10 Cheap Dedicated Server Hosting Services

If you’re looking for fast, fully managed dedicated hosting, Hostwinds is your best bet. While it’s not the cheapest option on the market, it does score highest among the cheap providers for reliability. Customer support is also excellent, even though it’s not always accessible by phone.

Features

Hostwinds’ dedicated servers are fully managed, which means you don’t necessarily need a ton of tech experience to set them up. You do have the ability to access your website’s cPanel, manually add firewalls to your site, manage your domains and install OpenLitespeed for no additional cost to optimize your server speed. Hostwinds accounts come with an uptime guarantee. If at any point your server is down, you can contact the company for an account credit for the entire day—even if it’s only down for five minutes.

You do have the option to pay for unmetered outbound bandwidth, which puts no cap on how many visitors your site can handle per month, but this level of bandwidth will cost you an additional $750 per month. If your site isn’t getting hit with a ton of traffic, you may prefer to estimate your monthly usage to lower your monthly bill.

Pricing

Your Hostwinds dedicated server will vary in cost depending on the specifications. The cheapest package is $82 per month, but it can get as high as $1,436 per month depending on how much storage you purchase, the amount of RAM and outbound bandwidth, the number of IP addresses and whether you want to use Windows as your operating system (OS).

In addition to the base price for your dedicated server, you’ll want to consider add-ons. Hostwinds charges for some services that competitors may include for free, such as daily cloud backups ($1 per month), WHOIS privacy protection ($5 per domain per year), distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) protection ($50 per month) and SSL certificates ($75 or $150 per year per certificate).

Customer Service

Hostwinds has customer service agents available 24/7 through live chat and ticket support. While there’s technically a phone number, it’s meant for sales rather than ongoing technical support. If you want phone support, you don’t have to compromise. Plenty of other providers, such as GoDaddy and Mochahost, provide technical support by phone 24/7 on top of the options provided by Hostwinds.

Reputation

Hostwinds has an excellent reputation across the board. While not every last customer will have an identical experience, the overwhelming majority of people who work with Hostwinds praise its customer service as being not just speedy, but adept and competent in fixing any problems that may arise—even if they’re solving those issues in a live chat session most of the time. Speeds and upload times also receive high ratings from small business owners.

Learn more: Read our full Hostwinds review.

DreamHost is a fairly reliable hosting provider, and while it’s not the cheapest on the market, it’s not the most expensive either. For the price, its plans include a decent value, and businesses that don’t have the in-house tech experience to manage the server themselves will appreciate DreamHost’s fully managed dedicated servers.

Features

DreamHost’s dedicated servers are fully managed, and include DDoS protection and auto-enabled firewall protection at no additional cost. While DreamHost plans don’t include access to a traditional cPanel, the company has its own custom panel that you can access. All hosting plans come with free SSL/TLS certificates, which are important for search engine rankings and often mandatory if you’re selling products through your site.

If you choose to purchase your domain through DreamHost, too, you’ll get free WHOIS privacy protection, but a domain is not included in the cost of your dedicated hosting package. Domain management is, though, whether you purchase your domain through DreamHost or another third party. One thing that is a little trickier with DreamHost is backups—you’ll want to ensure someone on your team is managing these should you ever need to restore your site.

Pricing

DreamHost’s smallest package costs $199 per month and comes with 16GB of memory and 480GB SSD storage. The largest package costs $749 per month and has 128GB of memory and 1920GB SSD storage.

On top of the features listed above, all DreamHost dedicated server plans come with unlimited bandwidth. The uptime guarantee pays you back for one full day of hosting fees for every hour that your site is inaccessible. All of this is included—you won’t have to worry about add-on fees like you would with Hostwinds.

Customer Service

DreamHost has 24/7 customer support that you can access by live chat, email, filling out an online contact form or requesting a callback. There’s no customer support number you can call yourself, but as a dedicated server customer, you can get up to three free callbacks per month. Other companies such as GoDaddy and IONOS don’t cap your access to customer service by phone, and are also available 24/7.

Reputation

DreamHost is an established name in the web hosting world. Customers generally appreciate the value for the price, and most have a positive experience with customer service representatives. The fact that customer service by phone isn’t easily accessible is one of the top complaints, but it’s something you know about beforehand.

Learn more: Read our full DreamHost review.

InMotion Hosting dedicated hosting packages give you a lot of bang for your buck. There aren’t a ton of add-ons, and the one that features prominently—cPanel access—turns your unmanaged server into a managed server for minimal cost while saving you a lot of time and money. It’s an option worth considering as you shop for your dedicated hosting provider.

Features

By default, InMotion’s dedicated hosting services are unmanaged, which would mean someone on your team would need to manage them. However, you can add a control panel to your package to secure managed services and lower the bar for your own team’s tech skills. That’s the only add-on, though.

Everything else, from the firewall to DDoS protection, from SSL certificates to backups, is included in the package price. If you purchase your domain through InMotion, you will have to pay an additional fee for WHOIS privacy protection, but you don’t have to get your domain and hosting through the same company. One feature that is notably missing from InMotion’s dedicated hosting plans is an uptime guarantee.

Pricing

InMotion provides a lot of value for the cost. Its smallest package costs just $35.00 per month, and gives you 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD of disk space and 10GB of storage for backups. The largest package is just $$249.99 per month and provides 128GB of RAM, a total of 8TB SSD for disk space and 500GB for your backup storage. If you want to take your plan from unmanaged to managed, it will run you another $5 per month—or another $39.99 per month if you want access to cPanel specifically.

Even if you go for the full cPanel managed package, the most expensive plan would only be $309.98 per month total. That’s less than half the price charged by DreamHost, while offering automatic backups and over four times the disk space.

Customer Service

At InMotion, technical support is available 24/7. The method you can use to get in touch depends on your plan, though. Everyone gets live chat and ticket support, but if you want to reach technicians by phone, that requires a plan with at least 64GB of RAM. The fact that there’s phone support at all for technical issues is better than alternatives such as Hostwinds, but other companies such as GreenGeeks provide phone support regardless of plan size.

Reputation

InMotion has a fairly middle-of-the-road reputation. It’s not known for being the fastest or even the cheapest across all of its products (though it gets pretty close with managed dedicated servers). But customers do appreciate how prices tend to stay pretty stable without skyrocketing at renewal. Experiences with customer service are mixed, with some feeling elated about their experiences and others disappointed.

Learn more: Read our full InMotion review.

With IONOS, you’ll shop for your individual server, customizing it to your own needs. Most of these servers are unmanaged, which means a competent, in-house tech team who can handle installation and management is needed. While there is sometimes help available through IONOS, it’s help you’re going to have to pay extra for in most cases.

Features

IONOS dedicated servers include a firewall, but if you want help configuring it, you will have to pay extra for the assistance. Depending on the server you select, you may be able to purchase backup storage. Regardless of which server you pick, you will be able to use a Wildcard SSL certificate. If you purchase your domain with IONOS, too, you’ll get free WHOIS privacy protection. However, IONOS does not guarantee 100% DDoS protection.

Pricing

Pricing for your IONOS dedicated server will vary depending on the individual server. You’ll pay by usage per minute, up to a maximum monthly amount. Currently, the amount for AMD servers varies from $70 per month to $425 per month maximum, but figures are subject to change. The current maximum monthly amount for Intel servers ranges from $100 per month to $385 per month. You may have the opportunity to purchase add-ons, such as cloud storage, specific operating systems or installation of software including firewalls.

You may find a great deal using IONOS, but you should always account for those add-ons. This is a better product for businesses that have an adept tech team. While you can purchase some assistance from IONOS and its partners, these servers are primarily self-managed.

Customer Service

IONOS customer support is available 24/7 by phone only. This is different from most other companies that offer full live chat or email support but may be scant on opportunities to talk on the phone. When you call in, be prepared for a sales pitch. While there are some things support may be able to help you with, a lot of the technical services for dedicated servers in particular will require an additional quote.

Reputation

IONOS is known as a reputable business, but you are likely to endure more than your fair share of upsell attempts. Its packages are more à la carte than other providers, and that leaves a lot of customers feeling confused or upset when it comes to billing issues.

Learn more: Read our full IONOS review.

Mochahost can be a great company to work with, especially if you’re a smaller business who doesn’t have massive data and storage needs. The company has excellent customer service, but the extent to which it will be able to help you will be a bit limited if you opt for a truly dedicated server.

Features

If you want a traditional dedicated server, know that Mochahost’s Linux and Windows options are unmanaged. While there are managed “dedicated servers” with Mochahost, the managed option is actually a VPS server. This means your data will be treated as dedicated, but you’ll technically share a physical server with other customers as your data is duplicated and split up over different locations.

The unmanaged option comes with limited features. Security measures such as firewall and DDoS protection aren’t off-limits, but you will have to set them up on your own. You’re really just paying for the dedicated physical space, which means advanced programming skills are necessary to make this affordable option work for your company.

Pricing

Because most of the work is going to fall on you, Mochahost’s unmanaged dedicated server options are extremely affordable. The least expensive plan is $35 per month for a Linux server which has 4GB of memory and 80GB NVMe for storage. The most expensive plan is $265 per month for a Windows server with 32GB of memory and 640GB NVMe for storage. While these plans are affordable, the storage and memory capacities are limited. Plus, remember that you have to build and set everything up on your own.

Customer Service

While Mochahost does have 24/7 customer support, there won’t be a whole lot the team can do for you with an unmanaged server. For the issues they will be able to help you with, you can initiate the conversation through live chat, by submitting a ticket or by picking up the phone. This is a great array of options, but the benefit is limited due to the smaller scope of issues the support team can actually address.

Reputation

Mochahost has an excellent reputation, with customers thrilled across a plethora of data points. Generally, the pricing is viewed as more than fair, the customer support is excellent and uptimes and speeds tend to exceed expectations. Bear in mind that with a true dedicated server, the customer service team won’t be able to provide quite as much assistance, but you’re still likely to encounter friendly representatives.

Learn more: Read our full Mochahost review.

Liquid Web is an option that provides you with a lot of flexibility, whether you want a managed or unmanaged server. You get to shop for your individual server specifications, though it is one of the few companies that caps bandwidth on its managed servers in particular. The company has historically had a strong customer service reputation, though that has been slipping a bit over the past couple of years.

Features

Liquid Web provides both managed and unmanaged dedicated servers. The company has a 100% uptime guarantee, but its service policy doesn’t specify if it will compensate you should the service fall short of 100%. All hosting packages come with a free SSL certificate, and all dedicated servers come with DDoS protection.

Most Liquid Web dedicated servers include automatic backups, but this will vary depending on the individual server. Managed servers come with either 10TB or 15TB of bandwidth.

Pricing

Liquid Web is a bit like IONOS in that you get to pick the individual server your company will use. The price of each server is unique, but you can expect to pay more for managed servers and less for unmanaged servers. Unmanaged servers tend to start around $75, and managed servers currently cost up to $542 per month—though you can find managed options as low as $199 per month. Price differences tend to be dictated by both operating system and storage capacities.

Customer Service

Liquid Web’s customer service team is available 24/7 through whichever channel best serves you, whether that’s phone, live chat or by submitting a ticket. There actually are support opportunities for self-managed servers, which is a big deal, though the team will be able to help you with more if you’re paying for a managed server. This is probably the best customer service setup of all the providers we evaluated.

Reputation

Liquid Web has a strong reputation historically—particularly for its customer support. Those experiences have started to become mixed over the past couple of years. The company isn’t known for being the rock-bottom cheapest option, but the quality of its services generally makes up for the sometimes larger price tags in customers’ eyes.

GoDaddy is a household name when it comes to all things websites. Surprisingly, it doesn’t actually offer true dedicated server hosting. Instead, you can get VPS hosting, which does partition your data off as if you had a dedicated server, but it will still be on the same physical server as other businesses. One pro to VPS server hosting is that your data will be stored in duplicates across multiple servers, which can improve load times and potentially reduce the odds of losing your website’s data should one server fail.

Features

GoDaddy VPS servers come with DDoS protection, a free SSL certificate and automatic backups. The company does offer an uptime guarantee of 99.9%. As long as it owns any disruptions in service as its own fault and doesn’t assign them to your own error, you can typically claim 5% of your plan costs for the month as a credit.

However, the credit won’t be cash. You can only spend the 5% credit on future GoDaddy purchases. But it is more of a guarantee than you’ll get from some competitors such as Bluehost and HostGator, who don’t explicitly promise any compensation.

Pricing

If you opt for a self-managed server, the fee starts at just $16.99 per month for a Linux VPS server with 2GB of RAM. There is an additional fee of $19.99 per month for cPanel access, but you will have to handle all of the server management yourself in-house.

If you want GoDaddy to manage things for you, the most expensive managed VPS hosting plan runs on Windows and costs $553.99 per month. This package comes with 128GB of RAM, but it’s difficult to make value comparisons to other providers, as GoDaddy does not offer physical dedicated server hosting at this time.

Customer Service

GoDaddy customer support is available 24/7 by live chat and phone. This puts it on par with other service providers such as HostGator and Mochahost.

Reputation

GoDaddy is one of the biggest service providers across domain purchasing, hosting and website building services. It’s known as a one-stop shop and isn’t necessarily known for being the cheapest, especially after any first-year promotions end. However, it is reliable, and while everyone’s experience will be different, especially with such a large company, its customer service does have a decent reputation.

Learn more: Read our full GoDaddy Hosting review.

Bluehost recently waded into the world of unmanaged dedicated hosting. Its pricing isn’t all that competitive considering your business will need its own team to manage the backend, and the company itself doesn’t have the best reputation compared to many of the other providers on our list. While it’s affordable enough to make the top 10, you may want to consider other options.

Features

Bluehost’s dedicated hosting options provide self-managed servers only, though there is guidance for the initial setup. All dedicated servers come with DDoS protection and an SSL certificate. You’ll also have cPanel access without having to pay for any add-ons, which will allow you to schedule, enable or disable auto backups.

Regardless of which plan you choose, you’ll have unlimited bandwidth. While there is an uptime guarantee, Bluehost doesn’t get specific about how much of a refund you’re entitled to should uptimes fall short.

Pricing

Bluehost’s plans are a little pricey for self-managed servers. You’ll pay $206.47 per month for 32GB of RAM and 1TB of NVMe storage. The most expensive plan will run you $429.11 per month and comes with 128GB of RAM and 3TB of NVMe storage. Every plan comes with one free domain, but if you want WHOIS privacy protection on that domain, expect to pay an additional $15 per year.

Domain purchases typically don’t cost a ton of money—especially for the first year. While it’s nice that Bluehost offers them in the package, it’s not the biggest value-add. If you’re going to manage your own server, you can often find a bigger bang for your buck with a company such as IONOS depending on the available servers at the time you shop.

Customer Service

Bluehost provides customer service 24/7 by both phone and live chat. It’s important to keep in mind that with an unmanaged server, many of the services you inquire about could come with an extra bill, if they’re available at all. Ideally, if you choose this product your business will have an in-house tech team to handle any issues that may pop up on your own. If you want more robust help, you may want to consider managed servers through providers such as InMotion Hosting or Hostwinds.

Reputation

Historically, Bluehost has a somewhat spotty reputation. Technical issues on shared hosting plans aren’t uncommon, and getting them resolved often leaves customers frustrated. Pricing is also less than transparent, with conflicting numbers listed on different parts of the site for different products. Dedicated hosting is a relatively new product for the company. The fact that they’re self-managed may be to your advantage in this instance, as most security and technical issues will fall on your team rather than on Bluehost.

Learn more: Read our full Bluehost review.

HostGator provides some of the best value plans for managed dedicated servers, but in a way where you get what you pay for. You will have to initiate a lot of the “managed” aspects by contacting customer support, and the company does have a reputation for experiencing somewhat frequent technical errors.

Features

HostGator dedicated servers have DDoS protection and allow you to either manually backup your data or schedule automatic backups. Servers are managed, you have the choice between Windows and Linux and you have the option to add cPanel if you want full, easy access for your team. While servers are fully managed, you’ll still need to reach out to customer support to initiate many updates, as they won’t necessarily happen automatically.

There is a firewall you can enable, and an SSL certificate is included for free. All dedicated hosting plans come with unmetered bandwidth. While HostGator says it has an uptime guarantee, it does not lay out any specific paths to compensation should you experience a blip in service.

Pricing

HostGator provides a decent value for managed dedicated server hosting, though you will have to put in a little effort by actively asking them for these managed services—they won’t happen automatically. The most affordable plan—Value without cPanel—costs $214.99 per month whether it’s a Linux server or a Windows server. It comes with 32GB of memory and 1TB of NVMe storage. The most expensive option is a Linux server on an Enterprise plan with cPanel access. That costs $331.99 per month and gives you 128GB of RAM and 3TB of NVMe storage.

Again, this is a good value for managed dedicated hosting, but if you want more of a hands-off experience, you might decide it’s worth paying more for a service such as Hostwinds.

Customer Service

HostGator provides live customer support 24/7 by phone and chat. Most people don’t want to reach out to customer service by email, preferring phone or chat, but if you’re the exception to the norm, it is good to note that only these two options are available for dedicated servers. If email is key for you, look to an alternative such as DreamHost.

Reputation

HostGator’s reputation is only slightly better than Bluehost’s. Technical issues aren’t uncommon, and users report mixed results when pursuing a resolution through customer support. While some customers have an excellent experience, others never truly get their problems resolved. The company has been around for a long time, but over the past few years in particular these issues appear to have gotten worse.

Learn more: Read our full HostGator review.

GreenGeeks provides a solution for business owners who may be worried about how their data usage affects the planet. Powered by 100% renewable energy, its dedicated servers are managed and affordable, though they are a bit lackluster when it comes to storage and memory capacities.

Features

GreenGeeks dedicated servers are managed with DDoS protection and a firewall included. While the company does have an uptime guarantee, it does not make any explicit promises as far as compensation goes should you ever have a negative experience in that regard. While your purchase will include a free SSL certificate, because you’re a business, you’re likely required to purchase a Premium SSL certificate separately by getting in touch with customer support.

One thing you will have to manage on your own is backups. Plan to secure separate storage for your backups, as GreenGeeks does not allow you storage space for these purposes. A unique aspect of GreenGeeks’ services is that your dedicated server will be powered by 100% renewable energy. This is a big deal, as servers do tend to consume a lot of energy.

Pricing

GreenGeeks’ pricing looks attractive, especially for a managed service. However, along with the small starting price tag, you get smaller storage capacities. The cheapest plan is $169 per month but only gives you 2GB of memory and 500GB of SATA storage.

The most expensive plan only doubles the storage, which may not be enough for some companies, as the starting limit is so low. If you opt for the $439 per month Pro Server plan, though, you will get 16GB of RAM. Again, this number isn’t overly impressive. HostGator provides you with much more for less money.

Customer Service

There are a couple of different options for getting in touch with customer support, but they all come with different hours. Live chat is available 24/7. If you want to get in touch by phone, you can reach out between the hours of 9 a.m. and 12 a.m. ET seven days per week. You also have the option to reach out by email or ticket submission, and the company claims you’ll hear back within 15 to 20 minutes on average.

Unless you have a middle-of-the-night emergency that can only be handled by phone, these options are adequate, and it is nice that phone access isn’t tiered like it is with a company such as InMotion Hosting.

Reputation

Customers give GreenGeeks good marks for customer service and reliability but don’t love the value for the money. There are also somewhat frequent reports of customers having a hard time leaving the company and ending their billing arrangements à la Amazon’s Project Iliad scheme.

Learn more: Read our full GreenGeeks review.