For the last week or so, I’ve been looking for a Virtual Private Server (VPS) for use on some of my websites and personal web-development projects. My adventure began by doing a Google Search for “Windows VPS” and found dozens of different providers that had different features at different pricepoints. At first, I found it was very difficult to discern the quality of the host. After having sites on the web for several years, I’ve found that just because a web-host says they offer 99.9% up-time, doesn’t mean that it’s true, and just because the host says they’re reliable, helpful, and have great customer service definitely does not mean that it’s true.

I had been looking for a few days and looking at different solutions online, then eventually I found my self on a site called HostMonk that will take a look at your specific web-hosting needs and then come up with a list of providers, pricepoints and reviews for plans that meet your specifications. I searched for a Windows platform, for under $50.00 a month, offering at least 256 MB of “guaranteed” ram, and found 4-5 companies that had good products that would meet the wants that I had. I -almost- went with 1&1 because they offered free MySQL databases to go with your VPS, but then just before I ordered, I looked for reviews, and what I found wasn’t pretty.

At that point, I decided to go with the second choice, which was Solar VPS. They had a deal running where you could get an unmanaged Windows Server 03 VPS for $22.50 per month, and the reviews were all very positive. It’s half off of their retail price, so I’m very happy with what I’m going to get for the price. They give you 3 unique IP addresses, 384 MB guaranteed memory, 35 GB Storage and 300 GB bandwidth per month. The sales guy I chatted with said they should have it setup by the morning, so I’m looking forward to trying it out.

I’m going to use it for a few client sites that I have sticking around from my consulting days and use it for a few personal projects as well. I was hoping for a Windows Server 2008 VPS, but so far there aren’t a ton of options, so I might have to wait a year or so until I can find one I like.