Do you want to know which are the 3 best VPS companies with a good quality-price ratio in 2020? Do you need a cheap VPS hosting? Do you want to know which is the best VPS for your needs?

If you are a beginner, you probably started by publishing your page or blog on a free service and then you went for shared hosting to finally get a VPS – the previous step to moving to a Dedicated Server.

Both virtual private servers (VPS) and dedicated servers (DDS) are also perfect for creating your first Minecraft server, Garrys Mod, Half-Life 2 or any other game you can think of. You can also use them to install Docker, LAMP server for WordPress or simply for app development.

A Virtual Private Server or VPS is one of the best options that you will find to host your website: thanks to its virtualization system, you will access a part of the server as if it were dedicated. Obviously, you will have limited resources for the plan you have hired. They are perfect to mount your Minecraft server (if it is well optimized) or to host your web pages and not have as many security problems as they occur in the shared hosting environments.

It’s not as complicated as it seems. You can manage and control this type of server with a good free control panel such as Virtualmin/Webmin.

How to choose the best VPS: Is the country where the server is located important?

How to choose the country of the server? It is best to choose the web server closest to the location of your customers or users. That said, it is not necessary that the server is in the Netherlands or Canada, it is enough that it is relatively close, for example in the United States (for Canada) or in Germany, France or UK for the Netherlands (any country in Europe is actually good).

It would always be interesting to use a CDN that will help you bring your page information to each visitor, such as Cloudflare.

Is KVM or OpenVZ better for VPS virtualization?

What virtualization systems do companies usually use? 

OpenVZ, Virtuozzo, Xen or KVM. Each has its pros and cons, but if the VPS is well managed and has not been oversold, you should not have problems with any. If possible, it is best to choose KVM which offers complete virtualization.

Differences between these systems:

• OpenVZ can only host Linux operating systems, while KVM can host Linux, Windows and OS options
• OpenVZ uses a shared kernel with a virtualization layer that is shared by all users (software virtualization); the kernel is not customizable.
• KVM allows you to set maximum and minimum values ​​for your resources: it is a real hardware virtualization

Reading these points, we realize what the real danger is when choosing a VPS with OpenVZ virtualization: It’s called “overselling”. Is that when the hosting company decides to sell more VPS units than they can maintain on their servers. With OpenVZ, you are more exposed to resource sharing and limitation. KVM may also suffer, but the system is better isolated, so the risk is lower. Because of this, VPS servers with OpenVZ are usually cheaper than VPS servers with KVM.

What server parameters should we consider when buying a VPS hosting?

In addition to the virtualization system, we have to consider a few things:

• Available RAM is important if you are going to start a project with WordPress (the queries to the database are stored in the RAM). There are 1GB of RAM servers, but it would be better to start with 2GB.
• Storage capacity may be the least critical at first as long as your website does not have many photos or videos hosted on the server. It is important that the disks are SSD so that everything goes faster. Between 20GB and 50GB is fine.
• The number of CPU cores is important for improving the processing capacity in certain situations.
• Transfer capacity is important in order to know how much data you can transfer per month. It is usually not a problem on trusted VPS servers. With 1TB or 2TB, you have more than enough.
• Network in and network out connection speed is important, especially when you have signed up for a VPS which is not quite good. You have to look at the options with at least 40 Gbps network in and 1000 Mbps network out.
• Backups are also important. Check that the company provides you with automatic backups to keep your website safe at all times. It usually comes at an extra cost.
• “Block Storage” gives you the possibility to add storage disks to your VPS separately.
• DNS Management is important because you will be able to manage the DNS of your domain from inside the VPS. It is not essential, but it is good that they have it. Nonetheless, you can always use Cloudflare for this.
• Managed or unmanaged VPS? Do you take care of the server installation or let the company do it for you? It depends on your level of experience. The unmanaged are cheaper. Managers usually offer cPanel as an administration panel.
• Do they offer easy-to-install packages and apps in 1-click? It is always interesting to have the option of installing Docker, LAMP (LEMP), WordPress, Drupal, Gitlab, Minecraft, MySQL, CPanel, OpenVPN or WireGuard easily and quickly.

Read more: What Are the Benefits of Having a VPS Server?

What are the best VPS web servers of 2020 for price-quality?

Next, I have selected the three best VPS servers of 2020: Linode, DigitalOcean and Namecheap, 3 VPS that I know first hand since I have hosted several blogs on them and they have never given me any problems. I leave out other reputable suppliers such as Vultr, Ramnode or OVH for not knowing them in depth.

1. Best VPS servers in 2020 for quality-price (managed): Namecheap

Wasn’t Namecheap a web domain registrar? Sure enough, but they are also offering some interesting VPS plans. And it is quite simple to start up and register with them since they only have two VPS plans.

Prices start at only $14.88/month for the annual plan, and you get 2GB of RAM, two CPU cores, 40GB of storage, 1000GB of bandwidth and a dedicated IP.

Then you can upgrade to a higher plan, which costs $24.88/month and offers 4 CPU cores, 6GB RAM, 120GB SSD storage and 3000GB of bandwidth.

The hosting packages include a few extras that may interest you:

• Free .website domain name and privacy protection
• Full root access and operating system selection (OS)
• Choice of Server Administration type (I will explain what this is all about)
• Transfer of existing websites and VPS to Namecheap
• Money-back guarantee for 30 days

What does the “Choice of Server Administration type” mean?

Well, you have to choose if you want to manage the server to let them do it for you. They give you 3 options:

1. Free: you take care of everything (install the server, programs, etc.) and only offer access to support for basic things like creating backups, changing passwords etc.
2. Basic ($10/month): To the above, they add the possibility that their technical service will restore your server in case of failure.
3. Complete ($25/month): They take care of everything.

This means that if you have no experience with managing servers, at approximately 10 euros per month for the basic plan you will have to add another $25/month.

For VPS packages with full management, they provide 50GB of storage by default and make backups 3 times a week, so this may interest you.

The basic plan is very well priced, but you probably have to add some extras and in the end it will be more expensive.

For example, if you want to add cPanel to control the server, you will have to pay an extra $11/month. The same will happen if you want to get more RAM or SSD space.

That said, the Namecheap VPS is still cheaper than Godaddy or Bluehost.

By the way, to create their virtual “packages” VPS, Namecheap use KVM, which is a good sign that indicates that they care about their customers.

2. Best 2020 VPS servers for quality-price (unmanaged): Linode

They offer one of the best hosting services you can find online. Here they don’t install the VPS for you; you will have to do it all, so it is somewhat cheaper than Namecheap. You have to install Apache, MySQL, PHP, etc. and everything you need to launch your website or blog. For a somewhat more advanced user who has probably been through a “managed” VPS before, this is the best option.

In 2029 and 2020 they have made great changes and added many services such as the possibility of 1-click app installation (Docker), managed Kubernetes, and a few datacenters in different parts of the world.

In 2015 and 2016 they had some problems as they received a large DDOS attack on their servers and had trouble keeping the services running. What was their response?

1. They updated all their infrastructure and improved their response to attacks of this type.
2. They increased the characteristics of all their plans without raising their price. Result? Right now they have the best VPS options for quality-price.

Their prices are really good: from $10/month to $960/month with really good hardware features on their servers. It would be advisable that at least you will start with the Linode 4GB plan that costs $20 per month and has 4GB of RAM and 80GB of SSD storage (4TB transfer, 40Gbps network in, and 4000Mbps network out). If you have experience managing servers, Linode is the hosting company right for you. The “uptime” is also around 100%.

They already offer the block storage system like Digital Ocean, which means that you will be able to add space to your VPS disk very easily and with a really good price.

They have a statistics system that can be easily edited on your VPS (Longview), a backup system for your server (extra payment) and “node balancers” for all those who need some redundancy on the websites (to distribute traffic between several servers).

More information on this VPS:

• SSD storage
• 40Gbit network with several levels of redundancy
• Intel E5 processors
• What virtualization system do they use? KVM (possibly the best there is)
• Linode Manager: a really well-designed server control panel with many options to control your installation
• Automatic backup option from $2.5 per month (the price increases depending on the plan you have)
• Detailed statistics of your server
• Option to move to a “managed” service, but it is somewhat expensive
• Nodebalancers: possibility of distributing your traffic between several nodes to keep your website online in any situation ($20 per month)
• DNS manager: very intuitive and simple to use
• Control panels that can be installed? Whichever you want, but you do it yourself. I recommend Virtualmin/Webmin, which is completely free.
• Linux system they install? All you can imagine: Centos, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, Arch, Gentoo, OpenSuse, Slackware
• With the help of some tutorials, you will be able to start the server in less than an hour. Their community is very active.
• You can pay by credit card or Paypal.

3. Best 2020 VPS servers for quality-price (unmanaged): DigitalOcean

Possibly one of the providers that are the most active in the world of cloud hosting, mainly because the control panel is extremely easy to use and they give you very interesting options such as block storage, floating IPs and very good price plans! You also have to install everything (their tutorials are really good).

In 2019 and 2020, they have added many services such as 1-click app installation (Docker), Kubernetes, etc.

In 5 minutes you can register your Droplet with the Linux OS that you want (they have many options, for example, Ubuntu or CentOS) with affordable plans for storage, RAM and CPU. You can move from one plan to another in a very simple way (usually changing plans and restarting the server).

Their prices start at $5 for 1GB of RAM, 1 core CPU and 25GB SSD with 1TB transfer… and from there to the infinity. Their price plans have fallen in price in 2019, matching those of Linode, but the outbound network speed allowed for their VPS has not yet reached1000Mbits!

A short summary of what Digital Ocean offers in 2020:

• SSD storage
• 40Gbit network with several levels of redundancy
• Intel E5 processors
• What virtualization system do they use? KVM (possibly the best there is)
• The control panel is very intuitive and easy to use. Better than Linode’s.
• Automatic backup option (raise the price depending on the plan you have)
• Detailed statistics of your server
• Option to get extra storage
• Load balancers: possibility of distributing your traffic between several nodes to keep your website online in any situation
• DNS Control: very simple to use with the possibility of adding PTR records.
• Control panels that can be installed? Whichever you want, but you do it yourself. I recommend Virtualmin/Webmin, which is completely free.
• Linux system they install? Quite a few: Centos, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, CoreOS, OpenSuse, FreeBSD
• With the help of tutorials, you will be able to start the server in less than an hour.
• You will be able to upload or download without much complication
• You can pay by credit card or Paypal.
• They have a free Firewall service for their Droplets.

And what about the IP addresses these VPS use?

I wouldn’t worry much about this. What’s more, the best thing you can do is sign up for services like Cloudflare that mask your IP to protect it from “unwanted visitors.” Cloudflare will be able to serve your website from the location closest to visitors.

Tips: What is the best VPS option for you?

1. Try their services for a month and if you do not like, go for another VPS hosting company
2. There are other cheaper VPS, but sometimes cheap is expensive. These three companies have long been in the world of web servers and they have a very good reputation
3. Known hosts have their servers in the US and Europe while Linode and DigitalOcean have them all spread across the world: Singapore, Tokyo, United States, New York, Frankfurt, London, etc.
4. Linode offers StackScripts to automatically install certain programs on the VPS. Their tutorials are very good. DigitalOcean offers something very similar.
5. If you are a beginner, install WHM/Cpanel on your server to handle it better (it costs extra)
6. If you already have the experience, you can install a control panel such as Virtualmin/Webmin, which is totally free.
7. All three give you access to the server via SSH
8. I like Linode’s panel more than Namecheap’s: it has more options and everything is very well distributed. The DigitalOcean is currently the best, but it seems that Linode will change it throughout 2020.
9. You will have the VPS ready in less than 30 minutes with all the three companies
10. Namecheap support is exceptional: any questions you have will be resolved in minutes.

What is the best VPS of the three?

It depends. Namecheap focuses on the “managed” server market, but it also offers the possibility that you control the VPS. You may want to start here if you have no idea how to manage and control a web server, but I can assure you that you will easily learn how to build up a server configuration, especially if you use a good control panel for Linux.

In case you have knowledge of Linux management and you know how to install Apache, MySQL, PHP, etc. then both Linode and DigitalOcean are very good options. DigitalOcean currently has a more pleasant and modern working environment, but Linode has been in this business for longer. Both are great providers.