VPS.net Introduction

VPS.net is a web hosting company with a specific focus on cloud VPS hosting. The company was founded in 2008 by the UK2 Group, who also own other global brands such as 100TB, Autica and Dotable. UK2 have in turn been acquired by Lloyds Development Capital.

VPS.net is based in Utah but utilises cloud servers which span the entire globe. Its server farms are continually expanding, and its services are targeted at customers looking for something more than shared web hosting. However, it does offer a few alternatives as well.

VPS.net Hosting Plans

VPS.net has a wide variety of hosting plans on offer. Whilst its focus is on cloud-based VPS hosting, it also offers ‘elastic’ VPS hosting and a cloud VPS reseller plan for web designers and hosts. The company also offers a choice of Windows or Linux-based plans.

Cloud VPS hosting allows you to scale your hosting plan according to your needs. The range of service begin with 1.2 GHz processor power and 376 MB dedicated ram, 10 GB disk space and 1TB bandwidth. This scales right up to a massive 14.4 GHz processor power, 4512 MB of dedicated RAM, 120 GB disk space and 12 TB bandwidth.

VPS.net usefully provides a plan which allows you to purchase the cloud server space suited to the software you want to use. For example, cloud VPS hosting based on Ruby on Rails may require different resources to a standard plan.

In addition to VPS.net’s cloud VPS hosting plans, the company has also come up with ‘elastic VPS’ hosting which allows you to scale up or down the server space you need. There are three Elastic VPS plans.

● The Small plan provides between 3 and 6 GHz processor power, 1880 MB to 3706 MB Ram, between 50 and 100 GB storage space and between 5 and 10 TB bandwidth.
● The Medium plan allows you to choose 6 GHz processor power, 3760 MB RAM, 100 GB disk space and 10 TB bandwidth up to 12 GHz processor power, 7520 MB RAM, 200 GB disk space and 20 TB bandwidth.
● The Large plan allows you to vary your hosting from 12 GHz processor power, 7520 MB RAM, 200 GB disk space and 20 TB bandwidth up to 24 GHz processor power, 15040 MB RAM, 400 GB disk space and 40 TB bandwidth.

VPS.net has a VPS reseller plan based on its cloud hosting inrastructure, but you need to contact the company directly for a quote if you’re interested in this. Prices aren’t published.

Cloud hosting through VPS.net also comes in three different packages.

● The Business plan provides 5 GB disk space, 250 GB bandwidth and is designed for traffic equal to approximately 25,000 visitors per month.
● The Pro plan provides 25 GB disk space, 500 GB bandwidth and is designed for traffic equal to approximately 125,000 visitors per month.
● The High-Traffic plan provides 50 GB disk space, 1 TB bandwidth and is designed for traffic equal to approximately 500,000 visitors per month.

VPS.net Uptime/Downtime

VPS.net does not make any claims about uptime, but as its services are based on cloud hosting, this is unsurprising - the whole idea of the cloud is to provide better reliability anyway. The website advertises its cloud hosting as being based on ‘self-healing hardware’. Should the server your site is held on go down or fail for some reason, it will automatically transfer to another server within seconds, meaning that downtime should be practically nil in real times.

The VPS.net server farms are held in 17 different locations around the globe, including America, Europe, Asia and Australia. This allows you to choose from clouds around the world to help you maximise performance, depending on your own location and the location your clients are likely to inhabit. Customers are also able to monitor servers and move between them as they see fit, which is a nice feature.

VPS.net Support

Support for VPS.net customers is available through a helpdesk, 24 hours a day. Live chat, telephone and email support is also available at no extra charge. The site also provides an email address for their management team if you are unsatisfied with their support.

VPS.net offers a chargable service for tasks that are additional to ordinary support requests. Customers can also purchase a managed service package which provides peace of mind via professional server management from the host. This in turn provides customers with a comprehensive SLA which goes beyond the SLA specified on other hosting services offered by the company.

VPS.net provides a wiki/ knowledgebase and company blog. Its Facebook page is moderately active, as is its Twitter account. Technical support staff also appear to promptly respond to customers, although people asking for support about specific problems are usually directed to the helpdesk email address. There is also a well designed community forum for VPS.net customers which is a useful beginner resource.

VPS.net in the News

VPS.net has not attracted little attention in the news, either good or bad. This suggests that the services are relatively stable and secure.

VPS.net Control Panel

The main control panel offered by VPS.net is Cpanel. Cpanel is used by many web hosting companies, so customers will have little difficulty making the transition from another host if they’ve used it before. Resellers are also offered an exclusive white label control panel, allowing them to brand their backend and reseller area as they see fit.

VPS.net Extras

Many shared hosting companies offer incentives such as free domain names or Google Adwords credits however, as VPS.net does not offer standard shared hosting, these types of offers are not available. Basically, what you see is what you get: there are no ad credits or freebies to claim.

Drupal, WordPress and Joomla hosting is available through VPS.net and it also supports business tools such as Magento, PostBooks, phpBB, RoundCube, osCommerce and more. CMS tools such as Open Enterprise, Concrete5 and Twiki are available, as are a wide range of developer tools, CRM tools, project management tools and more.

VPS.net Money Back Guarantee / Cancellation Policy

Customers have to provide 30 days written notice to terminate their accounts with VPS.net, but only the Cloud Hosting packages come with this money-back guarantee. The money-back guarantee gives customers an admirable 60 days’ grace to try out the service, which is a fair bit higher than I expected.

VPS.net Summary

It’s difficult to compare VPS.net to the majority of other hosting companies out there. Its services are based on a modern cloud infrastructure, so they do not offer the standard shared hosting services many other hosting companies tend to concentrate on. For example, the standard uptime guarantee is really unnecessary, and that makes VPS.net a good choice for reliability.

VPS.net’s cloud based VPS hosting will be suited to those specifically looking for this type of hosting, and it’s as feature-packed as any other rival’s service. In addition, the elastic VPS and VPS Reseller hosting plans give them the edge over shared hosts who offer VPS as an afterthought.

Customers looking to upgrade beyond shared hosting but are not looking to pay big prices will be interested in VPS.net. Small businesses and people looking to build hobby sites may want to consider looking elsewhere for shared hosting, at least to get their site off the ground, since a VPS requires a certain investment of time.