Liquid Web Review – Pros & Cons [2023]
Liquid Web is one of the best web hosting companies – we use them to host our websites. They’re based in the United States (Lansing, Michigan) but recently opened a data center in Amsterdam so they’re also a great choice if you’re in Europe.
While they’re definitely not the cheapest option out there, Liquid Web is an excellent option for businesses that have the budget.
Liquid Web is a fully managed hosting company. They offer a number of mid-to-high-end web hosting services including:
Liquid Web knows they’re good at high-performance hosting, and they choose to focus on excelling at that. Other providers in the industry, like HostGator, try to cater to all users. This means the end product usually works just fine, but the overall experience leaves something to be desired.
Fun fact: Liquid Web acquired a company called Nexcess in 2019 which helped form their new managed WordPress hosting product. Liquid Web also has a number of other WordPress plugins on its roster, including LearnDash, under the StellarWP banner.
Pros of Liquid Web
100% Uptime Guarantee
Liquid Web offers one of the most comprehensive Service Level Agreements (SLA) we’ve seen which guarantees everything from response times and hardware replacement to compensation for downtime. For response times, Liquid Web promises that they will respond within 59 seconds for phone and chat requests while responding to support tickets within 59 minutes. Furthermore, Liquid Web provides a 100% uptime guarantee. If they are ever down, they will provide a service credit worth 10x the downtime.
Expert support is available 24/7
250+ Windows, Cisco, and Red Hat Linux Certified technicians are on the Liquid Web team, and they provide some of the best web hosting support we’ve experienced. They are a true managed hosting company, and Liquid Web’s team acts as your own. They take care of everything from installation and support of core software, operating system updates & patches, and proactive response & restoration of monitoring events. Similar to Apple products, their hosting just works.
HIPPA & PCI Compliance
Liquid Web is one of the few hosting providers that offer both HIPPA & PCI Compliance. We applaud them for taking consumer data so seriously. It’s crucial to do so in 2021.
Starting at just $299, businesses that process, store or transmit electronically protected health information (ePHI or PHI) can get a pre-configured HIPAA Package at Liquid Web that complies with the strict administrative, physical, and technical safeguards of HIPPA, the Health Insurance Portability, and Accountability Act of 1996.
For e-Commerce businesses, Liquid Web also offers a PCI Compliance Scanning Service for $50 per month. This service provides quarterly and on-demand PCI scans from an Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV). Since it is a fully managed service, Liquid Web’s team will help correct the problem (and re-scan) if compliance issues are detected.
Cons of Liquid Web
Built for tech-savvy users (not beginners)
Liquid Web isn’t for beginners. You’ll notice this when you visit their website. Liquid Web’s plans are highly technical and may be difficult to understand if you’re not familiar with basic server management. While Liquid Web does offer live chat for pre-sales questions, their representatives are more versed in enterprise hosting than helping with your hobby website.
If you do need help with your hobby website, though, we recommend getting started with Bluehost for the cheapest web hosting. InMotion Hosting also offers a DIY website builder called BoldGrid which you may find helpful too. BoldGrid adds drag-and-drop editing functionality to WordPress.
Not the cheapest hosting provider.
Liquid Web’s impressive data centers and skilled support team come at a price. Their lowest tier VPS is $59.99/mo when billed monthly, for example. If you click here, we’ve partnered with them to help bring the initial cost down to a more manageable rate for your first term, though.
If you’re looking for the cheapest hosting, we recommend going with Bluehost. They frequently offer their start shared hosting plan for less than $3 per month. Keep in mind, you’re not going to get enterprise-level support, though.
Liquid Web Plans & Pricing
Liquid Web is known for high-performance VPS & Dedicated Server hosting, so we’ve included those plans here for your convenience. As of late, they also offer Managed WordPress, Managed WooCommerce, and Premium Email Hosting (starting at just $1/mo!).
Managed VPS Hosting
Liquid Web offers four fully-managed VPS hosting plans, all available with Linux, and three with Windows, with the option to use cPanel, Interworx, or Plesk as your hosting control panel.
- 2GB RAM – starting at $15/mo
- 2vCPU Cores
- 40GB SSD Disk Space
- 10TB Bandwidth
- 4GB RAM – starting at $25/mo
- 4vCPU Cores
- 100GB SSD Disk Space
- 10TB Bandwidth
- 8GB RAM – starting at $35/mo
- 8vCPU Cores
- 150GB SSD Disk Space
- 10TB Bandwidth
- 16GB RAM – starting at $95/mo
- 8vCPU Cores
- 200GB SSD Disk Space
- 10TB Bandwidth
Click here to get Liquid Web’s best pricing on VPS hosting.
Managed Dedicated Servers
Liquid Web offers three different dedicated server configurations, available in their Michigan (US), Arizona (US), and Amsterdam (Europe) data centers.
- Intel Xeon 1230 v6 – starting at $99/mo
- 4 cores @ 3.6 GHz
- 16GB RAM
- 250GB SSD (RAID)
- 1TB SATA Backup Drive
- 5TB Outbound Bandwidth
- Intel Xeon Silver 4208 – starting at $149/mo
- 8 Cores @ 2.1 GHz
- 16GB RAM
- 500GB SSD (RAID)
- 1TB SATA Backup Drive
- 5TB Bandwidth
- Dual Intel Xeon E5-2620 v3 – starting at $189/mo
- 12 Cores @ 2.4 GHz
- 32GB RAM
- 500GB SSD (RAID)
- 1TB SATA Backup Drive
- 5TB Bandwidth
Click here to get Liquid Web’s best pricing on Dedicated Servers.
Liquid Web FAQs
cPanel, InterWorx, or Plesk Web Pro are available with a VPS or Dedicated Server at Liquid Web.
Liquid Web offers several operating systems including CentOS, Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, CloudLinux, and Windows Server.
No, Liquid Web doesn’t offer shared web hosting. Liquid Web sells Virtual Private Servers, Dedicated Servers, and other high-end hosting services like VMWare.
Yes, some (but not all) Liquid Web dedicated servers are HIPPA compliant. Click here to view their HIPPA-compliant hosting services.
Summary & Our Recommendation
Liquid Web is our #1 recommended hosting provider for small to medium-sized businesses. They have some of the best infrastructure and support in the industry. You’ll have peace of mind with their SLA that guarantees 100% uptime. Since they offer complimentary migrations for most users, there’s really no reason to give Liquid Web a try if they are within your budget.
As Liquid Web user Adam C. says best:
Don’t get me wrong, there are some great hosts out there. But there is only one that I love. Liquid Web is, hands down, the best of them all. And they keep getting better year after year.
While we offer a glowing recommendation for Liquid Web, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that their hosting service comes at a cost. Be prepared to pay between $50 and $100 per month for their lower-tier plans.
Here’s a special money-saving tip, though… Click here to activate Liquid Web’s best pricing. We’ve partnered with them to help lower the price of your initial term.
Liquid Web Alternatives
If you’re a beginner and worried that Liquid Web will be too advanced or expensive for you, we recommend taking a look at the following hosting providers:
If you’re a moderate to a pro-level user, and Liquid Web doesn’t fit your needs, we recommend considering these alternatives: