If you are seeking out the best VPS hosting UK options in 2024, you’re in the right place!
In this guide, I have reviewed and ranked various top tier VPS hosting providers that offer a great balance of price and functionality.
So whether you are a business owner, scaling website, blogger, or developer, you should be able to find the right VPS host for you in this guide. Let’s get started!
Top 7 Best VPS Hosting UK Picks Of 2024!
1. Hostinger
Established in 2004, Hostinger has become one of the biggest European based hosting company. Their success is backed by their outstanding support which is reflected by the staggering 15,000 new signups every day.
Currently, they have over 29 million active customers in over 178 countries!
All of the Hostinger VPS servers are armed with the latest generation Intel Xeon processors, and SSD storage, all of which are backed by blazing fast 100 Mb/s internet for guaranteed speeds.
Moreover, they also offer dedicated IP addresses with IPv4 and IPv6 protocols, full root access, 24/7/365 support, and developer-friendly script installer. Data transfers are also protected by RAID systems and backed up on a daily basis!
As per my extensive testings, Hostinger produced very strong numbers with an average uptime of 99.95% and average load times of 350ms when tested from London.
Hostinger has Tier-3 data centres deployed in 7 different regions to ensure the lowest possible latency and smooth experience.
As of now, the servers are located in the US, Brazil, Netherlands, Singapore, Indonesia, Lithuania, and most importantly the UK. Also, all Hostinger servers are protected by the Bitninja firewall and Wanguard for real-time protection against anti-DDoS attacks. They also offer free integration of CloudFare!
Hostinger’s VPS hosting plans start from £3.95/month and include 1 core CPU, 1GB RAM, 20GB SSD storage, and scores a decent score of 3513 on Geekbench which can handle 1 TB of bandwidth.
All plans come with a 30-days money-back guarantee, free website builder, and provide multiple operating system options to choose from including CentOS, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, and Suse, all tailored to suit different needs!
Overall, Hostinger’s VPS servers were able to provide excellent uptime/speed and their customer service was very cooperative and responsive.
Being very affordable, I would recommend it to anyone running a small blog or website that doesn’t require heavy resources! Hands down my favourite VPS hosting pick for those in the UK!
2. Bluehost
Founded in 2003, Bluehost is one of the leading web hosting companies with over 2,000,000+ websites currently being hosted.
Additionally, WordPress is also the #1 recommendation from WordPress.org which carries a lot of weight.
As you would expect from a legacy hosting provider, Bluehost VPS hosting servers are powered by multi-core CPUs, SSD storage, and the latest generation RAMs.
All of the Bluehost VPS plans come with 100% managed support, dedicated IP address, and 24/7/365 Live Support via Phone, Chat and Email which is a huge bonus.
I was quite surprised by the uptime and overall site speeds that I received. I can confirm from my testing, that on average I was getting an uptime of 99.99% and a load time of 405ms, which is some of the best I came across.
Being an American company, BlueHost has located all its servers in the United States. Though not the ideal choice for UK customers, BlueHost has free integration of CloudFare to improve its speed across the UK!
As for price, the Standard VPS plan offered by Bluehost is at £14.16/month which offers a 2 core processor, 30GB SSD storage, 2GB RAM, and 1TB of bandwidth. A free domain name for 1 year and optional domain privacy feature, SiteLock, and CodeGuard.
With unparalleled uptime, competitive pricing, and quality support, BlueHost VPS hosting is a welcome step up from their shared hosting plans. Overall, a great well-rounded VPS provider that covers all of the bases!
3. Fasthosts
Established in 1999, Fasthosts has been the first choice for many UK users. With over two decades of experience, Fasthosts is currently hosting 1.2 million+ domains and over 650,000 customer mailboxes handling around 42 million emails every day!
Jumping straight into the numbers, Fasthosts VPS servers are powered by 2-8 vCPUs paired with up to 16 gigs of RAM and up to 240GB expandable SSD storage. Combine this with unlimited bandwidth and no automatic throttling, users get an insanely powerful server!
Combined with these benefits are free 5GB scheduled backups, SQL Server 2019, 24/7 UK support via phone and online, and Plesk Obsidian control panel which makes it easier to configure DNS settings and manage the database!
According to my tests, speeds were hovering around the 350ms mark and an average uptime of 99.99%, which is impressive, to say the least.
One of, if not the major benefit of Fasthosts is that they have their own data centre based Gloucester, United Kingdom.
The facility itself is monitored 24 hours a day to keep users data safe and secure, along with an approved ISO 27001 security.
For the green thumbs out there, the servers are also powered by 100% renewable energy, and in the event of power failure, the servers switch to backup power systems to stay up and running.
Undoubtedly, FastHost undercuts the competition by offering plans at very cheap prices. The basic plan – VPSM is priced at £5/month, which includes 2vCPU and 2GB RAM backed by 80GB SSD.
This same plan also delivers full administrative access to servers, the option to choose from Windows or Linux OS for hosting, free one year SSL certification, free trial of their website builder for 3 months, and a 30-days money-back guarantee!
With unbelievably low prices, FastHost is a great choice for UK-based individuals and small business owners! Overall, one of the top VPS hosting providers based in the United Kingdom.
4. Ionos
Ionos by 1&1 was founded in 1988 and is now the largest hosting company in Europe that has been the first choice for many small and medium-sized businesses for three decades.
As of 2024, they proudly manage more than 8 million customer contracts and host over 12 million domains in their data centres.
Being the largest European hosting provider, their servers are powered by the latest multi-vCore Intel Xeon CPUs, up to 12GB RAM, and the latest SSDs SAN storage which can manage unlimited traffic with ease.
Both Linux and Windows OS are available with Ionos servers along with full root access, encrypted remote access, Plesk Onyx, and Plesk Obsidian control panel.
All servers also come pre-installed with apps like WordPress, Shopware, and Magento which is a huge plus!
As for site performance, the results I received were some of the best from my testing. On average, speeds I received when testing from London was 350ms and an uptime of 99.99%.
Currently, Ionos has a data centre in the United Kingdom that guarantees great speed, especially to UK based businesses and customers.
For even more peace of mind, all servers are located in an ISO 27001 UK certified environment guarded by external firewall management to prevent any attacks and intrusion!
VPS hosting plans offered by Inos start from £1/month which offers 1 vCore Intel Xeon E5 CPU, 512MB RAM, and 10GB SSD. Unlike most of the provider plans, there is no minimum contract duration and you can change or cancel your plan any time you want.
If you own a small business or a student learning web development, VPS hosting by IONOS is the ideal playground for you to polish your skills!
5. Hostgator
Founded in 2002, HostGator quickly grew to become one of the leading hosting providers in the world. Currently, the company hosts over 8 million domains and counting!
At a quick glance, HostGator provides full root access on all of their VPS hosting plans, thereby allowing for custom installations, configuration, and easy scalability.
Hostgator also offers a free domain, free website builder, hosting of unlimited domains and subdomains, a full set of web development tools, and weekly off-site backups for all VPS options
During my testing, I received an average uptime of 99.98% and speeds that were hovering around the 540ms range, which are quite good, but not the best.
Though Hostgator doesn’t have any data centres located in Europe, there is the ability to connect various CDN providers for increased local speeds within the United Kingdom.
When it comes to the hosting options, there are three plans for VPS hosting.
The basic plan called ‘Snappy 2000’ offers 2 cores CPU, 2GB RAM, 120GB SS storage, and unmetered bandwidth. For more resources, users can opt for ’Snappy 4000’ and ’8000’ which both provide a big step up for computing power.
Included in every plan, users will also get an Apache web server, support for My SQL, PHP, Python, Ruby, protection again DDoS with secured firewall, and RAID 10 disk configuration for maximum protection!
Despite not having its server located in the UK, I was still satisfied with the overall performance of their VPS hosting. Highly recommended!
6. Inmotion
In a span of nearly two decades, Inmotion has made a huge name for itself. By providing their services to over 300,000 customer domains, they are well-reputed for providing quality service without any compromises.
Powered by the latest hardware, the Inmotion VPS plan offers up to 8GB RAM, 260GB SSD, and 6TB of bandwidth.
Included in all the plans are free launch assist, multiple dedicated IPS, free SSL certification, at least 3 free cPanel accounts, root access – all of which is covered by the 90 days money-back guarantee!
Despite a few hiccups, I was still able to get an uptime of 99.95% averaging over the past 24 months, which is very close to the industry average. The server response time for London was 322ms, which makes sense as they do not have any of their servers located in Europe or the UK.
They have two main data centers; both located in the United States, in the West, and East Coast.
Though the company provides the flexibility of choosing either server, this doesn’t help much to the UK users.
Fortunately, they offer free CDN integration which reduces the response time by a huge margin as corroborated by the response time I tested!
Inmotion offers three managed VPS hosting plans: 1000HA-S, 2000HA-S, and 3000HA-S. Priced at around £25.99 monthly, VPS 1000HA-S gives 4GB RAM, 75GB SSD storage, 4TB of bandwidth, and all the usual perks as discussed earlier. If you sign-up for a longer duration, the plans’ prices reduce even more!
Though a bit more expensive than its rivals, Inmotion is one of the strongest choices for UK customers looking for VPS hosting. They offer solid specifications with all the necessary add-ons with excellent service! Overall, this is one of the best VPS hosting for those in the UK!
7. WebhostingUK
Working since 2001, WebHosting UK has risen to become one of the largest hosting providers in the United Kingdom. As of now, they are serving 35,000 customers and hosting a staggering 1,000,000+ websites across the globe.
All of the servers of WebHosting UK are armed with Intel Xeon CPUs with lightning-fast SSD storage and the latest DDR4 RAMs.
With unlimited bandwidth, optional cPanel, free IP address, 24x7x365 live technical support, no minimum contract bounding, free server management, and remote reboot are a few of the stellar benefits offered by WebHosting with all of their VPS plans!
Thanks to the latest hardware and UK based servers, I thoroughly enjoyed outstanding speeds all across the UK. I was consistently getting the industry best uptime of 99.99% and page load time of 405ms as tested from London, making them the top contender for the speed champ.
As you might be able to tell by the name, all of the company’s servers are completely housed in a secure facility in the UK.
They have located their servers in 5 major cities including Maidenhead, Reading, Nottingham, Wakefield, and York, all of which are backed by BGP redundancy. Having a data center in the UK means you will never have to worry about speed!
Currently, four Linux VPS plans are being offered by them: basic, starter, business, and enterprise. The basic plan includes 2v CPU cores, 30GB SSD storage, 2GB DDR4 memory, unlimited bandwidth and is offered at £12.99 per month.
If your website is super busy and requires more power, you can opt for a premium plan. Every VPS plan comes with an advanced monitoring service that monitors the server health and performance!
Since their target market is mainly the UK, their performance from a UK-based user perspective was astonishing. Having all of their servers in the UK provides the speed and reliability that we all dream of.
If you’re a UK based business, WebHost UK should be on the top of your list.
How I Found The Best VPS Hosting Providers
Before picking the best suited VPS hosting provider, I make sure it hits all the criteria required to be a good VPS Hosting Provider.
If you choose the option that does not suit your business model and needs, you might get in trouble. So, before going forward, you need to identify what is important to you. I suggest you to thoroughly think about this by asking yourself a few questions:
- What kind of website are you looking to build?
- What features matter to you the most?
- Are you looking to expand your business soon?
- How much volume of traffic are you expecting?
- What is the guaranteed uptime and is the web host reliable?
For that purpose, there are five ground rules I always consider and evaluate which helps me in shortlisting from the plethora of the providers I test:
i) Understanding your hosting needs
ii) Server Reliability
iii) Scalability
iv) Features and Add-ons
v) Customer Service
Let’s explore each criterion more closely.
i) Understanding your hosting needs
The first thing a user needs to do is identify the hosting needs according to the business and its scope. What type of website are you looking to build? What operating system do you want to run on your server? Do you want to use WordPress or any other software?
Many hosting providers specialize in different areas. You may need to look for the company’s area of specialty and pick the one that fully understands your business needs.
ii) Server Reliability
This is arguably the most important factor to consider. The server’s reliability is measured through its uptime, page load time, and response time.
The industry standard for a good uptime is 99.95% and anything below 99% is considered unreliable. Most of the providers I have tested guarantee 99.99% uptime.
Similarly, I also consider the page load time and server response time to gauge the server’s reliability. According to Google, the recommended page load time is under two seconds.
iii) Scalability
For small businesses, it is recommended that you purchase a VPS hosting as it doesn’t cost much and offers decent specifications.
However, once your business grows, it will attract more visitors and you may need to switch to a bigger plan and require higher specifications to scale up your website as per your needs.
At the time of purchase, I always consider upgrade options and the cost associated with it. Some providers offer free migration costs which is a nice bonus.
iv) Features and Add-ons
Add-ons are the extra incentives that make the company stand out from the competition. Some notable features offered by providers are free domain, free SSL certification, regular backups, domain privacy, pre-installed applications, unmetered bandwidth, support for multiple domains, and email accounts.
Most importantly, having a data center located in the UK is a game-changing feature to consider for UK based businesses!
v) Customer Service
This is one of the most overlooked factors when choosing VPS. Before choosing the plan, I always read their reviews on multiple websites and blogs – read what the users have to say about their service. Though most companies offer 24/7 support, some of the companies have a bad reputation in dealing with their users.
VPS Hosting Vs Dedicated Hosting
VPS Hosting means ‘virtual private server’, and as the name suggests VPS is a website hosting environment that creates a ‘private’ server for each site using virtualization technology.
This means the VPS server hosts multiple websites on one server, though the server is partitioned and the resources are allocated to each client where they can use their own operating systems and applications.
In this way, VPS hosting isolates each client from the other without the need for reserving an entire server for each client. VPS hosting is similar to Shared hosting where multiple websites share resources, though the difference is VPS hosting puts restrictions on the sharing of resources.
True to its name, Dedicated Hosting wholly ‘dedicates’ an entire server to your website. In simple words, dedicated hosting means leasing out an entire physical server that is strictly responsible for handling your website only.
Unlike VPS hosting, where you can not completely customize the hardware, dedicated hosting provides 100% control over the choice of hardware and the software.
Though there are a lot of similarities between the two hosting options, the main difference is control over the hosting environment. If you don’t want to share your resources and want full control, dedicated hosting is the ideal choice for you, though it comes at a premium price.
Limitations of VPS Hosting
One should know that VPS hosting has some caveats compared to dedicated hosting, including:
- Hardware limitations:
At the end of the day, despite being a ‘virtually’ private server, you are still sharing the server with other people, which means you will be competing with other sites for using resources. being hosted on the same site. As a result, users may expect a delay and slowdown in accessing your website.
Though things remain smooth most of the time and chances of happening such are almost nil, one should keep in mind that during peak hours, you may not have access to the required resources due to a data log jam.
- With great power, comes great responsibility:
Though VPS hosting provides extra control over resources, it also comes with the extra responsibility of managing your own, albeit virtual server. Software updates, installation, patches, site maintenance, site security, and security updates are not the responsibility of the host, but yours.
Is VPS Hosting Worth It?
VPS Hosting is an ideal choice for those who have grown past the parameter of shared hosting and prefer control over the resources, features, and performance without burning a hole in their pocket.
For a small business website or a blog, it is logical to opt for VPS hosting. By offering the features and flexibility of dedicated hosting at affordable pricing, VPS hosting has also become a skipping stone for many small business owners who want to try out the freedom of dedicated hosting.
After reviewing and testing out dozens of VPS hosting plans, I have compiled the list of ‘Best VPS Hosting UK’ providers with all the required information.
Choosing the right hosting plan is an important decision you need to make for your business. Therefore, if you think VPS hosting is the perfect choice for you, make the best choice from the shortlisted VPS Hosting providers.