Last Update | January 2022
Monthly Update - January 2022
| Hosting Plans | VPS Hosting |
| Top Features | High Availability and Minimal Latency; Solid 100 Gbps Network Capacity; Branded HP ProLiant Hardware; 99.98% Uptime Guarantee; Windows and Linux OS Distribution Compatibility; cPanel/WHM, Plesk, And DirectAdmin Control Panel Licenses; TIER III Data Center; 24/7 Network & Hardware Maintenance, Security, And Data Backups; Beneficial Reseller Program; Additional Services (Spam Filter, SSL Certificate, VPN); Full Root Access on All Servers; 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee |
| Customer Support | Live Chat; Ticketing System; Knowledge Base |
During January, Time4VPS:
- Had issues with SpamExperts SPAM Filter malfunction.
When it comes to fast, cheap, and reliable European web hosting providers, I cannot help but mention Time4VPS.
It has gathered massive popularity after Miss Group acquired it in November. Now, it’s part of the association with Miss Hosting, Miss Domain, NameISP, StableHost, FS Data, Hemsida24, Heymo, and 4UKHOST.
Time4VPS is a Lithuanian company with over 15 years of experience in the niche and 100,000 clients across the continent. So, today, I am here to test it all out!
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First things first, who is Time4VPS? Time4VPS combines affordable and scalable options with enterprise-level technology. In turn, it providers its customers with internet address registration, web hosting, and VPS services.
But it wasn’t only quality and price that got Time4VPS where it is today. The provider also used the potential of referrals and affiliates, expanding its audience in a fast and intelligent manner. Over the years, Time4VPS partnered with Cloudflare and Plesk, received Tier III Certificate, along with the Great Uptime award, and Excellent service award from HostAdvice.
To top it all off, Time4VPS provides round-the-clock support. Its team consists of experienced, friendly, and energetic professionals with a solid technical background. Or at least that’s what they claim. Let’s check whether it’s true.
Getting Started with Time4VPS
I sure have to admit; I immediately liked this one. Instead of a cold approach, you are in for a warm welcome with Time4VPS. When you visit their site, the first thing you’ll see is its team with nothing but smiley faces.
The site is available in two languages – English and German. So, if you prefer the latter, you can immediately change it by clicking the flag right above the logo.
Time4VPS immediately displays its products, Linux VPS, Windows VPS, Container VPS, and Storage VPS.
You see, all plans come at a discount. But keep in mind, the deal is valid only for the first invoice, and it is not reoccurring. So, these prices will increase at renewal. The only way to benefit from the deals longer is to choose a more extended billing period the first time you buy.
If you scroll a bit down, you can also find the undeniable benefits of being a Time4VPS user. But more on that later.
Today, I will go for the Windows VPS plan. Time4VPS offers eight different plans, all of which are available on a monthly and annual basis. More precisely, you can find Windows 2, Windows 4, Windows 8, Windows 16, Windows 24, Windows 32, Windows 48, and Windows 64.
One thing I liked at this point is that the provider specifies the renewal prices at the bottom of each plan, demonstrating transparency.
All Windows VPS plans feature an Intel® Xeon® Gold 6132 CPU, DDR4-2666 ECC REG RAM, and RAID-protected SSD. Furthermore, they all come with daily or weekly backups (optional). So, a customer can benefit from a top-ranking technology even at the most basic level (at the lowest price).
With a Time4VPS Windows plan, the maximum you can reach is 16 x 2.6 GHz CPU, 64 GB RAM, 640 GB Storage, 128 TB Bandwidth, and optional Backups. In other words, this is what the Windows 64 has to offer.
However, I can settle for less and go for the Windows 2 plan. Well, much less. It comes with a 1 x 2.6 GHz CPU, 2 GB RAM, 40 GB Storage, 4 TB Bandwidth, and optional Backups.
Usually, longer-term plans come with much more significant discounts. Dedicating to the longer-term always pays out for the clients. However, at the time of my purchase, the monthly plans were at 50% off as well. So, it was more or less the same.
Once you click on ‘Order,’ you will get further specifications on the plan of your choice.
Here, you can do product configurations. More precisely, you can choose the billing cycle – monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually, or biennially. Also, you can add components, such as daily or weekly backups, 5x Faster SSD storage, or 1 Gbps port speed at a price.
Time4VPS also offers Plesk Web Pro License and Additional IP as available add-ons. The Plesk Web Pro License can support up to 30 accounts and has the same billing cycles as the plans. The additional IP, in turn, is a one-time purchase.
I skipped on all extra spendings and went for the most basic option. With the 2021 promo code, my purchase became even cheaper. Way to go, Time4VPS!
The next thing you will see is the Order Summary. Here, you can review your product, the applied discount, the subtotal or total amount you should pay.
Time4VPS offers several payment options, which is not that usual with other providers. You can choose between Credit Card, PayPal, PayPal Billing Agreement, Alipay, Bitcoins and Altcoins, WebMoney/Bank Transfer.
In Client Information, you can choose between Personal or Organization for the account type. Then, enter all required information, possibly subscribe for news and updates, or enable two-factor authentication.
At last, do the image verification, and you’ll be good to go. You can proceed to Checkout.
I have to say, the registration with Time4VPS sure is a pleasant experience. Everything is straightforward, fast, and easy.
As you can see, the final step to fully activate your account is using the code you have received in the email named ‘Your account needs activation.’ And that’s precisely what I did.
Time4VPS immediately transferred me to the Client Area. Let’s see what it has to provide.
Setting Things up at Time4VPS
Welcome to Time4VPS Client Area. Immediately upon registration or logging in, if you have an account, you will see the following screen. You can place a new order, visit the Client Area, or ask for support.
If you click on Place New Order, Time4VPS will take you to the following screen. Here, you can find all the available products. Apart from VPS hosting, you can get a VPN, Licences, Spam Filter, SSL Certificates, or DNS.
In Licences, you can find cPanel Admin, cPanel Pro, cPanel Premier, cPanel Ultimate, Plesk Web Admin, Plesk Web Pro, Plesk Web Host, and BitNinja.
I will leave the rest of the add ons for the Security section below.
Now, if you click on the Client Area, Time4VPS will redirect you to the Dashboard.
You can find all your active services, invoices, support, account balance, and referral bonus amounts here.
As you can spot, I have two active services, Windows VPS and DNS (which I added for free). To review what Time4VPS has to offer, I will Manage the first.
In the Menu, you can find:
- Service Details
- Login Details
- Connect via RDP
- Reset Password
- Change Hostname
- Reinstall OS
- SSH Key Management
- Init Script Management
- Server Reboot
- Reset Firewall
- Change DNS Servers
- Server Usage Graphs
- Usage History
- Emergency Console
- Change Billing Cycle
- Service Auto-Renewal
- Manual Service Renew
- Write Review
- Add Additional IP
- Add Plesk Web Pro License
- Upgrade
- Request Cancellation
First, Service Details is divided into Management, Billing, and Add-ons.
In Management, you can find all specifications regarding the product/service of choice.
If you scroll a bit down, you can also access your RAM and Bandwidth usage, aka how much you have left ‘to spend.’
In Billing, you can assess the Domain, Label, Status, Registration Date, First Payment Amount, Recurring Amount, Next Due Date, and Billing Cycle. As for the add-ons, it’s pretty straightforward, so I will not cover them.
Login Details consist of Username, Password, and IP Address.
Yet another interesting section is the Usage History, portraying your Download, Upload, Total Bandwidth, Disk Quota, and Inode Quota stats.
The rest of the tabs, as lister earlier, are primarily one-click options. For instance, if you click on Server Reboot, Time4VPS will display the following message.
And that’s all about it!
However, I noticed one thing worthy of mention. See, when I clicked on Upgrades, I understood that I cannot downgrade my plan.
However, you can always Request Cancellation, being the last tab within the Menu.
Invoices, being the fourth tab in the Main Menu, displays your Paid, Unpaid, and Credit Notes.
Then, in Account, you can find Edit Details, Change password, Manage contacts, Security, Credit Card, Add Funds, Overview, and Settings.
In Security, you can add an allowed IP range, which is one superior feature.
I will leave the Support for the appropriate section. So, what’s left is the Referrals, Status Updates, and User API.
Time4VPS Referral program is pretty simple, paying you 50% of the order for every person you refer to them. All you need to do is register for an account if you don’t already have one. Then, log into the Clients Portal, click on the referral tab to get their banners or your unique URL to send to your friends and family.
Time4VPS will automatically add your earnings to your Time4VPS account by default. In turn, you can use these resources for future services.
Time4VPS transparently states its malfunctions. For instance, at the moment of writing this review, I got the following message within the Status Updates.
Finally, here’s the User API. Time4VPS offers bash, PHP, and python.
Performance, Speed, and Uptime
Time4VPS’s network provides 24/7 network monitoring, 100 Gbps network capacity, SLA 99.98%, clean IP addresses, and an on-board NOC team.
It’s one of the providers that understands the importance of having your network up and running at all times. For this exact reason, Time4VPS deploys fast and reliable optical connections to all European network exchange spots to deliver amazing speed and stable connectivity for your workloads. More precisely, you can reach almost all of Europe in less than 50 ms.
Better yet, you can track Time4VPS’ network performance with its useful Looking Glass feature.
As OpenVZ virtualization runs multiple virtual machines on a single server, it uses resources efficiently for better performance.
Level of Support at Time4VPS
Time4VPS offers a Knowledgebase, Ticketing System, and a Live Chat.
The Knowledgebase is especially useful, as it’s comprehensive. You can find Instructions for standard billing procedures, common pre-sale questions and answers, guides and information for Time4VPS resellers, details for the referral program, security and abuse-related questions, useful articles regarding SpamExperts spam filter, guides for using our Virtual Private Network service, and VPS management guides.
You can search the Base, find the Latest Articles, or browse by Category.
The ‘Open New Support Request’ option is within the Support section in the Main Menu.
Once you click on it, a window will open in the bottom right corner. It looks like this. Time4VPS specifies its usual reply time as under five minutes. Let’s check whether it’s true.
The live chat agent responded in a few seconds. I am amazed. Here’s how the conversation went.
So, Time4VPS offers a 30 days money-back guarantee. While you can get a refund for the VPS plan and the VPN add-on, the licenses (Plesk, cPanel, and DirectAdmin) and third-party services (SSL, BitNinja, and SPAM Filter) are not eligible for a refund.
It’s like this with most hosting providers. That’s why I go for the base plans in testing. Now, as I am eligible for a refund, I asked the live chat agent how to get one. She further asked me in what form would I like to get the money – on my credit card or as funds in the Time4VPS balance. I went for the first option.
The live chat agent immediately took care of my request. She was still typing when I received a notification on my phone app that my money was refunded. However, keep in mind, the process might take up to three business days.
The agent offered further assistance, but we ended our conversation as I didn’t need additional guidance. At last, I got to leave Justina feedback. Of course, all I had to say are pleasant words. This is how customer support should work – fast, efficient, super helpful, and friendly!
Security and Backups
Time4VPS is pretty serious when it comes to its clients’ privacy and security.
First, you can enable 2-Factor Authentication, or 2FA, which adds an extra layer of security. Then, each time you log in, you will need to enter your username and password along with a piece of information. Essentially, you will have it on hand or immediately get it, something like a physical token. In turn, it will be more challenging for potential intruders to gain access and steal your personal data.
The RAID-enabled storage array stores your data on multiple disks, meaning you can enjoy improved protection against data loss.
While Time4VPS doesn’t offer any DDoS-protected VPS, they have developed a protocol to handle this type of service abuse.
Here are the steps Time4VPS specifies as part of the protocol within their Knowledge Base.
Essentially, the provider aims to provide top-quality services while avoiding network problems for other customers in their system.
Furthermore, Time4VPS uses a firewall that filters traffic and blocks malicious IP addresses from accessing their servers. In turn, it can ensure security and optimal hardware and software performance.
As mentioned earlier, Time4VPS offers several valuable features at an additional fee.
While the provider doesn’t offer free SSLs, you sure can choose from a bunch of offers. More precisely, you can find PositiveSSL, PositiveSSL SAN, PositiveSSL Wildcard, GeoTrust TrueBusinessID, GeoTrust TrueBusinessID SAN, GeoTrust TrueBusinessID Wildcard, GeoTrust TrueBusinessID EV, and GeoTrust TrueBusinessID EV SAN, in price ascending order.
At the minimum level, you will get SSL security-protected transactions, encryption, fast online issuance, dedicated customer support with a $10,000 warranty.
The most expensive certificate, in turn, provides maximum security and trust, extended organization validation, multi-domain, and 256-bit encryption.
However, the SSL certificates imply a bit of dedication, as all of them are available exclusively on an annual basis.
Next, the SpamExperts SPAM filter can secure your inbox from spam, and malicious mail, as it detects new spam and malware threats daily. You can get this feature for a month, quarter, half a year, a year, or two.
Furthermore, you can get a Secure VPN. more precisely, Time4VPS offers four different VPN plans, 1 TB, 2 TB, 4 TB, and Unlimited. What I like (once again) is the provider’s transparency and standard of quality. The bandwidth and number of supported devices vary from one plan to another. However, all plans come with AES-256 encryption.
At last, there is the DNS Manager, which Time4VPS gives out for free to all users. You just need to add it to your basket.
Not to forget the BitNinja I mentioned before. It provides for unlimited hosted users, real-time IP reputation, honeypots, WAF, log analysis, DoSdetection, malware detection, and full feature-set.
Time4VPS doesn’t provide free backups. However, you can choose to add daily or weekly backups to any plan for an additional fee. The provider backs up an entire VM image as one file. In other words, each new backup overwrites the old one. It’s not incremental. They store the backups for two weeks but don’t perform them on Sundays, only Monday to Saturday.
Time4VPS manages the backups and restoration process, whereas the backup restoration service is, once again, a paid add-on. So, if you want to create your backup, the best possible solution is to order Storage VPS and create a CRON task to backup your data periodically.
Specific Features of Time4VPS
Time4VPS is a superior VPS hosting provider, and they seem to be aware of it. You can find the undeniable benefits of being their user on the home page, including:
- Dedicated Resources On-Demand (Storage and RAM)
- Smooth Upgrades or Downgrades Without System Delays
- High Availability and Minimal Latency
- Solid 100 Gbps Network Capacity
- Enterprise-Class, Branded HP ProLiant Hardware
- 99.98% Uptime Guarantee
- Windows and Linux OS Distribution Compatibility
- cPanel/WHM, Plesk, And DirectAdmin Control Panel Licenses
- Uptime Institute Certified TIER III Data Center
- 24/7 Network & Hardware Maintenance, Security, And Data Backups
- Beneficial Reseller Program Without Upfront Capital
- Additional Services (Spam Filter, SSL Certificate, VPN)
- Full Root Access on All Servers
- 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
Still, Time4VPS’s best quality is its data center, being the most modern in the Baltic region. Located in the geographic midpoint of Europe, the capital of Lithuania, Vilnius, it currently houses 140 server racks at the site. As the Time4VPS data center is set up according to the TIER III level, the provider can offer 99.98% availability.
Monthly Updates
During December, Time4VPS:
- Didn’t report any server issues.
During November, Time4VPS:
- Performed an electrical network maintenance
- Had two malfunctions with node n10-b13-lt1
- Was declared by HostAdvice as top 10 VPS Hosting
During October, Time4VPS:
- Experienced issues with its nodes (servers were temporarily inaccessible)
During September, Time4VPS:
- Released Debian 11 - Available on Linux VPS and Container VPS
- Had an urgent reboot (servers running on the node were unavailable for a few minutes)
During August, Time4VPS:
- Announced a new security partner - BitNinja
- 33% off on the BitNinja server security (using promo code SECURITY)
- Performed routine maintenance and had a brief node malfunction
Summary
All things considered, Time4VPS is a superior VPS services provider. It uses state-of-the-art hardware that gives you minimal downtime and speedy load times. More precisely, you can find eight Linux VPS plans, eight Windows VPS plans, eight Container VPS plans, and eight Storage VPS plans, all of which are highly customizable.
As a client, you can benefit from many quality add-ons, such as daily or weekly backups, licenses (Plesk, cPanel, and DirectAdmin), and third-party services (SSL, BitNinja, and SPAM Filter). However, the downside is that all of it comes at an extra price. In other words, Time4VPS doesn’t provide for many freebies, which is usually true with other providers.
Still, Time4VPS is a subsidiary of Interneto Vizija, one of Europe’s oldest and most reliable web hosts. So, they are all about standards and quality. Regardless of the plan you choose, you will benefit from top-notch technology. Furthermore, the provider is incredibly transparent, which is yet another quality worthy of mention.
Time4VPS managed to amaze me with its customer support team. They are super-friendly, responsive, and knowledgeable. I also tested their refund policy. So, you can rest assured, if you are not satisfied with the service, you will get your money back in no time, without any hesitation.
Finally, Time4VPS is remarkable in terms of performance, uptime, speed, and reliability. However, if you are looking for shared or dedicated hosting, it cannot serve you, so you might as well look elsewhere.
