Drupal is an out of the box, open source content management system and framework that allows the creation of high-end websites.

Among the most popular content management systems, Drupal requires the most expertise and knowledge, yet it is capable of producing the most advanced websites. It’s much more flexible than any other content management platform.

It is a developer friendly platform not a user friendly platform. But it is easier to use with each new release. Even those who have limited programming skills can learn to use it, but it will naturally serve as a more powerful tool in the hands of a web-developer.

Drupal has a very powerful taxonomy that allows you to tag, organize and categorize complex content according to your preference. It lets you create a flexible content architecture through the Admin interface or through code. You can make sure that only content appropriate for the context will be displayed. You can easily connect sources of content, marketing technology tools and application functionality. It also provides developers with a framework and the tools necessary for building a top notch website.

With Drupal, you can create personal or corporate websites, forums, e-commerce sites, portals, social networking sites and almost any kind of website you can imagine. There are hundreds of plugins that enhance Drupal’s capabilities in terms of scalability, stability, functionality and aesthetics as well.

It’s best to use Drupal for more complex, and advanced websites that have to deal with a lot of content, but it’s great for creating simple websites as well.

Drupal might not be a beginner friendly CMS, but if you keen to use a powerful system, you can learn Drupal in just a few days. Learning a programming language is another story, but starting out with Drupal does not require much time.

How to Choose Hosting for Drupal?

Hosting Drupal is very similar to hosting any other CMS or website, although it is important to mention that it can have more excessive requirements.

Required specs for hosting Drupal:

A full database access.

A command line access.

PHP 7 is required for it to run much faster.

MySQL 5.5.3

SQLLite 3.7.11

PostgreSQL 9.1.2

MariaDB 5.5.20

But you can skip looking through all the technical specs if a host simply states that it has full support for Drupal. It’s evident that they have the technical requirements for doing so.

While most web hosts support Drupal, you still have the task of finding one that works best for the website you have in mind. It has to fit your budget well and has to be a host that outperforms the competition in the most perceivable way.

Two of the most important technical factors to look after are website loading speeds (measured in milliseconds) and the host’s uptime (measured in percentages). In order for your website to load in less than 2 seconds, it’s best if you look for a host that has at least a 700ms loading speed. Although if you find one that better fits your budget, yet has a bit slower (like 800-900ms) loading speed, it won’t cause much of a problem. But if you’re running an e-commerce website, keep in mind that even a 1s delay in website loading speed has proven to decrease conversion rates by one percent.

A server’s uptime shouldn’t go below 99% so be sure you can check that on your list as well. Be sure that your perspective host has a good customer service and has positive testimonials for users who have been with them for a long time.

There are a fix number of websites, MySQL databases and email addresses you get with each hosting plan, so be sure that those fit your requirements as well. Some hosts won’t let you fall short of any of these, so they offer unlimited everything!

Also, see if the storage space and bandwidth they offer is truly unlimited as well, since it’s natural that they impose some limitations in order to stop someone’s website from eating up all the shared server’s resources.

The more free services they offer the better. You want web hosting service that fits your budget perfectly, so find a host that is generous in its offerings. You can get your hands on some great deals and discounts if you have your eyes open.

Some hosts offer a free domain name and a free website migration if you have a website that is already hosted somewhere else.

Finally, look after your perspective hosting plan in detail, since some low commercial prices are only attainable if you sign a 3 year contract and they will go up if you choose a 12 month plan.

Best VPS Hosting Plans For Drupal

1. HostGator

HostGator is one of the biggest names among commercial web hosting companies. It has been around for 15 years and has 9 million registered domain names and millions of satisfied customers. They are known for being trustworthy with a helpful customer service, but have also received a few bad testimonials as well. But who hasn’t?

Adding to their trustworthiness is the fact that they’re partnered with two huge companies, Cisco and Linux. Few web-hosts can say that they have any sort of relationship with other big companies.

They provide all the software and the support necessary for you to host a Drupal website on their servers.

Websites hosted on HostGator’s servers load within an average 800 millisecond timeframe and they have very reliable uptimes. Websites are up 99.90% of the year. Most users are satisfied with the customer service they’ve received. You can reach a representative within 30 minutes most of the time and be on your way to having a question answered or an issue resolved.

HostGator makes their plans more compelling by offering a free site migration, automated malware removal and an easy to use website building platform. Their server’s control panel is also very user friendly and is one of the best for those with less technical experience.

HostGator’s Virtual Private Server packages start at $19.95 per month. If you have high volumes of traffic that a website has to handle and other more extensive requirements, you’ll have to use one of these packages.

Their basic VPS plan, the Snappy 2000 offers 120GB of storage space, a bandwidth of 1.5TB and 2GB of RAM, for the price of $19.95/mo.

Their second package, the Snappy 4000 offers more power, more storage and bandwidth as well. It costs $119.95 per month and provides 4GB of RAM, a 2TB bandwidth and 165GB of storage space.

Their most powerful package, the Snappy 8000 provides 8GB of RAM, a 3TB bandwidth and 240GB of storage space. It costs $149.95 per month, with the possibility to cut some serious corners and get it for $39.95 per month by signing up for a 36 month period. Most of HostGator’s plans can be bought at a discount if you sign up for longer periods of time.

HostGator has managed to become a household name for a reason. They provide solid, reliable services but have a few shortcomings here and there. It’s worth testing their services within the 30-day money back guarantee period.

2. InMotion Hosting

InMotion is currently one of the best in the field, as they are very straightforward and aim to outgun their competition in every aspect. They even state that they’re here to “be better than the competition” and thus far, they have managed to do that. Their services are 40% better than most of the competition, offering high speed and reliability to all their users.

A website hosted on InMotion’s servers load within 550ms, which is incredibly fast, considering that most hosts take 700-1000ms to load sites. They are also rock solid in terms of reliability as well. As measured, their uptimes are 100% almost the entire year, while occasionally dropping down to 99.95%. I don’t think anyone would mind that. What makes their service even more powerful is that they store all their data on SSD drives, which are able to read data 20x faster.

InMotion also works hard to bring you the best possible customer support, that’s always ready to handle the task at hand. You won’t have to wait more than 20 minutes to get a response from them and start resolving the issue at hand.

Just about everything about InMotion is very compelling, as it even got very positive reviews on other websites as well. The only downside is that they don’t offer backups for websites that exceed 10GB.

While most websites are less than 100MB, this would be a problem only for a few huge sites. But if your website is below that mark, you’ll get free backups, which is something that most hosting companies charge a hefty fee for.

InMotion keeps their price tag in check as well. They offer their first, very solid virtual private server plan, for $29.99 per month. This gives you some top-notch specs, such as 8GB RAM, 4TB bandwidth, unlimited websites, emails, domains, MySQL and 200GB of storage space.

Their second VPS plan costs $34.99 per month, providing 150GB of storage space, an 5TB bandwidth, 6GB RAM, and 4 IP addresses. Their final and most powerful plan boasts 8GB of ram, 260GB disk space, a 6TB bandwidth and 5 IP Addresses.

It’s ideal for hosting Drupal and any kind of website you’ve set forth to build.

3. BlueHost

BlueHost offers a lot of nice discounts and powerful support for Drupal, which makes its hosting service worthy of consideration. It is WordPress.org’s recommended hosting service and offers a very compelling deal for both WordPress users and fans of many websites out there. So you can easily get your hands on a $2.95/month hosting service and enjoy this cost effective solution.

BlueHost offers the horsepower necessary for running a Drupal based website. They also provide a lot of security tools such as Spam Experts and Spam Assassin and CloudFlare to prevent any troublesome DDoS attacks from crashing your website.

They’re pretty reliable with a solid uptime of 99.99% and 99.85% that was measured within a one year period. If you’re loading a “light” website, loading speeds will be pretty decent. If you have a more excessive website, it might load a bit slower since BlueHost’s servers have a 1000ms loading time.

If you want to run an online store, where user satisfaction is one of the key aspects of making a sale, then you’ll want to find a host with better loading speeds. Otherwise, 1000ms are perfectly fine if you’re not a speed fanatic.

BlueHost’s customer service is friendly and takes only about 30 minutes to respond when you have something to ask or some issue to resolve. Their website also holds a huge FAQ database and a lot of written content to help their users with learning and controlling their server. You can also look through their YouTube channel, which offers a lot of information on hosting and marketing technology.

The Standard VPS plan costs $19.99, providing you with one domain name, 1 IP Address, 2 cores, 30GB of SSD storage space, 2GB of RAM and unlimited bandwidth.

Their Enhanced VPS plan costs $29.99, providing you with 60GB of SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth, 4GB of RAM and 4 Cores and 2 IP addresses.

The Premium plan costs $44.99, providing 3 cores, 90 GB of SSD storage space, 6 GB of RAM, Unlimited bandwidth, 1 included domain and 2 IP addresses.

Finally, the Ultimate plan is the best on the list, providing 4 Cores, 120 GB of SSD storage, 8GB RAM, unlimited bandwidth, 1 domain name and 2 IP addresses.

4. InterServer

InterServer isn’t the most popular hosting company out there but that doesn’t mean that the service they’re offering isn’t top notch. It is a company that has been around for 18 years and has become well established in the industry, with a lot of satisfied clients. They have a lot of positive testimonials from their users all over the Internet.

The hardware they use and the services they provide are speedy and reliable. Websites hosted on InterServers’ machines take about 400ms-500ms to load. Server uptimes are 100% throughout the year and would only spike down to 99.99%. You can be absolutely sure that they have your back in every way.

InterServer’s customer support has also received a lot of praise since they’re very fast to respond, having no problems with resolving an issue.

What makes InterServer the most compelling hosting company in my opinion, is the fact that they aren’t greedy. They have very reasonable offers both for their shared plans and their VPS plans. They even offer discounts if you set up a contract for a longer period.

Other hosting companies use smoke and mirror pricing in their advertisements, only to let users find out that they can only get that low cost service if they sign a contract for 3 years. So I’m giving a big plus to InterServer for being absolutely straight forward and transparent in their pricing.

What makes them the best on this list, without any exaggeration, is that their VPS “slice” service starts at $6.00, providing one core, 1TB of bandwidth, 25GB of storage space and 1GB of RAM. While these aren’t many resources, their VPS plans include 16 levels. You can always add a slice and add more resources for +$6.00. For example, if you buy 2 slices for $12.00 per month, you get 1 core, 2GB of RAM 25GB storage and a 2TB of bandwidth.

InterServer provides an insanely good offer compared to other hosting companies, so it’s really worth checking them out and buying their service! You can always get your money back if you’re not satisfied for some odd reason.

5. GreenGeeks

The huge datacenters used by hosting companies take up an insane amount of energy and a lot of that goes to waste. GreenGeeks however doesn’t let that happen.

They are an environmentally-friendly web host. They do it by purchasing wind energy to power your website and thus support environment friendly energy production. They have been in business for 8 years now, and have replaced more than 600,000 kilowatts each year.

But Green Geeks are no activists; they put all that green energy to good use by providing an immensely powerful and reliable hosting service. They produce 99% uptimes and 100% customer satisfaction. Their page loading speeds have an average of 700miliseconds.

They also offer a free domain name that you can use. If you are not satisfied, you can ask for a refund within a 30 day period. When it comes to pricing, GreenGeeks follows the old pricing tricks and places a $3.96 price tag up front. While that’s a compelling offer, you’ll have to sign up for a three year period to use it. Otherwise, the price suddenly jumps up to $9.95.

Account activation is straightforward and you can install content management systems in a single click. Once you register and verify your order, you’ll have your very own VPS server ready within 60 seconds. If you’re unsatisfied with their service, you can always use the risk free money back guarantee that lasts for 30 days after registration.

GreenGeeks offer a Linux VPS hosting, which is fast, reliable and scalable. There are five different plans you can use and you’ll get a cPanel and a Web Host Manager with each of them. What makes their VPS service even better is that it is fully managed. You’ll have GreenGeeks full support in hosting and managing your website, which makes using their VPS server a piece of cake.

Their entry-level VPS plan provides 4 cores, 25GB of SSD RAID-10 storage, 1GB of RAM and costs $39.95/mo.

Their second plan provides 50 GB of SSD RAID-10 storage, 1500 GB of bandwidth, 2GB RAM and 4 CPU cores for $59.95/mo.

The third plan provides 75 GB of SSD RAID-10 storage, 2000 GB of bandwidth, 3GB RAM and 4 CPU cores for $79.95/mo.

The fourth plan provides 100 GB of SSD RAID-10 storage, 2500 GB of bandwidth, 4 GB of RAM and 4 CPU cores for $99.95/mo.

The fifth and most powerful plan 125 GB of SSD RAID-10 storage, 3000 GB of bandwidth, 8GB of RAM and 4 CPU cores for $159.95/mo.

Why Choose Drupal for Your Website?

There are many great CMS software out there. Why you should choose Drupal for developing your website or building a web design business on it? Well, there are many reasons you can go with Drupal:

Drupal is Open Source and free to use

It has a great community to help you out with all your questions related to the CMS

Drupal is powerful, highly customizable and flexible

Drupal is ideal for building complex and high traffic websites

Drupal has lots of modules and ready-made themes you can use from start

Conclusion

Now you know which are the best web hosting providers for Drupal and also know why you should start using this great CMS.