◦ Comprehensive security
◦ 24/7 support
VPS → Best Windows VPS Provider
The 5 best budget-friendly Windows VPS provider
With Windows, virtual private servers (VPS) have diverse, impactful use cases. Serial business owners can host several websites using VPS. Developers use VPS to test their applications before shipping. Virtual private servers are even great for gaming and remote workers.
The possibilities are endless and achievable at a cost that was unimaginable two decades ago. Why not join in? Use a cheap Windows VPS to smoothen your computing experience, increase your productivity, and scale your operation.
In this guide, we’ll highlight the best cheap Windows VPS hosting providers. Plus, you’ll get tips to inform your choice and optimize your performance.
Let’s get into it.
Get premium Windows VPS hosting
High-performance Windows VPS hosting that delivers unrivaled power
Understanding Windows VPS hosting
To fully grasp Windows VPS hosting, break it down into two concepts: VPS hosting and the Windows operating system.
VPS hosting entails software — such as Microsoft Hyper-V — used to partition one physical server into multiple virtual servers, each with allocated vCPU, RAM, storage, and other resources.
Virtual private servers can run on various operating systems, but this guide zooms in on those created to use the Windows operating system.
Who needs Windows VPS hosting?
Typically, the main users of Windows VPS hosting are: Business owners who run Windows-based applications like Microsoft SQL, gamers creating multiplayer online instances, developers testing their applications, and remote workers using Windows-friendly content management systems.
While you can accomplish any of the above tasks on other types of servers, the best reason to choose VPS is the scalability. VPS hosting lets you provision additional computing resources, like CPU and RAM, on the fly — enabling high performance with no wasted expenses.
Benefits of using a cheap Windows VPS
People on a budget can reap several benefits from using a cheap Windows VPS. Below is a quick breakdown.
User-friendly interface: Windows accounts for 72.13% of personal computer (PC) operating systems. It’s ubiquitous and most users are familiar with its intuitive interface. If you can use Windows on your PC, you can use a Windows server.
Compatibility: Users with Windows-specific technologies like Visual Studio and ASP.NET can smoothly run their applications on a Windows VPS. In contrast, it’s often challenging to deploy Windows technologies on other operating systems.
Remote desktop access. When you have a Windows VPS, you can access it from anywhere in the world. This is sometimes referred to as an RDP VPS, because you can simply use remote desktop protocol (RDP). RDP grants you full admin access to your server — provided you have an Internet connection.
Cost efficiency: Running a cheap Windows VPS saves you money, especially compared to using a dedicated server. That’s because most hosting companies allow you to select a custom VPS configuration that precisely balances performance and cost.
How to choose the best cheap Windows VPS hosting provider
To decide on the best cheap VPS for Windows, you’ll need to carefully scrutinize important factors like server uptime, the host’s reputation, hardware, backups, support, security, and cost.
First, here’s a rundown of what these factors entail and why they matter. Afterward, you’ll get a curated list of the best providers in general.
Server uptime: This is the percentage of time a server has remained functional. You can see a host’s uptime history using tools like UptimeRobot or Pingdom. Simply check the uptime of the host’s main website since that’s typically hosted on their infrastructure.
Reputation: Other users often provide insight into their experience with a host. Check review websites like Trustpilot; contemplate what other users say about the provider you’d like to work with and how they rate the services.
Hardware: Generally, find providers with the latest hardware. Check the type and manufacturer (typically Intel or AMD) of components like processors, memory, and storage. Compare what you find against the latest releases from those manufacturers.
Backups: Some cheap Windows VPS hosts include free backups in their plans — meanwhile, others charge extra for it. Weigh your options and determine the best approach depending on the nature of your operations.
Confirm the provider offers human help, not strictly AI chatbots. Read reviews and testimonials to get a good idea of the quality of a provider’s customer support. Has the team understood clients’ problems and helped them recover as quickly as possible?
Security: Bad actors can use malware to drain your server’s resources, slowing performance for legitimate users. Providers should configure anti-cyberattack software to safeguard you.
Liquid Web offers Server Secure™, which auto-configures the optimal server settings to keep your VPS protected.
The best cheap Windows VPS hosting providers
The ideal cheap Windows VPS hosting provider balances affordability with powerful hardware, useful perks, and customer support. The best hosts also maintain an industry reputation for reliability and performance.
The following companies are known for providing effective yet cheap Windows VPS hosting services.
1. Liquid Web
Competent assistance is crucial when choosing a cheap Windows VPS hosting provider. In a crisis, your provider should come to your rescue quickly. In this regard, you can count on Liquid Web’s exceptional customer service.
Liquid Web matches outstanding customer support with superior VPS specifications. For instance, in the basic plan, you get four CPU cores, 100 GB of SSD storage, 10 TB of bandwidth, Windows Server 2022 and Plesk Obsidian.
Liquid Web’s remarkable services have attracted over 30,000 customers from more than 150 countries. Clients are hosted by upward of 25,000 servers across three privately owned and operated core data centers in the U.S. and Europe.
Key features:
- 50 GB of Acronis Cyber Backups: Acronis Cyber Backup helps you store and restore your data seamlessly and securely.
- Free migration: Liquid Web’s migration specialists are vastly experienced. They’ve performed thousands of migrations and use this knowledge to help you avoid common pitfalls — free of charge.
- Distributed denial of service (DDoS) protection: Liquid Web uses Cloudflare’s vast network as a buffer to protect your VPS in the case of a DDoS attack. Cloudflare will bear the brunt of the malicious traffic attack, shielding your VPS.
- Cloudflare’s content delivery network (CDN): Besides providing DDoS protection, CDNs improve website page load times by serving content to your clients from the server geographically closest to them.
- Root access: Gain unrestricted access to your server environment. With root access, you can configure your server however you please.
- Integrated firewall: Liquid Web’s VPS comes equipped with your first line of defense against cyberattacks. An integrated firewall cuts off suspicious traffic and grants access to legitimate traffic.
- Barrels of bandwidth: Liquid Web offers free incoming bandwidth plus up to 10 TB of outbound traffic — all on a super fast 10 Gbps network.
Best cheap Windows VPS hosting for: First-time VPS users and online gamers who need high-speed connections for multiplayer servers.
Price: Starts at $65 monthly when billed every two years.
2. Kamatera
Kamatera is an Israeli cloud services platform provider under the OMC Group. The group’s chairman, Yohay Azulay, is an expert in operating systems, virtualization technologies, and web development. Kamatera skews its products toward developers, startups, and small to midsized businesses.
With its cheap Windows VPS hosting, Kamatera includes dedicated administrators who continuously help customers resolve issues.
Key features:
- Global data center network: Kamatera’s large network of data centers ensures high server availability and redundancy. This means downtimes are unlikely since there is always another location to serve visitors.
- Quick and efficient scalability: Kamatera allows you to swiftly add load balancers, firewalls, and private networks to meet your needs. You can scale up your operations to hundreds of servers within seconds.
- High uptime guarantee: Kamatera guarantees a 99.95% uptime. To help achieve this, it uses conditioned uninterrupted power supplies (UPS) connected to all servers.
- Load balancers: Improve your application’s performance by distributing traffic across multiple servers capable of handling incoming requests. Load balancing is an effortless option to enhance application performance.
- Resource customization: Kamatera provides a resource customization tool that lets you select exactly what you need to run your projects. For example, you can choose more memory but less bandwidth — and save money compared to a stock plan.
Best cheap Windows VPS hosting for: Developers who need a flexible or pre-configured environment for testing applications.
Price: Starts at $23 monthly with a free 30-day trial.
3. InterServer
InterServer is a web hosting company with two and a half decades of experience. In 1999, two high school students founded it as a virtual hosting reseller. The founders’ goal, at the time, was to offer affordable but high-quality data services.
InterServer has adapted to changes in hosting technologies over the years. Today, it provides modern server solutions like shared hosting, cloud hosting, dedicated server hosting, and cheap Windows VPS hosting.
InterServer’s customer support team is ready around the clock to assist customers worldwide.
Key features:
- Multiple database support: InterServer supports multiple database systems and deploying a MySQL server only takes a few minutes. Connections are secured so you can securely store and retrieve your data.
- Plesk for Windows: Plesk is a popular control panel software with an 88.6% market share. It offers a comprehensive and intuitive user interface to manage websites on your VPS.
- Speed: InterServer offers Windows VPS plans with varying speeds to choose from, depending on your needs.
Best cheap Windows VPS hosting for: Startups and students who need price flexibility and a friendly development environment.
Price: Starts at $10 monthly.
4. Hostwinds
Hostwinds was founded in 2010 by Peter Holden; he aims to provide reliable services to support small business owners with tight budgets. Now you can afford priority service from a top hosting company.
Hostwinds owns and maintains full control of its hardware infrastructure and doesn’t owe hosting fees to anyone, which helps to keep prices low for the customer.
Key features:
- Redundant network: To maintain its 99.99% uptime guarantee, Hostwinds employs 100% 2N redundancy for all its components. All servers and power supplies have a backup in case of a failure.
- Full management: Hostwinds’ cheap Windows VPS hosting includes a team of Windows specialists on standby to swiftly help you resolve issues on the fly.
- Nightly backups: Hostwinds uses Volume Shadow Copy Service, a critical backup technology included in Windows. It creates copies of files in your VPS — even when the files are in use — ensuring you always have a restore point.
- Server monitoring: The Hostwinds Monitoring Service is a proprietary technology that monitors your server hardware, software, and network daily. If it detects a problem, it initiates a support ticket on your behalf.
Best cheap Windows VPS hosting for: Remote workers who use crucial applications and need reliability.
Price: Unmanaged hosting starts at $10.99 monthly.
5. GoDaddy
GoDaddy is a popular web hosting company with an estimated 2.8% market share. It has over 20 million customers worldwide, with over 84 million domain names.
GoDaddy offers self-managed and fully managed VPS hosting at various price points. The fully managed option is slightly pricier because the in-house team does the heavy lifting for you by setting up and optimizing your server environment.
Key features:
- Three free dedicated Internet protocol (IP) addresses: With the exception of the basic plan, each GoDaddy VPS hosting plan provides three dedicated IP addresses. You can use these for custom software, applications, and email deliverability.
- Root access: GoDaddy grants you super privileges to configure your server precisely to your needs. You can control your server’s basic settings and modify the operating system’s behavior.
- Quick and easy scalability: A surge in traffic is nothing to worry about with GoDaddy’s cheap Windows VPS hosting. No migration is necessary since you can scale resources — like CPUs, RAM, and storage — to handle traffic spikes.
Best cheap Windows VPS hosting for: Global eCommerce businesses with clients in America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
Price: Windows-compatible standard configuration starts at around $22.60 monthly when you pay for 36 months upfront.
How to optimize cheap Windows VPS hosting
After choosing your cheap Windows VPS hosting provider and subscribing to a plan, it’s time to squeeze the most out of your VPS. Below are a few steps to optimize your server for the best performance.
Continuously monitor your VPS: Tracking your server is a great way to proactively catch and resolve issues, which will gradually improve its performance.
When comparing benchmark results across providers, focus on:
Use intuitive VPS management tools like cPanel or Plesk to monitor your server, then pay attention to which resource usage techniques bring positive results.
Remove unnecessary applications: Unused applications can be a waste of valuable disk space. It’s essential to occasionally scan your list of installed applications and remove those you don’t need.
Optimize your application: If you’re the creator of a program on your VPS server, monitor its resource usage. If there’s room for efficiency improvements in your code, optimize that until you get the best performance.
If you host visual content like images and videos, use compression software or move the media files to a reputable CDN like Cloudflare.
Optimize your application: If you’re the creator of a program on your VPS server, monitor its resource usage. If there’s room for efficiency improvements in your code, optimize that until you get the best performance.
Update your software: Applications receive updates to seal security loopholes, making your system more secure. Keep all your applications up to date for the safest Windows VPS experience.
Use a caching app: Server-side caching loads webpages pages faster and more efficiently. Full root access lets you install a caching software of your choice. Squid and Varnish are popular options for caching.
Getting started with a cheap Windows VPS
It’s challenging to find the cheapest Windows VPS hosting provider that doesn’t cut corners. Even when you sign up with a reliable provider, you can’t escape the occasional technical issue. The importance of unwavering customer support can’t be understated.
That’s why Liquid Web offers the fastest, most performant Windows VPS with three levels of management: unmanaged, core managed, and fully managed. It means that you get the very best Windows VPS hosting on the market and the exact level of hosting management and support you need to make the most of it.
Additional resources
VPS Guide →
A complete beginner’s guide to virtual private servers, including how they works, benefits and challenges, and getting started
VPS: A complete beginner’s guide to virtual private servers →
Let’s break down VPS hosting in simple terms, explain when to make the switch, and show you how it compares to other hosting options on the market.
What is a Debian VPS? →
Learn what it means, benefits of Debian for a VPS server, and how it compares to other distros
Maddy Osman is a WordPress expert, WordCamp US speaker, bestselling author, and the Founder and SEO Content Strategist at The Blogsmith. She has a B.A. in Marketing from the University of Iowa and is a WordCamp Denver organizer while also operating The Blogsmith, an SEO content agency for B2B tech companies that works with clients like HubSpot, Automattic, and Sprout Social. Learn more about The Blogsmith’s process and get in touch to talk content strategy: www.TheBlogsmith.com