Nexcess Review 2024 – Fully Managed Web Hosting Services
Last Updated on: August 31, 2024 by Jitendra Vaswani | Fact Checked
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Nexcess Hosting
OVERALL VERDICT
I've used Nexcess for my website and it's been fantastic. The speed, security, and customer support are exceptional. It's user-friendly and reliable, making it a standout choice for hosting. From my experience, I highly recommend Nexcess for anyone looking for a hassle-free and efficient website hosting solution.
Are you wondering if Nexcess hosting is the best option for you? Read my detailed Nexcess Review as I talk about the features, pricing, pros and cons, and test the performance of this hosting.
But the first thing to note is that Nexcess is unlike most other hosting companies. It doesn’t make big claims about being the cheapest, fastest, or easiest option and doesn’t use flashy advertisements.
Even though Nexcess doesn’t boast much, it’s been around for 22 years in a tough industry. And the many reviews from Nexcess users are quite promising, suggesting that it’s a hidden gem in the hosting world.
To test the Nexcess hosting for my review, I purchased the Spark plan, which cost me around $8.40 per month using the Nexcess coupon codes. I wanted to test out the managed WordPress hosting, and the plan includes 1 website/domain, 15GB storage, and 2TB bandwidth.
Let’s see how Nexcess performed for my websites.
Bottom Line Upfront:
After personally using Nexcessfor my website, I can confidently say it’s a game-changer. The speed and security it offers are top-notch, making my site run smoothly without any hiccups.
Their customer service is always there, ready to help, which made a big difference for me, especially when I was just getting started.
I’ve tried other hosting services before, but Nexcess stands out because of its reliability and ease of use.
It’s been a relief knowing my site is in good hands, allowing me to focus more on creating content rather than worrying about technical issues.
Nexcess is a sister company of Liquid Web. This high-performance cloud-based management platform is designed to optimize applications such as WooCommerce, WordPress sites, Magneto, and others.
I have heard about its incredible features, decent servers, and helpful support. There are many good things about it, which make managing a WordPress-based business online easy.
For over 20 years, it has served SMBs, designers, developers, and agencies.
Nexcess has data centers worldwide that can deliver performance, auto-scaling, and management control via their best-in-class open-stack cloud platform.
Nexcess provides several features to its clients to improve interface accessibility. Here is a list of all the features you should know before deciding whether the platform is worthwhile.
Completely Managed WordPress Hosting
When you hop onto the hosting options, the page says- ‘Fully Managed WordPress Hosting.’ I chose this plan because I wanted to see whether they stood true to the words or just manipulated them.
Nexcess is truly committed to this part of the service. You not only receive the usual automatic updates for WordPress plugins and core, which is fantastic for managed services, but you also have access to specialized support whenever you require it.
In all of their WordPress plans, they provide a unique and extremely useful plugin performance monitor. This tool tracks any alterations in your website’s performance when you install new plugins or update your site’s theme.
You can view the effects of these changes within the WordPress dashboard through the Nexcess Performance Monitor.
Free Daily Backups
Many hosting providers don’t provide free backups, and some may only offer weekly or monthly backups, which may not be suitable if you frequently update your website. However, Nexcess stands out by offering daily backups for 30 days.
This is a major advantage because it ensures you won’t lose more than a day’s worth of content or changes. I love how easy it is to back up and recover the data for free. If you’re stuck, you can always watch the videos or reach out to the support.
I used this video to learn how to create backups:
Site Migration
Whether you want to switch from a different web hosting software or upgrade your current Nexcess hosting plan, the platform strives to make your site migration as smooth as possible.
The expert team will assist you in completing the migration while keeping the website operational and avoiding the white screen of death.
If you ask us, it is a win-win situation because several other web hosting platforms can only perform site migration by shutting down the website for at least 24 hours.
Nexcess, on the other hand, makes it possible thanks to its exceptional staff and teamwork. Using Nexcess, your clients will never have to deal with temporary site outages or lags.
It takes only 3 steps to activate site migration:
After activating your Nexcess services, go to my.nexcess.net and log in.
On the left-hand side, click “Support,” then find and click the “Request Migration” button in the upper right corner of the screen.
Complete the three-step migration form, click “Submit,” and our specialists will contact you for further details and scheduling.
Auto-Scaling
I loved this feature of Nexcess to cope with a large influx of traffic.
If you see an increase in traffic to your website, it will automatically get more resources for free, lasting for 24 hours. This helps handle a sudden surge in visitors, like what happened on Reddit.
Your site won’t go down in that case.
But if the steady flow of visitors keeps coming, and it’s not due to a cyber-attack, you might need to upgrade your hosting plan to handle the increased traffic.
Free CDN
Nexcess has a free CDN service that I admire the most. Nexcess runs the Edge CDN by Cloudflare.
What’s great is that I can activate these services almost instantly, and my Content Delivery Network will start working automatically.
Using a CDN significantly boosts my website’s loading speed and adds an extra layer of protection against DDoS attacks and foreign malware threats. If you’re on the Nexcess platform like me, don’t miss out on activating these services to maximize the benefits of your Nexcess package.
Multiple User Accounts
I can’t agree more; it’s remarkable how underappreciated this feature is. With Nexcess, you can create multiple user accounts, allowing you to grant different access levels to your hosting account.
This is an absolute game-changer, especially for teams, agencies, or any collaboration on your website.
I often wonder why other web hosts aren’t offering this feature more prominently or, in some cases, at all. It’s like this hidden gem waiting to be discovered.
Nexcess has truly raised the bar for me with straightforward and essential features that make you question why others aren’t following suit.
Nexcess Hosting Review: Speed Tests and Performance
Choosing the right website hosting provider is crucial for your site’s loading speed, particularly when you have many visitors. Make sure to select a host known for its outstanding performance.
I used two tools to test the performance of servers. These two tools are WebPagetest and Load Focus. I created a demo site and used the Divi WordPress theme. Here are some results that I analyzed from different locations:
Nexcess speed test
In the US-central regions, Nexcess loaded a webpage in 402 milliseconds.
The west coast of the United States recorded a speed of 453 milliseconds.
While the EU-central region was responsible for 765 milliseconds,
These statistics are unrealistic for those unfamiliar with the niche’s general statistics. As a result, with Nexcess, you will never have to worry about your customers waiting for your website to load.
GT Metrix
I used GT Metrix as well to check how fast these pages load.
Upon the test, Nexcess obtained a PageSpeed score of 98%, which is better than what several alternative platforms offer. Some of the reviewers also ran a few tests using GTmetrix from various server locations worldwide.
The following were the results from the three regions:
It took 1.1 seconds to load in Dallas, USA.
London, UK, documented 2 seconds.
While it took 2.5 seconds to load in Sao Paulo, Brazil
The results were stellar, and once you use the software, you will notice that the platform functions flawlessly, irrespective of the location you operate it from.
This is one of the downsides of shared hosting. Since you don’t have dedicated resources just for your website, your website’s performance can be affected by other websites on the same server and the amount of traffic they’re getting.
Uptime
I kept a close eye on Nexcess for over two months, and during that period, there were 5 outages, totaling just 9 minutes of downtime. As a result, Nexcess achieved nearly perfect uptime of 99.99%.
It’s important to note that while the provider offers an official 100% uptime guarantee, it doesn’t cover unexpected situations or necessary server maintenance. So, a 99.99% uptime is an excellent result considering these factors.
Nexcess provides a custom dashboard designed to assist you in managing your WordPress website(s). While it offers easy access to essential features, it may not be the most beginner-friendly option.
It’s still user-friendly for most non-technical WordPress users but doesn’t provide the same simplified experience and terminology as other hosts, like Bluehost.
Moreover, it’s worth noting that the Nexcess dashboard doesn’t include certain features you might find with other hosting providers, such as an in-browser file manager (FTP is required) or a redirect manager.
Using Nexcess isn’t hard, but they don’t provide much guidance. You kind of need to know a bit about hosting. If you’ve made a website before with regular hosting, you’ll figure it out pretty quickly.
However, I can’t blame Nexcess for this. They’re focused on professionals at all levels, from how they market their services to their pricing and website looks. And if you ever need help, their support team is pretty good. (I’ll talk more about that later.)
Overall, my experience was mostly smooth and quick, with little to complain about. That’s why this review might seem shorter than others.
Nexcess has a control panel to help you manage your account and billing. It’s got a dashboard that shows you what’s happening with your account, if anything.
Nexcess Control Panel
The Nexcess control panel is like an extension of the provider’s Client Portal we mentioned earlier. The difference is that you’ll find more advanced tools for managing your website here. You can reach the control panel by clicking “Plans” in the menu on the left side of the Home screen.
Just like the user interface, it’s easy to understand and user-friendly. In this panel, you’ll discover your chosen pre-installed content management system (CMS) and all the tools you need to manage it.
It might look crowded, but it’s still quite simple to get around. All the necessary tools for hosting are neatly organized and grouped in the menu on the left side.
Here are some of the things you can do with the control panel:
Performance Metrics: You’ll find this under “Performance.” Here, you can keep track of your storage and bandwidth usage, clear your cache, and manage your CDN (Content Delivery Network).
Domain Settings: Under “Domain Options,” you can easily configure domain settings, such as creating pointer domains and changing the master domain.
SSL Management: This is the place for all things SSL-related. You can check your SSL’s status and manage which domain it’s installed on.
Email Management: For email-related tasks, go to “Email.” Here, you can create and manage email accounts and email aliases.
Staging and Development Environments: Look for these under “Environment.” It’s like a sandbox where you can develop, test, and experiment with themes, plugins, layouts, and more without affecting your live website. When satisfied, you can easily make the staging site live with just one click.
Backups: This is where you can create manual backups and manage, restore, and download both automatic and on-demand backups of your live site, developer site, and staging site.
Nexcess Hosting Security
For me, Security is the biggest concern when choosing the right hosting.
Nexcess is serious about keeping your website safe. They don’t cut corners on basic security and have some fancy advanced security.
Here’s what you get:
SSL Certificates: These make sure data going to and from your website is safe. Every Nexcess plan gives you a free SSL certificate, and you can turn it on with just one click in the control panel. They also offer fancier SSL certificates for a price.
Backups: Your website gets automatically backed up every day, and these backups are stored safely on other servers for up to 30 days. You can also make a backup whenever you want.
iThemes Security Pro Plugin: iThemes security plugin offers security features like two-factor authentication, passwordless login, reCAPTCHA, and geolocation.
Malware Monitoring: Nexcess says they keep an eye out for software on your website all the time, but you won’t see it happening. You’ll have to trust them on this one.
Other Security Stuff: They do basic things like automatically updating your WordPress. It’s all part of the package.
Nexcess Pricing 💰
WordPress hosting Plans
Nexcess offers excellent follow-up assistance and a variety of pricing plans to meet the diverse needs of organizational owners.
The pricing plans are created with the understanding that the common goal of all organizations is to grow. Their pricing scheme begins at $8. However, there are no hidden fees involved.
When you choose Nexcess, you will notice the difference when you experience high-quality features at an affordable price. Nexcess also provides the following professional plans:
Spark plan : The Spark plan costs $8.40 per month for the first three months and then increases to $21 per month. It includes 15GB of storage, 2TB of bandwidth, and 10 PHP workers. This plan can handle up to 1 site.
Spark+ plan : The Spark+ plan is priced at $17.20 per month for the first three months, then $43 per month. It offers 25GB of storage, 2.5TB of bandwidth, and 15 PHP workers. This plan supports up to 3 sites.
Maker plan: The Maker plan, which is the best value, costs $34.80 per month for the first three months and then $87 per month. It provides 40GB of storage, 3TB of bandwidth, and 20 PHP workers. You can use this plan for up to 5 sites.
Designer plan: The Designer plan is available for $48 per month for the first three months and then $120 per month. It comes with 60GB of storage, 4TB of bandwidth, and 20 PHP workers. This plan can manage up to 10 sites.
Builder plan: The Builder plan is priced at $65.60 per month for the first three months, then $164 per month. It includes 100GB of storage, 5TB of bandwidth, and 30 PHP workers. This plan supports up to 25 sites.
Producer plan: The Producer plan costs $131.20 per month for the first three months and then $328 per month. It offers 300GB of storage, 5TB of bandwidth, and 40 PHP workers. You can use this plan for up to 50 sites.
Executive plan: The Executive plan is available for $240.80 per month for the first three months, then $602 per month. It includes 500GB of storage, 10TB of bandwidth, and 50 PHP workers. This plan can handle up to 100 sites.
Enterprise plan: The Enterprise plan costs $438 per month for the first three months, then $1,095 per month. It provides 800GB of storage, 10TB of bandwidth, and 60 PHP workers. This plan can support up to 250 sites.
The support team at Nexcess is usually really helpful. They have WordPress experts ready to help with anything, and for a service that focuses on WordPress, that’s what you’d want.
But when I had to use their customer support systems, it was a bit of a mixed bag. Just to be clear, the actual people I talked to were awesome. It’s the tools and systems they use that gave me mixed results.
Let’s jump into the support features:
Live Chat
You can chat with a Nexcess person anytime you need help. They also have a phone line that’s open 24/7 for customers in the Americas, Australia, and the United Kingdom. They even have a big collection of helpful information about hosting on their website.
In my Nexcess review, I tried out their main support option, live chat, a few times. The people there were always nice and quick to help, joining our chat within a few seconds.
It seemed like they knew a lot about hosting and WordPress because they could help me when I had trouble accessing my WordPress dashboard.
Phone Support
I wanted to test the Nexcess WordPress experts, so I called their American support line. I told the person I wanted to make a membership website and asked for advice on the safest plugin. They were responsive and willing to look it up for me, but unfortunately, something went wrong.
The call got cut off after a few minutes before I could get a full answer to my question. The person on the call was polite and tried to help, but technical problems got in the way. It might have been an issue with Skype, but it could also have been a problem on their end.
I tried calling again, but the call dropped before I could speak to anyone.
Nexcess Pros and Cons 👍👎
Pros
There are several advantages of using Nexcess. Some of them include:
1. Excellent Speed
As mentioned, the platform offers excellent speed from any server location worldwide—the average page load time after using Nexcess as the web hosting software is 1.95 seconds.
The GTmetrix graded platform A in its speed test performance and accounted for an impressive score of 97%.
2. Scalable Hosting
The website also provides auto-scaling as a feature to allow users to extend their online activities. The speed should prove to you how reliable and robust the software is in terms of performance and value charged by the company.
3. Superior Security Features
The platform builds an additional firewall protecting confidential customer data you might request from potential clients visiting your website.
Apart from this, the software also protects any information you may have hosted on the site.
You will never have to worry about your connection getting hijacked as Nexcess offers excellent security features and keeps malware attacks and hijackers at bay.
4. 100% Assistance
Nexcess employs an expert team that helps with customer queries around the clock.
As a result, if you stumble upon a feature that is inaccessible to you at the moment, the team will happily oblige with your question and provide you with a solution at the earliest.
5. Free Trial
You can also get yourself a free trial for the hosting website. Individuals who are precarious with their choices can avail themselves of the option and schedule a free trial with the platform.
You can work with the platform for 14 days and see whether the features comply with your requirements and which plan would suit your organizational needs.
6. 99.99% Uptime Guarantee
Every Nexcess user is guaranteed a 99.99% uptime guarantee. You will never be disappointed with the website or the performance capacity it entails.
It makes the entire process easy for you and leaves you with enough time to handle things like content creation, digital marketing, design themes, and SEO optimization.
7. Cloud-based Hosting
This feature will guarantee that your eCommerce store never lags since cloud-based hosting enhances your site’s page loading speed. Apart from this, it is easier to store information on the cloud.
Nexcess, offering cloud-based hosting, guarantees advanced security to your website since it helps veil your domain from any unprecedented attacks or malware functions.
Cons
However good the software may be, there would be some red flags entailing the product. As we have known in our lifetimes, nothing in this world is perfect, but with Nexcess, you can get as close to perfect as there will be.
Therefore, some of the disadvantages of using Nexcess are:
1. Sub-Standard Documentation
We still believe that the documentation offered by the platform could be better. There is always room for improvement, and with Nexcess, it is one aspect that the platform lacks.
2. No Cheap Hosting Packages Available
If you are looking for cheap hosting solutions with Nexcess, you might be disappointed. There are no affordable packages available with the platform.
You must pay the price for features you want to gain access to. Therefore, if you are a small business owner looking for something reasonable, Nexcess might not be your ideal solution.
❓Is managed WordPress hosting better than unmanaged?
Yes, managed WordPress hosting is usually better than unmanaged. With managed hosting, experts take care of technical stuff like updates and security, so you don't have to. It's easier and safer for most people. Unmanaged hosting gives you more control but needs more technical knowledge.
🧐What performance tools for WordPress does Nexcess have?
There are two important things that make WordPress work better. The first one is a built-in storage system on Nexcess' servers. When you press a button, it saves parts of your website on the server and on the user's computer. This makes your site load faster. The second thing is a built-in content delivery network (CDN). It stores copies of your site all around the world so people from different countries can load your site faster.
👀Does Nexcess cost more when you renew?
As far as I can see, the price doesn't change no matter what. Nexcess charges enough from the start, so increasing the renewal prices would seem greedy. Overall, I like this approach.
🤔Is Nexcess easy to use?
Yes, Nexcess is simple to use. The host's own interface and control panel are easy to understand. All the tools are easy to find and well-organized. You don't need much time to learn how to use it because everything is very straightforward.
Nexcess is a high-quality web host that offers a top-notch experience to business owners by helping them drive traffic to their eCommerce stores or blogging websites.
If you need a robust web host for your WordPress site, Nexcess is the answer to your never-ending quest.
If you compare Nexcess to any other presumably influential web hosting sites, you will notice that Nexcess outperforms on almost every ground other than its alternatives.
Most web hosting sites punch way over their pay grade and, as a result, fall short of their promises.
However, you will never find Nexcess disappointing since the platform delivers every feature mentioned and offers its customers round-the-clock assistance.
It is an excellent option for everyone looking for a reliable web host with intuitive features to enhance your website’s interface. You can guarantee your website visitors the experience of a lifetime with Nexcess.
The web hosting platform is worth every penny and will provide you with outstanding features that are scarce in the market or are provided at an overpriced cost by competitors.
Jitendra Vaswani is the founder of SchemaNinja WordPress Plugin, prior to SchemaNinja he is the founder of big internet marketing blog BloggersIdeas.com. He is successful online marketer & award winning digital marketing consultant. He has been featured on HuffingtonPost, BusinessWorld, YourStory, Payoneer, Lifehacker & other leading publication as a successful blogger & digital marketer.
Jitendra Vaswani is also a frequent speaker & having 8+ yrs experience of in Digital Marketing field. Check out his portfolio( jitendra.co). Find him on Twitter, & Facebook.
