Best VPS 2020

Note: the Best VPS 2024 rankings are now available.

In the 12 months up to September 2020, VPSBenchmarks put 167 cloud servers from 36 providers through a demanding suite of benchmarks to evaluate their performance as web servers, their capacity to handle heavy loads, their stability and the speed at which they can transfer data through the network. These are the Best VPS in 6 price ranges.

$5 max

15 VPS plans were tested between September 2019 and September 2020.

Max price: $5
Min price: $0

Best Score: 66

Worst Score: 17

$10 max

26 VPS plans were tested between September 2019 and September 2020.

Max price: $10
Min price: $5

Best Score: 72

Worst Score: 21

$25 max

41 VPS plans were tested between September 2019 and September 2020.

Max price: $25
Min price: $10

Best Score: 81

Worst Score: 15

$40 max

28 VPS plans were tested between September 2019 and September 2020.

Max price: $40
Min price: $25

Best Score: 82

Worst Score: 28

$60 max

22 VPS plans were tested between September 2019 and September 2020.

Max price: $60
Min price: $40

Best Score: 85

Worst Score: 45

$100 max

15 VPS plans were tested between September 2019 and September 2020.

Max price: $100
Min price: $60

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 39

In 2020, UpCloud and Vultr dominated the $25 or less cloud server market, offering VPS that can rival the performance of many twice as expensive competing products. Vultr performance is at its best with its High Frequency instances that feature guaranteed fast CPUs for just a little extra cost. UpCloud is the fastest in the lowest price range but maybe its most remarkable quality is its consistency: trial after trial, all UpCloud instances tested on VPSBenchmarks came up with reliably fast benchmarks. MaxKVM, a fast growing provider with locations all over the world, stands out for its performance/price ratio.

In the mid-range ($25 to $40) Kamatera offers a large array of VPS options and manages to outclass the competition with just 2 CPU cores and well balanced performance with its General 4GB instance. The "General" type of Kamatera servers has been a strong performer for a long time. Clouding.io, a dynamic young provider based in Barcelona manages 3rd place in this ranking with its 4 core instance. Clouding.io is one a few providers that includes DDoS protection for free with all of its servers.

At the high end of the market, above $40/month, Genesis Public Cloud leads our rankings with its very fast CPUs. Genesis is one of the few providers that let you choose the storage and CPU types of your servers. Vultr manages to place several of its servers in the top spots in the higher end as well, with fast and stable performance in all areas. Aruba Cloud based in Italy, had a strong showing with its Cloud PRO 4GB server. Aruba Cloud makes a good choice for European customers with 8 datacenter locations on the continent.