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I’ve had the pleasure (or displeasure) of using a huge amount of web hosts over the last few years – some great, some not so great. It also goes without saying that there is always some new company popping up with a new product that claims to have all of the answers, and by the time you find out that they do not, it is too late.

However, in my opinion, Liquid Web is a name that you can trust in the web hosting business. Although their setup is not perfect, it is definitely worth your time to at least give them a go in order to see if their strengths provide you with the value that you need for your requirements.

The Strengths of Liquid Web Hosting

As far as value oriented web hosting sites go, Liquid Web is one of the best on the market today. In the price range, you will be hard pressed to find any web hosting service that provides the same kind of flexibility, quality, and support features that Liquid Web do. In short, they’re awesome.

The first thing I have to mention is their customer support. Billed as being ‘heroic’, they do their very best to live up to expectations. Of the hundred or so support tickets that I’ve created, all have had at least a response within 10-15 minutes, followed by regular updates. A couple have been ‘dropped’ as shifts rolled over, but this has only happened with low priority issues and a quick chase has been enough to illicit a grovelling response.

The most notable element of this is their willingness to speak to you on a level that you’re comfortable with. As someone reasonably technical I like to know exactly what’s going on, and what was done to fix a problem, so that the next time it happens I’m able to sort it myself. In some instances, however, I’ve played the role of someone less knowledgable (just to be lazy really) and things have always been explained in a way that anyone could understand.

Another plus to Liquid Web is the ability to choose your data center, which is a feature that is usually reserved for more expensive web hosting packages. Being able to do this gives you more control over the speed of your site as you can choose the area that’s closest to your customer-base.

Finally, there are plenty of optional extras that are actually useful. From firewalls to off-box storage, load balancers and backup options they pretty much offer them all. This really is a company that you could start out with some shared hosting and build up to a few dozen dedicated boxes configured just as you need them (although the most I’ve ever reached is 4).

The Weaknesses of Liquid Web Hosting

Although Liquid Web Hosting is one of the best values on the market, if you choose the shared hosting package, it is actually among the more expensive options out there. This is for good reason though as it’s one of the best on the market. Downtime is kept to a minimum and I haven’t had any issues with speed, which is something that’s frustratingly common with most hosts.

The Bottom Line

If you are trying to find a great value for your start up or small business, then Liquid Web Hosting may very well be the web hosting solution for your immediate or short term needs. The fact that you can have a shared hosting price with the same features of a virtual private server make Liquid Web Hosting a great company for any business in need of a professional solution.