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.
In my Nexcess Review, I will cover the following topics:
- Nexcess Overview
- Key features
- Speed tests and Performance
- User Experience
- Security
- Pricing
- Customer Support
- Pros and Cons
- My Verdict
Bottom Line Upfront: Nexcess provides great value for managed WordPress hosting. You get excellent performance and helpful WordPress features at a lower price than similar providers like WP Engine, Kinsta, or Flywheel. Nexcess offers interesting features, a decent server setup, and good support, but it comes at a premium cost. It’s a convenient choice for running an online business with WordPress if you have some knowledge and can tolerate the performance limitations of shared hosting.
What is Nexcess?
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 Hosting Key Features
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 stand true to the words or just manipulating.
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 these changes’ effects 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 up with large influx of traffic.
If you see a 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:
- 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.
Ease of Use
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 its 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 everyday, 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 💰
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 $19. 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: The plan includes one site administration and up to 15 GB of cloud storage. Backups are scheduled every 30 days and have a capacity of 2 TB. However, users get unlimited email accounts and an iThemes security pro package with a syncing feature. It is the most basic plan, with a monthly cost of $19.
- Maker: This plan allows you to manage up to 5 sites and includes 40 GB of storage. The rest of the features follow the basic plan, with a bandwidth of 3 TB. This plan will cost you $35.55 for 3 months and is best suited for larger businesses.
- Designer: The majority of the features are similar to the basic plan. However, the number of manageable sites has increased to ten, with up to 60 GB of cloud storage. With 4 TB of bandwidth, you can easily manage your websites, and it cost 49.05 for 3 months.
- Builder: This plan includes up to 25 sites, 100 GB of cloud storage, and up to 5 TB of bandwidth. The monthly fee begins at $149.
- Producer: There are 50 sites with up to 300 GB of cloud storage. With 5 TB of bandwidth, an entire team could use the software and still function flawlessly. This plan is available for $2990 for a year.
- Executive: This plan is available for $5490 for a year. However, we recommend it for businesses that require site management of up to 100 websites and 500 GB of storage data. A bandwidth of 10 TB will allow your organization to run smoothly.
- Enterprise: For $9990 a year, you can manage up to 250 sites with 800 GB of cloud storage and 10 TB of bandwidth.
Nexcess Support
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, it might be that you will 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.
FAQs | Nexcess Review
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.
Conclusion | Nexcess Review 2023
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.
Quick Links
Nexcess is a company that has been at the forefront of the migration to the cloud. They offer a variety of IT solutions for small and medium enterprises. They work with our customers to understand their needs and align our solutions to their business goals.
Nexcess helps out with daily backups which are very important to me!
The backup feature is available in the dashboard and the process is performed daily. You can restore your website any time within a click if any disaster happens.
The strong security feature fixes all the website errors, vulnerabilities and removes malware magically.
One thing that nexcess promises are lifetime support and it surely does!
Support is available 24/7 by phone, live chat, email, and ticketing system. Technical support on live chat is only available during business hours but available through tickets 24 hours.
The managed hosting is very useful and it has benefited me in several ways. Once you create an account on their Managed WooCommerce hosting, they’ll make sure your store stays open so you can continuously accept orders and build your business!
I really like the fact that it provides a 14 day free trial. You get 2 weeks to explore a dashboard or portal interface and site that loads with ultra-fast speed, with auto-scaling and automatic plugin and platform updates built-in, so you can focus on what you do best.
Also once sign with Nexcess it, you get a bunch of premium plugins as freebies.
Great thing out there, must try!
Nexcess is quite expensive for beginners. It does not provide with free domain. Also the support team is very late at replies.
The customer support at Nexcess is simply the best. Nexcess Cloud infrastructure which automatically keeps your WordPress website + WooCommerce store updated & secure.
Once you create an account on their Managed WooCommerce hosting, they’ll make sure your store stays open so you can continuously accept orders and build your business.
Excellent website you have here but I was curious about if you knew
of any user discussion forums that cover the same topics talked about in this article?
I’d really like to be a part of online community where I
can get feed-back from other knowledgeable people that share
the same interest. If you have any recommendations, please let
me know. Thanks!
Nexcess is the best host out there!
The support provided for Nexcess is the best out there. I have worked with a dozen or so hosts and none of them provide the in depth knowledge of the platform and how it interacts with the server!!
I love Nexcess! I have been using them for over 10 years. Their servers have hosted my sites, and when it came time to replatforming my site I was hesitant not to keep their services. My website designers recommended a new server host – but we quickly realized we would lose quality service if we switched to another company, and we were so happy that our developers went above and beyond the call of duty and helped us problem-solve any issues or upgrades without fear or hesitation. Whenever I open a ticket about an issue with the site – both support reps are patient, easy to understand, enthusiastic about helping me solve my problem as soon as possible
Nexcess has the best customer service and they always fix my problems. I love that I never have to worry about hackers or web hosting issues because Nexcess does it for me!
Nexcess webhosting is your excellent solution for safeguarding or business, website, and domains from cyber attacks. They offer 24/7 round-the-clock protection with 99% uptime guarantee which ensures you stay up and running. Their team of expert security professionals vigilantly monitors traffic coming in over their networks to ensure malicious activity originating from the internet is prevented before it can do any harm to your business!
I’ve used Nexcess as my business Web Host for years and I’ve loved it.
I had a lot of issues with malware on my site that the developer took care of very quickly and over exceeded expectations to fix things up ASAP. Whenever we have an outage or technical issue with our website, they always give us top notch customer service and problem solving support.
We’ve been really happy with their services – none of these other reviews can tell you about what it’s like to work them because they’re all fake reviews posted by competitors who don’t even understand SEO – those reviews are simply false statements without any substance or merit at all!
I’ve been using Nexcess for our business site for 14 months now and have been nothing but happy with my site performance. We’ve had no downtime, super-fast speeds, and great support. We moved from Bluehost and could immediately see the difference in speed & security. I love how they auto-update our plugins but check them first to make sure there are no issues — we’re so glad we made the switch and won’t be going back!
If you’re looking for a hosting company that is serious about your site’s performance, then this could be the service that you have been waiting for. Nexcess has yet to let me down in any way, which is especially nice since I switched from Bluehost not too long ago. The team at Nexcess are so helpful and caring when it comes to their clients. They are always updating plugins without me needing to worry or check on them ahead of time.
Nexcess has a 24/7 phone staff and live chat for your convenience. They offer multiple tiers of hosting to fit any business’ needs, from affordable shared packages to VPS servers that can power anything you throw at it. You get the benefits of load-balancing across multiple geographically dispersed websites. Even if you’re not ready for a full website hosting package, they have pre-designed templates with responsive design layouts for all your webpages, blog posts and portfolio pages!
I LOVE my Nexcess host. I made the switch from Bluehost & never looked back! Setup was a breeze, speeds are fantastic, and they stay on top of security updates for me so there’s no downtime. Their customer service is also really accommodating- even if you’re just curious about something or you have an idea to share that could help them out.
“I love this product. It has everything I need and then some. So many extras, like the CDN and site migrations, that come for free!”
“They’re also really reasonable priced! They charge a penny less than my last hosting company and they gave me more stuff.”
I always hear my friends complaining about their site going down and how it’s so frustrating when they can’t do anything. It was such a relief when I found Nexcess! They provide amazing customer service, lots of freebies (CDN, Site Migrations), and transparent pricing and discounts. Unlimited websites? YES PLEASE!!! And the cherry on top: they have 30-day money-back guarantee just in case you’re not happy with their hosting services after all that! Push for more sales right where the target audience is
There is a reason why this hosting company has been going strong for over 10 years! What makes it different from the rest, though?
“Nexcess offers excellent uptime and speed with superior, advanced security features. It includes lots of free goodies such as CDN, site migrations, and so on. They offer around-the-clock, instant and friendly support via both phone and remote access to your server. On top of that they have a 30-day money back guarantee.”
Needless to say I am impressed by Nexcess’s offerings. The only downside was their customer service reps couldn’t provide me with details about my specific billing issues in a timely manner but overall this is an amazing company that I highly recommend!
I once had a problem with my website. A customer was having trouble logging in and came to me with the issue. Nexcess support solved it within minutes, without me needing to do any legwork at all! That kind of instant gratification is priceless for a small business owner since I don’t have the time or resources to fix these things myself. They’re terrifically fast and they always keep my customers happy, which keeps them coming back again and again. My site stays afloat because of Nexcess!
Nexcess has excellent customer service that can be accessed at any time. I’ve used them to take care of hosting issues, website management, and security. Their representative was knowledgeable and understood what my needs were right away. They were prompt with their help and always kind no matter the situation. All of this for a great price! Not only do they have a customer-oriented environment but also a secure company that will protect your business from being hacked or going offline due to server problems. I love how fast they are to fix everything without question too-they respond immediately when you need them!