InterServer Review: Pros and Cons

About InterServer – InterServer Expert Review

About InterServer:

• Headquarters: Secaucus, New Jersey
• Established: 1999
• Services Offered: Shared, Windows, VPS, Co-location, Managed, Dedicated, WordPress and Cloud Hosting
• Data Centers: East Coast – 3 in Secaucus NJ and one in Los Angeles(West Cpast)

Humble Beginnings: Just like most startups, InterServer also had humble beginnings. Co-founders Mike Lavrik & John Quaglieri, two tech-savvy high-school students then, kicked off InterServer in 1999.

High Quality Web Hosting: Having started as a re-seller initially, now the hosting provider has grown exponentially and has been providing quality web hosting services for the past 18 years.

Over its 18+ stint as a leading web hosting expert, InterServer has a solid reputation for it’s reliability and high performance. It has a variety of hosting plans – from shared web hosting, wordpress hosting, VPS, and dedicated servers.

It also offers high utility hosting plans at a great bargain price. For example, you can get shared hosting or wordpress hosting for just $5/mo and locked for life!

InterServer mainly specializes in Shared, Windows, VPS, Co-location, Managed, Dedicated, WordPress and Cloud Hosting solutions.  InterServer is also well known as a budget-friendly provider. And it continues to be a leader in quality web hosting.

Data Centers: One of the biggest advantages InterServer has is, it has a privately-owned data center. Since managed within the US, it has greater control over its own hosting network. It has also expanded to build a nationwide network and thus making InterServer an ideal choice for any company irrespective of their size.

It has three data centers in Secaucus New Jersey(East Coast) and one in Los Angeles(West Cpast). They offer a 100% power uptime and 99.9% network uptime guarantee.

3 Key factors of a successful web host. Does InterServer pass the test?

When I analyze a web host,  I look for 3 key factors to qualify for a reliable web host.

There are so many factors to consider when choosing a web host. But if you were to look for 3 key factors in a web host, I would list following three:

Key Factor 1> Good uptime record
You should choose a good web host with better uptime record. 100% uptime is only guaranteed for dedicated servers. But for shared and vps, a good 99.9% guarantee is offered by most of the good ones. InterServer offers a good 99.9% uptime guarantee for shared and VPS plans.

Key Factor 2> Good Server speed
When a server gets overloaded with many accounts, it affects performance. InterServer shines here with limiting number of accounts in each server everyday. InterServer limits the number of new customers who can join each day.

This kind of ensures low load on a server, unlike other hosts who do not have any such limits. Also, it uses LiteSpeed and as a result you get an UltraFast Web server.

In addition, it also has SSD Caching Servers to speed up the server. All this gets you a faster website, which is a ranking factor used by Google to rank websites.

Key Factor 3> Reliable Customer Support
InterServer shines here with 24/7 timely support. Has 3 options for Customer support. Live chat(recently introduced), Ticket system, knowledgebase and phone support. They also have an active Online forum community.

Response and resolution times, in general were found to be good.

For the key factors listed above, InterServer more than qualifies and grades  very well.

My hosting experience with Interserver

This website, FindBestWebHosting.com is hosted with InterServer!

This review is based on my shared windows hosting experience with InterServer. FindBestWebHosting.com, being a asp.net based website, was hosted with WinHost, a windows hosting specialist, for long time.

WinHost is a very good windows host. But I decided to switch to InterServer for a number of reasons.

1. Free SSL (Let’s encrypt)
2. Weekly Backups
3. Free Hassle Free Website Migration
4. Fast Support
5. FREE CLOUDFLARE CDN
6. SPEED OPTIMIZATION
7. SSD CACHING SERVERS

Free Hassle Free Website Migration

Site Migration was hassle free and support staff was very prompt in doing so and clearing all issues.

After migration, I checked Google page speed and I got very good score. Above 90+. InterServer has SSD CACHING SERVERS, which gives a big speed boost to websites. Also InterServer limits the number of accounts in each shared server and thus giving a high uptime.

WordPress Experts

In my website, I also had a wordpress blog(this article is within wordpress) and hence I wanted good wordpress support. Migrtion of the WordPress blog to a windows host is not easy. But support staff handled it very well.

You see, I was getting more premium features from InterServer for much less price. And InterServer also has a month-to-month billing option as well. So you are not forced to shell out a bigger yearly fee when you signup.

Free Migration

With minimal downtime, InterServer can transfer a website hosted elsewhere, onto your new Interserver account. This is a great time saver and gets rid of the headaches and stress associated with moving out of a web host.

Start Small. Grow with InterServer.

For online success, you need a stable hosting partner. For startups on low funds, InterServer’s shared hosting plan is a good option to get started, which by the way, has robust features and remarkable page loading speed.

Once your business clicks and grows, naturally your traffic and data needs may go up. At this point, you can move to a VPS plan, with minimal downtime(InterServer can take care of this as well).

A+ BBB Rating

InterServer has received a A+ rating from BBB. A certification from BBB is highly valued by business (Source: https://www.bbb.org/new-jersey/business-reviews/internet-web-hosting/interserver-inc-in-secaucus-nj-90153894/)

Month to month billing and Price Lock Guarantee

(Source: InterServer.net)

InterServer is only one of the few hosts that offers a price lock guarantee. AS you know, most web hosts offer a lower cost in first year. Then , once the package is renewed, the cost goes up.

But in case of InterServer, they offer a price lock guarantee.

The price a consumer signs up for with InterServer is their guaranteed lifetime locked in price, with no special conditions, exclusions and fine print whatsoever.

Also please note that 30 day money back guarantee offered by InterServer is only for shared web hosting, shared windows hosting and for wordpress hosting packages.

For other packages, you have a month to month billing and if you are not happy, you can notify billing and they will not charge anymore.

INTER-INSURANCE – Clean up hacked Sites For FREE

Sites or blogs get hacked at times. It is mostly due to your blog or site not getting updated to latest scripts. Old scripts or plugins or themes are vulnerable for attacks.

When a website is hacked or compromised, usually web hosts charge to fix it or refer you to an external service.

But InterServer has introduced “INTER-INSURANCE”. The policy states that they will clean up compromised, hacked or exploited accounts for free. This service is also available for new customers.

For new customers, if your site was hacked at old web host, then at the time of migration, they will clean up your account.

InterServer can also handle WordPress security issues and can get a website back online securely and also prevents any new future issues.

This Service includes following 3 parts:

• Step 1 Investigation: Reason why problem occurred
• Step 2 Restoration: Putting it back the way it was
• Step 3 Prevention: Fixing the underlying cause of the problem.

InterServer Free Trial

InterServer allows you to test any Shared or VPS hosting accounts for just 1 cent.

You can try it out for 30 full days. If you are not happy, you can cancel prior to end of 30 days and you are good to leave.

InterServer Domain Registration

If you need a new domain you can Register or Transfer your domain for $1.99 when you purchase a new web hosting package from InterServer. It supports most of the domains tlds, gtlds, cctlds.

Web Hosting Plans from InterServer

InterServer Linux Shared Web Hosting Review

InterServer Linux Shared hosting is an ideal choice for webmasters and web developers alike due to low cost and month to month billing feature. And there is no contract to be concerned about.

Linux hosting package has all the bell and whistles you can expect from a Linux web host. Along with SSH access, you get unlimited domain hosting and Unlimited E-Mail Accounts.

You have close to 461 scripts available for 1 click installs, which includes Magento and WordPress. It is not possible to list all here 🙂

Along with Unlimited Mysql databases, you have CGI, PHP, Fast CGI, Ruby on Rails, Python, SSI.In addtion, you have modules like Curl, CPAN, GD, ImageMagic and FFMPEG setup in a shared Linux Server.

Cost: $5 per month(month to month billing).

Signup with just 1 cent for first month

InterServer Windows Shared Web Hosting Review – ASP.NET Web Hosting Details

InterServer is one of the few hosts who provide both Linux and windows hosting. Finding a reliable windows host is not so easy.

Downtimes can be common among most shared windows hosts.

InterServer scores slightly better here.

InterServer Windows Hosting details

.NET core 1, ASP.NET MVC 5 , ASP.NET 3.5 , 4 , 4.5 , Microsoft SQL 2012 are the main features available as part of hosting package. Backup and restore is part of the control panel.

WordPress: One peculiar feature which we liked was ability to install WordPress in a windows account. Of course, PHP is also available in this windows account.

For Windows Hosting, InterServer VPS Windows hosting makes better sense. Please read review below for details.

Windows Shared Hosting Cost : $5 per month

Signup with just 1 cent for first month

InterServer VPS Cloud Hosting Review – Interserver VPS Features

Most of the happy clients of InterServer belong to VPS category.

One of the best things aboout InterServer Cloud VPS hosting is that, VPS servers are deployed withing 15 minutes. And the VPS plan comes with one IP address.

Data Centers

You have 2 options for Data Center. NJ and Los Angeles, both in USA.

And you have a good choice of OS to choose from:
Here are the OS OPTIONS:

• DEBIAN 7
• CENTOS 7
• UBUNTU 14.04
• ARCHLINUX
• WINDOWS 2012 R2
• WINDOWS 2016
• CERN LINUX
• FUNTOO
• GENTOO LINUX
• OPENWALL
• ALTLINUX
• SUSE
• SCIENTIFIC
• FEDORA
• OPEN SUSE
• SLACKWARE

And you get instant ROOT access as well. In addition to , RAID10 PROTECTED SERVERS and REDUNDANT STORAGE, you can REINSTALL / REBOOT / ON DEMAND VM CREATION ETC.

Also you have “Bread Basket” for VPS, which lets you easily install and setup popular open source apps.

Interserver 1 Cent VPS

Now you can try InterServer Linux VPS for just 1 cent! Use the coupon code FBWHPENNYPLAN and get hosting for just $.01 FIRST MONTH.

Get Linux VPS Hosting for just 1 cent the first month

InterServer VPS Windows Cloud Hosting Review

Windows vps packages are also setup quick and your VPS hosting solution will be ready within 20 minutes of ordering.Also please note that Windows VPS can be setup under KVM platform only.

Also data centers for Windows VPS are limited to NJ and Equinix NY4 locations only(Los Angeles is not a data center option for windows hosting).

Cost: InterServer VPS Windows Hosting starts at $10 per slice.

Get Windows VPS Hosting for just 1 cent the first month

Interserver wordpress hosting

About WordPress:
WordPress is well known as a blogging platform, but fact is, it can be used to make any type of website. This is made possible, thanks to the thousands of free and premium plugins and themes that can be easily installed. No wonder over 60 million people have used WordPress to power their websites or blogs.

WordPress optimized Web Servers: InterServer provides excellent hosting plans for wordpress. And getting started is very easy as well, as it provides a one-click install for setting up WordPress.

InterServer provides 2 main hosting plans for WordPress.

Standard WordPress Web Hosting Plan Interserver(Optimized for WordPress)

Cost: $5.00 PER MONTH

This is a special wordpress hosting plan, where the webserver is optimized for WordPress. It has all the standard features you need to get started.

Best features of this plan:

• One Click Install WordPress
• 450+ CLOUD APPS
• UNLIMITED E-MAIL ACCOUNTS
• INTERSHIELD PROTECTION
• 30 DAYS MONEY BACK GUARANTEE
• FREE WEBSITE MIGRATION
• 24/7 Customer Service

Get Standard WordPress Web Hosting for just 1 cent the first month.
Get started with WordPress Today

Interserver Managed WordPress Web Hosting

Cost: $8.00 PER MONTH

For a few dollars more than the standard wordpress plan, you get an ultra premium managed wordpress plan. You get additional premium features, like a free CDN, daily and weekly backups, Daily Virus Scan

Hacked WordPress Cleanup:

If your wordpress site or blog is infected and if you are willing to move to InterServer, they their suppport team will correct any issues you have with your WordPress site during the copy of your website from your old hosting company. All issues associated with the hacked WordPress site is fixed and .

Summary of Premium features in Interserver Managed WordPress Web Hosting:
In addition to standard features, you get following premium features:

• Easy one-click WordPress Installer
• Daily and Weekly Backups
• Hacked WordPress Cleanup
• Daily GIT Revisions
• Atomic Mod Security
• Daily Virus Scan

Get Managed WordPress Web Hosting for just 1 cent the first month.
Get Managed WordPress Hosting

InterServer FAQ

How many data centers does InterServer have?

What hosting plans does InterServer offer?

Does InterServer offer free migration?

What are the 3 Key factors of a successful web host?

What is price lock guarantee from InterServer?

Can you explain what is INTER-INSURANCE from InterServer?

Does InterServer offer a free trial?

InterServer Alternatives – Comparisons

Interserver vs Bluehost

Bluehost needs no introduction. Started in 1996 and serving millions of domains worldwide, it has created a reputation based on offering reliable, low-cost services.
BlueHost is also recommended by WordPress.org for hosting wordpress blogs/sites.

BlueHost is superior in terms of brand power when compared to InterServer. But we do feel that InterServer has an edge over bluehost due to following factors:

• INTER-INSURANCE – Clean up hacked Sites For FREE:
  InterServer’s “INTER-INSURANCE” policy states that they will clean up compromised, hacked or exploited accounts for free. This service is also available for new customers. Bluehost and other web hosts charge a premium to fix infected sites. InterServer’s “INTER-INSURANCE” policy gives you peace of mind and assurance that you are in good hands.
• Month to month billing and Price Lock Guarantee: BlueHost’s does not have month to month billing. And you have to signup for longer term, like 2 or 3 years. But then you get a lower monthly bill, around $2.95 month. Also, renewal hosting cost is high for BlueHost.InterServer has a month to month billing and also gives a price lock guarantee. This means your rate will remain same, even when you renew your hosting bill. This is significant savings.
• Hassle Free Migration:With minimal downtime, InterServer can transfer a website hosted elsewhere, for FREE. But BlueHost charges for Migration.
• InterServer limits the number of new customers who can join each day:InterServer never oversells! It limits the number of new customers who can join a server each day. This ensures better server performance. Whereas, Bluehost does not have such a limit.

Verdict: InterServer vs BlueHost

BlueHost is great host for sure and is a good InterServer alternative. If you can afford the higher costs of Bluehost, then sure go for it. But if you consider additional benefits mentioned above, InterServer becomes a better choice.

Signup Links:

Signup for BlueHost
Signup for InterServer