Liquidweb Reviews

Advantages

Founded in 1997, Liquidweb hosting is a privately owned hosting company. Its three data centers are all based in Lansing, Michigan. With only 20,000 customers, there is no doubt that it is one of the smallest companies in the business of web hosting. Liquidweb’s hosting solutions are primarily focused on high value hosting services rather than simply signing up a large number of clients and compromising on service quality. The company primarily focuses on providing hosting services to corporate and enterprise websites. Liquidweb.com mainly offers VPS plans, dedicated hosting and their ‘Smart Servers’ that make use of cloud technology.

Liquidweb.com gives its customers a 100% uptime guarantee, a promise that it has worked hard to live up to. While they also offer back up services, the client usually pays for this separately. Nonetheless, customers can expect the best 24/7 support, a 100% network uptime, premium data centers and ruby on rails.

Highlights: Excellent customer support with absolutely no overselling, a hassle-free unlimited plan, a 30-day money back guarantee and backups make this company very competitive in this industry.
Liquidweb Hosting Plans
Liquidweb offers customers options for managed dedicated hosting, available through one of the company’s nine hosting plans. Plans are divided by data center region; the US Central Server (Michigan) category features six hosting plans, while the US West Servers (Arizona) category features three options for managed dedicated servers. All dedicated servers can run on both Linux and Windows operating systems and run on Single, Dual or Quad processors. The “heavy duty” Quad Processor plan found in the US Central Server (Michigan) category affords users a hefty 64 cores for a total of 2.1GHz of power, along with 8GB of RAM (DDR3), primary, backup and bonus drives, and 5TB of outbound bandwidth. All inbound bandwidth on the plan is of no cost to customers.

Customers can also decide for themselves which level of management they’d prefer from a hosting package. While all packages can be fully managed by Liquidweb, customers can also choose to self-manage their server, or elect core managed service, which includes management of a server’s infrastructure, hardware, core elements and LAMP features.

Prefer something closer to cloud hosting instead? Liquidweb offers its unique Storm® Platform, which utilizes a dedicated server, yet incorporates the flexibility of hosting on a cloud platform. Liquidweb has created multiple hosting options that are based off of the Storm® Platform. For example, a Storm® dedicated server plan allows for automatic migrations, instant provisioning, solid state drives and cloud flexibility, while a Storm® VPS hosting package similarly offers instant provisioning, easy upgrades and downgrades, simple cloning and resizing and daily billing. The Storm® VPS hosting package also comes with 5TB of outgoing bandwidth, API access, use of the popular cPanel control panel and the ability to create and deploy server images. Customers can determine the specific amount of RAM they’ll need (offered for up to 512GB), to determine the cost of their VPS hosting package. As with the company’s dedicated hosting plans, its VPS packages are also fully managed with the company’s signature Heroic Support™ that provides 24/7 access to engineers through various lines of communication.
Liquidweb Features
Liquidweb features a Storm® Private Cloud hosting package that allows for optimal privacy and customization. Customers of the plan will have granular control of the platform’s resources, be able to create and manage a network of private cloud servers, utilize both Windows and Linux operating systems, and easily move between a public and private clouds. The Storm® Private Cloud package is highly customizable in that customers will determine themselves which allocations of RAM, disc space and cores they’ll initially configure for their cloud platform; these resources can be reconfigured at any time. In total, Liquidweb offers almost 100 different Storm Private Cloud packages based on varying core processing units and server speeds.

Further, for those simply seeking a more basic shared hosting plan, Liquidweb has a plan for that, too. The company’s Standard shared hosting plan offers 5GB of RAID SSD protected disc space and 120GB of monthly bandwidth, while its Webmaster plan affords 20GB of RAID SSD protected disc space and 200GB of monthly bandwidth. If you’re in need of more resources, step up to the Professional shared hosting plan that provides 40GB of RAID SSD protected disc space and a hefty 320GB of monthly data transfer, along with a dedicated IP address and SSL certificate. The company’s Semi-Dedicated Shared hosting plan guarantees 1 CPU and 1GB of RAM with a dedicated IP address, free SSL certificate and 5 free domain names. Each of these shared hosting plans include a cPanel control panel, SSH Secure Shell Access and an unlimited number of email accounts.
Additional Hosting Options
And if that’s not enough, Liquidweb also caters to those with specialized hosting needs, such as those that require HIPAA compliance, or those that are interested in game server hosting. The company’s commitment to HIPAA security culminates in a specific HIPAA plan that implements specific technical controls, safeguards, physical security measures, and backup management plans that meet and/or exceed all HIPAA security criteria. Liquidweb ensures that its Heroic Support™ engineers are fully versed in the HIPAA requirements.

For the frequent gamer seeking an optimal online gaming experience (or for the game developer), Liquidweb offers a gaming hosting package that guarantees enhanced speed, a reliable network, customizable hardware, load balancing, and instantaneous scalability. Those interested in the Liquidweb gaming hosting options will need to contact the provider personally for detailed information about pricing and resources.
Liquidweb Hosting Speed Accelerators and Security
For optimal speeds when delivering and accessing rich digital media, Liquidweb has partnered with Akamai Intelligence Platform, a leading content delivery network provider. Akamai Intelligence Platform CDNs help reduce the potential for latency, enhance overall website performance, partially relieve Liquidweb servers of load burdens, and can even improve SEO and conversion rates as a result of its ability to ensure faster uptimes. The Akamai Intelligence Platform content delivery network extends across 140,000 servers in almost 90 countries, which means there’s likely no international business this CDN can’t accommodate. Customers interested in the CDN capabilities available through Liquidweb will purchase a separate CDN package that is priced according to either the storage or bandwidth needed.

In terms of security, Liquidweb goes to great lengths to ensure that its customers have all of the necessary security measures available for use. All hosting plans include nightly redundant backups and Secure Shell Access and the opportunity to purchase additional security features, such as firewall protection, a ServerSecure™ plan with vulnerability scanning and service hardening for HTTP/S, cPanel and PHP, as well as virtual private networks and SSL certificates. Liquidweb’s security measures also include an optional DDoS protection plan that can identify and prevent attacks through the use of advanced security intelligence and real-time border layer monitoring.
Liquidweb Sonar Monitoring
Liquidweb also offers a unique monitoring system that it refers to as Sonar Monitoring. This monitoring system offers 24/7 server surveillance and is manned by a team of expert technicians that are responsible for providing instant resolutions. The company boasts that the monitoring tools it utilizes are so effective, many issues are resolved by the Sonar Monitoring team before a customer is even aware was a problem. Liquidweb’s Sonar Monitoring also improves the uptime of a server, offers customers detailed analytics regarding memory, load and usage quantities, and includes proactive restoration and patching. This system is available to customers of a Liquidweb Managed Dedicated hosting plan, and can be accessed via the management interface.

In terms of data center security, Liquidweb data centers utilize Tier-1 bandwidth providers and are staffed by a team of engineers 24/7 that are able to monitor and prevent any disruptions to service. Power to the company’s data centers is backed by top-of-the-line generator technology, and its thorough disaster recovery plans and use of two separate geographic locations that facilitate redundancy allows the company to stay true to its promise of affording 100% uptime.
Is Liquidweb Hosting Good?
Though smaller than most hosting providers, Liquidweb has earned a strong reputation as a reliable, experienced provider of professional web hosting. The company’s commitment to exceptional customer service that prioritizes fast responses and proactive management sets it apart from other hosting providers, while its numerous options for dedicated, VPS and cloud hosting make this company ideal for businesses and enterprises.