VPS Hosting for Web Applications- Webkeepers vs Alien VPS vs Tailored VPS

December 26th at 12:00am

I've noticed that Bluehost has been throttling my hosting account more frequently over the last couple of weeks than it normally has. The time throttled has gone from 1 second in 24 hours to 119 seconds in 24 hours. Given the web applications that I'm trying to setup, I'd like to move them to their own host to ensure that my site stays responsive.

There are a lot of options for inexpensive VPS hosts out there! I'll pass along what I've found out about each provider along with my thoughts & final decision on which one to use.

 

Update 29-April-2012: I wrote a Follow up article mentioning some of the experiences I've had with AlienVPS and ChicagoVPS including uptime and general performance.

Notes

 

There are a lot of junk websites out there that purport to review web hosts / VPS providers. After sifting through pages of garbage I found 2 sites that offer helpful information to people looking for web hosting or VPS providers (see the Notes section above).

After I found a list of potential VPS providers I narrowed it down to 4. Here is some information I was able to collect about each one:

 

Hostgator VPS (link)

Pros:

  • You can host Unlimited Domains / Subdomains
  • cPanel/Plesk Available on "Level 3" plans and higher
  • Modern Hardware
  • Appears to have better support than bare-bones VPS (which has none)

Cons:

  • Lowest cost plan costs $15.95/month with a fraction of the compute power of others
  • No Windows Hosting option (that I could see)


My Take: I didn't seriously consider this option as it was too expensive for the computation power I needed. The sites I have aren't cashflow positive yet and I want to keep cost low for now.

 

Tailored VPS (link)

Pros:

  • Low base price of $4.95/month (Includes 500GB Bandwidth)
  • Easy way to tell how many vCPUs are assigned to the VPS (you pay per core)
  • Slidable config to easily put together a VPS that meets your specifications
  • Free Webmin control panel if you want a management interface beyond the CLI
  • 99.9% uptime guarantee
  • 14 day money back guarantee

 

Cons:

  • Not the least expensive plan (not sure if this is a con, but it's not a pro)
  • I didn't really find anything I consider to be a big negative


My Take: I think these guys offer the best uptime guarantee. Since my sites aren't 'critical' right now I don't need to pay extra for the premium uptime

 

Webkeepers (link)

Parent Company: webk.net

Pros:

  • Plesk 9 control panel (If you like that sort of thing)
  • Static IP Address included
  • Choice of Linux or Windows Host OS
  • Decent specs for the price (50GB HD/256 RAM / 250GB BW for $6.95 a month)
  • No setup fee
  • 30 day money back guarantee

Cons:

  • To get PostgreSQL / Tomcat you need an add-on via PLESK which adds $15/month
  • You can't host IRC
  • You need to buy additional PLESK licenses for more than one domain. Pricing for additional domains isn't terrible (link), but it does add to the monthly cost
  • No real way to determine how many vCPUs come included with the hosting package

My Take: I was going to sign up for a webkeepers vps, but then I found out about another provider which fit my needs a bit better (see below). The price is right, and while there are some unknowns about the VPS configuration (vCPUs, uplink speed) it certainly has to be faster than my current bluehost account!

 

Alien VPS (link)

Parent Company: webrulon.com

Pros:

  • Minecraft servers are welcome
  • Straightforward TOS (No legalese)
  • Low prices, good description of available plans. You know what the machine specs are before you buy (even the uplink speed!)
  • Inexpensive for the # of cores/RAM/HD ($5/mo = 1vCPU/25GB/256MB/250GB BW)
  • Centos 6 x64 OS support(I couldn't find this on the other hosts I considered)
  • Holiday special rates available for 2011 (link)
  • You can edit the Reverse DNS record

Cons:

  • No Control panel included beyond basic machine (reboot/shutdown/backup)
  • No refunds. Period
  • I can't find a way to pre-pay for service (monthly billing only it seems)
  • No Windows VPS option
  • Looks like they only allow one backup of your VPS

My take: I Like how the Agreement is in plain english and not legalese. The lack of an inexpensive "control panel" is not a big deal to me as I know my way around a Linux command line. Also, with the holiday pricing (link) I could get a 4 vCPU / 1GB RAM / 30GB disk VPS for only $8 per month. Given that CPU and RAM are the biggest concerns I have right now this seems like the best option (Only $1.05 more per month than webkeepers)

And the winner is...

In the end I decided to go with alienvps.com. Their Warp2 plan ($8/month) fits my needs perfectly. While it is $1 more per month than the other plan I was seriously considering (webkeepers basic), it offers more vCPUs and guaranteed RAM. Considering that my big bottleneck @ bluehost is CPU it seems prudent to pay an extra dollar a month.