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Our Selection of the Best VPS Hosting Providers in Canada
A Virtual Private Server (VPS) is a great hosting option for small to medium-sized businesses frustrated with the uptime, storage, and speed limitations that come with most shared web hosting services.
Choosing the best VPS hosting is an increasingly popular way to gain many of the dedicated server advantages... without having to actually rent or buy a standalone physical server.
With a VPS, you have your own dedicated space on a host’s server that also has a unique operating system instance, which means you can install your own software. The important differentiator being that you don’t share space or computing resources.
A virtual server is easier to configure than an actual dedicated server and costs substantially less. The only real downside to choosing a VPS over a physical server is that performance might not be quite as fast or efficient.
Rest assured, though, it’s a serious upgrade from shared hosting.
Understanding the Basics: What Is VPS Hosting?
'VPS' stands for 'Virtual Private Server'. It differs from shared hosting in the sense that your website will have dedicated, exclusive segments of a server's resources.
You could say it mimics the environment of a dedicated server inside a shared physical server. It offers you much better control and performance than shared hosting, though at a far lower cost than a real dedicated server. This will mean that you will get better security, performance, control, and flexibility on your website than regular shared hosting.
Top 9 VPS Hosting Services in Canada We Recommend
Check out our curated selection of the very best VPS hosting services to choose from:
VPS Hosting Service | Why this one? |
HostPapa | Best VPS for Small Businesses |
Hostinger | Best Value for Money |
Cloudways by DigitalOcean | Best VPS for Versatility |
Bluehost | Best VPS for Robust Support |
HostArmada | Best VPS for Premium Hosting Features |
HostGator | Best VPS for Scalability |
InMotion Hosting | Best Money-Back Guarantee VPS |
Liquid Web | Best Uptime Guarantee VPS |
A2 Hosting | Best VPS for First-Time Site Owners |
A Detailed Review of the 9 Best VPS Hosting Providers in Canada
1. HostPapa - Best VPS for Small Businesses
Pricing:
Mercury Plan: $19.99/month
Venus Plan: $59.99/month
Earth Plan: $109.99/month
Mars Plan: $169.99/month
Jupiter Plan: $249.99/month
PROS
30-day money-back guarantee
Easy to use
24/7/365 customer service
Free SSL certificate
Host unlimited domains
100% satisfaction guarantee
400+ free apps
CONS
Automated backups aren't included
No free trial available
Additional features can raise costs quickly
HostPapa delivers a strong VPS hosting solution with impressive server speeds (up to 12 cores, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of NVMe storage), great flexibility, root-level access through its VPS manager, user-friendly cPanel, and many other features. You'll also benefit from guaranteed dedicated resources, instant provisioning, blacklist-free IPs, and expert VPS management.
Server Uptime: HostPapa has a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
2. Hostinger - Best Value for Money
Pricing:
KVM 1: $4.99/month
KVM 2: $6.99/month
KVM 4: $10.49/month
KVM 8: $19.99/month
PROS
Servers located across four continents
Complimentary domain name registration
Scalable VPS hosting
LiteSpeed Web Servers with built-in caching
Includes a website builder
Free backups on a weekly basis
30-day money-back guarantee
CONS
Lower performance for websites with large databases
Control panel can be slow
We put Hostinger high on our list because of the way it skilfully incorporates reasonable prices and elevated performance when it comes to VPS hosting. Resources start from 1 vCPU core, 4GB RAM, and 50GB NVMe storage up to 8 vCPU cores, 32GB RAM, and 400GB storage.
Server Uptime: Hostinger has a 99.9% uptime guarantee
3. Cloudways by DigitalOcean - Best VPS for Versatility
Pricing:
DO1GB Plan: $11/month
DO2GB Plan: $24/month
DO192GB Plan: $1056/month
PROS
24/7 live support
Highly stable and fast VPS hosting
Numerous server locations are available
No upfront payments or price hikes
Simple VPS hosting management
24/7/365 customer support
Free migration
Free SSL
CONS
Basic security features
Email hosting incurs additional charges
More expensive than the competitors' rates
Cloudways sets up a dedicated server for you and offers an interface that's as user-friendly as any shared hosting platform. However, it does it a little bit differently by putting up and managing servers from various cloud providers, including DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud.
We tested it thoroughly, and the reliability, performance, and ability to handle traffic surges are precisely what you would expect.
Server Uptime: Cloudways has a 99.99% uptime guarantee
4. Bluehost - Best VPS for Robust Support
Pricing:
Standard NVMe 4 Plan: $46.99/month
Enhanced NVMe 8 Plan: $65.99/month
Ultimate NVMe 16 Plan: $94.99/month
PROS
Unlimited bandwidth
Free migration
Reputable VPS hosting provider
Free cPanel license
24/7 VPS support
High-performance NVMe SSD hard drives
User-friendly VPS dashboard
Business-centric tools
Includes a website builder
CONS
High prices
Servers only located in the US
The migration tool needs improvement
All Bluehost VPS plans come with varying amounts of CPU cores, storage, and RAM based on price. However, each one offers unlimited bandwidth and one dedicated IP address. You can also benefit from access control, root access, and multiserver management to add and oversee multiple hosting services from a single account.
Server Uptime: Bluehost has an average uptime of 15 minutes
5. HostArmada - Best VPS for Premium Hosting Features
Pricing:
Web Shuttle Plan: $29.95/month
Web Voyager Plan: $35.73/month
Web Raider Plan: $46.73/month
Site Carrier Plan: $74.23/month
PROS
23 cloud VPS data centres
Round-the-clock customer support
Free SSL and backups
Free WAF and malware protection
Cloud SSD storage
Free website migration
No cancellation fees; pay only for what you use
CONS
Only 7 days money-back guarantee
Renewal prices are twice the introductory prices
HostArmada provides a scalable managed cloud VPS hosting solution with complete control and redundant cloud infrastructure for rapidly growing businesses. Features and specifications are abundant, even for the cheapest plan.
In fact, you'll benefit from unlimited websites, 50 GB SSD storage, 1 Core CPU, 2 GB RAM, 2 TB bandwidth, 5 free cPanel accounts, free SSLs for all websites, and a dedicated IP address, among many more.
Server Uptime: HostArmada has a 99.9% uptime guarantee
6. HostGator - Best VPS for Scalability
Pricing:
Snappy 2000 Plan: $36.99/month
Snappy 4000 Plan: $53.99/month
Snappy 8000 Plan: $95.99/month
PROS
Centralized DDoS protection Few server locations available
Let’s Encrypt SSL included Expensive renewal rates
Unlimited email accounts Inadequate backup policy
30-day money-back guarantee
Unlimited bandwidth
Free migration available
24/7/365 support
CONS
Few server locations available
Expensive renewal rates
Inadequate backup policy
With a 20-year solid reputation, HostGator is one of the old guards of the hosting community. Their Virtual Private Server platform is for those who do not want quite so many restrictions.
It also comes with many great features; some that we really like are the full customization options, top-of-the-line reliability via data centres and bandwidth from major providers, and ease of upgrade by adding RAM, CPU, or disk space. If, for any reason, you are not satisfied within the first 30 days, they give you back all hosting fees!
Server Uptime: HostGator has a 99.9% uptime guarantee
7. InMotion Hosting
Pricing:
VPS 4 vCPU Plan: $9.99/month
VPS 8 vCPU Plan: $19.99/month
VPS 12 vCPU Plan: $31.99/month
VPS 16 vCPU Plan: $44.99/month
PROS
24/7 expert customer support
Highly stable and dependable host
Free SSL
Choice of control panel
90-day money-back guarantee
DDoS protection
Free website transfers and server setup
CONS
Phone support not available for the basic plan
No free backups
InMotion Hosting delivers elevated site speeds, robust security, various control panel options, and round-the-clock award-winning customer support through its VPS hosting solution.
You can choose from four different plans, each providing free website transfers, easy resource management, built-in redundancy, along with SSH and DDoS protection.
Server Uptime: InMotion Hosting has a 99.9% uptime guarantee
8. Liquid Web - Best Uptime Guarantee VPS
Pricing:
Pricing (Cloud VPS)
Pricing (Managed VPS - Linux)
Web Raider Plan
Pricing (Managed VPS - Windows)
PROS
Excellent website uptime
30-day money-back guarantee
Fast and dependable
Versatile plans
Cloudflare CDN
Advanced security
Easy to scale
Standard DDoS attack prevention
CONS
Poor support interface; tickets can go unanswered for days
High renewal costs
Not the best suited for beginners
Since Liquid Web prides itself on combining performance and value, we went ahead and tried their award-winning VPS hosting service out for ourselves. We love how its flexible options cover everything from general use to memory optimization and compute efficiency. Plus, anyone can start small and scale up to dedicated vCPUs as needed.
Server Uptime: Liquid Web has a 100% uptime guarantee
9. A2 Hosting - Best VPS for First-Time Site Owners
Pricing:
Managed VPS Hosting (Takeoff Plans)
Managed VPS Hosting (Soar Plans)
Unmanaged VPS Hosting (Launch Plans)
Unmanaged VPS Hosting (Ascent Plans)
PROS
Developer friendly
24/7/365 customer support
Free SSL certificate
Free account migration
Easy to scale up or down
Faster performance with Turbo
Robust security
CONS
Extra charges for cPanel, Softaculous, and backups.
A2 Hosting delivers multiple server resources, features, and plans. For example, the Turbo plans include NVMe storage and LiteSpeed technology, which help achieve high rankings, reduce bounce rates, and boost conversion rates.
A Quick Comparison of the 9 Best VPS Hosting Providers
Let's quickly compare some of the best VPS hosting providers in Canada:
Hosting Provider | Price (Starting) | Server Uptime | USP | 24/7 Customer Support |
$19.99/month | 99.9% | Best VPS for Small Businesses | ||
$4.99/month | 99.9% | Best Value for Money | ✓ | |
$11/month | 99.99% | Best VPS for Versatility | ✓ | |
$46.99/month | Average of 15 minutes | Best VPS for Robust Support | ||
$29.95/month | 99.9% | Best VPS for Premium Hosting Features | ||
$36.99/month | 99.9% | Best VPS for Scalability | ||
$9.99/month | 99.9% | Best Money-Back Guarantee VPS | ✓ | |
$5/month | 100% | Best Uptime Guarantee VPS | ||
$2.99/month | 99.9% | Best VPS for First-Time Site Owners |
How to Pick the Best VPS Hosting Service for Your Needs
Identify your resource requirements
Since websites that witness higher volumes of traffic or even deal with a higher level of processing (maybe due to complex applications) require higher resources, ensure you factor in the specific needs of your website, such as CPU, RAM, and storage.
Check for uptime and reliability
Preferably, it should be 99.9% or higher to hold good search engine standings for maintaining user satisfaction.
Customer service
Choose a provider who assures customer assistance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through live chat, phone, and email.
Check scalability
Go for a VPS that can be easily up scaled, as when your website grows, you're going to have to scale up resources without downtime and inconveniences.
Security measures
Look out for DDoS protection, backups regularly, TLS certificates, and firewalls.
Managed vs. unmanaged VPS
Unmanaged VPS involves more personal control, whereas managed VPS is ideal for people who want to spend less time on technical details, given that it includes maintenance, updates, and support. The level of control with unmanaged VPS is much greater; it better fits those who have technical skills and want to manage the server by themselves.
Think about cloud VPS
Since cloud VPS uses multiple servers to balance the load, it's perfectly designed for sites that need flexible resources.
Evaluate pricing and value
The lowest price is not always the best value; consider what you get for your money.
Look out for free trials and guarantees
If you wish to make trial purchases of the services of any given provider without financial risk, consider a provider who offers free or money-back guarantees.