Scalable Virtual Private Servers on SSD Storage
After you select the configure button, you can fiddle with your Canada VPS Hosting resources to get exactly the right amount of everything. Even better: you can also increase or decrease resources after the server is live without a reboot! Try doing that with a physical server (but really, please don't).
Aluminum
- 1 vCore
- 2GB Memory
- 1GB vSwap
- 10GB RAID SSD
- 5TB Monthly Transfer*
Copper
- 1 vCore
- 4GB Memory
- 2GB vSwap
- 25GB RAID SSD
- 5TB Monthly Transfer*
Silver
- 2 vCores
- 8GB Memory
- 4GB vSwap
- 50GB RAID SSD
- 5TB Monthly Transfer*
Gold
- 4 vCores
- 12GB Memory
- 6GB vSwap
- 100GB RAID SSD
- 5TB Monthly Transfer*
Diamond
- 8 vCores
- 16GB Memory
- 8GB vSwap
- 150GB RAID SSD
- 5TB Monthly Transfer*
*Bandwidth overage fees only apply if you exceed the default allotment by a considerable amount without notifying us, if you reach maximum bandwidth. Bursts of up to 1 TB / month over the included amount are not subject to additional fees. Please let us know if you expect to exceed the included amount and we'll make arrangements at a reasonable price. Each server comes with 1 IPv4 address.
VPS Hosting is... mini, dedicated server environments with full root access, within one large powerful server. This allows all the benefits of dedicated server hosting without the hefty price tag. Our virtual private servers are Linux-based OpenVZ 7 containers operating on Linux Kernel 3.10. Unlike your typical Virtual Machines, this type of virtualization optimizes memory and disk space by sharing resources (not dedicated server resources), like the kernel, with their hardware node. For performance reasons, no GUI is available by default; instead you get a root Linux shell.
Tech Basics
-
vCores or CPUs
vCores are the number of virtualized processing cores dedicated to your Canadian VPS. While they don't directly represent a physical hardware core, they do still define the ability to respond to queries simultaneously.
For example if two visitors request access to your homepage at the exact same time, a process can be loaded in each vCore to respond to the query simultaneously rather than responding to each request in sequence.
A single vCore with sequential responses are often just fine, as most requests are responded to in fractions of a second, however if your site requires more intensive processing time, then more vCores will be very useful.
-
Memory & Swap
At its simplest, the system memory defines roughly how quickly your server can respond to requests. Control panels often take up a good 200 - 500MB to operate effectively, then everything beyond that is usable to respond to visitor requests, like loading your homepage.
vSwap is used when your memory is exhausted. It gives you some overflow space to handle additional requests even if you run out of standard system memory.
-
Storage
Storage is the amount of space (think Megabytes, Gigabytes, etc) that your website takes up. HTML and PHP files are pretty small; but, if you decide to share your vacation photos on your website, you may find that storage goes pretty quickly! Helpful tip: Some programs on your computer, or tools for your website, can help minimize the amount of storage pictures use.
-
Monthly Transfer
Transfer is the total amount of data (Megabytes, Gigabytes, etc) which is sent to and from the server. So, if your website is 5 megabytes, and is downloaded 100 times, you've then used 500 megabytes of transfer.
Advanced
-
Variable Resources
Our new line of virtual servers provides pre-set resource chunks, but you can customize them as you see fit by increasing and decreasing individual resources like memory or storage! You can also change those values on the fly and have them automatically updated within just seconds of placing the order. Because of our choice of virtualization being OpenVZ, changes to disk storage or memory do not require a reboot to apply.
-
Billing Schedule
Although we don’t offer per-second billing like many cloud hosting providers, after years of feedback from actual VPS and Cloud hosting users, we've instead opted to implement a scalable pre-determined monthly pricing model. This means zero billing surprises where you're suddenly paying three times (or more) than you expected because of, say, a bunch of bots hitting the site. Instead, you might prefer to respond by blocking the bots and not incurring those additional fees.
-
Power & Performance
Just how much can these servers take? A mid-range VPS (2-4GB of RAM) that has been optimized for high performance (both the server and web app, like WordPress) can handle over 500,000 requests per day without breaking a sweat.
Keep in mind that if you haven't done any optimizations you might find that number considerably lower. Get in touch with us to find out how you can get more power out of your VPS!
-
Configuration & Uptime
Our bare metal is hosted in a datacentre just outside of Montreal. Each server is configured with SSD Parity RAID to ensure the integrity of your data.
Average annual uptime is 99.99%, with the .01% to accommodate for scheduled outages necessary for security patching and critical system upgrades.
-
Location
Our primary data centre for Canadian VPS Hosting is located in Beauharnois, Quebec (just outside of Montreal). Its physical placement provides the absolute best in network latency throughout North America and the Western coast of Europe.
The location provides inherent protection from natural disasters (they're virtually unheard of in the area) and guarantees bandwidth through multiple fibre lines dedicated to the datacentre in all four directions. Thanks to its proximity to a nearby electric dam, all energy consumed is green. And even better, energy consumption as a whole is minimized by using open air chassis designs and water-cooling.
The data centre has dedicated private vlans to three points in Europe (Paris, Central, and Western Europe) to avoid excessive hops for site visitors from just about anywhere across the globe.
It's this infrastructure matched with our powerful server optimizations which ensure that even customers in New Zealand find our services faster than their local hosting providers.
Common Uses For a VPS Server
A Canadian virtual server combined with Plesk Panel is our favourite choice for hosting WordPress sites of just about any kind while optimizing your delivery systems. Plesk automatically configures your server for nginx reverse-proxy high performance hosting!
Want to eke even more out of your server? Check out either our one-time Speed & Security optimization or our Hands-On Support (S&S optimizations included with HOS) to have us take care of additional application-specific optimizations.
A VPS is particularly recommended for WordPress if you're using plugins that provide highly dynamic functionality. Examples include WooCommerce with a global updating cart, LearnDash LMS, or a plugin that tracks site visitors within your WordPress database.
Host eCommerce platforms like Magento, WooCommerce, and osCommerce.
Use them on top of our favourite Plesk + Installatron stack for easy domain management, simple 1-click installation and powerful management of your choice of eCommerce web apps!
Want to eke even more out of your WooCommerce hosting server? Check out our Platinum management to have us take care of additional application-specific optimizations.
You've got nearly limitless options for email hosting services to install on your VPS! You could opt for Plesk to get basic IMAP/POP/SMTP alongside your website hosting, or go for an Exchange-like software stack, such as:
- MailCow
- Kolab
- Open-Xchange
Build your own cloud file storage service! Think Dropbox or OneDrive but instead of hosting your files somewhere completely unknown, you can install your own file management server software like ownCloud or NextCloud on your VPS, turning it into a easy to access file syncing powerhouse.
We like using Plesk + Installatron to handle installing, maintaining, and updating ownCloud, however you're also more than welcome to install it from command line if that's your jam.
Of course, if you prefer the old-school tools, you're also welcome to configure LDAP and NFS or CIFS shares.
Install and manage your choice of forum software. Options include:
- WordPress BuddyPress Forum
- phpBB
- SMF
- vBulletin
- Any forum software that runs on Linux!
Looking for a GUI to help you manage it? We recommend the combination of Plesk and Installatron!
Set up your own Minecraft server to get a persistent world that you and your friends can play in, regardless of who is (or isn’t) online.
Normally if your friend has a world and you want to play on it, your friend must be playing for you to join in that world. But with a server (or Microsoft’s paid “realms” service) you have a 24/7 persistent world to play on.
An LMS like LifterLMS or LearnDash for WordPress enhance your WordPress site by creating a highly dynamic environment for learning.
Because of the dynamic nature of learning management systems, frequent calls to PHP processes are necessary to power these sites. When you reach more than a few simultaneous users of your LMS, a VPS is recommended to provide the resources necessary to ensure a fast-running site for all users.
Reasons to Choose a VPS
Our shared hosting provides a limited chrooted shell that includes the most commonly used utilities. However sometimes that's not quite enough and some programming languages or frameworks require that you have root access to manage their systems. This is when you need VPS Hosting.
Plesk provides arguably the most amount of control possible in a shared hosting environment (complete control), however there are some things that are only available to admin users, like the ability to manually enter nginx directives.
If you require more control over your hosting environment than what a Plesk Customer or Reseller account offers, VPS Hosting is for you!
We take security seriously around here, making our shared hosting some of the best secured hosting options around. That said, no matter how much we do to secure a shared hosting environment, it's still an environment shared among multiple services, from websites to email accounts to node apps.
Hosting more than just your website on the server, makes every other website and service hosted on the server additional potential entry points; while we've got those locked down, we certainly can't pretend they don't exist.
Using our Canadian VPS Hosting means only the services you need or want are hosted on the server and the separation of services between VPSs is at a deeper (kernel) level, rather than access control (userland) level.
Our competitors regularly recommend upgrades to a VPS for reasons which are often out of your control, like a simple spike in traffic, or a bot hitting the site that they should be blocking anyway.
We, on the other hand, only recommend a VPS when your site actually needs it. Here's our rules of thumb:
- Dynamic Processing Uncached: If your site requires light dynamic processing (ex: a PHP process launched per request) on your busiest pages and you don't want to use caching, then you'll probably need a VPS Server somewhere around the 10K-20K visitors per day mark. Note that if you require heavier processing, the only way to know is to test it out -- that number of visitors could be much lower.
- Full Cached Website: If you use caching that works with our customized nginx ruleset, and your busiest pages don't bypass that caching, you should be able to reach as many as 100K visitors per day on shared hosting without needing a VPS. No other shared host offers this much traffic under cheap shared hosting.
Neat tech, huh?
Cloud Servers Without The Confusion
Do you find you need an engineering degree just to decipher the leading cloud server providers' 10 page tables with 8 different types of barely distinguishable compute and 4 types of storage? Don't worry! Our options are far more straightforward.
Hosting Resellers
These server slices are perfect for any hosting resellers looking for a dedicated hosting solution without the hefty price tag of a dedicated server.
Cloud Transition
If you’re looking to transition your in-office server to a dedicated environment, our VPS hosting is an excellent balance of affordability, scalability, and reliability.
App Server
Love dedicated web app hosting services, but hate the high price? Configure your environment however you want with OpenVZ containers.
VPS Hosting Add-Ons
New to server management, or just want a bit of added protection? Relax; we've got you covered.
Hands-On Support for Virtual Servers
Let us take care of the details so you can get back to business
Our hosting plans are all do-it-yourself (DIY). When you need a hand, we’ll provide guidance to help you fix issues yourself, but we won’t fix them for you. Adding Hands-On Support to your account changes our responses from “try this out” to “all fixed up! Here’s what we did to fix it…” You can rest easy knowing we’ve got you covered. If you prefer having only basic updates handled for you, you'll see options available during your order for simple update management as well.
starting at $49.99* / month
Select “Fully Managed” during your order, or if you already have a VPS with us, you can add Hands-On Support within your Websavers account by editing the VPS configuration.
*A one-time setup fee applies
Hands-On Support for Virtual Servers includes:
Virtual Servers are set up with a basic installation of the Linux flavour of your choice. With Hands-On Support for Virtual Servers we'll set it up to your needs and perform security hardening to keep your server safe.
Additional Options
You'll find these options available to select during your order.
Free Recovery From Backup
Want an extra level of data protection? With our automated backup system you'll benefit from daily full-server backups for 1 week, plus three weekly backups so you can reach back in time for data whenever you need it. While our disaster recovery backups should never replace your own off-site backups, these are the equivalent of the disaster recovery backups we perform on our own shared servers.
Security Hardening
Not sure how to make your VPS as secure as can be? Our security hardening add-on starts you off on the right foot with optimized firewall configurations (transport and application layer), automatic repeated failure banning, strong passwords, forced SSL, enhanced Spam protection, and full PCI compliance.
SiteMigrator Transfers
Transferring your website to Websavers? Let us take care of all the tricky business! Our SiteMigrator website transfer service includes the transfer of one complete website. Add more sites at $44.99 each and email accounts for $10.99 per mail account.
Security Layer Options
With a barebones VPS, the IP layer firewall, web application firewall, and login failure detection systems are up to you to configure. If you opt for the Imunify360 security layer, all of this is included! From Imunify's Port-based IP-layer firewall to their ModSecurity rules, to their cloud-based greylist.
Sold yet?
Now that you've read about it, get started by ordering your own Virtual Private Server today!