Step 2 – Choosing A Web Hosting Company – Liquid Web
This is the second part of the second step in the guide to setting up your own website on your own domain.
Now, if you go to the Liquid Web website and browse around for a bit, you’ll get a little pop-up chat box that will connect you to one of the Liquid Web sales staff. After a while, you notice that they want to talk to you, answer any questions you might have, settle any concerns that might crop up.
You know a company is interested in providing great customer service when they go to all lengths to get you to talk to them – and that goes double for companies who are internet-based.
It seems that more and more businesses out there that provide services are more interested in avoiding their customers – answering questions by sending you a link to their FAQ page or e-mailing you a canned response. While that approach to customer service is a great way to save a considerable amount of money for the company, it does tend to prevent customers from developing a strong sense of loyalty for that company.
Liquid Web has been around since 1997 and has all the technical expertise you would want in a web host with over 150 engineers that pride themselves on Heroic Support. When they say Heroic Support, they really mean Heroic Support. It’s that good. While most web hosts promote a 99.9% uptime guarantee, Liquid Web boasts a full 100% uptime guarantee. If you absolutely, positively want your website to be available all the time, that’s a big plus in Liquid Web’s favor.
Liquid Web owns, engineers and operates their own data centers – 3 of them – which sets them apart from most other web hosts who just rent out space from other, larger web hosts. The level of security and redundancy that they’ve built into their web hosting services is really outstanding.
While Liquid Web’s business focus is really on managed Virtual Private Servers and managed Dedicated Servers, they do have some stellar shared hosting packages that they offer to the people who don’t necessarily need the power – or expense – of the higher-priced hosting options.
Liquid Web Shared Hosting Packages
Like most web hosting companies, Liquid Web has several different levels of shared hosting that they offer their customers.
The lowest-priced shared hosting package that Liquid Web offers goes for $14.95 per month. For that price, you get:
- 24×7 Toll Free Phone Support
- Two Free Domain Names
- Site Studio Software
- CPanel + Fantastico Auto Installer
- 1GB RAID Protected Disk Space
- 120GB Premium Multi-Homed Bandwidth
While this may not seem like a good deal when you compare numbers with Hawk Host shared hosting services, you have to look at everything. Liquid Web offers a great deal more bandwidth than Hawk Host does, but less storage. Storage isn’t a problem on most websites, however – bandwidth, and to an even-greater extent, CPU usage is.
Liquid Web is upfront about how much CPU usage your website can take up on their shared hosting server – 15%. That’s good for a shared hosting environment. Remember – if your site is taking up more than your fair share of server resources, all the other sites on the server suffer.
The second tier of shared hosting that Liquid Web offers is $19.95 a month. For that, you get:
- 24×7 Toll Free Phone Support
- Three Free Domain Names
- Site Studio Software
- CPanel + Fantastico Auto Installer
- 1500MB RAID Protected Disk Space
- 200GB Premium Multi-Homed Bandwidth
This would not be my choice for shared hosting packages. Just 5$ more per month gets you up to the next tier, which is much more attractive.
The highest-priced shared hosting package that Liquid Web offers goes for $24.95 a month and provides:
- Static IP Address
- 24×7 Toll Free Phone Support
- One Dedicated IP Address
- Five Free Domain Names or a free SSL Certificate
- Site Studio Software
- CPanel + Fantastico Auto Installer
- 2500MB RAID Protected Disk Space
- 320GB Premium Multi-Homed Bandwidth
While free domain name registration may seem like a good deal, it’s only free for a year. After that, you’re charged. I wouldn’t even bother with it. The free SSL Certificate is a good deal, but it also is only free for a year.
The site studio software may be nice, but for the purposes of this guide it’s unimportant.
The static, dedicated IP address is usually a $2-$5 dollar monthly option with other shared web hosts, and it’s good to see that feature included in Liquid Web’s top shared hosting tier.
Liquid Web Pros
- Heroic Customer Service – This is their company motto and they’re very serious about it. They go above and beyond to help you through whatever problem you’re having, and that’s valuable for people who might not know exactly what they’re doing.
- Bandwidth – Always a plus, and Liquid Web gives you more.
- Uptime guarantee – Liquid Web guarantees your server will be up 100% of the time.
Liquid Web Cons
- Price – There is no doubt that, for many people, price is the top concern when it comes to web hosting. And price is important. You need to feel like you’re getting a good return on your investment, that what you’re buying has a good value. Ultimately you have to decide for yourself as to whether or not the higher prices Liquid Web charges shared hosting customers are a good value for you.
When it comes down to choosing Hawk Host or Liquid Web, you have to ask yourself some questions.
Is cost my biggest factor?
Yes? Then go with Hawk Host.
Is uptime and fanatically devoted technical support people the most important factor?
Yes? Then go with Liquid Web.
Continuing the car analogy from the previous post about choosing a web host, if Hawk Host is a Lexus, Liquid Web is a Bentley or Rolls Royce. You really can’t go wrong with either one.
The Guide:
Registering a Domain Name
Choosing a Web Hosting Company: Hawk Host or Liquid Web
Pointing Your Domain Name to Your Web Host
Using cPanel and Fantastico to Put Up Your First Website
Changing The Default WordPress Settings On Your First Website
Locating, Loading And Activating Useful WordPress Plugins For Your First Website
A List Of Useful WordPress Plugins
