My Shortlist for Managed VPS Hosting

I’ve been online since 1999. So 25+ years of finding and dealing with a wide variety of web hosts. While painful at times, this experience enables me to get out there and find better web hosting at the drop of a hat. It’s been a while since I’ve written about my web-hosting experiences, so this post is to share a recent foray into finding a solid managed-VPS solution in the year 2025.

Some context..

This round of “find a new web host” happened after my then-current host raised prices, yet again. I first switched to them in 2018, and was quite happy with the provided level of service and support. But then after some time, there was a price increase, apparently because of changes with Plesk. “Okay” not a big deal. Already paying near top dollar for service, but understand that costs increase. But then just as I was getting used to paying the new rate, they raised prices again. And then a few months later, raised the prices again. Granted, each of these first several price hikes were only a few dollars or so. But still felt a little sting each time.

Last straw..

And the price increases continued several more times until I was paying nearly $120 per month for a 4-core, 4-GB VPS server. Check around, that’s definitely on the high end of the scale. And then they hit me.. the last straw was a scheduled “pricing update” scheduled for the end of this month. They sent out an email letting customers know that rates were about to increase by 12%, which would jack up my monthly payment to over $130 per month, or over $1,500 per year. Which is just too expensive for my humble little online operation.

Here is the main part of the email message they sent out earlier this month:

I love how they refer to a 12% price increase as a “Pricing Update”. You know those clever marketers think we’re all a bunch of morons.

Time to move..

Needless to say, this umpteenth price hike left me feeling rather disappointed and frankly a bit insulted. So instead of continuing with my work developing WordPress plugins and writing tutorials, I spent the first half of March finding a new web host and transferring all of my sites to a new server. Fortunately, I was highly motivated and actually inspired to find something better and start fresh..

My requirements..

So here it is now, the beginning of March and I have set aside the next two weeks to migrate my websites to a new host. One thing that makes the work of finding a new web host a little easier is knowing exactly what you need. Here is my specific list of requirements and/or preferences, some things are more flexible than others:

• Managed VPS Hosting — Wish I had more time for unmanaged but I don’t
• US-based Location — Most of my traffic comes from the US and NA
• Control Panel — Open to any control panel that provides a demo
• 24/7 Phone Support — Chat-based support is sooo tedious
• Linux & Apache — Just a personal preference, it’s what I know
• PHP & phpMyAdmin — Most web hosts provide both of these
• Apache/.htaccess Enabled — Most web hosts provide this
• SSL / HTTPS — Preferably free certificates via Let’s Encrypt
• DNS access — Essential to have control over DNS headers
• Root Access — Need to be able to customize and fine-tune things
• Cron Jobs — For automated system reports and other tasks
• Trial Period — In case of anything unexpected, missing features, etc.

Everyone has different needs and preferences, these are mine. So when I’m searching for a new web host, these are first-priority features that I look for. Any host that checks all those boxes is added to my short list.

Interviews..

After scouring the Web and putting together my shortlist of potential web hosts, it’s time for the interviews. This is where I revisit each web host and ask a series of questions. Before jumping into the questions, I first take the time to dig around the host’s website and gather as much information as possible. Doing this usually shortens the list of questions and thus saves some time. So I find the “VPS Plans” page, examine the details, compare prices, resources (e.g., CPU, disk space, memory), and then ask the following pre-sales questions:

• Are these *all* of your managed VPS plans?
• Are the listed prices introductory/deals?
• Ask about annual pricing vs. month-to-month
• Any hidden fees, like for SSL or control panel, etc.
• What if it doesn’t work out, refund policy
• Options for control panels, e.g., Plesk, cPanel, etc.
• Is there an extra charge for any specific control panels?
• Which version of Linux, EOL etc.
• Running Apache, Apache + Nginx, or something else?
• Which versions of PHP are provided?
• Which versions of MariaDB are provided?
• Is the IP address shared or dedicated?
• Is IPv6 available?
• Who owns the company?
• How long in business?
• 24/7 phone support?
• PCI compliance?
• Trial period?

Of course, in order to ask these questions, there must be a support or pre-sales person available to take the call or handle the chat. If no phone number, I look for chat. If no chat, I move on to the next potential web host. No point in waiting around for an email response for pre-sales questions lol.

Usually the interview questions narrow the list down to just a handful. At this point, it is much easier to compare prices, features, and make a final decision. Also it is wise to further vet the final candidates by searching around for any related reviews about the company/service (written by actual people/customers). Also look for available online documentation, resources, server status page, and so forth.

⭐ Web host shortlist

After going through the motions, I have put together the following web-hosting shortlist. I had asked for help with recommendations on X but didn’t think about sharing the list until prompted by @thisbitoo. So without further ado, here is my personal short list of recommended web hosts for Managed VPS Hosting in 2025:

• GreenGeeks
• Hostwinds
• KnownHost
• ScalaHosting
• UltaHost

There are many other great hosts out there, so I encourage you to spend some time searching and researching the options to find the best possible fit for your specific needs. Note: The web hosts listed above are not a recommendation. I am merely sharing the list of final candidates in hopes that it will give you some ideas :)

Honorable mentions

There were a few other web hosts and tools that looked great but just didn’t make the cut. So here are a few more hosting ideas for your consideration:

• A2 Hosting (no root access)
• Cloudways / DigitalOcean (no root access)
• GridPane / PeakFreq
• Enhance (hosting control panel)
• RunCloud (server management platform)

I hope this post is useful for anyone else looking for Managed VPS Hosting. Feel free to share your experiences and recommendations in the comments below. Thanks :)

About the Author

Jeff Starr = Web Developer. Book Author. Secretly Important.