A Closer Look Into Hostinger VPS Hosting and Its Alternatives

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When considering a web hosting service, especially if you’re leaning towards a VPS hosting solution, it’s crucial to understand the specifics of what you’re getting.

Hostinger is well-known for its affordable services and is regarded as one of the cheapest shared hosting providers in the market. This budget-oriented provider is a favorite for many beginners, offering global services with low latency, a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and its unique hPanel.

But what about Hostinger VPS?

In this article, we will dive into the details of what makes Hostinger VPS great (or not so great) for your website and explore some excellent alternatives to Hostinger VPS hosting.

Hostinger VPS Services

Hostinger VPS
Hostinger VPS hosting offers affordable, flexible, and customizable server solutions for experienced users (learn more here).

Plans & Pricing

Hostinger provides four specific VPS plans labeled KVM, KVM 2, KVM 4 1 and KVM 8. The lowest end of the spectrum costs a mere $4.99/mo, and that stretches to $19.99/mo at the highest end (see all Hostinger VPS plans here).

All plans are similar, except that specific resources increase as you pay more. The main scaling factors include:

  • vCPU count and speed
  • Memory
  • SSD Storage
  • Bandwidth

While they don’t provide specific CPU types or speeds, the latter shows in a Multi-core Geekbench score.

First thing first. Hostinger VPS services are unmanaged, meaning you have the control and responsibility to manage your server environment.

(If you prefer a managed hosting experience, you might want to explore Hostinger Cloud hosting.)

Hostinger VPS is extremely cheap. Lowest plan starts at $4.99/mo for 1 vCPU and 50GB NVMe storage; with higher plans with better server capacity and bandwidth capacity at $6.99, $10.49, and $19.99 per month. All plans come with unlimited inodes and 300 MB/s I/O performance, ensuring reliable and fast operations for your applications.

FeaturesKVM 1KVM 2KVM 4KVM 8
vCPU1 Core2 Cores4 Cores8 Cores
Memory4 GB8 GB16 GB32 GB
Bandwidth4 TB8 TB16 TB32 TB
Control PanelhPanelhPanelhPanelhPanel
Disk Space (NVMe)50 GB100 GB200 GB400 GB
Root AccessYesYesYesYes
Signup Price$4.99/mo$6.99/mo$10.49/mo$19.99/mo
Regular Price$7.99/mo$10.99/mo$22.99/mo$44.99/mo

What We Like About Hostinger VPS?

Affordable

Hostinger VPS hosting plans are known for their affordability, sometimes even cheaper than other shared hosting plans. This makes them an attractive option for those looking to upgrade from shared hosting without breaking the bank.

Wide Range of OS Choices

Hostinger provides flexibility by supporting various Linux operating systems, including CentOS, Debian, AlmaLinux, RockyLinux, and Ubuntu. You can pick your OS and work in an environment that you are comfortable with.

Customizability and Control

While you are paying for an unmanaged VPS service, Hostinger doesn’t leave you entirely on your own. They provide pre-built server configuration templates and offer popular control panels such as cPanel, DirectAdmin, Easypanel, Webuzo, Plesk, and CyberPanel. This simplifies the setup process and helps you get started quickly.

Security Features

All Hostinger VPS plans include robust security measures such as DDoS protection and firewalls. Users can also set their own firewall rules, adding an extra layer of customizable security to protect their data and applications.

Built-In AI Assistant

Hostinger’s VPS plans come with a built-in AI Assistant, which helps manage and automate routine tasks, making server management more efficient. While this is a unique selling point, it might feel somewhat redundant today as ChatGPT is available to all users for free. You can essentially build the same functionality yourself with OpenAI at no cost.

What’s Not So Great?

Unmanaged Hosting

One significant drawback of Hostinger VPS is that it is unmanaged. This means you are responsible for all aspects of server management, including updates, security patches, and troubleshooting. For those without technical expertise or who prefer not to handle these tasks, this can be a daunting and time-consuming responsibility.

Limited Scalability

While Hostinger offers several VPS plans with varying resources, you might find the available options limiting if your websites or applications grow rapidly. There are only four plans available, and you can only scale up to 8 vCPU and 400GB NVMe storage. Businesses that require extensive scalability might need to look for alternatives that provide more flexible resource allocation and scaling options.

Support Limitations

Although the built-in AI Assistant offers some level of support, it cannot replace the expertise of human technical support. In scenarios where complex issues arise, users might find the support options insufficient compared to fully managed VPS services where the provider offers comprehensive support and troubleshooting assistance.


Hostinger VPS Alternatives?

While Hostinger VPS hosting offers a compelling mix of affordability and flexibility, it’s important to consider the potential drawbacks. For users who may find these limitations concerning,there are plenty of other options that might suit your needs better.

Listed below are some great alternatives to Hostinger VPS hosting that might better suit your needs and preferences.

Alternatives to Hostinger VPS

Hosting ProviderCPURAMStorageBandwidthStarting Price
ScalaHosting2-12 vCPUs4-24 GB50-320 GB SSDUnlimited$29.95/mo
InMotion Hosting2-8 vCPUs2-16 GB45-360 GB NVMe2-6 TB$19.99/mo
Cloudways1-16 vCPU1-64 GB25-1280 GB NVMe1-9 TB$14.00/mo
Verpex2-8 vCPUs4-16 GB80-320 GB NVMeUnlimited$12.00/mo
DreamHost1-8 vCPUs1-8 GB30-240 GB SSDUnlimited$10.00/mo
Namecheap2-8 vCPUs2-16 GB40-640 GB SSD1-5 TB$6.88/mo
A2 Hosting1-8 vCPUs2-32 GB150-450 GB SSD2-9 TB$2.99/mo

1. ScalaHosting

Scalahosting vps

Website: https://www.scalahosting.com/

Price: From $29.95/mo

Formed in 2007, ScalaHosting has worked itself up to be one of the recognized hosting providers in the market. They value innovating their products and offerings to cater to businesses of all shapes and sizes; this is especially apparent in their VPS offerings. ScalaHosting empowers over 700,000 websites from more than 120 countries.

Why ScalaHosting for VPS?

ScalaHosting offers managed and unmanaged Cloud VPS hosting. Both speed and performance rely on the individual infrastructure provider you choose, namely ScalaHosting, Digital Ocean, or AWS. You get unmetered bandwidth only with ScalaHosting as the infrastructure provider.

Perhaps the highlight of ScalaHosting is their SPanel VPS, their all-in-one proprietary dashboard for managing your VPS hosting. sPanel is fully compatible with cPanel and poses a solid replacement for it. It comes free for all their managed VPS plans and can cater to various users (developers, agencies, and others). Unlike cPanel, SPanel runs on their equipment and does not consume your server resources.

Also, all their managed VPS plans provide SShield, which guards your websites 24/7, and ScalaHosting claims to ward off 99.998% of attacks. Supported by an AI engine, SShield is adaptive. If you have a WordPress site, look into ScalaHosting as they have SWordPress Manager, a WordPress management utility that manages your WordPress hosting easily as a breeze.

Also, ScalaHosting’s award-winning support team excels by ensuring a 30-second live chat response time and 15-minute ticket response time.

Learn more in our ScalaHosting review.

ScalaHosting VPS Pricing

ScalaHosting’s Managed VPS hosting starts from $29.95/month. All plans with ScalaHosting come with turbo-fast All-NVMe storage for faster speeds and high performance if you select the New York data center. The cheapest plan may seem pricey, but you get all the goodies such as HTTP/3 support, free SSL, website migration and domain, SPanel, SShield, dedicated IP, and more.

I like that ScalaHosting is challenging itself to be more innovative in its offerings; this is apparent in its solutions. Hence, they come highly recommended.

ScalaHosting Pros

  • Outstanding hosting uptime and speed performance
  • Affordable pricing
  • Anytime unconditional Money-back Guarantee
  • Automated backup with 7 restore points
  • Generous offer in server resources - Even the lowest shared plan gets unmetered bandwidth and unlimited emails
  • NVMe SSD storage for all shared hosting plans
  • Innovative technology – SPanel, SShield, SWordPress

ScalaHosting Cons

  • Price increase during the renewal

2. InMotion Hosting

InMotion Hosting VPS

Website: https://www.inmotionhosting.com/

Price: From $19.99/mo

Being in the market for a couple of decades, InMotion Hosting has over 170,000 customers with more than 500,000 WordPress installations. Based in California, InMotion Hosting offers a good range of web hosting services – shared hosting, VPS, Dedicated, WordPress hosting, and more.

Why InMotion Hosting for VPS?

InMotion Hosting provides an extended 90-Days money-back guarantee, which is more significant than Hostinger’s 30-days; this is a bonus point – you have more time to make a decision. They claim their new NVMe SSDs that utilize UltraStack configuration provide up to 270% faster write speeds. 

Most of InMotion Hosting’s plans come with managed services. However, they offer self-managed Cloud VPS with cheaper options; there is no cPanel or GUI dashboard for server management, but you get a Secure Shell (SSH) tool. Hence, you have to be tech-savvy and familiar with command lines.

Their managed VPS hosting plans use cPanel and WHM. They also provide Account Management Panel (AMP), a tool to manage your account’s billing. InMotion Hosting prides itself in its multiple support channels and multi-award-winning team. They have secured A+ with BBB Business Review and are consistently rated high in hosting review sites. 

However, InMotion Hosting’s support is US-based. Also, their data centers are located only in the US. So, if your customers are in the US, InMotion Hosting can do it for you. Overall, InMotion Hosting is a trustworthy and reliable provider that comes highly recommended.

Learn more in our InMotion Hosting review.

InMotion Hosting VPS Pricing

InMotion Hosting’s managed VPS hosting plans start from $19.99/month. While it is not the cheapest in the market, they are a worthy business web host with a solid performance and excellent customer support. 

InMotion Hosting Pros

  • Affordable pricing
  • Lowest shared hosting plan supports Python, Node.JS, Ruby and GIT version control
  • Choice of data center locations in the United States and Europe
  • Free AutoSSL
  • Built-in hack, DDoS, and malware protection
  • 90-day money back guarantee
  • Free website migration services

InMotion Hosting Cons

  • Lower shared hosting plans lack speed optimization
  • Price increase during the renewal

3. Cloudways

cloudways cloud hosting

Website: https://www.cloudways.com/en/

Price: From $14/mo

Cloudways kick-started in 2011 and is a relative newcomer in the hosting scene. They are a systems integrator, helping people get onto the ‘Cloud’ via their solutions. Unlike the usual web hosting provider, Cloudways functions as a Platform as a Service (PaaS) provider. They offer various Cloud Platforms ranging from the more affordable Digital Ocean to the pricey Amazon Web Services (AWS). 

Why Cloudways for VPS?

Cloudways has a unique spin on its business model. Their hosting offerings rely heavily on the Cloud platform you choose. As such, speed and performance are up to these platforms rather than on Cloudways per se. So far, Digital Ocean has registered praiseworthy performance. 

Unlike Hostinger, Cloudways’ offerings cover their management services and powerful add-ons such as dashboards, service migrations, and more. The integrated dashboard is practical and easy for developers or agencies to manage their hosting solution despite the platform they end up with. 

Also, Cloudways stands as a one-stop place where you get other essential features via powerful add-ons such as firewall and Content Delivery Network (CDN). Their plans allow easy scaling in the future, so although you pay more as your site grows, at least you’re paying for what you need. 

Learn more in our Cloudways review.

Cloudways Pricing

Cloudways pricing varies depending on your infrastructure provider – Digital Ocean, Linode, VULTR, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud Platform. Digital Ocean offers the cheapest at $12/month. You may consider this plan and scale up later. If you need more Cloud platform choices, Cloudways is a good deal. 

Cloudways Pros

  • Topnotch server uptime and speed performance
  • Good abstration over complex cloud server setups with integrated dashboard
  • Outstanding customer support
  • High scalability; Autonomous plan supports auto-scaling
  • Easy server cloning, site staging, and website transfer
  • Host unlimited applications in one account
  • 25% discount for first two months with coupon "HOSTSCORE"

Cloudways Cons

  • Getting expensive - Prices increased steadily for the past few years
  • Limited trial period

4. Verpex

Verpex VPS

Website: https://www.verpex.net/

Price: From $12.000/mo

Despite being relatively new in the business, Verpex has quickly emerged as a strong contender in the market, offering a comprehensive and budget-friendly hosting solution. The company provides a range of services including traditional shared, VPS, dedicated, and reseller hosting, as well as specialized solutions such as managed WordPress, adult websites, and email hosting.

Why Verpex for VPS Hosting?

Verpex’s VPS performance speeds are impressively fast for the low prices you pay. They offer a variety of VPS solutions: unmanaged Linux and Windows VPS, managed Linux and Windows VPS, and managed cloud-based VPS. Whatever your needs, Verpex has a solution for you.

All plans come with NVMe SSD storage, which is currently the fastest in the market, ensuring quick loading times for users’ websites. Additionally, websites hosted with Verpex are protected by Imunify360, an advanced firewall and malware protection system. The company also offers a choice of 12 server locations across the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, Singapore, and India.

Verpex provides options for DirectAdmin, cPanel, and Plesk control panels. Their support team is available via live chat and email.

Verpex VPS Pricing

Verpex VPS plans are flexible and affordable. Starting from as low as $12/month, you can scale up as your site grows.

Verpex Pros

  • Budget-friendly shared and VPS hosting plans
  • 45-day money back guarantee
  • Daily backup included in all shared hosting plans
  • Unlimited free site migrations
  • Choice of 12 distributed data centers across five continents
  • Wide hosting selections including Windows and dedicated hosting

Verpex Cons

  • Price increase during the renewal

5. DreamHost VPS

Dreamhost VPS

Website: https://www.dreamhost.com/

Price: From $10/mo

DreamHost has expanded since 1997 to hosting over 1.5 million websites, more than 750,000 WordPress websites, and blogs with over 400,000 customers in more than 100 countries. Like other traditional web hosting providers, Dreamhost offers shared, cloud hosting, dedicated, managed WordPress, and VPS hosting.

Additionally, they provide other services that complement their hosting solutions, such as building custom websites, SEO enhancements, and even marketing.

Why DreamHost for VPS?

DreamHost guarantees 100% uptime. So, if a solid uptime is your priority, you’ll find DreamHost dreamy. Most of their plans run on servers with Solid State Drives (SSDs); this translates to higher speeds for your website.  

Unlike Hostinger’s self-managed VPS hosting, you get managed VPS hosting with Dreamhost. Hence, you won’t have to deal with the technical and daily running of your hosting since Dreamhost has this covered. 

While Hostinger offers both cPanel and hPanel (their custom-built control panel), DreamHost has its panel, a custom-built panel. Their VPS control panel is user-friendly. So, if you’re frustrated with cPanel’s price increase, you’ll find DreamHost’s panel to your liking.

Perhaps, what makes DreamHost stand out is its focus on WordPress in its hosting plans. So, if you’re running a WordPress site, DreamHost could be your host. DreamHost has two data centers in the US. If your customers are within the US, Dreamhost could do you justice. 

Learn more in our in-depth DreamHost review.

DreamHost VPS Pricing

DreamHost’s VPS pricing starts from $10/month, a reasonable fee for a managed VPS service, especially when you get unlimited websites, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited emails, and free SSL; this is a steal, don’t you think?

DreamHost Pros

  • Reliable server uptime performance
  • Daily backup included in all shared hosting plans
  • 97-day Money back guarantee
  • Extensive knowledgebase

DreamHost Cons

  • Price increase during the renewal
  • Live chat support can be better
  • Server location in the United States only
  • No free site migration assistance

6. Namecheap

Namecheap VPS

Website: https://www.namecheap.com/

Price: From $6.88/mo

Namecheap has been in business for over two decades. They started with providing domains and later diversified to include web hosting, security (low-cost SSL solutions), web-based apps, and more. To date, they have more than 15 million domains under their management throughout the globe and empower over 1.5 million websites.

Why Namecheap VPS Hosting?

Namecheap is a one-stop center that gives you the whole package. Although they excel in the domain registration section, their VPS hosting solutions are pretty nifty. Like most others, Namecheap runs their VPS hosting on servers with pure Solid State Drive (SSD); they claim to run 20 times faster. 

Namecheap offers three categories for your server management:

  • User-Responsible (default) – you are responsible for all technical and admin tasks
  • Basic – you receive a proactive response in the event of any unexpected server failure 
  • Complete – Namecheap handles all technical and admin tasks for you

Unlike Hostinger, Namecheap brings more server management options to the table, thus catering to different needs from personal blogs and resellers to larger websites. Also, Namecheap offers both cPanel and InterWorx (you’ll have to pay for them separately). The latter is a newly added web panel that includes NodeWorx, a server management panel.

Learn more in our in-depth Namecheap review.

Namecheap VPS Pricing

Namecheap’s VPS Pulsar plan is $6.88/month; this is not a managed plan. If you are not keen on self-managing your hosting solution, you will need to go with the Quasar or Magnetar VPS Hosting plans, as these plans qualify for the Basic and Complete server management add-ons. If you need more than just hosting, Namecheap could be your choice.

NameCheap Pros

  • Budget-friendly shared hosting plans
  • Excellent domain name prices with free lifetime privacy protection
  • Free site migration
  • Perl, Ruby, and Python support in shared hosting plan

NameCheap Cons

  • Price increase during the renewal
  • Limited VPS plans
  • Only US and UK-based servers
  • Pay extra to choose UK-data center

7. A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting VPS

Website: https://www.a2hosting.com/

Price: From $4.99/mo

Since 2001, A2 Hosting has been making waves in the hosting industry; they have obtained a rate of 5/5 on average from more than 67,388 customers. More than 110,000 customers use A2 Hosting products in 223 countries to date. A2 Hosting offers shared, VPS, WordPress, managed hosting solutions, and more.  

Why A2 Hosting for VPS?

A2 Hosting has always excelled in its capability to provide top-notch performance and speed, thanks to its unlimited NVMe SSD storage and A2 Optimized technology. You will have to pay extra to enjoy their Turbo Servers (they claim it gives you 20 times faster speeds). If budget is not an issue and you require blazing speeds, A2 Hosting could be the better solution.

Also, A2 Hosting shines in its customer support, rated as ‘Excellent’ by Trustpilot. A2 Hosting shines in its many panel offerings; cPanel, WHM, Webuzo, and Plesk are among them. The choices are almost limitless. Unlike Hostinger, A2 Hosting offers managed and unmanaged VPS plans, giving you more options.

A2 Hosting’s data centers enjoy a global presence in the US, Europe, and Asia, which is good coverage.

Learn more in our A2 Hosting review.  

A2 Hosting VPS Pricing

A2 Hosting unmanaged VPS plans are price-friendly and start from $4.99/month with impressive specifications. And, if you wish to opt for a fully managed service, the cheapest managed VPS plan at $39.99/month is appealing with free goodies such as SSL, site transfer, and cPanel. 

Overall, I would consider both Hostinger and A2 Hosting as top-tier providers. However, A2 Hosting gives you that quality performance and support at reasonable prices. 

A2 Hosting Pros

  • Server locations in North America, Europe, and Asia
  • Free website migration assistance
  • Developer-oriented features even on shared hosting
  • Custom performance optimizations tools available in higher shared plans

A2 Hosting Cons

  • Steep price increase during the renewal
  • Free site transfers mainly for cPanel installations
  • HTTP/2 only on TURBO plans
  • Lowest shared plan does not support automatic backup

Why Choose an Alternative to Hostinger for VPS?

Enjoying a global presence with a 99.9% uptime guarantee with their home-grown hPanel, Hostinger is a force to be reckoned with as a web hosting provider. Also, their VPS plans are overall affordable with good enough specifications. However, this is because of their initial sign-up discounts, after which the fees will revert to the original.

Many do not like the price hike, and there’s also the lack of site migration assistance. Furthermore, if you have the budget and require managed VPS hosting, it is understandable that you look elsewhere, as Hostinger’s VPS plans are self-managed. 

Wrapping Up

The alternatives listed above are reputable and reliable within the business community. As such, be confident to explore them as alternatives to Hostinger. You’ll find them capable for businesses of all shapes and sizes, helping them grow. 


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Article by Jerry Low

Jerry Low has immersed himself in web technologies for over a decade and has built many successful sites from scratch. He is a self-professed geek who has made it his life’s ambition to keep the web hosting industry honest. For latest personal updates and news, follow Jerry on Facebook and Twitter.
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