Network Solutions is a long-running domain registrar and web services company that added self-managed VPS hosting to a lineup already covering domains, websites, and email. I put their AMD EPYC-based NVMe VPS plans through real provisioning, benchmarking, and support testing to see whether the infrastructure lives up to the “full root access” pitch once you’re actually running something on it.

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This is a good fit for developers who are comfortable self-diagnosing and want raw, well-performing infrastructure at a fair price.

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Network Solutions VPS Pros and Cons

Tip: Switch the billing toggle to monthly before you add anything to your cart, the page defaults to the two-year rate. And if you need a firm technical answer, search the knowledge base directly rather than relying on live chat alone.

Rating Breakdown

To score Network Solutions, I applied our hosting review methodology, the same structured approach used across every review on this site, so results stay consistent and grounded in real testing rather than marketing copy. Here’s where things stand so far.

VPS Hosting Plans with Network Solutions

This is a good fit for developers who are comfortable self-diagnosing and want raw, well-performing infrastructure at a fair price.

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Network Solutions Prices & Plans

Every VPS tier here scales the same three things together: vCPU count, RAM, and NVMe storage, from a light NVMe 2 plan up to an NVMe 16 built for heavier database or AI workloads. All tiers include unmetered bandwidth, a dedicated IP, and DDoS protection as standard, not an add-on.

There’s no free trial. Refunds are handled through a general no-refund policy rather than an advertised money-back guarantee, and that distinction matters:

• New product purchases can be considered for a refund if you contact support within 3 days, but the product is removed from your account once refunded
• Automatic renewals can be refunded if you reach out within 30 days, with the term rolled back to its previous status
• SSL certificates are non-refundable once issued
• Premium domains are non-refundable under any circumstances
• Every request outside these categories is reviewed case by case, with no guarantee either way

Payment is accepted via credit or debit card, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and PayPal. Billing terms run Monthly, 1 Year, 2 Years, and 3 Years, and the page defaults to the 2 Year rate with a 55% savings banner attached, which is the number you’ll see first regardless of what you actually intend to commit to.

Tip: Because refunds here are discretionary rather than guaranteed, test your plan seriously within the first 3 days if you’re on the fence. Waiting past that window means you’re relying entirely on support’s judgment, not a written guarantee.

Features

• AMD EPYC processors with NVMe storage
• Unmetered bandwidth, no overage charges
• Full root access via SSH
• Built-in DDoS protection on every plan
• Dedicated IP address included by default
• One-click cPanel, LEMP, LAMP, WordPress installs
• 99.99% uptime guarantee across data centers
• OpenClaw and Magento template support
• Custom software installs, no platform restrictions

VPS Hosting Plans with Network Solutions

This is a good fit for developers who are comfortable self-diagnosing and want raw, well-performing infrastructure at a fair price.

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Performance

Pricing and clean checkout pages only tell you so much. What actually matters once you’re running something on a VPS is whether the CPU, memory, disk, and network hold up under real use, and whether the resources you paid for are actually the resources you get.

To find out, I ran the same benchmark suite I use across every VPS review: sysbench for CPU and memory, fio for disk I/O, the Ookla Speedtest CLI for network throughput, and stress-ng for a sustained load test. Here’s exactly what I was testing on:

• Plan: Standard VPS – NVMe 2
• CPU: 1 vCPU (AMD EPYC 9J45 platform)
• RAM: 2 GB
• Storage: 50 GB NVMe
• OS: Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS, kernel 6.8.0-124-generic
• Data center: USA, Virginia

One detail from the system info is worth flagging before the numbers: the reported BIOS model came back as an emulated “RHEL 7.6.0 PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996)” string.

That’s a standard QEMU default, not an actual two-decade-old motherboard, and it confirms this is a genuine KVM-virtualized instance rather than a container dressed up as a VPS. Minor detail, but it matches what Network Solutions advertises.

1. CPU Performance

I ran the sysbench CPU test with a prime number limit of 20,000, once single-threaded and once at the plan’s full thread count.

Both runs came back nearly identical, and that’s expected rather than a red flag: this plan only allocates a single vCPU, so there’s no second thread to push in the “multi-thread” pass.

The host CPU is listed as an AMD EPYC 9J45, but readers should treat that as the physical platform underneath the VPS, not a reflection of what this specific plan gives you.

You’re getting one core’s worth of that chip, and the numbers here reflect single-core throughput on a modern EPYC part, which is solid for a base tier plan.

2. Memory Speed

Using a 1KiB block size against a 10GB total transfer, sequential memory operations came back at:

• Write: 6,961.25 MiB/sec

• Read: 8,077.69 MiB/sec

Both numbers are fast for a 2GB plan, and latency stayed at effectively 0ms on both passes. For a small VPS like this one, that headroom matters more than it might seem: it means caching layers, session stores, or any lightweight in-memory work won’t be the bottleneck, even though the RAM allocation itself is modest.

3. Disk I/O

I ran a sequential write, a sequential read, and a mixed random 4K read/write test using fio.

These are excellent numbers for an entry-level VPS plan, sequential throughput in particular is well ahead of what I’d expect from network-attached storage, and points to actual local NVMe rather than a shared storage backend with a fast cache layer sitting in front of it.

The random 4K figures back that up: 60K+ IOPS in both directions is the kind of result that makes a real difference for database workloads or anything doing a lot of small, scattered reads and writes.

4. Network Speed

This is the one result I wanted a second data point on before trusting it.

Both runs came back within about 100 Mbps of each other, against two different test server operators, with zero packet loss on both passes. That consistency is what turns this from a number I’d flag as suspicious into one I’m comfortable reporting as real.

A near 10Gbps result in both directions is well outside what I’d expect from a base tier VPS on a typical shared network port, and the ISP field on both runs read “Oracle Cloud,” which tells you this instance is running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure behind the scenes.

That’s a useful detail for anyone curious about who actually operates the hardware, and it likely explains the throughput: traffic to a nearby Ashburn test server is probably staying inside Oracle’s own network fabric for most of the path rather than crossing onto the open internet the way a test to a farther away or differently peered location would.

Readers outside the US East region should expect real-world throughput to their own location to land well under these figures, since distance and transit hops outside Oracle’s network will apply in a way they don’t here.

5. Stress Test

I ran three separate stress-ng passes at 180 seconds each: CPU, memory (vm), and disk (hdd).

All three passes ran the full three minutes without a single failure, and stress-ng didn’t flag any of the metrics as untrustworthy, which is its way of telling you the results weren’t skewed by throttling or resource contention.

The CPU worker count matches the single vCPU on this plan exactly, which is a good sign that the resource limits shown at checkout are what’s actually being enforced, not oversold.

VPS Hosting Plans with Network Solutions

This is a good fit for developers who are comfortable self-diagnosing and want raw, well-performing infrastructure at a fair price.

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Ease of Use

Signing up for a VPS is usually the first real test of a hosting provider, long before a single benchmark runs.

For this section, I walked through the process as a new customer would: finding the VPS product on Network Solutions’ site, picking a plan, configuring the server, checking out, and then managing the instance once it landed in my account. Here’s how each part actually felt.

1. Registration

Network Solutions sells domains, websites, email, security, marketing tools, and hosting all under one roof, so the VPS product isn’t the headline act on the site.

I found it under the Hosting menu, listed below WordPress and above Hermes Agent Hosting and DevOps & APM. If you already know you want “Self Managed VPS Hosting,” it’s a two-click path from the homepage. If you’re just browsing hosting options, you could just as easily land on shared or WordPress hosting first.

The VPS landing page itself is short and focused: one hero pitching root access, NVMe storage, and DDoS protection, a Compare plans button, and a Trustpilot badge showing a 4.3 out of 5 rating from over 15,000 reviews. I didn’t have to scroll past a wall of feature graphics to get to the plans.

Plan selection covers four tiers, each scaling vCPU, RAM, and storage together.

One catch: every price on that page is the two-year rate with a 55% discount already applied. That’s the number that grabs your attention, and it isn’t what you’ll pay on a monthly term. That distinction only becomes clear once you reach the configuration page.

I picked NVMe 2 (1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 50 GB NVMe) to match the plan I’d be benchmarking. The configuration page puts hardware, software, and add-ons on a single screen, with a live order summary updating on the right as you go.

Choosing an OS opens a short description with a version dropdown (I went with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS) instead of dropping you into a bare list of version numbers, a small touch that removes guesswork for anyone unsure which release to pick.

A billing cycle toggle (Monthly, 1 Year, 2 Years, 3 Years) sits above the order summary, and it defaulted to 2 Years when the page loaded. Switching terms updates the price and the “Due today” total instantly, but if you’re moving quickly, it’s easy to add a two year commitment to your cart without deciding to.

Tip: Check the billing cycle toggle before you add to cart. It defaults to the longest term, not the shortest.

The cart itself lays out the numbers plainly: subtotal, total savings, tax, and today’s total, plus the renewal price shown up front rather than buried in a later email. One thing I’d flag: a marketing opt-in checkbox (“Yes, I want to hear more about how Network Solutions can help me grow my business”) arrived pre-checked. Uncheck it if you don’t want the extra emails.

One thing worth flagging about account creation: it isn’t a separate page you’re sent to before you even see pricing. It lives inside the checkout page itself. If you already have an account, you’re simply logged in and move straight to billing information. If you’re new, registration happens at that same point, above the billing fields, so you still create your account first, it just happens as a step within checkout rather than a standalone signup screen earlier in the process.

For a returning customer that’s fast. For a first-time buyer, it’s a slightly different order than you might expect, so don’t be surprised to see a registration form appear partway through rather than at the very start.

Payment options cover credit or debit card, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and PayPal. Prepaid and virtual cards are explicitly rejected, which matters if that’s your usual way to pay online.

Once I submitted payment, the charge went through immediately, a confirmation email arrived within moments, and I was taken straight into the customer panel with the server already provisioning in the background. No waiting screen, no “check back later” message.

Registration was quick, and the checkout page itself was clean and transparent about cost. But it asks you to get two things right, term length and account timing, in places that are easy to miss if you’re moving fast. Give both a second look before you confirm.

2. Dashboard

Landing in the dashboard for the first time, the first thing I noticed is that it isn’t built around the VPS at all. It’s Network Solutions’ general customer panel, covering domains, websites, commerce, professional email, marketing, hosting, social, security, and WordPress from one sidebar. My new server doesn’t get a dedicated home screen here. It’s one line item inside a much wider product suite.

The home screen centers on the domain tied to my account, with a domain search box, social profile links, and directly beneath that, a row of upsell cards: bundle protection for related domain extensions, an “AI All-Access” pack bundling ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Grok for $20/month, and a second domain suggestion at 40% off.

None of it relates to the VPS I’d just bought, and I had to scroll past all of it before reaching anything server-related.

Further down, a “Finish Setup” checklist covers profile completion, domain auto-renewal review, domain locking, and publishing a website. Two of the four were already checked off. Again, this checklist is about the domain and website side of the account, not the server.

To actually reach my VPS, I had to click Hosting in the sidebar, which opens a Hosting Packages table listing every active hosting product on the account: a Premium Web Hosting-Unix plan and my Standard VPS – NVMe 2, each with a status badge, account reference, renewal date, and a Manage button. Clicking Manage on the VPS row is what finally gets you to server-level detail.

For anyone buying this purely for a VPS: expect a dashboard built for a full-service hosting company, not a server-specific control panel. That means a couple of extra clicks past unrelated upsells each time you log in, at least until you bookmark the direct hosting management page.

3. Hosting/Server Management

Once inside the VPS management page, the picture changes for the better. This is a clean, purpose-built server screen: a live status indicator confirming the server is online, and four large action buttons for Start, Reboot, Power Off, and Manage Console.

Below that sits a Server Information panel showing:

• Operating system
• IP address, with a one-click copy option
• Hostname
• Root password (masked, with a reset link)
• Data center location

Two details stood out. First, the hostname field carried a warning icon next to “Run Server Setup,” meaning the server doesn’t arrive with a hostname configured out of the box. That’s a step you have to run yourself. Second, the root password isn’t displayed by default. It’s masked, and retrieving it means clicking Reset rather than reading it straight off the page, a small but sensible security choice.

My server landed in the USA, Virginia data center. A Disk Usage widget tracked real numbers rather than a static allocation figure, mine showed 1 GB used of 50 GB, about 2%. A Quick Links panel promises “quick access to essential tools and add-ons,” but on my account it read “No Quick Links Available.”

That empty panel is a fair summary of what this product actually is: a self-managed VPS. There’s no bundled control panel, no one-click app installer, and no pre-configured extras waiting for you. What you’re buying is root access and raw compute, and the management page reflects that instead of dressing it up as something more turnkey.

For anyone coming from managed or shared hosting with cPanel built in, that’s the biggest adjustment to expect. You get power controls and a console. Configuring the hostname, installing software, and setting up backups are all on you from here.

VPS Hosting Plans with Network Solutions

This is a good fit for developers who are comfortable self-diagnosing and want raw, well-performing infrastructure at a fair price.

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Level of Support

Network Solutions keeps support simple on paper: a live chat widget available from inside the dashboard, a knowledge base with an AI-powered search bar, and a phone line listed as available 24/7.

There’s no visible ticket system or dedicated email address for VPS issues on their own, so live chat is the main route for anything that needs a real answer. I tested it with the same kernel and custom module question from the Performance section, then spent time in the knowledge base separately to see how well it covers VPS topics on its own.

Live Chat

Getting into the chat is quick. From anywhere in the dashboard, clicking Help? in the top navigation opens a small menu with three options: Knowledge Base, the phone number, and Chat Support. Clicking Chat Support drops a widget into the corner of whatever page you’re on, so you don’t lose your place if you’re mid-task on a server page.

The AI’s answer

I opened with a real technical question: whether the kernel on the Standard VPS – NVMe 2 plan is fully under my control, and what the process looks like for loading a custom kernel module.

The AI response was organized and mostly accurate. It correctly separated the host and guest kernel, explained that modules need to be built or installed inside the VPS and matched to the running kernel, and gave a fair, plain-language warning that anything requiring host-level access simply won’t work on a self-managed VPS. It also offered to give exact install steps for my distribution if I asked.

What it didn’t do is commit to anything specific. Hedging words like “usually” and “in most cases” carried most of the answer, and it never addressed GRUB access or whether kernel selection is locked at the hypervisor level, the actual detail I was after.

It closed with a “Sources” label but no visible source link, and pivoted straight into “Would you like me to help you review the hosting plan details or discuss upgrade options?” A reasonable first answer, but not a complete one.

Getting to a human

I asked directly to speak with an agent. The AI asked for my first and last name, confirmed my email on file, and handed me off. From the point I asked for a human agent to the point one actually joined, I waited roughly fifteen minutes.

The agent, Scarlett, introduced herself as a “Business Consultant” rather than technical support, and that framing turned out to matter. Here’s how the conversation actually went:

To be fair to Scarlett, declining to guess at a technical detail she wasn’t sure of is the right instinct. The problem is what came after: rather than looping in someone who could confirm it, or offering to follow up once she’d checked, the conversation pivoted to selling a VPS I already owned.

The question that started this whole test, whether kernel selection is actually open on a self-managed plan, was never answered by either the AI or the human agent.

Once the chat closed, an automated message offered a 20% discount on a professional email address “since you’ve just contacted support,” followed by a satisfaction survey asking me to rate whether the representative was knowledgeable. Neither felt connected to what had actually happened in the conversation.

Knowledge Base

The knowledge base is built around the same AI search bar used in live chat, sitting above a set of featured guides (account setup, DNS management, email configuration, security products) and a long list of categorized links covering everything from domains to e-commerce to third-party server platforms.

Searching “VPS” surfaced a solid, on-topic set of suggestions before I’d even finished typing: an overview article, root password reset, rebooting a self-managed VPS, adding dedicated IPs, a VPS glossary, SSL certificate installation, and a purchase and configuration walkthrough.

That’s a fair amount of dedicated VPS coverage for a company whose main business is domains and website building.

I opened the SSL certificate article to check depth and accuracy. It’s well structured: a table of contents, a callout box confirming upfront that self-managed VPS hosting means full administrative responsibility (which lines up with what I found poking around the server management page myself), a numbered step sequence, a note explaining that exact CSR steps depend on your own control panel and OS, and a closing recap under “Key points to remember.”

It also correctly explained how dedicated IPs relate to SSL and where Premium Support’s limits are (it helps with basic setup, but it doesn’t generate a CSR or install a certificate for you). Every article carries a thumbs up or down feedback prompt at the end.

For a self-managed product where readers are expected to do the technical work themselves, this is the right kind of documentation: specific, honest about what’s DIY and what isn’t, and easy to scan.

VPS Hosting Plans with Network Solutions

This is a good fit for developers who are comfortable self-diagnosing and want raw, well-performing infrastructure at a fair price.

Visit Network Solutions

Conclusion: Do We Recommend Network Solutions VPS Hosting?

Yes, with a clear caveat about who it’s for. The hardware actually delivers: CPU, memory, and disk benchmarks came back strong for an entry tier, and the checkout and server management screens are some of the cleanest parts of the experience.

Where it loses points is everything around the server itself. The dashboard treats your VPS as an afterthought behind a busy, upsell-heavy domain and website hub, checkout defaults to the priciest term, and when I needed a real answer to a technical question, live support pivoted to sales instead of solving it. The knowledge base picked up some of that slack with solid, VPS-specific documentation.

This is a good fit for developers who are comfortable self-diagnosing and want raw, well-performing infrastructure at a fair price. It’s a weaker fit if you expect hand-holding, fast resolution on technical tickets, or a VPS-first account experience.

Network Solutions

4.0

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Rating based on expert review

• User Friendly
  4.6
• Support
  4.8
• Features
  4.7
• Reliability
  4.8
• Pricing
  4.7