Review: Liquidweb.com (Dedicated Servers)
One of the most competitive market areas in web hosting is the dedicated server arena. A big player in this niche market is Liquidweb. Liquidweb is in there for the long haul and they are well established in the industry. Liquidweb operates their own data centers and their offers are based on price and features to the benefit of the customers. Liquidweb was founded in August 1997. Liquid Web owns and operates two private data centers. Liquidweb offers direct connectivity with MCI, AT&T, Savvis and Level3. These sound like the ingredients for a good web hosting company. Let’s have a look at the server offers. As a customer you can choose between different dedicated server programs or even consider to use the co-location services of Liquidweb. Dedicated servers start with Dual Core technology of AMD and Intel. All hardware comes with a 2 hour Replacement SLA (Service Level Agreement) in case of hardware problems. Customer can customize servers to their liking and add features as needed. A great FREE offer is the 50 GB remote backup option to have data stored away from the server which adds a great layer of protection in case the hard drives would crash or a server would hacked.
Current specials for LiquidWeb – click here
We configured a 3.0 GHz Dual Core Server with 2 GB RAM and 2 hard drives for a price of $234.00 per month. This includes cPanel and WHM as well as no setup fees and a generous bandwidth allowance of 3200 GB (split into 1600 in and 1600 out). Additional upgrades were available, but the chosen configuration makes for a great web server already at a price hard to beat considering that this is a managed server that even comes with a security package. The checkout process is easy and fast. Basic server information is already collected during the checkout process so that the server build process can move forward as streamlined as possible.
Support is available 24/7 via phone or web-based helpdesk. A large knowledge base is also available and if you like you can join the Liquidweb forums for customer/customer/liquidweb interaction. The available video tutorials would probably be considered standard nowadays that we would expect from every web hosting provider, but in general it makes a great impression as it adds value to the entire support option. Server Level monitoring adds an extra layer of support and security to a dedicated server package.
Conclusion: Liquidweb.com makes a great web hosting provider for affordable dedicated servers. The available options and features are accompanied by great pricing and you do not find too many players in the market that offer the same level of features and price. Liquidweb seems to have found a great mix of reliable hardware, excellent support personnel, and a low-cost location that allows to price the cheap dedicated servers in the web hosting market. Two Thumbs up from Webhostingresourcekit.com
UPDATE (January 1, 2008): I posted a follow-up review of Liquidweb web hosting over at my website "The Web Hosting Report". Make sure to check it out.
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