Looking over InterServer’s less costly shared website hosting plans, it’s clean to get suspicious. Can a low month-to-month rate of £2.19 really internet you unlimited resources, beneficial greater functions, and powerful security equipment? What’s the capture?
On paper, the entirety appears promising. InterServer boasts 19 years of revel in inside the net hosting enterprise and a huge kind of plans, from shared hosting to reseller plans, VPS (virtual private server) machines, and devoted servers. Plus, all four of InterServer’s data facilities are placed within the US, so North American users can moderately expect splendid speeds.
Still, I needed to see for myself the way it actually plays. To discover, I signed as much as InterServer myself, and tested it very well for months.
Long story short? InterServer provides a top notch service that might be right for you. In my in-intensity evaluation of the excellent internet hosts today, it got here in at the very respectable 1/3 area, beating heavy-hitting competitors just like the top rate Kinsta. I did come across some thrilling surprises alongside the way, so examine directly to discover exactly what you could count on as a consumer.
FEATURES
Unlimited Resources, Unlimited Domains, and Powerful Extras
InterServer’s shared web hosting comes in forms: Linux hosting, described absolutely as Standard Web Hosting, and Windows web hosting, described as ASP.NET. WordPress and other famous CMS (content material management systems) perform nice on Linux web hosting, which is based totally at the famous cPanel manage panel. Windows website hosting, alternatively, is sort of solely used for net initiatives dependent on Microsoft technology, together with ASP.NET or MSSQL.
For the motive of this review, I signed up for the Linux-based totally Standard Web Hosting plan for £2.19. It includes a whole lot of cool capabilities, but first and predominant is the limitless amount of assets.
Now, limitless doesn’t suggest you may park your complete media library for your account, or make it into a downloads portal. What it does imply is that as long as you adhere to a honest use policy, you don’t have to fear about strolling out of space or bandwidth ever once more.
This is splendid information, however it doesn’t imply that you’ll be capable of stick with shared web hosting and let your website hold growing forever. A massively a success internet site would require more CPU and RAM sources, as many simultaneous visitors placed a big stress on a shared server. If that happens, you’ll need to upgrade to a VPS.
What else does InterServer have for us? SSL certificate. Everybody gets one! The employer consists of a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate with each shared account, making sure you’re padlock covered. SSL is a have to for running an e-trade save, making sure your traffic’ privateness, and getting higher Google scores. The certificates doesn’t come pre-hooked up, however the guide agent I spoke with became greater than glad to install it himself.
I proceeded to check InterServer’s SSL tech via the Qualys SSL check, where my website got a awesome A ranking.
Next, all Linux debts come with the Softaculous one-click on installation device. Use it to install WordPress, Joomla, the SitePad website builder, and masses of other CMS in a minute or . If you’re switching to InterServer from a distinctive internet host, no need to do any of the work yourself. InterServer affords loose website migrations with all money owed.
The one crucial function that InterServer lacked became far off backups. You can set up a time table and create backups in your nearby web hosting force, however I would’ve wanted to look an automated far off alternative. You’ll simply have to be a responsible person and switch these backups to a remote location yourself, to make sure that a dreaded safety breach doesn’t price you the whole thing.
Ironclad Security Tools and Protocols
Keeping your internet site stable and free of malicious files is of the utmost importance, but most web hosting businesses are more like your a laugh uncle than your in all likelihood overprotective mother and father. That is, some will try to upsell you with a security suite, others would possibly provide some useful recommendation, but only a few will provide you with the whole thing you need to hold your website safe.
This is where InterServer definitely shines. Its InterShield Security firewall blocks outside attackers, utilising system getting to know to live beforehand of the threats. This defense is mechanically blanketed with all plans. In addition, you’ll have get entry to to the ModSecurity tool, presenting every other layer of firewall defenses, and to Imunify360, so that it will continuously scan your hosting drive for malicious files.
LiteSpeed Caching and Cloudflare CDN
Your internet site’s velocity can be hugely advanced by using the usage of caching, a process that saves static copies of your pages for future use. LiteSpeed, one of the great web server technology to be had these days, gives all of the caching tools needed to boost your overall performance.
You’ll get get entry to to LiteSpeed caching through cPanel, and the included tool will quick experiment your force and make cached copies of your pages. For advanced pages that require an awesome amount of computing strength, this will keep treasured seconds in loading time.
Always use the LiteSpeed cache. It’s extremely good, and I like it.
Another extraordinary integration is with Cloudflare’s CDN (content material shipping network). Cloudflare’s international fleet of servers will cache copies of your website’s pages, and each one among your site visitors may be served from a server area near them. It’s like turning your website into McDonalds, with a region on every corner, but probably offering better dietary value.
That’s right, I stated it.
Mostly static web sites (like portfolios and business pages) will gain the most out of a CDN, as it has the ability to significantly cut loading times for site visitors some distance far from InterServer’s records facilities. If your website is continuously updated and contains a number of dynamic content material, a CDN will have much less of an impact.
Unlimited Domains and Websites
You’ll often locate that there’s a limit at the number of separate web sites you can build with a shared internet website hosting plan. You would possibly have sufficient disk space to be had for some other small venture you want to bring online (like a cat sweater consulting firm) but you’ll both be limited to using subdomains, or no longer even have get entry to to the databases had to set up extra WordPress times. Actually, this turned into the case with each different basic shared plan I tested.
Well, InterServer is exclusive. Open as many databases as you need, and use the area manager to feature greater domains, running absolutely separate web sites. This is remarkable in case you’re trying to make the maximum from your unlimited plan and aren’t looking forward to big site visitors on any of your websites.
EASE OF USE
A Few Hiccups Aside, It’s a Pretty Streamlined Process
Features-sensible, it’s obvious that InterServer packs a severe punch. Are some of these features as easy to use as they may be effective? Well, almost. A few issues had been cited, however normally talking, I didn’t come upon any principal issues. Let’s take a closer look.
Choosing Your Plan
Ever wandered into a store looking for something however determined yourself crushed by using the sheer range of manufacturers and alternatives? Many web hosting businesses appoint the identical tactic and provide a confusing listing of comparable-sounding plans with minor differences, type of like every boy band ever. I become so satisfied to see that InterServer did away with this and now offers simplest one shared plan. One!
Creating a New Account became the Aforementioned Hiccup
After choosing Standard Shared Hosting, it turned into time to create an account. The procedure changed into pretty widespread, and after getting into my domain name, information, and credit card statistics, my account was created. But my hosting wasn’t active.
I wasn’t positive why, and I couldn’t discover any statistics in my account area. I figured I’d wait, wondering maybe the technique takes time, however after hours, the whole lot remained the identical.
I gave up and contacted guide, which took over an hour to reply. The agent defined that my credit score card needed to be confirmed and the charge hadn’t surely been made. I tried verifying it, however ended up simply switching to PayPal instead. After that, the payment was immediately well-known and my web hosting was activated. Total time from signup to activation? Four hours. I want it was simpler.
Connecting a Domain and Installing WordPress
After the account activation debacle, I determined myself a little much less enamored with the carrier. What else become going to move incorrect? Luckily, it become smooth crusing from that point onward. I observed InterServer’s nameservers in my account region, and after updating them in my Namecheap dashboard, my hosting changed into connected in no time.
There’s nothing higher than not having to look for nameservers
Installing WordPress become clean with Softaculous, and the automatic set up took no longer than a minute.
The only disturbing component changed into that the default vacation spot folder for WordPress is domain/wp/, so recollect to eliminate the “wp” part. If you overlook to achieve this, your domain name alone received’t direct in your site. Visitors will ought to visit yourdomain.Com/wp in place of simply yourdomain.Com.
To fix it, you’ll want to either reinstall WordPress, or delve into the MySQL database on my own. For my less geeky readers, simply understand that this is a problem and a pain. So delete the ones letters, and also you’ll be ok.
PERFORMANCE
Great Speeds in North America and Western Europe
For traffic, it’s all about two things: page loading pace and server uptime. InterServer’s statistics centers are positioned on both coasts of america, with 3 on the east coast and one in LA. I selected the Secaucus, NY data center as my location.
What’s the decision? In brief, I got a first rate common loading time of one.94s, and a totally reliable uptime of ninety nine.953% over greater than four months of checking out. Speeds had been nice within the US and Europe, with other international locations taking longer to load my web site.
You’re welcome to retain reading all approximately my testing method and the geeky records I’ve amassed, however if that feels unnecessary you could additionally soar instantly to my adventures with the InterServer’s aid.
To see how the service in reality performs, I uploaded my reliable test internet site – The Autonomous Shoes – onto a new WordPress installation.
You’ll word that it’s very much like what your personal website might look like – a medium-sized homepage containing HD pix, text, some cool animations, and a touch shape. As such, the effects I’ve amassed will give you a completely close approximation of the overall performance you could count on from InterServer.
Now, I did deliver InterServer the equal courtesy we supply to all net web hosting groups here at Website Planet, and requested help if they could do something to improve my web page’s pace. Sadly, the agent instructed me to “touch the internet site developer.” As such, my website become examined in its unique form, with none optimizations implemented.
