HostAdvice experts performed an independent study on the VPS Hosting providers for all types of users. our experts performed an study that involved testing all leading providers that fit into this category separately. Our independent study is based on thousands of independent user reviews, surveys, and tests. However, if you want to cut to the chase and want to learn which providers made it on our list, here is our selection of the top 7 best VPS hosting UK providers.
Short on Time? Check Our Top 7 VPS Hosting UK Providers
- Kamatera – Best UK VPS Hosting for Security
- HostArmada – Best UK WordPress VPS Hosting
- FastComet – Best Overall VPS Provider in the UK
- Hostinger – Best UK Cloud VPS Hosting
How Do We Rank and How You Should Choose Your VPS Hosting UK?
- Server Uptime15%
- Root Access13%
- Memory and Storage8%
- Choice of Operating System6%
- Security10%
- Customer Support10%
- Type of Hosting Service8%
- User Reviews30%
We test specifically for each category in order to rank the best hosting providers. Our experts compile a list of important factors for the category we are ranking. Furthermore, our experts perform independent performance tests on each and every provider. Also, each factor that we test is assigned a specific percentage of importance that shows how critical the factor is for the category that we are writing about.
Here are the factors that we tested and that you need to take into consideration when ranking and choosing the best VPS hosting UK providers:
- Server Uptime (15%): Uptime of 99.95% or above, enterprise-grade hardware, SSD Storage, Cloudflare CDN, etc.
- Root Access (13%): Does the provider offer full root access to its users? Will you have complete control over your server? Will you be able to download the control panel of your choice?
- Memory and Storage (8%): Does the provider offer SSD Storage? Does the provider limit the amount of Storage you can get? How much RAM can you get for your server?
- Choice of Operating System (6%): Does the provider support different operating systems? Can you host your server with Windows, Linux, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, etc.?
- Security (10%): Does the provider offer other security tools and measures? Does the provider only protect you from DDoS attacks and nothing more?
- Customer Support (10%): the technical knowledge and availability behind the support behind the VPS plan – preferably 24/7 support via live chat, phone, & email, guides, and tutorials.
- Type of Hosting Service (8%): Does the provider offer both fully-managed and unmanaged VPS services? Can you choose the hosting service type you want?
- User Reviews (30%): Objective reviews and experiences from independent users who have previously used the provider’s services. Unbiased feedback and opinions on the provider.
What is VPS Hosting UK, and Who Is It For?
VPS hosting is a hosting service that caters to UK-based individuals and businesses who want to get online. You can use it to create and host a website, multiple sites on one server, an online store, and more. With VPS hosting, you will get your own dedicated resources and won’t be affected by what the other users on the server are doing.
VPS (Virtual Private Server) providers use virtualization technology to give users private resources that they can use however they want. Even though multiple users share one VPS server, they are not affected by each other’s actions. It provides excellent value for money and is suitable for hosting all kinds of web applications, sites, etc.
VPS Hosting in the UK is ideal for users who:
- Are based in the UK and want to get online;
- Want to sell online to UK-based customers;
- UK-based users who have medium-level traffic;
- UK-based users who also want to be available 24/7 in other European countries;
- Users who want more resources and enhanced security;
- Businesses who want to host their online stores, enterprise apps, and other business-related sites;
- And more.
The Best VPS Hosting UK Services of 2023 (Bought and Tested):
Kamatera is a global cloud hosting provider that offers some of the best VPS hosting UK services on the market. It emphasizes the importance of security and protecting its users’ data online, making it the perfect choice for those looking for a highly secure hosting provider!
- Overall Score: 4.9
- Performance: 5.0
- Security: 4.9
- Support: 4.9
- Features: 4.8
- Pricing: 4.8
Kamatera has 13 enterprise-grade data centers spread out worldwide, including one in London. All of its servers run on cutting-edge technology and are compatible with multiple operating systems, including AlmaLinux, RockyLinux, CentOS Linux 8 & 7, CloudLinux, and more!
Research Findings:
Performance: The provider offers high-performance servers that run on cutting-edge technology, including 600Gbit bandwidth, SSD drives, and Xeon Platinum/Cascade Lake processors. It offers an uptime guarantee of 99.95% and fully-redundant services!
Security: With Kamatera, you can add an extended daily backup service to your server. Also, no matter which server you choose (Linux, Windows, etc.), you will receive high-level security from the provider.
Support: Kamatera offers excellent customer support, which you can reach at all times via email and phone. Its support team responds quickly to all messages and provides users with knowledgeable and helpful solutions.
Features: stop & restart your servers at any time, ultra-quick setup, scalable solutions, root/administrator access to servers, unlimited Storage, no hardware maintenance, assign roles to administrators/users, complete control over subnet and private VLAN, proprietary API, and more!
Pricing: The provider 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, and you can create your own pricing plan by configuring your server to have the resources you need!
Pros & Cons:
Pros:
- High-performance servers;
- Flexible pricing plans;
- Robust security measures;
Cons:
- Its unmanaged services are a better fit for more advanced users (however, beginners can get fully-managed services for an extra fee)
HostArmada is another excellent VPS provider that offers reliable cloud hosting services. Its managed VPS solutions, paired with its excellent features, performance, and WordPress-optimized services, make it one of the best VPS UK providers for WordPress! The provider is also great for scalability.
- Overall Score: 5.0
- Performance: 5.0
- Security: 5.0
- Support: 5.0
- Features: 5.0
- Pricing: 4.9
HostArmada operates on a state-of-the-art cloud platform that uses KVM virtualization and top-tier hardware. Among its nine data center locations spread around four continents, it has its own data center in London, England, making it suitable for UK-based users and their UK-based customers.
Research Findings:
Performance: HostArmada allows users to have full root access on-demand, which enables them to have complete control over their servers. Also, it offers cloud-powered VPS with 99.9% uptime, fast-paced SSD storage, and nine data centers.
Security: With HostArmada, you will get free SSL, free malware scans and removals, free daily backups, enhanced caching, brute-force protection, hotlink protection, WAF & IP Firewall protection, a network firewall, advanced firewall with her immunity, proactive defense, next-gen IDS/IPS, and more!
Support: 24/7 support via phone, live chat, a ticketing system, ten-minute ticket response time, Fast Case Escalation, free website analysis & optimization, compensation for mistakes, OpenSource applications installation/update, free SSL installation, hacked website restore, website consultation, etc.
Features: cPanel/WHM, Nginx web servers, Softaculous 1-click application installer, free website migration, Reboot Watchdog, KVM Virtualization, AI-based Web Application Firewall, Memcached, APC, Cloudflare CDN, MySQL databases, multiple PHP versions, remote MySQL, SSH access, Git, and more!
Pricing: You can choose from four managed VPS plans, starting at $38.47/month for 50GB SSD Storage, one CPU Core, 2GB RAM, 2TB bandwidth, 40Gbps speed in, and 2,000 Mbps speed out.
Pros & Cons:
Pros:
- State-of-the-art London data center;
- Round-the-clock technical support;
- Remotely stored free daily backups;
Cons:
- Renewal prices are higher (but still worth the money regardless)
FastComet is one of the best VPS hosting UK providers with which you can host your server or website. It offers superb, private, SSD-based cloud VPS servers, which will allow your server to be up and running at all times with minimal interruption. It also provides excellent security and 24/7/365 support!
- Overall Score: 4.8
- Performance: 4.8
- Security: 4.8
- Support: 4.9
- Features: 4.8
- Pricing: 4.7
With FastComet, you will get fully-managed services, which will enable you to focus more on growing your business instead of on maintaining and managing your server on a daily basis. Also, among its 11 enterprise-grade data centers, FastComet has one in London, which is ideal for UK-based users.
Research Findings:
Performance: FastComet offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee, fast-paced SSD storage, scalable solutions, nine enterprise-grade data centers, 2.5GHz CPUs, ECC RAM, MySQL on SSD, an optimized server setup, and 200 Global CDN Anycast Network access points, and more!
Security: FastComet offers a 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, full data snapshots on request, and more!
Support: FastComet provides 24/7/365 customer support, 15-minute response time, free website setup, free website transfer, software installation assistance, OpenSource Application support, SEO optimization services, web development & programming services, and more!
Features: cPanel/WHM/Softaculous, rapid provisioning, FastGuard server security, RocketBooster speed optimization, Observer Monitoring, Apache 2.2/2.4 web server, Nginx, custom php.ini support, Bash/Perl/Python support, Cloudflare CDN, SSH access, MySQL 5.7, FFMPEG support, and more!
Pricing: FastComet offers four VPS pricing plans, starting at $38.95/month for one 2.50GHz CPU Core, 2GB ECC RAM, 50GB SSD Storage, and 2TB bandwidth.
Pros and Cons:
Pros:
- Enterprise-grade London data center;
- Excellent performance;
- Superb features and security;
Cons:
- More expensive compared to other providers (but still worth the money)
Hostinger is among the best VPS for UK users, and it offers superb cloud services that guarantee top-notch performance and availability. It offers unlimited traffic in all of its plans and excellent services that are useful to all kinds of users, both big and small!
- Overall Score: 4.6
- Performance: 4.7
- Security: 4.6
- Support: 4.7
- Features: 4.6
- Pricing: 4.6
Not only does Hostinger offer excellent services, but it also has three enterprise-grade data centers in Europe alone, including one in the United Kingdom, Lithuania, and the Netherlands. Thus, its services are perfect for UK-based users who want to have the best performance and availability for their servers!
Research Findings:
Performance: a 99.99% uptime guarantee, latest Intel Xeon processors, fast-paced NVMe SSD Storage, 100 Mb/s networks, top-tier data centers, including one in the UK, and more! It also uses a dedicated IPv6 block infrastructure that allows you to avoid latency, blocklisting, and networking issues.
Security: built-in advanced DDoS protection, automated backups, manual live snapshots, dedicated IP address, quick site restoration, BitNinja full-stack server protection, free SSL, IPv4 & IPv6 support, and more!
Support: The provider 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: OVZ virtualization technology, Cloudflare CDN, one-click WordPress installation, 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 VPS hosting plans, starting at $2.99/month for one core CPU, 1GB RAM, 20GB SSD Storage, and 1TB bandwidth.
Pros & Cons:
Pros:
- Top-tier data center located in the UK;
- Affordable prices;
- 30-day money-back guarantee;
Cons:
- It lacks phone support (but you can still contact its team 24/7 via live chat and email)
Ranking comparison between the Top Providers
VPS Hosting UK Pros and Cons
Let’s take a look at some of the advantages and disadvantages that you can gain/suffer from VPS hosting in the UK.
Pros
- Excellent Value for Money – even though VPS is more expensive than shared hosting, it offers much more resources and enhanced features than shared hosting. Also, it is cheaper than dedicated hosting. So, it falls directly between shared and dedicated hosting. Thus, if you cannot afford dedicated servers but still need something powerful, VPS hosting is the perfect solution.
- Scalability – VPS hosting is excellent for growth. Usually, most VPS hosting providers allow you to upgrade and downgrade your resources as much and whenever you want. So, if you experience more traffic, you can quickly upgrade your resources and handle it with no interruption.
- Round-The-Clock Availability – UK users can benefit greatly from VPS hosting in the UK because it will allow them to have excellent performance and be available at all times for your UK-based and European users. Of course, you will be available for users worldwide as well.
- Flexibility – there are hundreds of VPS hosting providers you can choose from on the market. So, you can always find a plan that suits your needs best and gives you everything you require, including the amount of RAM, Storage, computing power, and other similar resources.
- Excellent Performance and Speed – VPS hosting plans offer excellent performance with little to no interruption. Also, they offer excellent speed and faster load times than shared hosting.
Cons
- Limitations – Even though VPS solutions are extremely powerful, they still come with certain limitations. For example, some providers have a cap on how much Storage you can have, RAM, IP addresses, etc.
- Technical Knowledge – If you want to manage and maintain your server, you will have to have a certain degree of technical knowledge and skills to do so. However, you can get fully-managed services and have your provider take care of all of that for you for an extra fee.
Managed vs. Unmanaged VPS
Managed VPS hosting is a service that many providers offer where they take care of all the technical stuff for you. Some of that includes setting up, maintaining, and managing your whole server for you and making sure that all the updates and installs are done. It allows you to have a more hands-off approach and focus on other things like growing your business. Also, it does not require you to have any technical skills.
Some of the benefits that managed VPS hosting offers include:
- It requires no IT experience from users;
- It can save you time;
- Keeps your server up and updated at all times;
Unmanaged VPS hosting is a service that a larger portion of hosting providers offer. With this service, you will be responsible for everything, including setting up, maintaining, and managing your server. It is suitable for more advanced users who want to have complete control over their servers and want to customize them as much as they want. So, it requires users to have technical skills and to know how to maintain a whole server by themselves.
Some of the benefits that unmanaged VPS hosting offers include:
- It is cheaper than managed VPS hosting;
- It allows users to have more control over their servers;
- You can customize it however you want;
VPS vs. Shared vs. Dedicated Hosting
Shared hosting is the most widely used hosting service. It is a service that most hosting providers offer. When you get a shared hosting plan, you are put on a server that is used by hundreds, maybe thousands of users. So, you will have to share your resources with every user on your server, which can affect your performance. Namely, if one user gets hacked, there is a high likelihood that you can be as well. Also, if one user goes over their resource limit, it can affect you too. Shared hosting is best for small websites with low traffic, like personal websites and blogs.
VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting is a service that offers excellent value for money. It is right between shared and dedicated hosting. If you get a VPS hosting plan, you will also share your server with other users as you would with shared hosting. However, the resources that you will get will be dedicated only to you, and you won’t be affected by what other users are doing on your server. VPS hosting is also highly scalable, offers enhanced security, and many more resources than shared hosting.
Dedicated hosting is the most expensive service that you can get to host your website. With it, you will get a whole server to yourself and won’t share it with others. It offers extremely high load times, security, and overall superb performance. It is ideal for large enterprises that have high-traffic websites and thousands of visitors a month.
Best VPS Hosting UK Service: Summary
With a sound VPS provider, UK-based users can gain all kinds of benefits, including round-the-clock availability, enhanced performance, security, and excellent value for money. Also, VPS hosting solutions allow users to have full control over their sites and are ideal for growth and scalability.
Getting VPS hosting UK services from one of the ten providers we covered will ensure that you receive the best features, services, and overall quality for your money.