Media Temple Review 2016

Reliability & Uptime
9.3

Features & Tools
9.4

Plans & Pricing
9.1

Customer Support
9.2

Ease of Use
9.3

9.2

Media Temple

Media Temple is a Linux-based hosting company founded in 1998 and headquartered in Culver City, California. Media Temple now has over 125,000 customers in over 100 countries with over 1.5 million websites. They offer a variety of hosting options including shared, VPS, and dedicated. It was purchased by GoDaddy in 2013 but runs as a separate company. Media Temple is considered a pioneer of cloud technology and its clients range from the small to such giants as CBS, Adobe, and Samsung. Read our Media Temple review below.

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Pros

Good and Responsive Customer Support
Minimum Downtime
24/7 Customer Support
Easy to Use Control Panel

Cons

Slow WordPress Hosting

Overview

Website: www.mediatemple.net
Headquarters: Culver City, CA
Year Founded: 1998
Categories: Web Hosting
Services: Shared, VPS, Cloud, Dedicated, WordPress
Money-back Guarantee: NA

Media Temple was the first to spread a site over multiple servers for handling traffic more efficiently. Its Grid system has been adopted and adapted by other hosting providers, but Media Temple’s experience still makes it a leader in the field.

Media Temple is also known for the strength of its Managed hosting options. These two factors alone make it an excellent choice for large sites, sites with high visitor rates, and for customers who don’t want to go into the details of managing a site.

Every plan through Media Temple, even the shared Grid plans, provide high-performance hosting due to the use of SSDs and features such as FastCGI. Media Temple offers multiple Shared hosting plans, and VPS and Dedicated hosting with self-managed or fully managed options.

For the Grid and VPS plans, there are options to upgrade storage and bandwidth without going up to the next plan level. All these plans and upgrades provide great scalability as your needs grow. Their customer service is a high priority and support is provided 24/7. Media Temple supports resellers and affiliates.

Media Temple offers a standard 30-day money back guarantee on its Grid and VPS plans – minus any domain and add-on fees. A 7-day refund policy is in place for dedicated plans. There are contracts, so there are no fees for ending your term early.

Media Temple has been consistently rated as one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. and has won numerous awards for its premium hosting. In the last three years, Media Temple has won eight Stevie Awards for sales and customer service.

As with any hosting company, there will be dissatisfied clientele. However, the majority of the comments and reviews from Media Temple customers is positive.

There is a lot of competition in web hosting, and there are less expensive options than Media Temple. However, the features provided and the level of managed services on Media Temple make it an attractive choice – particularly for those who have periods of high traffic or have a need for cloud hosting.

Popular blogs, designers, and companies such as Nike, Under Armour, Red Bull, and more all use Media Temple.

Key Features

Automatic Core Updates
Clustered Architecture
30 day File Backup and Restore

Root Access
Auto-scaling Resources
ProDev API

Google Apps for Work
CloudTech Priority Care
SSL Certificates

Solid State Drives
TrueSpeed CDN
Setup Wizard

Experts on Media Temple

Web Hosting

Industry Experts Verdict on Media Temple

Web HostingMedia Temple rates moderately to highly with the experts. They believe that the platform has some pretty high powered capabilities and can offer people a solid, reliable service.

Here were their highlights of using Media Temple:

Very easy to use and get started with
Good knowledgebase, and Sidekick walkthroughs
Some powerful hosting options available for those that need them

What didn’t they like about Media Temple?

High prices for their plans
Intelligent customer service representatives
No Windows hosting options

For customers that were after a powerful solution for their hosting, they thought that Media Temple could be a hosting service to consider, however you would be better off to look at some other options first.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2478362,00.asp
http://hostauthority.org/media-temple/
https://www.comparakeet.com/best-vps-hosting/media-temple-review/

Media Temple Positive Reviews

Positive Consumer Reviews and Testimonials on Media Temple

The main complaint from customers of Media Temple seems to be that they don’t feel like they are getting a value for money service. Here is what the customers of Media Temple had to say about the platform:

Their service is expensive
Compared to the other hosting services, Media Temple is a pricier option.
Customer support is not at all timely
Customers had had experiences with poor customer support, insufficient waiting times, and queries marked resolved when they haven’t been.
Service went downhill after it was bought by GoDaddy
In the ongoing struggle to maintain optimum performance after being acquired by another company, it appears Media Temple has been suffering some hiccups.

Negative Reviews

Negative Consumer Reviews and Complaints on Media Temple

While customers seemed very happy with the service just a few years back, things have apparently taken a dive. What do the customers still like?

SSH access
For those wanting a secure option that many other web hosting platforms don’t offer.
Scalable options
When your service requirements grow you can easily upgrade the servers to maintain your speed and performance levels.
The platform is easy to use
The all-important “ease of use” is fulfilled here by Media Temple’s platform.

http://www.whoishostingthis.com/hosting-reviews/media-temple/#reviews
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2478362,00.asp

Reliability & Uptime

Media Temple guarantees 99.9% uptime reliability on its VPS plans, offering 20% back on monthly fees for every 20 minutes of downtime. There is no guarantee on the shared grid plans though few customers complain about downtime, and statistics indicate near 100% uptime over the past year.

Media Temple has two data centers – one in California, and one in Virginia. The centers are monitored for security 24/7. Fiber connections between the two centers provide reliability and redundancy.

There is on-site staff 24/7 to stay on top of issues and fix problems as quickly as possible. Redundant power supplies and backup generators are in both data centers.

The California data center has its water well for HVAC backup, so it is not dependent on city water supplies for continuous operation.

Features & Tools

Here is a more in-depth look at the features provided by Media Temple.

Feature	Overview
Control Panel	For its shared hosting, Media Temple has its own Grid-Service Control Panel that can be used to manage most everything related to your website. It has an uncluttered look, but it does take more clicks than other control panels to get to the actions you wish to perform.
Disk Space	It varies, depending on the plan and type of hosting. All disks are SSDs for faster performance. Shared – Pro 20 GB, Agency, and Agency + 100 GB VPS – Unmanaged plans range from 20 GB to 500 GB. Managed plans vary from 30 GB to 600 GB. Dedicated – 1 TB
Bandwidth	The bandwidth limits per month depend upon the plan selected. For shared hosting, Pro allows 1 TB, Agency and Agency + provide 5 TB of bandwidth. The dedicated plans provide 10 TB of bandwidth per month. VPS plans vary from 2 TB to 8 TB of bandwidth per month.
Database Support	Up to 100 MySQL databases are allowed on the shared plans. Media Temple uses what they call MySQL SmartPool, an SSD-based system which scales as needed to accommodate your database resources.
Domain Registrar	Media Temple does not provide any entirely free domains with plans. However, they do offer one year free with some plans. Media Temple is a domain registrar, so you may purchase a domain directly from them. They offer add-ons such as privacy and Google Apps for Work for additional fees.
Multiple Domains	Up to 100 domains are allowed on Media Temple shared hosting plans.
Data Backups	Backups are automatically done daily with a 30-day retention policy. For manual backup, Snapshot is provided to allow you to store backups locally. You will need to use FTP, SSH, or a third-party solution to make manual backups on the shared hosting plan.
One-Click App Installer	Media Temple does have one-click installations of many applications, including WordPress, Zen Cart, Drupal, and others.
Email Accounts	You can have 1,000 email accounts across your domains on the shared plans. VPS and dedicated plans have no limits. Media Temple also provides Google Apps for Work on shared accounts – the number of accounts varies with your plan. Pro has one, Agency and Agency + provide for five accounts.
Hosting Security	Media Temple uses SiteLock to monitor for and remove malicious code as soon as it is detected. They also monitor for protection against DDoS attacks. Their data centers are monitored around the clock by armed security. For e-commerce security, Media Temple has SSL certificates available for $75 per year (from GEOTrust), or you have the ability to add SSL certificates purchased from others.
Website Builder	Media Temple does not have any website builder tools with their plans. They do provide Virb support for $10 a month. Virb is a stand-alone website builder (not drag and drop, however) that would allow you to build a site and then point it to a Media Temple domain.
Malware and Spam Protection	As mentioned, SiteLock is used to monitor for malware. For email filtering, Media Temple provides SpamAssassin through the control panel.
Shopping Carts	Media Temple supports some popular shopping carts including Agora, Cube Cart, Zen Cart, and more through their one-click installer.
Programming Languages Support	Media Temple supports standard programming languages that run on Linux, including PHP, Perl, and Python.
Site Statistics	Media Temple’s control panel lets you monitor bandwidth and usage. Analytics are for your account as a complete-statistical data for individual domains is not available on the shared accounts. That is available in the VPS plans-making them more suitable for resellers.
Additional Features and Tools	Media Temple supports SSH, and for versioning, Git is supported. Global CDN is available for faster loading of static pages and graphics. For managed plans, CloudTech is offered, which provides on-call Certified sysadmins for an additional monthly fee. WordPress plans include staging, which is a way to clone your site for modifications without affecting the live site until you are ready to update.

Plans & Pricing

Overview
Shared Hosting
Wordpress Hosting
VPS Hosting
Dedicated Servers

As with most hosting companies, the prices for Media Temple will vary depending on the plan, whether it shared, VPS, or dedicated, and whether promotional pricing is in effect. For most of the plans, there are price advantages for longer term hosting.

The prices below reflect the regular monthly costs at the time of this review.

There are three Media Temple shared hosting plans – Pro, Agency, and Agency + (Plus).

Pro is the basic plan that allows up to 10 sites, has 20 GB of SSD storage, and 1 TB of bandwidth monthly for $30 per month.

The Agency and Agency + plans offer more in their packages, including more storage (100 GB each) and bandwidth (5 TB per month). They also provide the firewall and malware protection, and CDN services, for five sites – rather than just one site as in the Pro plan.

The difference between the Agency and Agency + plans is that Agency + has Managed Care from CloudTech. That service provides priority support, three monthly on-demand credits (that can be applied towards some things such as backup, education, and analysis), and assisted setup and consultation.

The Agency plan is $150 per month, and the Agency + is $350 per month. You can also add what Media Temple calls “Boosters” to add additional storage, sites, and bandwidth without stepping up to the next plan.

There are three levels of Media Temple VPS hosting depending on your expertise: Self-managed, Managed, and Fully Managed. Each level has different plans depending on your specific storage and bandwidth needs.

Pricing for these plans starts at $30 a month for Self-managed and $55 per month for Managed. The upper ends of these plans offer quite a bit of storage and bandwidth but are somewhat expensive – $1,000 a month for self-managed, and $1,500 per month for managed. The Fully Managed VPS plans start at $249 per month, but you will need to ask for a price quote as the final price depends on your needs.

For those needing dedicated servers, there are three plans offered, ranging in price from $2,000 per month to $2,699 per month. All three plans come with 10 TB of monthly bandwidth, unlimited domains, 1 TB of SSD storage, and 64 bit Linux operating systems.

If you have a WordPress site, Media Temple offers four different WordPress managed hosting plans that are determined by storage and the number of visitors.

The Personal plan provides 30 GB of SSD storage and permits two sites and 400,000 visitors for $20 per month.

The highest plan with a set price is Agency with 500 GB storage, 50 sites allowed, and 10 million visitors permitted for $240 per month.

They also provide a WordPress plan called Enterprise that provides unlimited monthly visitors and 1 TB of storage that is custom priced.

The WordPress managed services include daily backups, automated updates, virus and malware protection, staging, and 24/7 WordPress expert support. They also have an exclusive library of WordPress themes for you to use or customize.

For very large or complicated sites, Media Temple has an Enterprise option, which is fully customizable, and is priced based on your needs. You can use the form on the Media Temple website to set up a consultation.

Media Temple also has AWS Cloud hosting options that start at $499 per month (AWS costs excluded) and are priced and spec’d depending on your needs.

Customer Support

Media Temple’s customer service is based in Los Angeles, California. They have email, Twitter, and live chat available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Customer reviews consistently state that the service received is friendly and knowledgeable and that the support resolves questions quickly. Media Temple certifies its WordPress support team so that you can expect expert WordPress help, should you need it.

A help page gives you a starting point for looking for aid and support on Media Temple. A resources page has useful articles about Media Temple, as well as general web tips and techniques divided into nearly 100 different topics. An external resources tab provides links to other sites that contain information you may find helpful.

There is a page containing case studies so you can see the way Media Temple has provided solutions for others. Media Temple also has a blog where you can find articles, news, and tips. There is also a basic systems status page for live checking of the operational status of different sections of Media Temple.

The about-us page contains a Skype link, as well as a Culver City, California address for regular mail contact. This page also has the phone numbers for international customers. An additional resource is the Community page which contains many self-help articles and video tutorials.

You can contact Media Temple sales by phone at 310-841-550. There is a toll-free number for general help, 877-578-4000. Phone hours are Monday-Friday, 5:30 am to 6:30 pm PST.

You can use @mediatemplehelp to reach support via Twitter. You can also contact support 24/7 via email or live chat by logging into your Account Center. Media Temple says that 90% of their staff is concerned with helping customers.

Ease of Use

As mentioned, Media Temple has its control panel for shared hosting. Most customers comment that it is clean, fresh, and uncluttered. It does require more clicks to get things done than it does with other control panels, such as cPanel.

With one-click app installation and a large number of managed hosting options, Media Temple is easy to use, especially for those who need, or want, to leave the technical side of things to Media Temple.

Conclusion

Media Temple is pricier than many shared hosting providers, and its VPS and dedicated server options are at the higher end of cost. That said, most feel that you do get what you pay for with Media Temple.

It offers more managed hosting options than most, and its range of features are what you would expect from a premium level provider. Though it is not the only company to provide hosting that is distributed over more than one server, its Grid system was the first, and their experience has helped them fine-tune it. Recent updating to change all its plans to SSD-based storage has increased performance and reliability.

Media Temple can accommodate a site of any size, but is most suited for those who will have a large number of visitors or are likely to have visitor spikes and need a host that can handle it.

With its full-featured managed hosting plans, Media Temple is also well suited for those who want to concentrate on the content of their site while leaving the maintenance and technical chores to others.

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The criteria for the AWA Score for web hosts has been selected based on the most valuable data required for successful website hosting services:

34% Reliability & Uptime
19% Features & Tools
16% Plans & Pricing
14% Easy Of Use
17% Customer Support

The calculations revealed for each component are based on the summation of actual customer reviews, usage reports, host provider websites, user reviews and rankings, and available analytics. As a business owner, your requirements within these various categories may vary based on your personal or business needs and your long-term goals.