VPS Hosting

Does anyone have any 2023 VPS host recommendations? I've been with goDaddy for over a decade and enough is enough, I've been researching and have a few on the A-list, but was wondering what people are using that works.

I'm down to three web sites these days, don't need a huge amount of power. Linux or CentOS, require an unmanaged service so I can SSH and do configs/installs, and cPanel/WHM server management. Ability to add IP's for SSL (even if these are extra charges.) The super main important requirement is solid email functionality.

TL;DR

I started with GD in the early 2000's in a dedi when those were affordable and switched to a VPS when they weren't. Overall GD's service is okay but more expensive than a lot of hosting services. My main issue is email.

My VPS, over WHM/cPanel, had the DNS, MX and DKIM records set up correctly per their specs. What happens is mail is sent from the server but the email has to go through sercureserver.net, and this "parent email server" never picks up my server settings, so any external emails (to gmail, for example) get rejected for an invalid DKIM.

I've been over and over this with their support staff and they say "everything is fine." Of course everything is fine because you're testing from a godaddy email address, within your network. They tell me their "parent email server" should pick up my VPS settings automatically, apparently it's not. Send an email to Gmail and it gets rejected with an invalid DKIM. Finally I geve up, they weren't seeing the problem. It's been this way for years.

Since I went with them years ago I've only stayed because moving is such a pain in the A, so I haven't been watching the who's who in hosting, which is why I ask.

Right now my A list includes

Ionos - about 1/3 what I'm paying now, but they use Plesk for server management. I've used Plesk, but I'd like to stay with WHM/cPanel because it has BoxTrapper - all email goes into a queue and if you don't whitelist/approve it, the email never hits your inbox. This is a huge plus. Pretty high percentage of negative reviews though.

A2 - Also way cheaper and their negative review percentage is lower. What I like about this service is it's independently owned, which brings in another possibility of problems. cPanel license is a 9.99/month extra, which I don't mind, at their pricing it's still cheaper.

Inmotion - includes WHM/cPanel, a definite maybe. Generous cPanel/WHM licensing, a little more expensive but still less than I'm paying now. A bit higher percentage of negs.

Dreamhost - also a maybe, low percentage of negative reviews, I've worked with them before and can guarantee most of the "slow site" complaints are from Wordpress hosting usage and bloated Wordpress install.

Off the list:

Hostinger - based in Lithuania, looking for a U.S. service.
Bluehost, Hostgator, Liquid Web, Rackspace, a couple others: off the hook pricing. I've worked with these servers in my career and while the service is good, I'm trying to downgrade the cost investments these days.

I've got more on both lists but my head hurts and need to make a choice.

 

sub'd.

I can add another two to cross off your list: InterServer (Plesk & terrible e-mail), and SmarterASP (if they are still around).

I am currently researching to find out if I can move my domain somewhere where I can a) use Google Workspace for email access, and b) setup DDNS to host my meaningless site (more of a professional landing page) on my local TrueNAS Core machine in a container along with a smattering of other misc personal "smart home" apis I host.

 

Thanks, I saw InterServer but not SmarterASP - anything with ASP in the name would mean an MS server so I'd categorically pass on it.:-D (Sorta like "struts" and "Quick" LOL)

I'm leaning toward A2, the cPanel management is huge compared to Plesk. Ionos is WAY cheaper, but I'm paying twice what A2 offers compared to GD.

 

Yeah- only used SmarterASP for a year or so a long time ago, didn't like it... InterServer is ok. Uptime has been fine, service and support has been snappy, but the e-mail is horrible.

I'm a C# dev mostly deploying out containers now, so an MS server is no longer a limitation...

 

Welp A2 is out. Signed up this morning with a lower VPS plan to test it out, sales told my for $1.99 I would get a cPanel/WHM license that would include 5 users, I only need 3. It's a 1 user license. Submitted ticket, after 6 hours I decided if this is the kind of support I'd get, super hard pass, cancelled the VPS and requested a refund. Which I may or may not get. Agh. :-\

 

i was pretty pleased with linode when i needed a vps.

 

Reading reviews and Hooooooooooly crapola LOL!

 

So I've been through at least 50 potential hosts, reading reviews, chatting with their robots, comparing, finally you get to a point where you just have to get off the $%#$ porch.

At this point I'm going with a MAJOR underdog, Hostwinds. Their negs are higher (mostly from people who blame the host for anything) and most review sites give them a "meh, good enough." Here is why I chose them, and it does look like it's going to work.

Support - Main reason. Of all the hosts I looked into, their sales support (and looks like tech support too, after working with it) was the most knowledgeable and answered almost every question spot on, almost like they knew what they were doing. Most chat support agents are clueless, ask a question and they respond with something completely unrelated. I even had one (Hostinger) respond with "is that just a random question?" After signing up and beginning work on it, their tech support was very handy as well, and assisted with the few issues below.
Price - obviously I'm downscaling, $18.99/mo + $15 for a 5 user WHM license $33.99/mo, no surprises. I'm paying $52 now. What you get:

Unmanaged SSD Cloud - Unmanaged SSD Cloud 3
IP Addresses: 1 IP Address
4GB RAM, 75GB space, with OS that puts me at about 50% usage.

It works: aside from the few issues below (there are always issues) this is working out very well, set up the first domain and database in about an hour, will have this ready to re-point DNS sometime today for the live acid test.

The cons:
- The chat thing is going to get annoying pretty quickly, load any page and it pops up with "how can I help you . . . " I suppose I can deal with it because they actually respond. I suspect some of them are bots and humans only take over when the bot can't answer, but they do know what they're talking about (for the most part.) I did have to fix some stuff they should have known about, to wit,
- CentOS reaches EOL in 2024 so on signup I selected AlmaLinux but it installed CentOs (probably an old template.) Fortunately in their CP are links to reinstall almaLinux + cPanel. The problem with that . . .
- Reinstall broke the cPanel license and kept going into free trial mode, again, stellar support - they rebound it to the server and fixed it fairly quickly, an hour or so.
- DOCUMENT_ROOT is not the same. We've always been warned we shouldn't use DOCUMENT_ROOT as it's unreliable. This is the case, DOCUMENT_ROOT is /var/www/html and public files are at /home/[site user name]/public_html. This is in CONTEXT_DOCUMENT_ROOT which is the preferred usage anyway, just need to update a lot of scripts for it to play nice.
- PHP version - 7.4.33 which reaches EOL next year, I wished they'd have spun it up with one of the 8 versions, but having root access I can do that later.

So far so good . . . .

 

It's been a little over 2 weeks, seems like FOREVER because I had some long term firmware issues that caught up with me and was down for a while. Hostwinds seems like a clear winner for an underdog. It's not "premium" service like Liquid Web or Rackspace but it's inexpensive for an unmanaged plan. My Stupid Little Sites are all up and running, no email issues, good enough. I did have a few issues with newer software and my older implementations and had to work those out but those were all on me.