Best Cheap VPS Hosting Comparison (2017)
What are the greatest and cheapest VPS servers out there? Here's a list of providers that offer developer friendly virtual private servers that make it super easy to spin up a new server in minutes.
My most common use cases for me are either starting new projects for pages, webcrawlers or to put client projects in a staging environment for them to preview it. I write my projects with a variety of languages and stacks, most commonly: Node.js, PHP (Laravel and WordPress) or Go, backed by xSQL or MongoDB.
The ability to start an isolated server with exactly the desired version of software on them has become a normality for me, which is why I tend to keep an eye on developments in that segment of tech.
To keep your infrastructure with the same provider, even if you branch out to another country or even continent can be important too, which is why I've included the locations of data-centers that are available with the different hosting companies in alphabetical order.
Whenever cheap is used in this post, please note that the term is relative and meant as cost efficient, not "bad cheap".
Currently in the comparison: (click for 10$ starting credit)
Vultr - starting at 2.5 USD/month
Vultr is a relatively new player on the server market, at least I haven't heard of them until few months ago. They're the only ones offering a 2.5$ plan, which is great for beginners that just want to get a site online and start playing around.
Micro Level: 2.5$/month
- 1 CPU
- 512MB memory
- 20GB SSD storage
- 500GB transfer bandwidth
Entry Level: 5$/month
- 1 CPU
- 1024MB memory
- 25GB SSD storage
- 1000GB transfer bandwidth
Vultr Server Locations
With the longest list of available locations, Vultr seems to have its plan set on conquering the hosting world in every corner of the globe.- Asia / Singapore
- Asia / Tokyo
- Australia / Sydney
- Europe / Amsterdam
- Europe / Frankfurt
- Europe / London
- Europe / Paris
- North America / Atlanta
- North America / Chicago
- North America / Dallas
- North America / Fremont
- North America / Los Angeles
- North America / Miami
- North America / New York
- North America / Seattle
- North America / Silicon Valley
Digital Ocean - starting at 5 USD/month
Digital Ocean is one of the big players in VPS hosting and has a pretty good reputation, also for their extensive blog with how to posts. DO offers a really nice interface, great internal monitoring features (down to the process that's bloating your RAM) and some advanced private network options.
Entry Level: 5$/month
- 1 CPU
- 512MB memory
- 20GB SSD storage
- 1000GB bandwidth
Digital Ocean Server Locations
As the only contender Digital Ocean has an option to host sites in India. North America is covered at three locations (which probably is sufficient) and also their centers are split into differently numbered segments so you have some control how close your servers are together.- Asia / India / Bangalore
- Asia / Singapore
- Europe / Amsterdam
- Europe / Frankfurt
- Europe / London
- North America / New York
- North America / San Francisco
- North America / Toronto
Linode - starting at 5 USD/month
Only recently Linode introduced the 5$ plan and actually is tied with Vultr on that one in terms of tech specs.
Even though their VPS management interface looks like it comes straight from the 90s, the price to RAM ratio is some of the best on Linode.
If you're not put off by their a bit old fashioned interface, give them a shot, because in all detailed test of read and write speed I've read, they beat the competition.
Entry Level: 5$/month
- 1 CPU
- 1024MB memory
- 20GB SSD storage
- 1000GB bandwidth
Linode Server Locations
In terms of server locations, Linode does not match some of the other contenders, but for hosting needs in North America it seems like a pretty good option.- Asia / Singapore
- Asia / Tokyo
- Europe / Frankfurt
- Europe / London
- North America / Atlanta
- North America / Dallas
- North America / Fremont
- North America / Newark
Conclusion
The details of the hosting packages are not only in the tech specs, also pay attention to the performance you get and how well your project performs, keep monitoring and adjust the size of your VPS accordingly.
In the long run I would not necessarily recommend one of the above mentioned, but for starting a low to medium traffic project, all of them are absolute gold. If you either have a lot of sites or a really big site, dedicated servers, also with other providers, may be the better choice for you, since you'll get more power, storage and support for your money.
All of the above support some kind of referral program that allows you to get some credit for recruiting and converting more users.
What are your favourite hosting providers? Am I missing any on the list?