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My VPS Advice

 by: raindog308

I frequently see people asking for VPS recommendations in various forums and in email discussions. Unfortunately, when the average bear goes looking for VPS reviews or recommendations, he often encounters one of the many problems with VPS reviews.

Here are my recommendations for VPS providers. Some things to keep in mind:

• I have personally used all of these providers, and still use several now.
• You'd be amazed how many providers approach me and say "would you like a free VPS for a month so you can write a review?" That's not the point of this site. All of the experience I share is based on a long-term relationship.
• There are many fine providers who are not listed here.
• I only use Linux VPSes.
• Most of my VPS needs are web-hosting related in some way. I don't really have any experience to share about Minecraft/game servers, VPN, etc.
• The links do indeed contain my referral codes - if you find this site useful, I'd appreciate your clicking here when you decide to buy.

If you are not sure what you need, then you may wish to read the VPS FAQ first.

General-Purpose, High Quality VPS

  knownhost.com

This is my standard recommendation for anyone who asks me to recommend a VPS, particularly those who are looking for their first VPS. They provide managed, Virtuozzo-based VPSes. Support is 24x7 and in my experience quite knowledgeable. They enjoy an excellent reputation.

One nice thing about KH is that they offer panels (cpanel, whmcs, etc.) at greatly discounted prices. Most providers charge $15/month for a panel (and if they charge more, you should buy at BuyCPanel.com). At knownhost, it's $5/month. Ditto for most other things you'd want as a web host.

Backups are included, and their bandwidth is quite generous. I have a server presently with them in their Texas datacenter and am running a business on it. The combination of high reliability, good reputation, generous bandwidth, and discounted hosting software made it an unbeatable choice.

If you are in a hurry and want a quick, "meets most people's needs" type recommendation, go with knownhost.

High Performance, Premium VPS

  6sync.com

I love 6sync. Their server speed smokes the competitions and their custom, in-house control panel ("biscuit") is pleasant to use.

6sync consistently provides jaw-dropping performance on their KVM-based VPSes. For lots of things, I don't need super-fast IO and super-fast CPU, but when I do, 6sync consistently impresses. They also have very good pricing on r1soft backups.

However, they are not cheap. You won't get the same bandwidth you'll get with KH, and you don't get all the extras in terms of discounted licenses. However, if you want a blazing fast box that is rock solid, I highly recommend 6sync.

I've had a few chats with the owners and they are really sharp folk. You can't go wrong with 6sync.

  linode.com

Linode is very similar to 6sync, offering speedy Xen-based VPSes. One advantage linode has is their tremendous community. They have an excellent documentation library, wiki, and forum. Their users love them and are passionate about their community. They've also been around for a very long time. Their support is top notch as well.

You really can't go wrong with linode, but I find 6sync to be a bit more generous with disk and bandwidth, and 6sync's boxes are more performant at the extremes. On the other hand, Linode has many more locations around the world.

If community is more important to you than performance and you don't mind low caps on disk and bandwidth, look at linode. If you want more power and space, look at 6sync. Both are excellent providers.

Budget Providers

Note: You should calibrate your expectations when using these providers. While they ones I list here are very good, don't expect the same 24x7 support, high availability, integrated backups, etc. that you get with a premium vendor.

  buyvm.net

buyvm.net (Fremont, CA) borders on a cult (in a good way). They only release stock when they feel they can adequately support it, and when they announce stock is coming, people watch countdown pages and hang out on their IRC channel, salivating. Once stock is released, it's often gone within an hour.

The reason for this Apple-store-like behavior is that they are one of the best budget providers. Good plans, sterling reputation, and they participate on WHT. You won't find the smoking hot performance of a 6sync or linode here - though they're pretty speedy - but you will find solid nodes that don't bounce and good service (for a budget provider).

On top of that, buyvm has continually added very cool features, such as offloaded MySQL for $1/month, DDOS protection for $3/IP/month, a custom control panel, etc.

  SecureDragon

Host your data with a dragon! SecureDragon (Tampa) is a young company but run by a very passionate crew. Uniquely, they offer very small VPSes (as small as 32MB/64MB), as well as larger full-featured OvZ/Xen systems. The VPS I've had with them has been snappy and they enjoy an excellent reputation. One thing that sets them apart is transparency - you can see their hardware status live and they regularly send out news, updates, and information to their customers. A real class act in the VPS industry.

  Hostigation

Don't let that front page picture scare you away from one of the best budget providers. Hostigation (Los Angeles, Charlotte) provides excellent service. I personally use their backup VPSes and at about 3 cents/GB/month, they're a great, inexpensive backup solution. I've used their KVM in the past and it's similar been very good.