Liquid Web web hosting review

Trusted but expensive managed hosting provider

Liquid Web logo
(Image: © Liquid Web)

Tom's Guide Verdict

Liquid Web is a renowned but expensive cloud hosting provider for advanced users of WordPress. However, the lack of shared hosting options and an unfriendly interface will drive away inexperienced users.

Pros

  • +

    Lots of server options

  • +

    Great performance

Cons

  • -

    No shared hosting

  • -

    Not for entry-level users

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Be it in server performance or customer support, Liquid Web’s managed hosting solution for businesses is par excellence. With no shared hosting plans in its roster, this business-grade web hosting service will cost you a fair bit, however. 

In this Liquid Web review, we find that the web hosting provider offers a slew of cloud, virtual, dedicated, and reseller hosting solutions for businesses and agencies of all stripes. With clients like National Geographic and Symantec, there’s no doubt that this is one of the best web hosting services currently available.

Liquid Web: Plans and pricing

Liquid Web's webpage showcasing its web hosting products

Liquid Web is a premium solution with no shared hosting options (Image credit: Liquid Web)

Liquid Web is a premium hosting solution with no shared hosting options. What it does have, however, is a series of managed, virtual, cloud, and dedicated hosting plans that differ in pricing based on the number of websites you can host. 

Unlike other web hosting providers, even the lowest tier in managed hosting does not impose restrictions on visitor count, and comes with 2TB bandwidth and 15GB disk space, which is plenty for hosting a single website. This plan costs $9.50 a month for the first six months, and $19 a month after that. Above this, there are higher tier managed hosting plans that let you host five, 10, and 25 websites, respectively.

Virtual private server hosting and dedicated hosting are also an option with Liquid Web. These hosting plans are great for large-scale businesses that require constant uptime, even during busy hours. If you require enterprise-level resources for your business, cloud hosting is yet another option. There are a plethora of plans to choose from, all accessible via the products page

Liquid Web: Features

Liquid Web's webpage discussing its cloud hosting features

Liquid Web offers excellent cloud hosting services for enterprises (Image credit: Liquid Web)

We will now take a look at some of the best features that Liquid Web offers to its customers. Does functionality justify the high pricing?

Unlike other types of web hosting, cloud hosting has your website hosted across multiple servers across the world, so that you never experience any downtime. It’s the best and most efficient form of web hosting currently available—a platform that’s taking the entire web hosting industry by storm. 

Liquid Web also lets you choose between Windows and Linux-based operating system environments for your cloud hosting platform, which has seen it make the lists of the best Windows hosting and best Linux hosting providers. Very few web hosting companies can boldly tout a 100% uptime guarantee, Liquid Web being one of them. 

The provider boasts highly dependable uptimes, making sure that your website remains accessible at all hours, even during those massive traffic surges. If you are a business that values consistent performance for its website, Liquid Web is an excellent choice.

Liquid Web offers a series of managed hosting plans for the popular content management system WordPress, which lets you easily launch a website or blog using the platform without having to worry about setup or maintenance. The best part is that, unlike other providers, Liquid Web’s managed hosting plans do not restrict the number of monthly visitors you can have on your website.

Liquid Web: Interface and in use

Liquid Web's interface in use

Liquid Web employs two separate interfaces: one old and one new (Image credit: Liquid Web)

Liquid Web offers two separate user interfaces for managing your web hosting account: one new, and the other old. The old interface is dated and unintuitive, making it hard to navigate or pinpoint certain actions. 

The new interface is a lot more visually appealing, but lacks some of the features from the old UI. Liquid Web is currently transferring its systems from the old to the new graphical interface, but having to switch between two separate interfaces makes for a constant headache.

Thankfully, things get a lot easier once you have logged into your server backend, whether it’s based on Plex or cPanel. You also get access to a tool called Softaculous, which lets you quickly install a huge collection of content management platforms—including WordPress—with just one click.

Liquid Web: Support

Liquid Web's online knowledge base

Liquid Web’s customer support team is highly responsive (Image credit: Liquid Web)

Liquid Web’s customer support team is, once again, par excellence. 24/7 support is available via phone, live chat, and support tickets—and unlike other web hosts—Liquid Web guarantees the amount of time it takes for them to respond to your queries. Phone and live chat requests are answered in less than a minute, while support tickets don’t take more than half an hour to be attended to.

Liquid Web: Security

Liquid Web's webpage discussing its security add-ons

There are several security add-ons available with Liquid Web (Image credit: Liquid Web)

Aside from SSL certificates and VPN servers, Liquid Web also offers firewalls and malware removal services as add-on packages for your hosting plan. Physically, Liquid Web has round-the-clock security monitoring every one of its data centers to mitigate the risk of theft. And of course, backup services are available for those who want the added assurance.

Alternatives to Liquid Web

SiteGround's homepage

SiteGround offers top-notch support and excellent performance (Image credit: SiteGround)

SiteGround and DreamHost are two excellent alternatives to Liquid Web, both offering comparable cloud hosting and managed hosting solutions for attractive prices. DreamHost has its own unique strengths, including a better interface and monthly billing, and is the better choice for new users, too. 

SiteGround is another provider with top-notch customer support and excellent server performance. It’s also a favorite among WordPress users, as the platform is very well optimized for this particular content management system. SiteGround is also more suitable for entry-level users than Liquid Web, whose customer base comprises advanced users and professional developers. 

Liquid Web: Final verdict

Liquid Web is a solid web hosting service with flawless server performance and a robust collection of plans to choose from. While the lack of a shared hosting plan or beginner-friendly UI makes this platform unsuitable for entry-level users and non-developers, Liquid Web has carved out its own share in the market thanks to best-in-class customer support and enterprise-level cloud hosting.

Further reading on web hosting

Find out where Liquid Web ranks in our lists ranking the best VPS hosting, the best cloud hosting, the best WordPress hosting, the best Windows hosting, the best Linux web hosting, and the best unlimited hosting. If you want to build a website, take a look at the best website builders.

Ritoban Mukherjee

Ritoban Mukherjee is a freelance journalist from West Bengal, India whose work on cloud storage, web hosting, and a range of other topics has been published on Tom's Guide, TechRadar, Creative Bloq, IT Pro, Gizmodo, Medium, and Mental Floss.