Buying web hosting is always a tough choice. Especially, when two heavyweights clash against each other with identical benefits.

Should you just flip a coin and hope for the best?

Not an ideal outcome.

Instead, we recommend spending a few minutes to read this review and get the best opinion based on facts.

Without further ado, let’s dive in and understand the differences between Liquid Web and Nexcess.

Liquid Web

Founded in 1997 by Jim Geiger, Liquid Web quickly took a foothold in the web hosting scene and has a whopping 1 million sites to date under their name. Over 30,000 clients spread across 150 countries are some of the other bragging points.

Feature Liquid Web Nexcess
Hosting Types Managed WordPress, VPS, Dedicated, Cloud, WooCommerce Managed WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento, VPS
Performance High-performance infrastructure, reliable hosting Optimized for performance, emphasis on speed
Customer Support 24/7 Heroic Support via phone, chat, and email 24/7 support with a focus on technical expertise
Features Free SSL, DDoS protection, automatic backups Free SSL, CDN, automatic backups, staging sites
Managed WordPress Hosting Yes, with optimized performance and security Yes, optimized for WordPress with auto-scaling
eCommerce Hosting Yes, with WooCommerce hosting plans Yes, with specialized plans for Magento
Scalability Scalable solutions for growing websites Auto-scaling options for increased demand
Data Centers Multiple data centers worldwide for redundancy Data centers in multiple regions
Money-Back Guarantee 30-day money-back guarantee Varies by hosting plan, typically 14 or 30 days

Top 3 Hosting Products of Liquid Web

1. Dedicated Hosting

When a business can no longer run on shared hosting due to limited performance and traffic bottleneck, it’s time to approach dedicated hosting servers.

Liquid Web offers servers across US and EU.

The plans start from $169 monthly to $499. A 25% discount is provided for those signing up for a 6-month package.

Other features include –

  • SSD Storage
  • Root level management
  • Server backups with built-in backup drives
  • 100% Uptime assurance
  • 24/7 and 365 on-demand phone, chat and email support access

2. VPS Hosting

What if you can’t afford dedicated hosting as a small business owner? Is shared hosting the only option?

Luckily, VPS servers offer cloud-based solutions to store your data. The servers are support on Linux and Windows.

The hosting prices start as low as $15 monthly for 2 GB RAM servers, and go up to $95 monthly for 16 GB RAM servers.

Other features include –

  • Cloudflare CDN
  • Centralized Hosting Management for unlimited websites via InterWorx
  • Free Gigabit data bandwidth
  • Automatic updates and user-friendly cPanel
  • Realtime DDoS protection
  • Complete Root Control of your server
  • 100% guaranteed uptime assurance
  • Dedicated IP for enhanced performance and website speed
  • Easily downgrade or upgrade your plans
  • Integrated Firewall serves as a first line of defense against attackers

3. Server Clusters

When your business scales beyond your expectation, it’s a good time to invest in heavy duty servers. Liquid Web’s ecommerce server clusters offer from 2 to 200 servers.

Server clusters are especially convenient to dissect database from other file nodes.

The lowest prices start from a monthly cost of $743 all the way up to $2,149 for a powerhouse cluster.

They also offer a custom-built solution if your company requires even more database power.

Nexcess

The younger sibling of Liquid Web – Nexcess has concentrated its hosting efforts mainly on Magento, WordPress, and WooCommerce.

With a  keen focus on capturing small businesses, marketing agencies, and developers, Nexcess moves away from its parent company’s broad vision in hopes to capture the content and commerce industry.

Top 3 Hosting Products of Nexcess

1. WooCommerce (Fully Managed Hosting)

Having the support to completely integrate your online shop via WooCommerce is vital. Luckily, Nexcess provides you access to running your store with the following features –

  • Built-in CDN with 22 locations
  • Cart Abandonment Analytics
  • Sales Performance Monitor
  • Advanced Caching for a superior loading interface
  • Always-on security
  • Free WooCommerce migration included with all plans
  • 24/7 and 365 days of Nexcess customer support

Nexcess comes with a flexible 6 plan scheme to cater to the smallest business right up to an enterprise. The plans starting from the lowest to the highest are –

  • Starter ($15.83 monthly or $190 yearly)
  • Creator ($65.83 monthly or $790 yearly)
  • Merchant ($124.17 monthly or $1,490 yearly)
  • Standard ($249.17 monthly or $2,290 yearly)
  • Growth ($457.50 monthly or $5,490 yearly)
  • Enterprise ($832.50 monthly or $9,990 yearly)

For a quick view of features for each plan, view the image below.

2. WordPress (Fully Managed Hosting)

With over 455 million websites powered by WordPress, it’s critical to get a web hosting solution that optimizes it. Nexcess offers the following WordPress features with its hosting –

  • Automatic Updates
  • Pre-installed plugins
  • 1-click staging
  • Image compression to reduce site load times
  • Zero overage fees or traffic limits or metered pageviews
  • Premium tools support including Visual Compared, iThemes, Security Pro, WPQuickstart, TinyPNG, Qubely Pro, and WP Merge
  • Free WordPress migrations included with every plan
  • 24/7 and 365 days of all year support
  • 30-day backups
  • 30-day money back guarantee with every plan

Nexcess offers 7 core plans for WordPress managed hosting as follows (from lowest to highest) –

  • Spark ($15.83 monthly and $190 yearly)
  • Maker ($65.83 monthly and $790 yearly)
  • Designer ($90.83 monthly and $1,090 yearly)
  • Builder ($124.17 monthly and $1,490 yearly)
  • Producer ($249.17 monthly and $2,990 yearly)
  • Executive ($457.50 monthly and $5,490 yearly)
  • Enterprise ($832.50 monthly and $9.990 yearly)

Refer to the image below to see plan specific features.

3. Magento (Fully Managed Hosting)

Magento is another popular ecommerce platform similar to WooCommerce. With flexibility in offering its users marketing control, SEO functionality, shopping cart features, and catalog-management tools. Paired with Nexcess managed hosting, the features are doubled such as –

  • Dedicated IP addresses
  • Instant auto-scaling
  • Staging websites
  • Advanced caching for quick website load times
  • On-demand performance testing for troubleshooting issues
  • PCI-compliance with premium security features
  • Extended security for M1
  • PWA Ready
  • 24/7 and 365 support with Magento experts
  • Unlimited Email accounts
  • Free Magento site migrations with every plan
  • 30-day backups
  • 30-day money back guarantee

The 6 Nexcess plans for Magento managed hosting are as follows (only monthly plans) –

  • XS ($49 monthly)
  • S ($99 monthly)
  • M ($179 monthly)
  • L ($299 monthly)
  • XL ($549 monthly)
  • XXL ($849 monthly)

For features of individual plans, refer to the image below.

Conclusion – The Final Verdict

It’s time to bring the curtains down on the grand review. The rundown for the two hosting solutions come down to personal use and specific business goal.

Use Liquid Web hosting for –

  • Upgrading your site from a shared hosting plan to VP or dedicated hosting
  • If you are a web professional with experience in hosting
  • Have High-traffic websites
  • Have a team of experts working for you
  • Looking for peak performance via cloud hosting
  • As a reseller, to offer clients web solutions

Use Nexcess hosting for –

  • Hosting WordPress websites
  • Setting up an ecommerce website with Magento or WooCommerce
  • Searching for a beginner friendly interface/cpanel
  • Premium WordPress tools like WPQuickstart to setup membership sites
  • An existing online store model
  • Multiple online store models

Here’s an helpful infographic to share with your clients, friends, or family to give them a quick breakthrough.