HostAdvice experts performed an independent study on the VPS Hosting providers for all types of users. In order to compile a list of the top 10 best DDoS-protected VPS hosting providers for this page, our experts performed a research that involved testing all leading providers that fit into this category separately. The independent study is based on thousands of independent user reviews, tests, and surveys. However, if you don’t have the time to read the whole article and want to find out which providers made it onto our list, here is our selection of the top 10 best DDoS-protected VPS hosting providers.
Short on Time? Check Our Top DDoS Protected VPS Hosting Providers
- Hostinger – Best DDoS Protected VPS on a Budget
- Cloudways – Best DDoS Protected VPS With Extra Security Features
- InterServer – Top Managed Hosting With Best VPS DDoS Protection
- Liquid Web – Best DDoS Protected VPS Overall
How Do We Rank and How You Should Choose Your DDoS Protected VPS Hosting?
- Server Uptime13%
- Anti-DDoS Software15%
- Backups9%
- Constant Updates11%
- Security6%
- Customer Support10%
- Extra Features6%
- User Reviews30%
We test specifically for each category when we are ranking the best hosting providers. To do so, our experts compile a list of important factors for the category we are ranking. Also, they perform independent performance tests on every provider and take into account thousands of independent user reviews when they rank. Furthermore, each factor that is tested gets its own specific percentage of importance that indicates how important each factor is for the category we are testing.
Here are the factors that we tested and that you need to take into consideration when ranking and choosing the best DDoS-protected VPS hosting providers:
- Server Uptime (13%): Uptime of 99.95% or above, enterprise-grade hardware, SSD Storage, Cloudflare CDN, etc.
- Anti-DDoS Software (15%): Indusface AppTrana, Cloudflare, Link11, StackPath Web Application Firewall, Sucuri Website Firewall, SolarWinds Security Event Manager, AWS Shield, Akamai Prolexic Routed, etc.
- Backups (9%): Does the provider offer frequent backups? Does it allow you to make daily backups of your content? How long is the data retention period?
- Constant Updates (11%): Does your provider keep your codebase (frontend and backend) updated? Does it use the latest APIs, frameworks, and other security patches to do so?
- Security (6%): Does the provider offer other security tools and measures? Does the provider only protect you from DDoS attacks and nothing more?
- Customer Support (10%): the technical knowledge and availability behind the support behind the VPS plan – preferably 24/7 support via live chat, phone, & email, guides, and tutorials.
- Extra Features (6%): firewalls, disaster recovery options, managed services, multiple data center & server locations, enterprise-grade hardware, scalable resources, free automatic security patches, free CDN, etc.
- User Reviews (30%): Real-life reviews and experiences from independent users that have used the provider’s services before. Unbiased feedback and opinions on the provider.
What Is DDoS Protected VPS, and Who Is It For?
A DDoS-protected VPS is a server built on a network that is equipped to handle large-scale DDoS attacks. DDoS stands for Distributed Denial-of-Service, while VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. Most DDoS-protected VPS providers offer DDoS mitigation tools and Anti-DDoS software that can protect your site and content from DDoS attacks.
The best DDoS-protected VPS networks are able to handle large incoming requests so that they can parse legitimate traffic from DDoS traffic. Also, they have robust hardware and software mitigation tools that allow for granular control of traffic influx.
DDoS-protected VPS is most suitable for users who:
- Want to host a gaming server;
- Have developed their own apps;
- Want to host various web applications;
- Want to host their own discussion forums;
- Have large websites with high traffic volumes;
- And more.
The Best DDoS Protected Hosting Services of 2023 (Bought and Tested):
Looking for a provider that offers excellent VPS hosting plans for a lower price? If so, Hostinger is ideal for you. It offers the best DDoS-protected VPS services on a budget that is fast, reliable, and fully customizable. Also, it offers two DDoS mitigation solutions that can prevent all kinds of DDoS attacks.
- Overall Score: 4.6
- Performance: 4.6
- Support: 4.7
- Security: 4.7
- Features: 4.6
- Pricing: 4.6
Hostinger’s DDoS mitigation solutions include a remotely triggered black hole (RTBH) and traffic filtering. Its next-level DDoS protection services inspect elements like packet payload, source port, source IP, destination port, country, and more.
Research Findings:
Performance: a 99.9% uptime, 100 Mb/s Network, the latest Intel Xeon processors, NVMe SSD storage, CentOS, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, and Suse operating systems, scalable resources, data centers in Lithuania, Singapore, the USA, the UK, and the Netherlands, and more!
Support: 24/7/365 support via live chat, email support, an extensive knowledge base, tutorials, blogs, and Hostinger Academy.
Security: two DDoS mitigation solutions that are built in all of its VPS plans, dedicated IP addresses, IPv4 & IPv6 support, manual live server snapshots, automated backups, super-fast site restoration, BitNinja full-stack server protection, and more!
Features: Hostinger offers Network File System (NFS) support, a user-friendly control panel, a 30-day money-back guarantee, WordPress acceleration, up to 32GB of RAM, up to 400GB NVMe storage, up to 8TB of bandwidth, and more!
Pricing: Hostinger offers eight VPS hosting plans, starting at $5.99/month for one vCPU Core, 4GB RAM, 50GB NVMe storage, and 1TB bandwidth.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Built-in advanced DDoS protection;
- Super-low prices;
- Excellent performance;
Cons:
- It does not offer unlimited storage (but still provides enough for content-driven, large-scale sites);
Cloudways is an excellent VPS hosting provider that offers not only robust DDoS protection but also extra security features that can add an additional layer of security to your server. With it, you will get reliable & hassle-free services and excellent performance.
- Overall Score: 4.6
- Performance: 4.7
- Support: 4.7
- Security: 4.6
- Features: 4.6
- Pricing: 4.6
Cloudways allows you to choose from 62 data centers in 33 cities to host your server! It also mitigates DDoS attacks in under three seconds via dedicated IP ranges and offers other robust advanced security measures that can help in detecting and preventing all kinds of DDoS attacks.
Research Findings:
Performance: Cloudways’ infrastructure is backed by top-tier cloud hosting providers like DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, Google Compute Engine, and Amazon Web Service. Also, you can enable Cloudflare Enterprise and get performance-enhancing features for an additional price.
Support: All of Cloudways’ plans come with 24/7/365 customer support which is available via live chat and ticket support. You can also pay extra for Advanced and Premium support.
Security: Cloudflare Enterprise add-on, web application firewall (WAF), rate-limiting for SSH & SFTP logins, bot protection, brute force protection, DDoS protection, Let’s Encrypt SSL, database security, HTTPS encryption, GDPR compliance, application isolation, Two-Factor Authentication, and more!
Features: 1-click installs, 1-click restore, Memcached, Varnish, Redis, built-in WordPress & Magento cache, built-in MySQL Manager, user-role management, Nginx, Apache, PHP 8, PHP-FRM, MySQL/MariaDB, Cloudflare add-on, and more!
Pricing: The price that you will pay primarily depends on the cloud hosting provider you choose. The lowest plan starts at $10/month for DigitalOcean hosting, 1GB RAM, 1 Core CPU, 25GB storage, and 1TB bandwidth.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Enhanced security features;
- 62 data centers in 33 cities worldwide;
- Compatible with many popular plugins;
Cons:
- It offers a short trial period – only three days (but the trial period is completely free of charge and is enough for users to get a feel of what Cloudways has to offer)
InterServer offers top-tier managed hosting services with the best DDoS protection that is excellent for those who do not know or have the time to do everything by themselves. It is a highly scalable provider and allows users to configure their servers to fit their budgets and more!
- Overall Score: 4.4
- Performance: 4.4
- Support: 4.3
- Security: 4.4
- Features: 4.4
- Pricing: 4.5
InterServer includes free DDoS protection in all of its VPS and Dedicated hosting plans. Its VPS DDoS protection services offer 1Tbps+ protection, active filtering, instant activation, passive DDoS defense even when your server is not under attack, and more!
Research Findings:
Performance: The provider offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee, high-performance SSD Storage 20x faster than standard SATA drives, self-healing hardware, KVM, Openvz, Virtuozzo, Hyper-v virtualization, and more. It has servers in two locations – Los Angeles and Secaucus.
Support: InterServer offers 24/7 support via live chat, email, and a ticketing system. It also provides phone support through its call centers in Brazil, the USA, England, Mexico, and Israel, a knowledge base, and self-service options.
Security: InterServer offers a Remote Backup Service via which you can add backups of your DDoS-protected VPS, on-demand DDoS protection that can handle UDP floods, ICMP (ping) floods, SYN floods, NTP Amplification, HTTP floods, and more!
Features: DirectAdmin/cPanel/Plesk, DigiCert SSL, CloudLinux, Cloudflare, Atomicorp, NodeJs, PHP, NGINX, Let’s Encrypt, Git, ImunifyAV, Backup to Cloud Pro, automated AI-powered regression testing, cloning, staging environment, backup and restore features, and more!
Pricing: InterServer allows you to choose the number of CPU cores and bases your price on that, starting at $6/month for a Linux-based VPS hosting plan with one CPU Core, 2,048MB RAM, 30GB SSD Storage, and a 2TB transfer limit.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Excellent managed VPS for DDoS services;
- Superb performance;
- Powerful, free-of-charge DDoS protection
Cons:
- It allows you to get up to 16 CPU Cores for your server (which is still more than enough to host content-driven, high-traffic sites)
Liquid Web provides some of the best DDoS-protected VPS services on the market. In addition to its standard DDoS protection services, it also allows users to buy additional DDoS protection for their servers. It also offers reliable services and an unrivaled hosting experience to all users!
- Overall Score: 4.6
- Performance: 4.7
- Support: 4.6
- Security: 4.6
- Features: 4.6
- Pricing: 4.4
With Liquid Web, you can protect your server and site against both small and large DDoS attacks, layer four and layer seven attacks, and more. With its VPS plans, you will also get excellent performance for your site and 24/7 support to boot!
Research Findings:
Performance: a 99.999% uptime, multi-server environment with managed file replication options to ensure uptime, fast-paced SSD Storage, Cloudflare CDN, multiple operating systems (including Windows and Linux), ten global data centers worldwide, N+1 data center redundancy, and more!
Support: Liquid Web offers 24/7365 customer support that is available via live chat, phone, and a help desk. It also provides super-fast response times that usually take under one minute!
Security: Standard DDoS protection is included in all plans, which can protect you from small-targeted attacks & layer four attacks; advanced Intrusion Detection System, integrated firewall protection, proactive monitoring by default, off-server backups by default, and more!
Features: Plesk Obsidian, 100GB Acronis Cyber Backups, Cloudflare CDN, Threat Stack Oversight Detection System, managed & unmanaged services, Gigabit Bandwidth, unlimited sites with InterWorx, cPanel, root access, Plesk Web Pro, and more!
Pricing: Liquid Web offers seven VPS hosting plans, starting at $25/month for two vCPU Cores, 40GB SSD Storage, 10TB Bandwidth, and InterWorx/Plesk Web Pro/cPanel admin control panels. It also offers three DDoS hosting solutions that can enhance your server’s DDoS protection, starting at $99/month.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Multi-level DDoS protection;
- Free Cloudflare CDN;
- Excellent uptime and performance;
Cons:
- More expensive prices compared to its competitors (but worth it for the features and excellent performance that you will get)
Ranking comparison between the Top Providers
Why Should You Get a DDoS Protected VPS?
A DDoS-protected VPS will stop many types of attacks from happening and keep your site and content safe. Let’s look at some of the most popular DDoS attacks that can be stopped with a DDoS-protected VPS.
- UDP Flood. UDP flooding happens when an attacker overwhelms random ports on your server. This type of attack aims to flood random ports on a specific remote server. A DDoS-protected VPS can prevent a UDP flood by checking for the application associated with the port and sending the answering packet.
- ICMP (Ping) Flood. This type of attack is one of the most common Denial-of-Service attacks. With it, attackers take your system down by overwhelming it with ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) echo requests. A DDoS-protected VPS can prevent such an attack by responding to it with an “Echo” response. This type of attack can eventually cause your system to slow down or be non-responsive.
- Ping of Death. Attackers use this type of attack to try and crash, freeze, or destabilize your server. They do so by sending oversized or malformed packets by using a ping command. This type of attack can cause the memory buffers allocated to the packet to overflow, which ultimately leads to denial of service for the legitimate packet.
- SYN Flood. An SYN flood attack exploits weaknesses in the TCP connection sequence of your server. The attackers send a succession of SYN requests to your server, which will consume its resources in the process. Ultimately, this attack renders your server inaccessible for legitimate traffic.
- HTTP Flood. With this type of attack, the attacker manipulates HTTP and POST requests to attack your server or application. This attack usually exploits interconnected systems that have been maliciously taken over with malware, like Trojan Horses.
Most Common Risks Associated With DDoS Attacks
DDoS attacks can lead to all kinds of negative consequences for you and your site. Let’s explore some of the most common risks that you can experience with DDoS attacks.
Revenue Loss
Businesses can lose large parts of their revenues if they come under a DDoS attack. That is because a DDoS attack can stop a site from responding, and if your site isn’t responding, customers won’t be able to buy anything from it, leading to huge decreases in your revenue.
Loss of Customers
DDoS attacks can lead to decreased network performance which can further lead to unsatisfied customers. Namely, if your customers have to wait extra long for your site to load, they will most likely give up and move to another site.
Data Breach
Attackers can steal your sensitive information by attacking you with a DDoS attack. You can protect yourself from data breaches by monitoring your server 24/7, making multiple backups of critical data that are distributed across several locations, and more.
Ruined Reputation
A DDoS attack can freeze your server, which can lead to you being unable to provide the services that your customers expect. If a business cannot provide its services and offers a poor customer experience, its reputation can be ruined, and it will be unable to attract new customers or keep its loyal ones.
Ransom
Attackers have started to threaten businesses with DDoS attacks against their most critical online systems. They do so by sending out messages in which they threaten to carry out an RDDoS (Ransom-driven DDoS attack) unless the business pays the ransom that they requested.
How Do DDoS Attacks Happen?
DDoS attacks are multiple networks of computers (bots) that are collectively trying to access your server at the same time from different locations. These requests are usually measured in tens of thousands and can quickly overwhelm your server’s bandwidth. Consequently, they can shut down your site, cPanel, and even your email server.
These days, DDoS attacks take up terabytes and account for nearly a third of all downtime that happens online.
Best DDoS Protected VPS Services: Summary
DDoS attacks have become a common occurrence on the Internet. They can cause all kinds of trouble for you and your site, including complete server shutdowns, inability to provide services online, data breaches, loss of customers, and more.
To prevent such attacks and keep your content and site safe, you can get a DDoS Protected VPS. With it, you will receive constant server monitoring, hardware & software mitigation tools, and everything else you might need to prevent DDoS attacks.