InterServer Hosting Full Review: Enter the Net
Content
With over 20 years in the market, InterServer has been a successful, growing company that has been growing by providing hosting services that satisfy its customers, allowing it to grow to where it is today.
InterServer provides a very wide variety of services, that makes sure it suits the needs of every customer needs.
InterServer with its top-notch service is the leading choice for many online operations today.
Pros
Cons
Quick Stats
InterServer is a hosting veteran in the market for a long time. Their business has been flourishing with time, and they've been accumulating more and more satisfied customers over the years. But what exactly do they have to offer? And which users stand to gain most of their service?
Let's dive into this review and find out.
InterServer's Hosting Plans
InterServer offers different types of hosting depending on the plan you need. These include:
- Shared hosting: For small-medium businesses looking for more room to grow. Further details are discussed later on.
- Cloud and VPS hosting: Using Cloud VPS is also a valid option when dealing with medium to large businesses.
- Dedicated hosting: If you want your own dedicated server, you can do so for $79.99/month with InterServer.
- Reseller hosting: InterServer allows users to go for reseller hosting, where they can resell the hosting services to others.
Each of the hosting types can provide users with features more advanced features than the previous, choosing which mainly depends on how much traffic your website receives. Hosting plans provided by InterServer than their features include:
If you’re a startup or you're starting a new project, a shared hosting plan is what you need. You’ll be sharing a server with others, but you’ll own hosting space for a lower price.
Unlike other websites, InterServer offers an annual shared hosting plan varying from 1-3 years. InterServer’s shared hosting prices decreases as you subscribe for a longer time. For example, if you want to sign up for website hosting for 36 months, prices range between $8.99 and $26.99.
InterServer Linux based shared hosting plan provides the following:
| Features | Basic Plan |
|---|---|
| Storage | Unlimited Ultra SSD |
| Emails | Unlimited E-Mail Accounts |
| Domains | Unlimited |
| Bandwidth | Unmetered |
| Backup | Weekly Backups |
| Monthly Subscription | $2.50/month (Renews at $7.00/month) |
| 6-Month Subscription | $15.00/6 months (Renews at $42.00/6 months) |
| 12-Month Subscription | $30.00/12 months (Renews at $84.00/2 months) |
If you are just starting your website, you can choose any plan and later on upgrade to another one.
2. VPS and Cloud hosting
In VPS hosting, users get a separate virtual space that isn't shared with anyone else while the physical space remains shared. Using VPS hosting provides users with better features which can be essential for large websites with a lot of traffic. The VPS hosting plans are extremely customizable, with 4 features scaling as you like.
The four features that can be adjusted include CPU Cores, Memory, Storage, and Bandwidth transfer. The price starts from $6/month and scales up to $96/month, with 16 tiers of upgrade.
The basic stats for which you can get a VPS hosting service include a 1CPU core, 2MB RAM, 30 GB SSD storage, and 1TB of bandwidth. Each added tier adds: +1 CPU core, + 2MB RAM, +30 GB SSD Storage, and 1TB of bandwidth transfer. The price increases by a $6/tier/month cost.
3. Dedicated hosting
Dedicated hosting is for heavy-duty websites which require a lot of resources and receive millions of visitors monthly.
Dedicated hosting means your website is separated from other websites physically and virtually, which means you will share neither resources nor space; the server is 100% yours and yours alone.
The main advantage of dedicated hosting is the high customizability it provides. You can pick and choose every single component of your dedicated hosting server and customize the features to a high degree.
Among the available dedicated servers they provide. Two entry-level bundles shine. These include:
| Plans | Intel E3-1230 | AMD RYZEN 3600X |
|---|---|---|
| Cores | 4 Core CPU | 6 Core Single CPU |
| Cache memory | 3 MB Cache | 8 MB Cache |
| RAM | 4 GB RAM | 64 GB RAM |
| Storage | 250 GB | 1000 GB |
| Bandwidth | 20 TB Transfer | 20 TB Transfer |
| IP Adress | 5 IPs | 5 IPs |
| Operating system | CentOS 6.5 (64-bit) | CentOS 6.5 (64-bit) |
| Price | $79.99/Month | $99.99/Month |
4. Reseller hosting
InterServer provides users with the possibility to use reseller hosting. The features provided by their reseller hosting programs are as follows:
| Plans | RS One | RS Two | RS Three | RS Four | RS Five |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Disk Space | 80GB | 120GB | 160GB | 200GB | 280GB |
| Monthly Bandwidth | 500GB | 700GB | 1000GB | 1300GB | 2000GB |
| Max Cpanel Accounts | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 70 |
| All Web Hosting Features | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Client Management | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Setup Fees | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Monthly Pricing | $19.95 | $29.95 | $39.95 | $49.95 | $69.95 |
Tips to consider and keep in mind
Renewal prices are higher; that’s why it’s better to prepay two or three years upfront; the average monthly price decreases, but you’ll be paying in advance.
Comparatively, going for a monthly plan will exponentially increase in price, with the initial shared hosting price being $2.5/month and the renewal $7/month (monthly) vs. $30.00/year renewing at $84.00/year (yearly).
You don't have to start big; start with shared hosting, and you can always upgrade later on when your website needs the upgrade.
If you are using VPS hosting, keep in mind the upcoming events such as Black Friday a month ahead of time, so you can upgrade your plan in advance for a month, then go back to the original plan.
All plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try out their service and see for yourself whether it meets your standards or not.
Payment Methods
Whether you’re looking to pay using your credit card or PayPal, InterServer gives you an option. Credit cards include Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express; they’re all accepted.
Ease of Use
If this is your first website, you’re probably looking for something easy to use. InterServer is an adaptable hosting service; using the SitePad drag-and-drop website builder is an extra for users with no experience developing websites.
The tools available make it easier for a beginner to build a website. Likewise, the free domain and the SSL certificates for the first year helps in maintaining the website.
Customer Service
If you feel a bit confused or lost, InterServer offers customer service support through multiple ways to help you with problems you may face.
Suppose you feel like the issue might be simple and can be solved without contacting anyone. In that case, you can access InterServer's blog, which has many articles, step-by-step guidelines, and video tutorials to help you with issues you might come across.
When you hit a wall and can't find a simple solution, or if the solution requires further explanation, you can resort to the other ways and contact an agent that will support you through live chat, email, phone support, or even Facebook chat.
The customer support team is very helpful and ready to answer all your questions and solve your technical difficulties.
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Security
When running a website, you have to think about things from the users' perspective rather than the owners only. InterServer provides users with several useful tools they can utilize, which ultimately provide a better user experience, which will ultimately translate either directly or indirectly into traffic.
Features InterServer offers to ensure your website is safe and secure include:
SSL Certificate
An SSL certificate provides TLS protocol encryption to your website. Adding this encryption helps make your website more secure. It is often shown in the form of a small lock next to the URL of your website on web browsers.
Users often consider this feature when entering websites, by search engines when ranking websites, and is essential for e-commerce and online transactions.
InterServer provides a free SSL certificate with all of its plans.
SpamAssassin Protection
With email services, you get SpamAssassin protection that identifies spam mails. As a safety precaution, InterServer offers it for free with their plans.
InterShield Security
As part of their security solutions, InterServer provides the InterShield Security feature for free, which provides a great level of protection, as it includes an automatic virus scanner, a machine learning firewall, a web attack blocker, and an in house malware database.
Site Backup
You don't have to worry about losing your data; there are daily automatic site backups with InterServer that help prevents major website disruptions.
Free CDN
When using InterServer, users are granted access to free CDN.
A content delivery network (CDN) can speed up the delivery of data tremendously, especially when the region you're targeting doesn't have nearby servers.
Load Times, Reliability, and Features
Regarding the basic and most important features to look for, we take into consideration the following:
Uptime & Speed
InterServer has an uptime of 99.90%. This is considered to be below the industry average, which is surprising considering their consistent performance in other areas. In terms of speed, on the other hand, they proved to be better than the average, which is a plus.
Features
InterServer plans come with a lot of beneficial features that will blow your mind. You get unlimited emails, unlimited SSD storage, and unlimited bandwidth, depending on the plan you choose.
If you want to migrate your website, InterServer does that free of charge. They even offer assistance if needed while migrating all your files.
For Advanced Users
InterServer offers several customization tools for developers that they can use to customize their websites as they see fit.
Other features for advanced users include:
- Different programming languages:
- PHP
- Perl 5 and Perl 7
- Python
- Ruby on Rails
Not to mention the MySQL database and FTP accounts & access. Not to mention the Secure Shell (SSH) Access for developers to safely shared data.
E-Commerce
There are plenty of e-commerce tools that can be bought on InterServer to enhance your marketing.
They even have e-commerce web hosting plans which integrate 1-click installers of many shopping carts such as Magento, Woocommerce, Opencart, OScommerce, and Prestashop.
InterServer Website Building
You can use plenty of website builders to organize your websites on InterServer, such as WordPress or SitePad. Using the drag-and-drop function can let you build a page with whatever content you might need.
The free SitePad version allows you to add custom HTML and build up to six pages, but you can upgrade for the professional building for $8.99/month, which offers more services.
Custom Error Pages
To make your website look more professional, you can customize error pages. InterServer has a step-by-step guide that tells you how to customize it from the cPanel in their knowledge base.
Server Locations
InterServer has servers only in the US. To be more exact, the servers are located in Los Angeles, New Jersey, and Secaucus.
Final Verdict
Is InterServer a good service for me? InterServer definitely provides top-notch services.
InterServer hosting provide many services for their users. The variety of choices they have might seem intimidating at first. However, it shows how important for Interserver it is to find a good match to their customers' demands.
The variety of services they provide will ensure you get exactly what you need. They provide a wide variety and quality service that can be competitive on an international level; the features they provide are outstanding.
With their multi-protection features, you gain in security, ranging from the free SSL security to the InterShield security, keeping your website risk-free. In terms of speed, their products proved to be above average. In addition, the SitePad website builder provides an easy-to-use interface to make your website.
Like any hosting provider, it has its pros and cons, so if you’re looking for unlimited bandwidth with high speed and a drag-and-drop builder, Go for it! After all, the money value is seen in the features offered in every product!
Still hesitant? Don't worry; there is a 30-day money-back guarantee!