Liquid Web Review

LiquidWeb Review

Liquid Web is perhaps one of the leading managed hosting companies in the market today. A family of brands is coming together to power your online potential of businesses, non-profits, and organizations.

It comprises Liquid Web for traditional hosting services, Nexcess built to optimize sites and store applications, and Stellar for WordPress premium plug-ins.

Together as a family, they promised to give easy access to their services, highly trained experts to deliver tech support, speed, security, and reliability; employees available 24/7/365 to deliver human support as needed, and a commitment to deliver quality service your every online business needs.

About Liquid Web

Providing hosting services since 1997, Liquid Web has been powering content, commerce, and applications for more than 24 years. Backed by 10 global data centers located in the US, UK, and EU, the Liquid Web family managed over 500,000+ sites hosted, supporting over 100,000 software subscribers and 2 Million+ free version software users. Numbers don't lie, as they received numerous 5 out of 5 stars from their loyal and trusted customers.

Getting Started with Liquid Web

Opening the Liquid Web site for the first time is quite intimidating, in my case at least. With the range of products they offer and the features that come with it, I could immediately tell that this is not just a simple web hosting site.

The Liquid Web site screams sophistication, elegance, and premiere service. It was quite a challenge to look for a Liquid Web hosting plan that fits my purpose of getting a good quality review of their services.

For this review, I signed up for a managed WordPress hosting plan for my test site. I choose the Spark plan at $19.50/month but on sale for $9.50. This plan comes with 1 managed site, 15 GB storage, and 2 TB bandwidth.

When I clicked the Get Started button, I was redirected to the Nexcess Portal.

On this page, you input the plan terms and account information. You can also see here the details of your purchase. After putting in my details, I clicked the Sign-Up button, added my billing address and payment option to complete my purchase.

How to Manage Your Website Using Liquid Web

Nexcess

Nexcess is the cloud web hosting optimized for digital commerce. It partnered with Liquid Web to give managed WordPress and managed WooCommerce plans.

When I logged in to my account, I was directed to this homepage.

You can see your account id and password, active tickets, invoices, and cred in this client's area. You can also see a section for the system's status, servers, and data center with just a click of an arrow.

There is a search field, the latest blog post from the Liquid Web support team, and an announcement for scheduled maintenance.

You can see tabs for Home, Plans, SSL, Support, Billings, and DNS on the right. When I clicked the Plan tab, I was redirected to this page.

For the SSL tab, you can see the SSL certificates you have ordered for your site. An SSL certificate is like a badge of honor you can put on your site to show your users that your site is safe, secure, and reliable.

It is vital for websites that require the exchange of sensitive information like personal info and card details. SSL certificate comes in a different form depending on the level of security your website has.

I did not have any yet, so I clicked the Order Certificate button on the left. On the order page, you get to select the type of certificate (single domain, multi-domain, or wildcard), then input the source of the certificate and your details. Then you will proceed to the payment for your purchase.

The Support Tab shows your tickets. Tickets are used if you want to ask for help from the Liquid Web support team. You can input your concern, the department you are trying to address, and so on. Once youOnce you are done, you click Add to finalize.

There is also a button for Request Migration at the right side of the page. Liquid Web offers free site migration from other web hosts. You need to have a paid plan from Liquid Web before you can avail any free site migrations.

The Billings tab shows your invoices, credits, payment, payments info, and your orders. Here, you can see the summary and details of your purchased plans, certificates, add-ons, and many more.

The Domains tab shows your DNS zone. You can add your domain here. You can click the three dots to view your domain details or to delete them from your zone.

When you click the User Menu at the right, you can see a dropdown list containing the following:

• My Profile will bring you to your personal info page.
• Account Settings gives your account name and password.
• 2-Factor Authentication lets you set up a second method of signing in to your account for an extra layer of protection.
• SSH keys will redirect you to a page where you can add them.
• The Team Members tab allows you to add your colleagues; you can also assign a role for them.
• API Tokens bring you to the page where you can generate them.
• Refer a Friend gets you a chance to win $100 credit for successfully introducing one new user.
• Address tab will bring you to the payment method and billing address.
• The Feedback tab e allows you to suggest an idea to the Liquid Web support staff.

When you sign up for a Liquid Web managed hosting plan, make sure to explore your client's area and familiarize its function. As I have observed, it is very user and beginner-friendly.

Liquid Web Hosting Management Panels

Liquid Web uses 4 different control panels for website hosting account management. The availability of such depends on the web hosting plans purchased by the customers.

Most plans will give you the option to choose any of the three. Others are paid, while others are included in the plan. In my case, I have more experience with cPanel, and I extremely suggest it for beginners.

Choosing a control panel can get intimidating, but you always go with what makes you more comfortable. A lot of resources are available at your fingertips. You can watch videos, read the manuals and articles from Liquid Web's pool of resources, and compare reviews.

The most effective perhaps is when you talk to someone who is an expert. Use a ticket and submit your concern to the Liquid Web's Most Helpful Humans to help you with your concern.

One thing in common among the control panel dashboards is how they arranged the tools depending on their functions. But if I have to choose a winner in that category, I will choose cPanel. The way it is arranged is straightforward to understand. Tools are grouped nicely without overlaps.

All of these Liquid Web management panels show the server overview on their homepage. I like that it is one of the first things you can see when you log in. From there, you can already decide which part of your account needs some works.

All of these include the general features necessary for a control panel.

• Domain management – configure and manage them.
• File management – manage and upload files, do backups and restores.
• Email management – manage and set up emails, access webmail, configure spam filters, mailing lists, forwarders.
• Database management – set up and manage database
• Stats – see the volume of traffic the server
• Security – SSL certificates, SSH access, IP blockers, etc.
• Software installers – easy installations of popular web scripts such as WordPress, Joomla, and others.

Getting Started with InterWorx

You can log into Interworx through your Liquid Web account. After you log in, you can see the different navigation links on the left, and clicking one will give you additional menu items for your server management. More advanced users mostly use InterworxMore advanced users use Interworx.

The Siteworx tab shows you all your web and domain accounts. You can see here the domains and accounts in your server. You can also modify your SiteWorx accounts from here. It includes modifying account settings, changing passwords and IP addresses, or deleting the account.

The NodeWorx tab is a system admin for managing the servers and hosting accounts. Here, you can see the status of your system services, CPU, memory, bandwidth usage, and general server information.

Getting Started with cPanel

You can log into your cPanel account through the cPanel login page or the Liquid Web Account. The first time you log in, you can see the sections arranged according to functions and a server overview.

• Files -manage all your files from here.
• Databases- manage your databases using phpMyAdmin and create a database using MySQL.
• Domain- manage all your domains, assign aliases, add-ons, subdomains, redirects, and many more.
• Metrics - shows your server and site statistics, including visitors, accesses, bandwidth, usage, and more.
• Security- is where you can manage all security details like SSH Keys, 2 factor -authentication, SSL certificates, and many more.
• Software -shows the built-in software you can use to improve your website, including WordPress manager.
• Advanced - managed your web cache and indexes.
• Preferences- you can see here features that involve your cPanel's password, security, contact information, and more.

Getting Started with Plesk

Plesk is a control panel designed to simplify your web hosting management. It is easily integrated with web applications like WordPress.

You can access your Plesk account from your Liquid Web account dashboard. Inside the Plesk dashboard, you can choose between Power User view or Service Provider view.

Power-user is designed for few websites, while the service provider manages lots of sites or reseller services. But the first time you log in, the default view is the Power User.

Plesk includes all the general features you need in a control panel plus the following:

• Automated Server Administration ->easily manage your server
• User-Friendly Interface->intuitive control panels
• WordPress Toolkit ->manage your WordPress site
• Developer Tools ->PostgreSQL, MS SQL, and more
• Premium Email Antivirus -> protect up to 14 mail accounts
• Mobile Manager ->gives you management access from mobile devices
• Security Core by Atomicorp -> protects your server from attacks
• Web Presence Builder-> to create a website for small businesses and individuals
• ServerShield by Cloudflare -> protects the server from hackers, spammers, bots, DDoS attacks
• Language Pack ->offers language option

Getting Started with WHM

You can log in to your WHM account through your Liquid Web Account. Your WHM dashboard shows your list of options and features of your server management. Though most of its features are for advanced users, you could easily learn them as you go along.

Using WHM, you can change root passwords, configure backups, manage your accounts or create a new one, configure server security and firewall, and generate SSL certificates.

Liquid Web Website Builder

Beaver Builder

Liquid Web uses Beaver Builder and offers it for free to those who purchased managed WooCommerce hosting plans. It is fast, functional, with lightweight codes used.

You can choose from different templates and add different contents into your layout by just dragging and dropping. It is very user and beginner-friendly.

Nexcess Store Builder

You can also use the Nexcess Store Builder to create a WooCommerse store in no time easily.

In your control panels, you can use the built-in web builder or download a new one. The most common ones are the website builders compatible with WordPress sites.

Liquid Web App and Software Installer

Using cPanel as your server management panel, you can easily download your desired application from within your control panel using the Softaculous App Installer.

If you are using Plesk, you can go to the Applications tab for easy installations of web applications.

A good example is WordPress and WordPress Account Manager for managing WordPress sites can easily be downloaded through Softaculous App Installer from cPanel or Plesk Applications.

When installing, you can choose from a list of different WordPress plugins as well. The downloaded WordPress app comes with thousands of WordPress themes you can choose from.

You can also use StellarWP for WordPress plugins and software for your WordPress website and store. It is available to managed WordPress hosting plans.

Liquid Web Customer Support

You can contact Liquid Web for support 24/7 via phone, chat, or email. All these are found in the Contact Us tab. You can also see a Chat Now message on every Liquid Web page.

Liquid Web's Most Helpful Human in Hosting makes sure that you are taken care of 24/7/365. Liquid Web takes pride that their response is always less than a minute, so I put it to the test.

Here goes our conversation. Truly, the replies are fast and informative. The response is personalized, which means you are probably talking to an actual person than a robot. All in all, they have excellent customer service with great support staff.

Liquid Web Resources

Other than the supports mentioned above, they also have a pool of articles, case studies, blogs, and webinars, where you can get help when you are stuck with a problem with your hosting plan or even if you are just trying to decide to get one. The tutorials are beneficial, and it comes with pictures, gifs, and videos.

Buyer's Guide for LiquidWeb

LiquidWeb offers a wide array of services for you to choose from. In addition, you can also choose your desired management and support level.

Management Levels

Fully managed servers come with a control panel from where you can manage everything on your account, and you would have Liquid Web's full support 24/7 if you need anything regarding the server or have any issues.

They will also perform the updates on the server that are necessary. With self and core-managed servers, you wouldn't have the Liquid Web's full support.

This means the server would be managed only by you. It is best to get fully managed servers if you are a beginner.

Plans and Pricing

Liquid Web is a premium hosting provider, which means that they give excellent quality hosting solutions to their customers. As a web hosting elite provider, you can expect nothing less.

Nexcess, StellarWP, and Liquid Web offer dedicated server hosting, cloud hosting packages, WordPress hosting plans, and many more.

Dedicated Server Hosting Plans

A dedicated server is a remote server exclusively dedicated to a single individual, organization, or application. It is not a shared web hosting plan, so it is not shared with any other customers.

Liquid Web servers allow for tailored security, complete control over the system, resources, and other configurations. Many hosting providers offer dedicated servers to their customers, but Liquid Web also offers a fully managed one.

Here, you can compare the different Liquid Web dedicated hosting plans, and you can choose from the following servers:

• Intel Xeon 1230v6 -> good for high traffic sites, multiple websites, small apps, resellers
• Intel Xeon Gold 6226R - Single -> great for databases, small SaaS, large resellers, multiple apps
• Intel Xeon Gold 6226R - Dual -> good for multi-user apps, big databases, large SaaS, virtualization
• Intel Xeon 1230v6 Value Bundle -> good for high traffic sites, multiple websites, small apps, resellers
• Intel Xeon Gold 6226R - Single Value Bundle -> great for databases, small SaaS, large resellers, multiple apps
• Intel Xeon Gold 6226R - Dual Value Bundle -> good for high traffic sites, multiple websites, small apps, resellers

Here is the comparison of the introductory price, inclusions, and add-ons:

Managed VPS Hosting Plan

Liquid Web VPS hosting provides its customer the power of a dedicated server and the flexibility of a cloud hosting environment. These web hosting plans are ideal for people who want to use their own powerful server but could minimize the cost. This hosting service can be used in Linux or Windows servers.

Here is the comparison of these managed web hosting plans.

Linux

Note: VPS hosting prices indicated here are for the InterWorx control panel only.

Windows

Cloud Dedicated Servers

Cloud Dedicated Servers combine the processing power and available resources of a dedicated server with the flexibility of a cloud platform.

There are two sets of plans you can choose from:

Standard Cloud Dedicated Options-great for hosting small apps, websites, resellers, and more

High-Performance Cloud Dedicated Options - good for databases, SaaS, hosting multiple sites or apps, large resellers, and more.

Here's a comparison of the two and the available servers:

Below is the comparison between cloud server hosting in Liquid Web versus other web hosting providers.

Private Cloud Powered by VMware and NetApp

The private cloud is considered to be your own data center. Private cloud hosting at Liquid Web was made possible by VMware and NetApp. It is a combination of a public cloud and a streamlined management service.

This plan is available on a multi-tenant infrastructure or a built-to-order environment. Private cloud hosting plans promise power, performance, and reliability for huge industries and enterprises.

You can choose from the following plans :

Multi-tenant VMware Private Cloud - with servers pooling resources to form a virtual data center for customer use, you're only paying the resources you need, so the cost is lower

Dedicated VMware Private Cloud - fully isolated environment, dedicates servers is exclusive for your use only, more expensive

The picture below shows the pricing and inclusions of the two plans:

Private VPS Parent Hosting Plan

The Private VPS Parent web hosting plan allows the user to create their own private cloud environment. It is easy to create and configure. You can move, resize, clone, or destroy your virtual instances in your own VPS parent. In addition, you can easily resize the RAM, adjust disk size, and configure the number of cores. To put it simply, the possibilities are for its use are endless.

Standard Private VPS Parents- great for hosting small apps, websites, resellers, and more

High-Performance Private VPS Parents - great for hosting databases, SaaS, hosting multiple sites or apps, large resellers, and many more.

Below is the comparison of the two hosting solutions:

Managed Cloud Servers

Liquid Web's Server Cloud hosting uses cPanel. It makes it fast, reliable, easy, and manageable.

Below are the different plans you can choose from, together with the pricing and the inclusions. You can choose from Standard, Professional, and Premier.

Cloud Sites

Cloud site is a managed web hosting platform that allows users to build and launch websites without learning cPanel or server management.

For this Liquid Web hosting plan, you can easily add storage at $2.40/GB and bandwidth at $0.15 /GB. Dedicated IPs for $1/site/month whenever there is an SSL certificate installed. Database storage is at $6/month, and Windows Framework is at $10/month.

Managed WordPress Hosting Plans

Liquid Web and Nexcess offer managed WordPress hosting plans that are expertly curated for your needs. Nexcess, a digital commerce cloud platform, offers a fully managed WordPress hosting plan that aims to help you build, optimize and grow your business.

The cheapest web hosting plan from this category starts at $9.50/month. It is the complete solution for your WordPress website. With Nexcess, managed WordPress hosting is easy and full of website enhancing features you can get for free.

Here are the managed WordPress hosting plans you can choose from:

This plan comes with WordPress site migration from other managed WordPress hosts.

Managed WooCommerce Hosting Plan

WooCommerce is an open-source e-commerce plugin for WordPress. Liquid Web offers this affordable and easy-to-scale e-commerce hosting plan. It includes all resources you need for your store to stay safe, secure, easy to manage, and accessible at all times. Liquid Web's managed WooCommerse plan comes in 6 different hosting packages.

Here is the comparison of the different Liquid Web plans:

Enterprise

Liquid Web's enterprise hosting provider offers to customize your hosting plan base on the assessment of your needs. You will receive individual help from Liquid Web's IT team to design the best web hosting solution for your business.

These hosting solutions offer high performance, high availability, and separate database server. The price for this enterprise web hosting service varies on the features, security, storage, back-ups, and add-ons.

Security and Backups

Liquid Web offers secure, reliable, and hassle-free hosting. With multiple layers of protection, easy whole system recovery, Acronis Cyber Backups available, and a lot of security, storage, and backup add -ons you can choose from, Liquid Web is truly a web host like no other.

Features of Liquid Web Hosting Plans

Listed below are the detailed features of each plan for your reference.

Pros

Aside from the features mentioned above, here are some things I considered as an advantage of using Liquid Web:

• Ability to choose the management level
• Availability of the different management panels
• You can choose to pay monthly instead of yearly
• Good website builders are available
• Enterprise solution where you can customize your hosting plan
• Easy signup process
• User and beginner-friendly dashboards
• Great pool of resources
• Very high uptime rates and server speed test
• Good customer support via phone or live chat
• High-end servers
• Free site migration
• Allows users to give feedback on how to improve the services easily
• High customer loyalty rating
• The lack of shared hosting packages shields you from shared server attacks.

Cons

Some of the downsides of using Liquid Web as a web host are as follows:

• Pricey compared with other web hosts
• No free trial and only a few of the plans offered a 30-days money-back guarantee
• Lacks shared hosting plans for personal and small business user
• Plans do not come with free SSL certificates

Final Thoughts

Overall, Liquid Web is a very reliable web host.

With 10 global data centers, fully managed cloud and web hosting, excellent support from Most Helpful Human in Hosting, powering more than 45 000 customers, more than 500 000 sites under management, secure and hassle-free hosting, and great user reviews from different sites and its loyal customers, I can say that Liquid Web is not only reliable but also one of the most powerful web hosts in the field.

Although it is a bit pricey compared to other hosting companies, be at peace with the fact that it has been a success for more than two decades, and you are getting a quality that is fit for what you are paying for.

I hope this Liquid Web review helps you in your hosting journey!