Liquid Web offers both Linux-based and Windows-based servers in a wide range of plans, with shared, VPS, dedicated, and cloud-based options. Founded in 1997, this Michigan-based hosting company has grown steadily and was included in Inc. 5000’s list of fastest growing companies eight years in a row, from 2007 to 2014. Read our LiquidWeb review below
OverviewLiquid Web does offer shared hosting, but they are clearly aimed at the Dedicated, VPS, and Managed hosting market. For the features provided by the pricing offered, Liquid Web is one of the most attractive options available for enterprise-level businesses.
Individuals are just starting, or someone wants a personal blog, may find Liquid Web pricey compared to the alternatives. However, for those that find reliability, security, and outstanding support is a must, Liquid Web is one of the best.
With 4 shared plans, 10 VPS plans, and 6 dedicated server plans – plus customized plans – Liquid Web offers scalability to grow as your business needs grow.
Storage on Liquid Web plans is SSD-based for faster response and reliability. For gigantic sites, an option for load balancers to spread traffic across multiple servers is available for a monthly fee.
Most Liquid Web plans offer a free domain name, with the Professional and Semi-Dedicated shared hosting plans offering five free domain names and dedicated IPs. Shared plans offer cPanel, unlimited email accounts, SSH, and nightly backups.
VPS plans are easily upgraded or downgraded, and offer unlimited incoming bandwidth and 5 TB of outgoing bandwidth; RAID protected SSD storage and daily billing – which means you only pay for what you use.
Dedicated plans are available in Linux or Windows, and have single, dual, or quad processor server options.
Implemented in late 2015, managed WordPress hosting on Liquid Web has quickly become a top option for WordPress business owners. There are six different Managed WordPress plans starting at up to 10 sites to up to 200 sites, and providing 100 GB to 1 TB of SSD storage.
With fully managed VPS with unlimited visitors, multisite support, included SSL, 24/7 support, and automatic backups, Liquid Web has the plan to suit your needs.
With the free migration of your WordPress site from other hosts and one-click WordPress installation, setting up on Liquid Web is as easy as it gets.
Liquid Web also has reseller options where you handle the billing to your clients; solutions partner options where Liquid Web handles the billing, and you get a monthly commission; and a referral program with better than average one-time commissions.
Liquid Web specifically mentions HIPPA compliance hosting on their website. With secure data centers monitored 24/7/365, Cisco Firewalls, backup power, thoroughly vetted employees, physically locked cabinets, and continuous backup to an off-site location, Liquid Web has two separate configurations, single server, and multiple servers, to meet the most stringent HIPAA requirements.
Liquid Web offers a standard 30-day Money-back guarantee – minus any costs associated with add-on products or domain registrations. The free domain registration is only for hosting on Liquid Web. You will not be refunded that fee, but you will be able to keep the domain name.
Liquid Web has won numerous awards in the past for customer service and Managed hosting. Though it is possible to find negative reviews from customers, it is rare, and overall the company gets very high marks from customers. Another way to judge performance is on the client list.
Liquid Web is trusted as the hosting solution for MTV, Ducati, FedEx, BOSE, American Airlines, National Geographic, and many more big-name companies.
With its prices, Liquid Web won’t be confused with a budget level hosting company, but they do offer competitive prices with premier level features. For those that can’t compromise on customer service, reliability, uptime, and security, Liquid Web is a hosting company to consider.
Key FeaturesWhat’s the gossip from the experts about LiquidWeb? IS their customer service truly “heroic” as it purports to be? All signs point to yes. LiquidWeb gets an excellent wrap from the experts with a solid 4+ stars out of five across the board.
Here are the key takeaways from expert opinions:
The experts agree that LiquidWeb is a fantastic hosting solution for businesses that can afford it. With excellent customer service and uptime, alongside their top quality VPS option, LiquidWeb hosting rises to the top of their reviews.
The chitter chatter among customers of LiquidWeb appears to be mostly very positive: customers put a great deal of trust in the services that they provide, and most importantly they can rely on them. Here’s some of the top comments from users:
Although there are mainly positive reviews from customers about LiquidWeb’s services, here are some of the points that were aggravating a few people.
Reliability & UptimeFor VPS and managed hosting plans, Liquid Web guarantees 100% network and power uptime, or you are credited ten times the downtime or power outage time. For dedicated servers, if faulty hardware needs to be replaced, the repair will be done within 30 minutes, or you will be credited ten times the amount of the extra time.
Liquid Web has three wholly owned and on-site staffed data centers in Michigan, and a similar data center in Phoenix, Arizona, which gives them redundancy for reliable service and disaster recovery. Servers are monitored 24/7 by on-site staff to stay on top of issues, and fix problems as quickly as possible. The data centers have reinforced concrete walls, and power and AC are redundant with UPS and diesel backups. Liquid Web offers video tours on their website of the data centers.
Customers may backup manually from the control panel the plan provides. Managed servers are backed up nightly. Liquid Web has what it calls the “Guardian Backup,” which provides continuous backup to an off-site location for an additional monthly fee.
Features & Tools Let’s look closer at the helpful features and tools Just Host provides.
| Feature | Overview |
|---|---|
| Control Panel | The popular cPanel is provided for most of the plans, and Plesk is available for the Windows dedicated server plans. WordPress Multisite support comes with all the managed WordPress plans, so your WordPress sites can be managed from one dashboard. |
| Disk Space | It varies, depending on the plan and type of hosting.
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| Bandwidth | For shared hosting, the bandwidth varies from 240 GB to 640 GB. Managed WordPress plans to allow for unlimited visitors. For dedicated servers and VPS hosting, the bandwidth is unlimited for incoming and 5 TB for outbound bandwidth per month. |
| Database Support | Liquid Web supports (depending on the plan) Percona, MySQL, Microsoft SQL, Cassandra, Hadoop, and ScaleArc. |
| Free Domain | Shared hosting comes with 2 to 5 free domain names, depending on the plan chosen. All but the smallest VPS plan provides one free domain registration. |
| Multiple Domains | Multiple domains are permitted. Managed WordPress hosting allows up to 10 sites at the lowest plan to up to 200 sites with the Enterprise plan. |
| Data Backups | Liquid Web offers its Guardian Backup, which does continuous off-site backup for an additional monthly fee. User-created manual backups are possible through the control panel, and Managed WordPress plans have automatic backups. |
| One-Click App Installer | Softaculous and Fantastico one-click installation apps are available. |
| Email Accounts | Liquid Web provides unlimited email accounts. |
| Hosting Security | Liquid Web provides SSH and a shared SSL free (for one year on most plans). Data centers are monitored with on-staff 24/7. For self-managed plans, email alerts are sent. For Core and Fully Managed plans, alerts are automatically responded to within 10 minutes. There are HIPPA compliant options that you can arrange with Liquid Web. DDoS protection is provided for an additional monthly fee. |
| Malware and Spam Protection | Firewall protection and basic spam and anti-virus free are on all accounts through ServerSecure. Extra security measures and server hardening is available in ServerSecurePLUS for an additional monthly fee. For extra email protection, MailSecure, advanced spam and malware protection suite, is available for an additional $1 per domain. |
| Shopping Carts | Liquid Web supports some popular shopping carts, including Agora, Cube Cart, Zen Cart, and more. You can import and install shopping carts from vendors that may not be available through Softaculous or Fantastico. |
| Programming Languages Support | Liquid Web supports the conventional programming languages, including PHP, Perl, Python, Javascript, C++, and Ruby. |
| Site Statistics | AWStats and Webalizer are two common tracking tools, and they are provided via CPanel. Other tracking tools such as Google Analytics can be installed on sites as well. |
| Additional Features and Tools | For $10 a month, Nessus Scanner scans up to 10 IPs for vulnerabilities and malware and issues reports. Liquid Web partners with Akamai to provide CDN at a monthly price based on bandwidth. Storm VPS plans offer VPN options for an additional fee. |
Plans & Pricing Hosting pricing often changes through promotions and competition. Pricing listed here is based on what is on the Liquid Web website at the time of this article.
Liquid Web provides Shared hosting though that is not their primary focus. The plans are relatively limited and are priced higher than many shared plans from other hosting companies. That said, there are four shared hosting plans from Liquid Web.
The Standard offers 5 GB SSD storage, 240 GB of Bandwidth, and two free domain names for $14.95 per month.
The Webmaster provides 20 GB SSD storage, 400 GB bandwidth, and three free domain names for $19.95 per month.
The Professional includes a dedicated IP, 40 GB SSD storage, 640 GB bandwidth, and five free domain names for $24.95 per month.
The Semi-Dedicated plan offers 40 GB SSD storage, 640 GB bandwidth, dedicated IP, and five free domain names for $40 per month.
Added just last year, managed WordPress is a new addition to the Liquid Web lineup. There are six managed WordPress plans. All of the plans provide unlimited visitors and free SSL. The differences are in the amount of SSD storage (100 GB to 1 TB) and the number of sites permitted.
In addition, to Managed WordPress hosting, Liquid Web’s primary focus is on managed hosting through dedicated servers and VPS plans. For those needing dedicated servers, there are some configurable options.
Choose from single 4-core starting at $199 per month, single-6 core starting at $289 per month, dual 6-core starting at $349 per month, dual 10-core starting at $540 per month, dual 12-core starting at $899 per month, or dual 14-core starting at $1099 per month.
You have the options to configure more RAM, more storage, Guardian Backup, Operating System, bandwidth, and more, for added fees from the starting price.
There are 10 VPS plans available that differ based on RAM and storage. The starter plan is 1 GB of Ram and 50 GB of storage for $50 per month. The next nine plans provide free SSL and free domain registration and start at 2 GB of RAM and 100 GB of SSD storage for $79 per month, and go up to 512 GB of RAM and 1.8 TB of SSD storage for $2010 per month.
Cloud VPS and dedicated servers are available through the Storm platform and are priced by day, starting at $1.64 per day for VPS and $3.62 per day for dedicated servers.
Customer Support Liquid Web is justifiably proud of their customer service. They guarantee a 59-second initial response for phone calls, a 30-minute response to help desk emails, and a 59-second initial response to live chat. It is constantly monitored, and the monthly statistics are posted on the front page of the Liquid Web site.
They have a phone, email, and live chat available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Most customer reviews glow about the support received from the technicians. Support is on-site at all four U.S. data center locations.
You can contact Liquid Web by phone at 800-580-4885, or internationally at 1-517-322-0434. Email for support and billing, as well as live chat, is found on Liquid Web’s contact page. You can also use support@liquidweb.com.
The contact page also has the corporate address in Lansing, Michigan, as well as contact information for Media Relations. Liquid Web also provides an in-depth knowledge base to answer questions and provide tutorials. There is also a blog that looks to be posted to regularly.
Ease of Use Liquid Web’s focus is on making it as easy as possible for you. They excel at managed hosting, which means you focus on the core of your business and let the technical side of things be handled by the over 400 Liquid Web employees. One-click installation through Fantastico and Softaculous make adding applications a breeze.
Conclusion There are certainly cheaper hosting options available. However, few hosts offer the degree of Managed hosting and features that Liquid Web does at their price point. Liquid Web is geared to the business owner needing security, reliability, and scalability at a reasonable price. Bargain hunters should look elsewhere.
Most customers felt that the stellar support, competent staff, wholly-owned and managed data centers, and 100% guaranteed uptime are worth the extra dollars.
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