Liquid Web is one that many large brands trust and Businesses require robust web hosting services to maintain their online presences, Liquid Web is the company that has a range of cloud, dedicated, reseller, virtual private server (VPS), and WordPress server packages with enough flexibility and muscle to power the likes of Eddie Bauer, Home Depot, National Geographic, Porsche, and Symantec. Be prepared to pay premium prices for this excellent, managed, enterprise-class service, though; Liquid Web lacks a low-cost, shared hosting tier.
Liquid Web excels in managed hosting; in fact, that's the reason for the service's Editors' Choice designation. With managed hosting, a business doesn't house its servers onsite. Instead, the servers are hosted at a web host's datacenter. That might sound like a description of what every web hosting service does, but Liquid Web goes far beyond simply serving up files remotely. The company can handle all the site's administrative duties and support tasks, regardless of complexity and scale. As you'd probably suspect, this type of service is designed with big businesses in mind. Liquid Web's managed hosting is also quite pricey, but with the big-ticket comes big specs.
What Is Liquid Web?
US-based Liquid Web has grown into a $100 million web hosting business which now manages 1.5 million sites for 45,000+ customers across its ten global data centers. Liquid Web is a leader in customer loyalty for the hosting industry. They are purpose-built for mission-critical sites, stores, and applications. Liquid Web is globally recognized for its outstanding support, named Heroic Support. Every hosting service offered by Liquid Web is available on highly secured, powerful, fastest, and performance-tuned servers for trouble-free hosting solutions. Their WordPress hosting plans come with a staging environment, automated updates as well as an easy-to-use dashboard for easier website management, due to this reason many top organizations such as FedEx, Motorola, Red Bull, United Way, ESPN, Audi, and many others use Liquid Web.
Liquid Web doesn’t rely on caching to ensure speed, instead, they focus on PHP workers which are responsible for executing your website’s PHP. Every plan has at least 10 dedicated PHP workers and some of their managed WooCommerce plans ⇣ come with up to 300 PHP workers.
All managed WordPress hosting plans come with pre-installed plugins, automatic updates, website staging, nightly backups, iThemes sync, iThemes Security Pro, free SSL, and all the essential features.
How Good Is Liquid Web?
Liquid Web Provides round-the-clock hosting, flawlessly. They back their users with their 100% power and network uptime guarantees and the most helpful humans in hosting. Liquid Web offers Hybrid Hosting, Enterprise-Class Servers, Small & Medium Businesses Hosting, HIPAA Compliant Hosting, Linux Hosting, Windows Hosting, and Disaster Recovery.
Liquid Web's Powerful set of managed Web Hosting Services has been designed and developed to specifically fit its user's needs. With everything from their proactive 24x7 Sonar Monitoring to a robust selection of database hosting options, users can be confident Liquid Web has the expertise to manage any hosting configuration.
The company owns and operates three private data centers. By owning their data centers rather than leasing, they're able to design, build and maintain an ideal server environment. This allows them to Provide their clients fast, secure, and reliable performance.
Moreover, At Liquid Web, they pride themselves on the simple offer of great customer service. Their support team is the backbone of their company and transparency is their Heroic Promise. Every month, they publish their support statistics so users can see exactly how fast they are responding to tickets and taking phone calls.
Changing Web Hosts can seem like a daunting task, but at Liquid Web, they have an entire team dedicated to helping users migrate their data from their current host to Liquid Web servers. This is an incredibly useful resource for customers typically expected to navigate this foggy process with minimal or in many cases, no assistance, however, some restrictions apply.
For Whom Liquid Web Is Useful?
- Who Needs a host that can handle extremely ambitious web projects with a high level of customization and support to match.
- Know enough about web hosting to get yourself into trouble if you tried to DIY. The Liquid Web team will have your back as you build out your vision.
- Want managed plans and a dedicated server without being limited to WordPress.
- Are a freelancer managing multiple client sites and looking for a reliable and clutter-free way to optimize the hosting side of your workflow.
- Want to start a small personal website or are looking for a shared hosting plan. Liquid Web is punching at a different level.
The best alternative for more basic shared hosting plans with highly rated customer service, great uptime, and super speeds, check out Bluehost, Hostgator, Cloudways, Hostinger, or GreenGeeks.
- Just can’t stomach paying so much, even if it means getting so much power and so many features.
Best Alternative DreamHost has VPS and managed WP hosting plans starting at under $20/month.
Liquid Web Highlights:
- Fully managed to host infrastructure (WordPress, WooCommerce, VPS, Dedicated Servers)
- Private Owned Data Centers
- Superior Support
- Focusing on Enterprise Solutions
- Great Price/ Quality
- Excellent Features
- Fast and secure tech stack (PHP7, HTTP/2, NGINX, SSD, PHP Workers)
- Automatic daily backups and nightly plugin updates
- 100% uptime guarantee or they will credit you
- Free SSL, CDN, DDoS protection, and White-glove site migrations
- Premium tools included for free (BeaverBuilder, All IconicWP, Jilt, Glew.io, iThemes sync, iThemes Security Pro)
- 24/7/365 phone, email, and live chat support.
Plans and Pricing:
1) LINUX
| 2GB RAM $15/mo | 4GB RAM $25/mo | 8GB RAM $35/mo | 16GB RAM $95/mo |
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2) WINDOWS
| 4GB RAM $54/mo | 8GB RAM $74/mo | 16GB RAM $149/mo | Value Bundle Starts @ $79/mo |
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Plans and Pricing:
1) US Server (Central Michigan & West Arizona)
| Intel Xeon 1230v6 $169/mo | Intel Xeon Gold 6226R - Single $224.25/mo | Intel Xeon Gold 6226R - Dual $374.25/mo | Value Bundle Starts @ $219/mo |
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| Intel Xeon 1230v6 $249/mo | Intel Xeon Gold 6226R - Single $349/mo | Intel Xeon Gold 6226R - Dual $549/mo | No Value Bundle |
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Liquid Web's managed hosting environment is specifically designed for installing WordPress and associated plug-ins. In fact, you don't have to install the CMS at all, as it comes preinstalled. Once you're logged into WordPress, you can create posts, pages, and galleries as you would with any other self-hosted WordPress site. We were able to quickly create a rudimentary test page that got the job done.
The WordPress installation's back end contains several themes you can apply to your site to give it an attractive look or extra functionality. You can, of course, use a WordPress theme that was purchased elsewhere.
| Spark $12.67/mo | Maker $52.67/mo | Designer $72.67/mo | Builder $99.33/mo |
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| Producer $193.33/mo | Executive $366/mo | Enterprise $667/mo | No Value Bundle |
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Everything on Cloud Servers is centered around the Primary Node. This is the workhorse of the environment and hosts your data and cPanel (if required).
Additional Web Nodes can be added on-demand to support web traffic as your project grows. They’re automatically load-balanced when deployed and require zero configuration.
| Standard $265/mo | Professional $510/mo | Premier $1,105/mo | No Value Bundle |
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| Liquid Web's Turnkey, Scalable Could Solution
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If you're looking to get into the web hosting business for yourself, but you don't want to deal with managing servers, bandwidth, and other infrastructure matters, check out Liquid Web's excellent reseller web hosting packages. Liquid Web's plans, starting at $139 per month, come with an exclusive WebHost Manager Complete Solution (or WHMCS) plug-in and instant provisioning.
The dedicated and VPS reseller packages are of both the Linux and Windows variety, and they have the same RAM, monthly data transfers, and storage amounts as those that Liquid Web supplies directly. There are, again, no shared reseller hosting plans. Liquid Web also lets you apply your own branding to the servers you rent, and it supplies 24/7 tech support, too.
I used UptimeRobot to see just how well Liquid Web can keep the lights on. Turns out it’s pretty good at that too. Over the course of a few weeks, there was not one single bit of downtime, though there was one instance where the ping time went rather high.
But that’s the internet for you. It happens.
Liquid Web offers a wide variety of security add-ons and services. With Cloud and a dedicated platform if you go with any of the control panels you will have 24/7 managed support, the team would be able to assist you with any issues regarding the server security. Liquid Web includes security, the performance-enhancement of a CDN, and DDoS protection at no charge.
Here are some other facts:
- Standard DDoS Attack Protection
- ServerSecure Advanced Security
- Integrated Firewall
- Root Access
As for the add-ons they offer advanced protection services such as protection & remediation, vulnerability scanning, Web Application, and Hardware Firewalls, etc. You can contact support to select more security features if your website needs them, and they will quickly respond to you, according to Liquid Web reviews.
Support Options
Customer care shows how much the provider cares about his users. The faster your problems are resolved, the better the provider’s reputation. In addition to customer service, there is also a blog and a knowledge base that can give you more information about working with this provider. We recommend that you study this information in detail before you start working with the service.
We decided to check how fast the support responds on a weekday in our liquidweb.com review. To our surprise, it did not take more than 10 seconds before we were contacted by a responsive support manager, and she answered all our questions in great detail. Thank you very much for such qualified service, Erika!
Liquid Web Customer Support:
Liquid Web boasts an excellent Heroic Support customer service team, a squad of knowledgeable people who assist you in under a minute if you reach out by phone, in under 30 minutes if you submit a help desk ticket, and in under 59 seconds if you reach out by chat. Sounds good, yes? It is. We fired up the web chat on a weekday morning to ask a representative about the difference between cloud hosting and traditional hosting. A rep came to our aid seconds later and gave us a friendly, thorough explanation. We were impressed with the response's speed and thoroughness.
Liquid Web Pros:
Liquid Web has quite many perks going on for them.
Let’s have a more detailed look.
1. Free Email Accounts
When running a business, you’re going to have to correspond via email with colleagues, customers, partners, vendors, and more. A branded email address that matches your website domain goes a long way toward establishing your brand identity and instilling a sense of professionalism and confidence in the minds of those you interact with.
Thankfully, branded email accounts come free with Liquid Web’s VPS service. These accounts are managed through the Liquid Web control panel.
Oddly enough, this service is not listed prominently on the Liquid Web website. We had to inquire with customer support to get the details.
2. Responsive Live Chat Support
Liquid Web has three primary forms of customer support:
- 24/7 Live Chat
- Phone
- Helpdesk
The most efficient and fastest means of communication is live chat. According to different live chat studies, 51% of consumers say it’s important for a business to be available 24/7 for support. It’s been proven that fast customer support response time, including a positive chat experience, will increase sales numbers.
3. Great Uptime >99.99%
Liquid Web claims to have an average uptime of 100%. Most hosting providers will guarantee an uptime of 99.9% because you can’t account for things like natural disasters.
Claiming 100% uptime is something that you don’t see often in the hosting industry and of course, we’re not going to take their word for granted and tested their uptime ourselves.
4. Great Page Loading Speed – 338 ms
Liquid Web makes a lot of very bold claims on its website in regards to the speed of the sites that it hosts. The company claims to be 200% faster than DigitalOcean, AWS, and Rackspace.
Speed is one of the most important factors when choosing a website host. If your page takes too long to load, not only will potential customers abandon your site in droves, but popular search engines like Google won’t list you prominently.
For example, an average speed index for the desktop in 2020 is 4.7 seconds, and for mobile 11.4 seconds. However, Google’s best practice is to have a speed index below 3 seconds.
And once again, Liquid Web delivers on its promises with an average page loading speed of 338 ms. It’s one of the best in the hosting industry
5. Free SSL Security
An SSL certificate is a factor that dictates whether your website is an HTTP or HTTPS site.
What’s the difference?
HTTPS has advanced security, whereas HTTP is mostly unsecured and vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Google actually labels HTTP sites as unsecured, which is not going to look great to potential customers.
For example, if you have an eCommerce website that is not HTTPS, the browser will send all the information to the server as plain text. If there’s anyone scanning your website, they can steal your customer’s sensitive information, like email addresses, passwords, credit card details, etc. That’s why it’s important to have an SSL encrypted website.
Luckily, basic SSL is free and comes installed by the Liquid Web support team. If you want additional security, there are other premium SSL certificates available for purchase.
6. Site Migration is Free
Let’s say you have an established website on another hosting platform, but you’re looking for a change. You don’t want to just toss your website out and start over. You need migration to move the site from one host to another.
That is something Liquid Web offers as a free service.
Liquid Web subscribers can get both internal (on Liquid Web server already) and external migration for their sites.
Liquid Web has a great article about their involved migration process on the company’s official website.
Liquid Web Cons:
Now let’s take a look at the downsides of Liquid Web hosting.
1. Free Domain Not Included
When you’re already paying for a premium service like Liquid Web, you want to make sure that you’re keeping expenses down. One prevalent free service that a lot of hosting providers offer is a free website domain.
Unfortunately, that is not included with any of the VPS plans offered by Liquid Web.
A free domain for at least one year is something a lot of other cheaper hosts already have in their plans. So, by not including a free domain, Liquid Web has added an additional expense ($15/year) on top of an already expensive service.
2. Expensive Pricing
Liquid Web is more expensive than a lot of the services that we have reviewed.
Typically, we look at shared hosting providers, and they have pretty low monthly costs. On average, we review plans that are $3–$7 per month (mostly with annual plans). The lowest price for Liquid Web is a whopping $15 per month (with biannual payment) and it only goes up from there.
If you’re thinking to sign up for a year, the price would be $35/month and the monthly option would cost you $59/month.
3. No Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is far more affordable and better for small businesses and start-ups.
Unfortunately, Liquid Web has no option for shared hosting, with VPS being the most entry-level service available.
We feel as though Liquid Web is severely limiting its reach by pricing a lot of smaller businesses out. Subscribing to entry-level services like shared hosting allows a company to grow in comfort and then eventually upgrade to a service like VPS or dedicated hosting.
Final Thoughts:
So, is Liquid Web any good?
Yes, Liquid Web is great for website owners that are growing exponentially and need guaranteed reliability, speed, and uptime all the time.
Liquid Web is different from most web hosts in that it doesn’t offer shared hosting. This, of course, means that their prices will be higher.
In fact, Liquid Web is in a league of its own when it comes to the type of web hosting it offers its customers. Instead, it takes a luxury approach and seeks to stand out amongst a saturated industry that is striving to give website owners the same kind of services.
Liquid Web makes helping people a priority and truly managing your website something to look forward to. After all, with a higher price tag than most web hosts, it has to offer you every service you could need to run a successful website (plus some!)
Interested in giving Liquid Web a try? Check out how Liquid Web can help your website reach its potential and continue to grow beyond your wildest dreams.
Liquid Web Hosting FAQs:
1. Does LiquidWeb offer Linux or Windows hosting?
A. Their web hosting services include both Windows and Linux hosting.
2. Will LiquidWeb try to raise my price when it’s time for me to renew my contract?
A. No, your pricing should remain constant with their existing price structure.
3. Do I get a free domain name included with my web hosting plan?
A. Yes, each web hosting account gets 1,3, or 5 free domain names, depending upon each customer’s needs.
4. Does LiquidWeb offer WHOIS domain name privacy?
A. Yes, for additional fees customers may add WHOIS privacy to their web hosting plan.
5. Does LiquidWeb have Virtual Private Server (VPS) service?
A. Absolutely. They actually offer ten different levels of VPS service with solid-state drive (SSD) storage that can be customized to best meet your individual needs.
6. Where is this web hosting service located?
A. LiquidWeb is located in Lansing, Michigan, U.S.A.
7. What programming languages does LiquidWeb support?
A. LiquidWeb supports Ruby, ASP, Ruby on Rails, ASP.NET, Perl, and PHP.
8. Does LiquidWeb have an affiliate program?
A. Yes, they have a straightforward program that pays the same for each referral generated. Payment amounts remain the same no matter how many referrals affiliates generate, so the commission on the first referral is the same as the 10,000th.
9. Can I host WordPress on LiquidWeb’s service?
A. Absolutely. WordPress is fully supported on this web hosting service.
10. Does LiquidWeb have any website building software included?
A. There is no website building software included, but they provide access to platforms such as WordPress and Joomla to make it easy for you to build your website if you wish.
11. Can I use PrestaShop with LiquidWeb hosting?
A. Yes, you can easily install the PrestaShop e-commerce software on your servers if you want to.
12. How easy is it to move WordPress installs over to LiquidWeb?
A. Migrating from WordPress to LiquidWeb is simple and included with their migration services. You can also use the management tool on their control panel to easily do this yourself.
13. What about image-heavy sites on LiquidWeb? Are they ok?
A. As long as your storage and bandwidth purchase is adequate, images will not be a problem. Their top-notch equipment can handle it easily.
14. Do you get a user control panel with the LiquidWeb service?
A. Yes, you get a cPanel or WHM control panel, depending on if you are hosting Windows or Linux-based products. They provide everything you need to manage your websites.
15. What kind of guarantee do they offer?
A. LiquidWeb has a 100% uptime guarantee. If you lose service for any reason, you will receive future service credits automatically.
16. Does LiquidWeb have content distribution network (CDN) services?
A. Yes, CDN services are included with all of their hosting contracts.
17. How often does LiquidWeb perform backups?
A. They perform backups every night to a server off-site for your security.
18. How many email addresses are allowed with LiquidWeb hosting?
A. The number of emails and email storage is unlimited when you purchase a web hosting plan.
19. Does LiquidWeb offer a student discount?
A. Yes, you can find their student discount on their website, and non-profit organizations may also receive a discount if they request one.
20. What about video streaming? How well does LiquidWeb work for that?
A. Their shared platform works reasonably well for video streaming, but it’s recommended to use dedicated sites or a site run on VPS for quality video streaming.
21. Does LiquidWeb offer unlimited storage space and bandwidth?
A. Yes, they offer both, but they reserve the right to revoke the privileges if they find abuse or excess use.
22. I have four websites. Which one of LiquidWeb’s services would work to host my sites?
A. Every one of LiquidWeb’s hosting plans is capable of handling four websites at once.
23. What are the standard contract lengths for LiquidWeb hosting?
A. Customers can choose from either monthly, yearly, or multi-year web hosting contracts. It’s more cost-effective to choose a longer-term.
24. What are my payment options if I choose LiquidWeb?
A. They accept wire transfers, Paypal, and most major credit cards as payment for services.
25. Will my e-commerce website work well using LiquidWeb?
A. Yes, their web hosting plans work very well with all e-commerce sites, supporting features like shopping carts and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for security.
26. Is LiquidWeb a secure web hosting product?
A. This company’s infrastructure sets the industry standard for security with constant monitoring, on-site staff, and the latest firewall technologies. When it comes to security, they’re ahead of the curve.
27. Where exactly are LiquidWeb’s data centers physically located?
A. LiquidWeb has four data centers currently, with one in Phoenix Arizona, and three more in the state of Michigan.
28. Can LiquidWeb help me transfer my existing websites over to their service? I don’t have the time or knowledge to do it.
A. Yes! They have a site migration team that’s the only job is to help you transfer your existing sites over to your new web hosting service. Switching web hosting has never been this painless.
29. What kind of customer support is available if I have any issues?
A. LiquidWeb has 24/7 customer support via phone or chats on their website. The support team only speaks English.
30. What if I’m not happy with their web hosting service?
A. If you’re not happy with LiquidWeb’s performance, they have a 30-day money-back guarantee on all of their available products and services.
Hopefully, all the questions you have about this web hosting service have been answered above. If you’ve been shopping around for a domestic web hosting service that has industry-leading features, LiquidWeb is a great choice. They have a plan for every size of customer, from one domain name to 1,000. Industry-leading customer support, 24/7 monitoring and security, and the ability to configure your system to your needs are what make this web hosting service truly unique. They also offer their site migration service which makes transferring your data to your new LiquidWeb servers as easy as humanly possible. In a market that’s crowded with web hosting companies, North American customers will be extremely pleased with the pricing, flexibility, and ease of switching to LiquidWeb.
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