: FastComet offers 24/7/365 customer support, 15-minute response time, software installation assistance, SEO optimization services, web development & programming services, and more!
Features: cPanel/WHM/Softaculous, rapid provisioning, FastGuard server security, RocketBooster speed optimization, Observer Monitoring, and more!
Pricing: You can choose from four managed VPS plans, starting at $ 47.95/month for a single 2.50GHz Core, 2GB ECC RAM, 50GB SSD Storage, 2TB bandwidth, and 2,000Mbps Network Out.
Pros and Cons:
Pros:
- Free site migration and free daily backups;
- Nine enterprise-grade data centers and 200 Global CDN Anycast Network access points.
Cons:
- More expensive compared to other providers (but still worth the money)
If you are looking for a fully-managed Linux VPS Hosting provider that offers excellent, round-the-clock customer support, FastComet is an excellent solution for you. It offers superb services and excellent performance, and you can try it out risk-free since it offers a seven-day money-back guarantee for all of its VPS plans.
If you are particularly fond of cPanel, I recommend using A2 Hosting’s managed cPanel VPS services. Not only does the VPS host offer excellent cPanel VPS hosting, but it also provides fast, secure, and 100% worry-free managed hosting services in all of its plans.
- Overall Score: 4.7
- Performance: 4.7
- Security: 4.7
- Customer Support: 4.7
- Features: 4.7
- Pricing: 4.6
With A2 Hosting, you can get a fully managed VPS hosting solution with up to 20x faster page loads, 40% faster AMD EPYC CPU performance, NVMe Drive, and many other enhanced features. You can get all of that with A2 Hosting’s Turbo plan, which can also help you lower your bounce rates, rank your site higher on search engines, and more.
Research Findings:
Performance: A2 Hosting offers an uptime guarantee of 99.9%, fast-performing SSD storage, and has data centers in Michigan, Arizona, Amsterdam, and Singapore.
Security: Daily, automatic, rebootless updates, free SSL certificates, dedicated IP address, security patches, managed server security, security patches, managed installs & updates of core software, and more.
Customer Support: A2 Hosting provides 24/7/365 customer support via phone, email, and live chat, a ticketing system, great response time, an extensive knowledge base, and a blog.
Features: cPanel Control Panel & Managed updates, free & easy site transfer, Smart System Notification System, 1-click installs for WordPress and other CMS solutions, and A free Webuzo control panel.
Pricing: A2 Hosting offers four managed virtual private server hosting plans, starting at $43.99/month for 4GB RAM, 150GB SSD Storage, 2TB Transfer, and 2 Cores.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Excellent performance and speed;
- Reliable uptime and services;
- 24/7 server monitoring.
Cons:
- Higher renewal rates (even with higher renewal rates, it is still worth the money that you will pay)
A2 Hosting’s excellent managed VPS plans allow you to get the best cPanel hosting for your server. With it, you will receive ultra-fast speeds and fantastic security measures to boot. So, if you need superb cPanel VPS hosting, check out A2 Hosting’s plans as soon as you can!
ChemiCloud’s fully-managed VPS hosting comes with a free cPanel license, LiteSpeed, and highly scalable solutions that make it one of the Top managed VPS hosts on the market.
- Overall Score: 5.0
- Performance: 5.0
- Security: 5.0
- Customer Support: 5.0
- Features: 5.0
- Pricing: 4.9
ChemiCloud is an easy-to-use provider that offers excellent performance and dedicated resources that are easy to scale. It also comes with excellent features and robust security measures that guarantee that your and your visitors’ data is safe from malevolent intentions.
Research Findings:
Performance: You will get a 99.99% uptime guarantee, a 100% Network uptime guarantee, a LiteSpeed web server, a dedicated IP address, top-speed SSD storage, excellent cloud infrastructure, and 11 data centers in Dallas, San Francisco, New York, Toronto, Londo, Sydney, Frankfurt, Bucharest, Singapore, Tokyo, and Mumbai.
Security: ChemiCloud does 24/7/365 proactive monitoring, offers WAF security, brute-force protection, daily remote backups (which are free in one plan and paid in the others), CloudLinux, Immunify360, keeps 30 copies of your site, free advanced DDoS protection, real-time network protection, and more.
Customer Support: ChemiCloud offers 24/7 customer support via live chat, an extensive knowledge base, video tutorials, a blog, fast response times, and more.
Features: With ChemiCloud, your server will run on AMD EPYC 7,000 series CPUs. You will also get features like cPanel/WHM, MailChannels, Softaculous 1-click install, White Label option, free Cloudflare CDN, and more.
Pricing: You can choose from four managed VPS plans, starting at $59.96/month for 80GB SSD storage, 4TB bandwidth, two 2.20GHz CPU cores, 4GB RAM, and unlimited websites.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Excellent uptime and availability;
- 45-day money-back guarantee;
- Proactive Defense technology.
Cons:
- A bit more expensive compared to other providers (but still worth it because you will get excellent managed services and features)
All in all, ChemiCloud offers an excellent cloud infrastructure with robust security measures and fully-managed services. Its top-notch security makes it excellent for hosting eCommerce sites, so if you have one or want to start selling online, try out ChemiCloud today!
ScalaHosting is an affordable yet powerful VPS host that offers excellent prices, fully-managed services, and many other powerful features. It offers superb value for money and is ideal for beginners and those on a tighter budget!
- Overall Score: 4.8
- Performance: 4.8
- Security: 4.8
- Customer Support: 4.8
- Features: 4.8
- Pricing: 4.8
ScalaHosting makes it extremely easy for new users to get started as soon as possible. It will set up everything, manage, and maintain your whole server for you and be available for questions around-the-clock!
Research Findings:
Performance: With ScalaHosting, you will get excellent performance backed by a 99.9% uptime guarantee, more than 35 enterprise-grade data centers worldwide, unlimited bandwidth, and more!
Security: SShield, which blocks 99.98% of web attacks and protects your site in real-time, free SSL certificate, daily disaster recovery backups, free snapshots, and more!
Customer Support: 24/7 customer support via live chat, email, extensive knowledge base, excellent response times, and more!
Features: SPanel (which is 100% compatible with cPanel), free migration services, Softaculous 1-click installer, unlimited bandwidth & domain names, and the ability to choose the provider you prefer (ScalaHosting, DigitalOcean, or AWS).
Pricing: ScalaHosting offers excellent starter prices, beginning at $14.95/month for 2 CPU Cores, 50GB SSD, 4GB RAM, unmetered bandwidth, and built-in features worth $78.95/month.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Fast response times;
- Offers feature-rich and affordable plans;
- Excellent uptime and more than 35 top-tier data centers.
Cons:
- No website builder (but you can easily find a free website builder and use it to create your website and host it with ScalaHosting);
- You only get one free daily backup (but you can pay extra for three or seven).
With 100% customer satisfaction, a 30-day money-back guarantee, and affordable prices, there is virtually nothing stopping you from checking out ScalaHosting today and getting its excellent managed VPS hosting!
Hostinger is a top-tier hosting provider that offers Managed services, excellent performance, and has years of experience in the hosting industry. All of that, coupled with its helpful customer service, makes Hostinger a VPS host that is hard to ignore!
- Overall Score: 4.6
- Performance: 4.7
- Security: 4.6
- Customer Support: 4.7
- Features: 4.6
- Pricing: 4.6
If you are looking for simple, fast, and reliable managed virtual private server hosting plans, Hostinger is the right solution for you. It offers an excellent hosting infrastructure that allows you to have complete control and flexibility over your server. And, if you want an AI-based website builder to create and host multiple websites, you got that too. With Hostinger, you can take advantage of its innovative AI website builder – Zyro, for free!
Research Findings:
Performance: Hostinger uses the latest Intel Xeon processors, NVMe SSD storage, has a 99.99% uptime guarantee, uses a dedicated IPv6 block infrastructure that allows you to avoid latency, blacklisting, & networking issues, and has data centers in Lithuania, Singapore, the Netherlands, the UK, and the USA.
Security: BitNinja full-stack server protection, built-in advanced DDoS protection, automated backups, live snapshots, dedicated IP address, quick site restoration, and more.
Customer Support: Hostinger offers 24/7/365 customer support to all users via live chat & email, an extensive knowledge base, tutorials, a blog, and video tutorials on its YouTube channel called “Hostinger Academy.”
Features: IPv4 & IPv6 support, OVZ virtualization technology, NFS support, full root access, support for operating systems like CentOS, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, and Suse, free AI-based website builder (Zyro), and more.
Pricing: Hostinger offers eight managed and unmanaged VPS plans, starting at $2.99/month for one core CPU, 1GB RAM, 20GB SSD Storage, and 1TB bandwidth.
Pros & Cons:
Pros:
- Affordable VPS plans;
- Excellent uptime and reliability;
- 30-day money-back guarantee.
Cons:
- It lacks phone support (but you can still contact its team 24/7 via live chat and email)
Hostinger is an excellent hosting provider that offers affordable prices and is suitable for up-and-coming businesses that are looking to grow quickly online. It also provides a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it out now and get your money back if you don’t like later!
If you need extra flexibility in your hosting plan and want to be able to choose and customize your server to fit your needs, then Ultahost is ideal for you. It offers some of the most flexible managed VPS hosting plans and allows you to scale your resources with just one click!
- Overall Score: 4.9
- Performance: 4.9
- Security: 4.9
- Customer Support: 4.9
- Features: 4.8
- Pricing: 4.9
Ultahost allows you to choose from various OS options, including Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Red Hat, AlmaLinux, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012 R2, and Windows 10. It also allows you to choose your control panel and only pay for the resources that you use!
Research Findings:
Performance: Ultahost offers a 99.9% uptime, fast-paced SSD NVMe Storage, built-in cache mechanisms that enhance the speed of your sites, and more. It allows you to choose between Apache and Nginx web servers, and all of its servers are powered by ultra-optimized 14th-generation Dell servers.
Security: The provider’s team regularly performs firewall upgrades and patches so that your sites remain secure from online threats. You will also get a free SSL certificate, SSH/SFTP access to your account, the ability to safelist IP addresses, BitNinja Security, database security, and more!
Customer Support: Ultahost offers 24/7 expert support that is available via live chat and a ticketing system. It also has an extensive knowledge base, an active online community, support add-ons, and automated troubleshooting.
Features: full root access, SSD NVMe Disk Drives, scalable DDR4 RAM, unlimited bandwidth, custom VPS servers, automated daily backups, one-click restores, the ability to assign user roles, Varnish, Memcached, Redis, PHP-FPM, MySQL/MariaDB databases, and more.
Pricing: You can choose from four managed hosting plans, depending on the operating system and control panel you want, starting at $5.5/month for one CPU Core, 1GB RAM, 30GB NVMe SSD, and one IPv4 dedicated IP address.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Excellent performance – 99.9% uptime guarantee;
- Flexible and scalable resources;
- Super affordable prices;
Cons:
- It does not offer unlimited storage (but you can get up to 750GB of storage with its Ultra Windows VPS, which is still more than enough for most)
Ultahost offers top-notch managed VPS hosting services that are excellent for users looking for flexibility and the ability to scale their resources with just one click. You can also try it for 30 days before you commit to a certain plan. So, head over to Ultahost and try its services risk-free today!
What Is Managed VPS Hosting, and Who Is It For?
As the name states, Managed VPS hosting is a managed hosting solution that takes care of all server-related tasks for you. In other words, with managed VPS hosting, your VPS host will take care of everything related to server management and maintenance, including updates, installations, backups, security, and more. Thus, you will not need to worry about all those technical tasks and will be able to focus more on your website and content.
For example, if you opt for unmanaged hosting, your VPS host will only supply things like the physical server. Also, your provider will set the server up with the default operating system and control panel, and that’s it. Everything else will be in your control, and you will have to set it up by yourself.
However, with managed hosting, trained professionals will set up all the software requirements for you. So, with a managed solution, you will usually get the following features and services:
- Server provisioning and initial setup
- Uptime guarantee
- Regular updates
- Security software installation
- Security and vulnerability patches
- On-demand malware scans conducted by professionals
- 24/7 support
- Server management tools
- Offsite server backups made by professionals
- Help from professionals in resolving hardware and software issues
- And more
All in all, with a managed VPS solution, you won’t have to worry about everything that can go wrong since professionals will manage your whole server. And, if you ever stumble upon a problem, you will always have someone to talk to and ask for help.
Managed VPS hosting is ideal for users who do not have the technical expertise or skills to manage a whole server by themselves. Also, it is suitable for those who do not want or do not have the time to maintain a server and keep track of all the updates and installations it requires. Furthermore, managed VPS hosting is ideal for those who do not know how to set up their own security measures and protocols themselves. And since security is a crucial factor for everyone wishing to have a presence on the Internet, having experts on your team to ensure your site is secure is imperative.
Managed VPS hosting is also an excellent fit for those who:
- Have a business that is growing out of the resources included in their shared hosting plan;
- Expect significant increases in traffic in the near future;
- Want to host several websites instead of only one;
- Need better privacy and performance compared to what their shared hosting plan offers.
How Do We Rank and How You Should Choose Your Managed VPS Hosting?
- Server Uptime15%
- Web server speed10%
- Type of Hosting Service8%
- Customer Support9%
- Backup4%
- Security8%
- Extra Hosting Features9%
- Pricing7%
- User Reviews30%
In order to rank the best VPS hosting providers for our readers, we test specifically for each category we write about. First, our experts develop a list of factors that are relevant for the specific hosting solution we are ranking – in this case, managed VPS hosting. After that, we perform independent performance tests on every provider that qualifies in that field of testing. During our tests, we measure the provider’s speed, security, uptime, reliability, customer support, and other important factors. Also, we always take into consideration independent user reviews written by individuals worldwide.
Of course, not all factors have the same importance to the category we are ranking, so we assign a specific percentage to each factor we are testing. That percentage indicates how important a certain factor is to the category we are testing. Thus, if a certain factor is more important for the category that we are testing, we will assign more significant weight to that factor and vice versa.
Here are the factors that we tested and that you need to take into consideration when ranking and choosing the best managed VPS hosting providers:
- Server Uptime (15%): The uptime that your hosting provider offers shows how reliable its hosting is. Uptime is usually expressed in percentages and shows the amount of time that your website will be online and available. For instance, if a provider has an uptime guarantee of 99.9%, that means that it guarantees that your website will be available 99.9% of the time. So, your site will be down only 0.1% of the time in a given period, which is not bad at all. The higher the uptime a provider offers, the more reliable your website will be. It would be best if you find a provider that provides an uptime of 99.95% and above.
- Web server speed (10%): Web page and web server speed are two different things. Web server speed shows how long your web hosting server takes to respond to an issue, while web page speed shows how fast a web page takes to load. You can improve your web page speed in a couple of ways, but you cannot do the same for your web server speed. The speed of your web server depends on your web hosting provider, so you should always look into this factor when choosing any kind of hosting provider.
- Type of Hosting Service (8%): Not all VPS hosts offer both managed and unmanaged VPS hosting. Of course, all of the providers that we will cover in this article offer either both or at least managed services. However, if you want to choose a provider by yourself, you should always check whether the VPS hosting they offer is managed or unmanaged.
- Customer Support (9%): Customer support is a vital factor when choosing a web hosting provider. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced professional, having someone you can turn to for help with a certain issue or question is a must-have. Thus, it would be best if you look for managed VPS hosts that offer 24/7 support via multiple channels, like live chat, phone, and email. Also, look for a provider that has extensive documentation, guides, tutorials, and communities, where you can find articles and guides on how to solve issues or complete tasks.
- Backup (4%): Having a strong backup system in place can help you increase the overall reliability of your site. Even though many hosting providers offer backups, most of them differ in service range. In other words, some providers do daily backups of your site, and some do weekly, monthly, etc. Also, you should pay attention to how long the data retention period is and how simple it is to restore your data from a backup. Some providers also allow you to schedule when your backups will be made. All in all, the more options you have, the better.
- Security (8%): In general, all virtual private server hosting solutions are considered to be more secure than shared hosting ones. However, some providers go the extra mile and offer enhanced security measures in their plans. For example, some providers offer daily backups, disaster recovery options, and other robust security measures that you won’t want to miss out on.
- Extra Hosting Features (9%): Some additional free hosting features are always a good thing. You should always check whether a provider offers something more in its plans, like free migrations, free automatic security patches, free CDN, an easy-to-use control panel, etc. The best way to go about this is to think about all the features you might need and then see if the provider you like offers those in its plans.
- Pricing (7%): When choosing a VPS hosting provider, we recommend that you make a cost-benefit analysis before purchasing a plan. That way, you can discover if the price you will pay is worth it. Also, do not always opt for the cheapest plan, as such plans usually indicate that the provider has dabbled into some cost-cutting to reach a low price. So, always be vary of extra cheap plans and do not jump the gun before analyzing everything that the plan offers. Also, you don’t always have to get the most expensive plan, especially if you are not going to use everything that is included in it. That is why we recommend you do a cost-benefit analysis before purchasing any hosting plan.
- User Reviews (30%): User reviews can show you what other people think about a certain provider. You can learn more about their experiences with the provider and determine whether most people have had more positive or negative incidents with it. That way, you can decide if the provider is reliable and truly offers everything it says it does.
Managed vs. Unmanaged VPS – What’s The Difference?
We mentioned unmanaged VPS for a brief moment in one of the sections in this article. Now, let’s dive deeper and see what the difference between managed and unmanaged VPS is so that you can have a clearer picture of what both services offer.
With unmanaged VPS hosting, your web hosting provider will take care of installing the operating system and leave everything else in your hands. So, you will have full control over your server. Unmanaged hosting is a highly flexible solution ideal for more advanced users with the technical know-how required to maintain and manage a server. Some of the tasks that you will have to do by yourself with unmanaged VPS include:
- Installing software;
- Installing a control panel;
- Making regular software updates;
- Monitoring for security threats;
- Installing security patches;
- Configuring your server;
- Maintain your server;
- Making regular upgrades;
- Setting up backups for your site;
- And more.
Also, in the event that an outage or hardware failure happens, you will be left on your own and won’t receive much support from your VPS hosts.
With managed hosting, a team of experts will manage and maintain your whole server and keep it running for you. Also, they will take care of all the technical tasks for you and ensure you have everything you need. With managed hosting, a team of experts will do all of the following for you:
- Set up your server and install its software, control panel, and any applications you might need;
- Handle all the updates for you;
- Install and update security patches for your operating system and core server software;
- Monitor for warning signs of cyber attacks and hardware failure;
- Make automated backups of your site for you;
- And more.
All in all, unmanaged VPS hosting is ideal for advanced and experienced users who know how to set up, maintain, and manage a whole server, while managed hosting is suitable for those who do not have enough technical knowledge to complete such tasks.
Managed VPS Hosting Pros and Cons
Now let’s explore some advantages and disadvantages you can experience with managed virtual private server hosting.
Pros
- Full root access – your managed server is isolated from other servers, which means that you can modify it however you want by having root access;
- Everything is managed by professionals – with managed VPS hosting, your VPS host will manage and maintain your server for you. Thus, you will be able to focus on growing your business and won’t have to worry about any of the technical stuff;
- Excellent scalability – you can easily scale resources like RAM, CPU, and others as your site’s traffic grows;
- Better performance – most providers offer SSD-based VPS hosting, which improves your site’s load time and performance;
- Enhanced security – your site’s security will be taken care of by professionals who will ensure that everything is up to date. Also, they will monitor your site round-the-clock and conduct regular security scans and audits.
Cons
- Higher recurring cost – as I mentioned above, managed VPS solutions are usually more expensive, meaning that you will have higher recurring costs if you want to use them;
- Less flexibility – since almost all of the technical things will be taken care of by your provider, you will have less flexibility in terms of which plugins and software versions you want to install.
How Does Managed VPS Hosting Work?
Virtual private server hosting involves using virtualization technology and splitting a server and its resources into virtual private units. So, with it, you will get private resources and won’t have to share them with other users. Thus, even though you are using a physical server shared by multiple users, you will have your own dedicated resources all to yourself. Also, you won’t be affected by the other users on the server.
Each unit on the server gets a dedicated IP address, meaning that if one of the users experiences a DDoS attack, you won’t be affected by it. Also, you will be able to create custom firewall settings, block certain IP addresses, and do whatever else you want with your server.
Best Managed VPS Hosting Services: Summary
With Managed VPS hosting, you will get to take advantage of all the benefits that a regular VPS offers while having a team of experts that will help you with everything. Your VPS hosts will set up, manage, and maintain everything for you. Thus, you will be able to focus on growing your business more.
In other words, you won’t have to worry about all the technical aspects of your hosting and will be able to rest assured that your site is safe and secure. Managed hosting is ideal for those who need to upgrade from shared hosting but do not know how to configure and take care of a server by themselves.
It is an excellent solution for websites with medium to high traffic, eCommerce sites, and resource-heavy sites. It is also reliable, scalable, and suitable for beginners and those who do not have the time or skill to manage a server by themselves. So, if you want a reliable web hosting solution that will allow you to grow seamlessly and expand your business, you should definitely consider managed virtual private server hosting. However, you should be careful when choosing your managed VPS hosting provider and make sure to do your research before committing to a certain provider.