Final verdict
Looking over Liquid Web vs. Hostwinds, both hosting providers offer strong performance but serve different needs.
-
Liquid Web (Overall grade: 8.4)
is well-known for its superior uptime and availability, making it an ideal choice for high-traffic websites and businesses that need robust security and compliance. Their environment is optimized for ecommerce with specialized WooCommerce hosting, backed by 100% uptime guarantees and advanced load balancing. The downside is the higher cost, and lack of shared and WordPress hosting options. Despite this, Liquid Web’s commitment to reliability, proactive 24/7 monitoring, and high-performance infrastructure offer substantial value for enterprises and large businesses needing dedicated or VPS hosting.
Hostwinds (Overall grade: 7.1)
presents a more budget-friendly and versatile option. It excels in shared and WordPress hosting plans, making it accessible for small businesses and beginners. Their services include free SSL certificates, easy-to-use cPanel, and the Weebly site builder. With respectable uptime and solid customer support, Hostwinds ensures reliability without the higher costs associated with premium features of Liquid Web. However, inconsistencies in response times and international loading speeds are noted weaknesses. Overall, Hostwinds stands out for its cost-effectiveness and user-friendly approach, making it a viable option for those seeking comprehensive features within a budget.
Overall grade:8.4 |
Overall grade:7.1 |
|
---|---|---|
Uptime and Availability | 9.2 | 7.2 |
Hosting Performance | 7.7 | 8.4 |
Hosting Security | 9.3 | 8.0 |
Price | 8.0 | 8.5 |
Hosting Features | 6.4 | 7.7 |
Ease Of Setup | 8.7 | 8.7 |
User Management | 8.3 | 0.0 |
Customer Support | 9.4 | 8.0 |
User feedback | 4.3/5 | 4.9/5 |
Hosting types offered
Both platforms provide a variety of hosting types, each designed to meet the different needs of users.
Shared hosting | ||
Cloud hosting | ||
WordPress hosting | ||
Ecommerce hosting | ||
VPS hosting | ||
Dedicated hosting |
Although both offer a variety of hosting plans tailored to different needs, in
certain cases, one platform may prove to be more suitable.
Detailed comparison
Uptime and availability
Evaluates the average uptime statistics, uptime guarantee and overall availability of the hosting
provider
Score Components:
- Uptime percentage (30%): evaluates the uptime statistics in given period of time
- Uptime guarantee (20%): Assesses if the platform offers an uptime guarantee and
whether the actual uptime matches the promised guarantee. - General performance (25%): Evaluates how fast is the average response time and overall
it’s stability. - Responsiveness (10%): Adaptability to different devices and screen sizes.
- Availability (25%): Reflects the total downtime and number of outages.
🏆 Winner Liquid Web: Best for unmatched uptime and availability.
Liquid Web offers a superior hosting environment committed to exceptional uptime and availability. They guarantee 100% power and network uptime, supported by a comprehensive SLA offering up to 10 times the credit for any downtime. Key features such as multi-server environments and proactive 24/7 monitoring ensure continuous service. Their hardware replacement pledge within 30 minutes and immediate response guarantees add to reliability, making Liquid Web a preferred choice for businesses needing unwavering uptime.
Hostwinds delivers a respectable uptime average of 99.89% and claims a 99.99% uptime guarantee. Their services include 24/7 cloud server monitoring and a system to automatically generate support tickets. Hostwinds has three data centers and ensures infrastructure redundancy. Despite these measures, their response times and international loading speeds show inconsistencies. Hostwinds presents a solid but slightly less reliable option for hosting compared to Liquid Web.
Hosting performance
Score Components:
- Hosting speed (30%): This includes SSD quality, Load times, PageSpeed score ranges,
additional information on website speed, built-in plugins for performance enhancement, available caching
methods, and CPU/RAM options - CDN (20%): Considers whether CDN is available or not, whether it’s free or paid, and
the quality of the CDN service - Available data centers (30%): Evaluates the number of data centers and their locations
globally. - Scalibility (20%): Looks at whether elastic scaling is available, the process required
to scale (manual upgrade vs. automatic scaling), the presence of dedicated servers, and the costs
associated with scaling.
🏆 Winner
Hostwinds: Reliable and Cost-Effective Hosting
Both Liquid Web and Hostwinds offer impressive speed and uptime, but differ in some key areas. Liquid Web guarantees 100% uptime and employs top-tier processors like AMD EPYC and Intel Xeon. They use NVMe or SSD storage in their offerings, ensuring fast data retrieval. Liquid Web also includes autoscaling in their plans. On the other hand, Hostwinds offers solid-state drives (SSD) and partners with Cloudflare for CDN, optimizing speed and load times. Hostwinds uses Litespeed Web Server for quicker content delivery. Liquid Web provides a 10 Gbps network, whereas Hostwinds focuses on route-optimized networking to ensure swift path selection. Both offer multiple data centers, but specific locations are not disclosed.
Website Speed
Website speed is crucial, and both providers perform well. Liquid Web supports fast redundant 10 Gbps networking, enhancing speed. Their AMD EPYC and Intel Xeon processors, combined with NVMe or SSD storage, offer substantial improvements in load times and website performance. Hostwinds leverages Litespeed Web Server and Cloudflare’s CDN, cutting down the distance between servers and visitors, thus ensuring quicker load times. Liquid Web includes Object Cache Pro for WooCommerce plans, further optimizing the speed.
Scalability
Liquid Web and Hostwinds both offer scalability, but with distinct approaches. Liquid Web allows easy scalability with minimal downtime and includes autoscaling for free. They also offer dedicated servers with Intel Xeon processors, though the cost to scale isn’t specified. Hostwinds provides instant scalability and uses cloud-based solutions that can be upgraded quickly. They also offer dedicated servers, but pricing details for scaling aren’t specified.
Both hosting providers offer excellent services, but Hostwinds comes out as the winner for its reliability, cost-effectiveness, and superior score.
Hosting security
and regulatory requirements
Score Components:
- Technical security measures (40%): This includes encryption, firewalls, DDoS
protection, secure configurations, server monitoring, access control and availability of security addons
(e.g Sitelock security). - Operational security measures (30%): Encompasses data privacy, backups and data
redundancy. - Compliance and certifications (20%): Adherence to legal and regulatory requirements
(e.g., GDPR, HIPAA) and possession of certifications (e.g., ISO 27001, SOC 2). - Business and reliability (10%): Factors in the provider’s reputation, uptime
guarantees, and customer support.
🏆 Winner
Liquid Web: With top-tier security features and an impressive compliance portfolio, Liquid Web is a strong choice for hosting.
Both Liquid Web and Hostwinds, have notable differences in their approaches to technical and operational
security, as well as in their compliance with regulations.
Technical security measures:
Liquid Web offers advanced security measures, including firewalls, VPNs, DDoS attack protection, and hardened server configurations. Hostwinds provides SSL certificates, Litespeed Web Server, Cloudflare CDN, and optimized networking. While both offer SSL certificates, Liquid Web goes further with its web application firewall and F5 AIP Intrusion Detection System, offering more comprehensive security controls.
Operational security measures:
Liquid Web’s operational security includes 24/7/365 on-site support, real-time monitoring for DDoS protection, and compliance scans. Hostwinds also offers 24/7/365 support, business website monitoring, and nightly backups. Liquid Web emphasizes its proactive approach with features such as intrusion detection and remediation, making it better suited for enterprises with stringent security needs.
Compliance and certifications:
Both hosting providers comply with GDPR but neither is HIPAA compliant, which may be a critical factor for businesses in healthcare. Liquid Web offers PCI compliance but restricts this to dedicated and VPS hosting plans, whereas Hostwinds does not provide PCI compliance across any plans.
SSL certificate |
Yes |
Yes |
Additional security features |
Yes |
Yes |
PHP versions |
Yes |
Yes |
GDPR compliance |
Yes |
Not specified |
HIPAA compliance |
Yes |
Not specified |
PCI compliance |
Yes |
Not specified |
Hosting features
Score Components:
- Domains (20%): Assesses the availability of a free domain, domain purchase options, and
pricing - Email (15%): Considers if the provider offers full email hosting, or is reselling
third-party service, and if the email is only transactional or not - Website builder (15%): Checks if website builder is available, and it’s user
friendliness and overall the level of customization allowed. - Staging environment (20%): Determines if a staging environment is available, allowing
for testing changes before going live. - FTP & SFTP accounts (10%): Evaluates if and how easily users can access FTP and
SFTP accounts - Git and SSH access (20%): Assess whether Git is integrated into the hosting service and
if SSH access is provided
🏆 Winner
Hostwinds: A versatile and user-friendly hosting provider with comprehensive features.
Both Liquid Web and Hostwinds offer a range of hosting features appealing to different user needs. Liquid Web excels in providing fully managed hosting services with proactive management and a strong focus on security and compliance, suitable for businesses requiring enterprise-grade solutions. High availability hosting, managed VPS hosting, and customizable Windows hosting are among its strengths. Hostwinds, on the other hand, shines with its user-friendly web hosting plans that include free SSL certificates, the latest cPanel, and a Weebly Site Builder. The inclusion of unlimited FTP accounts and instant setup makes it a go-to choice for beginners and small businesses.
Hostwinds provides a broad range of free services, such as free website migrations and nightly backups, that can be particularly advantageous for users looking to cut costs. Liquid Web’s unique selling points lie in its managed WooCommerce hosting and enterprise solutions, making it ideal for those intending to grow or maintain large, complex sites. Hostwinds offers flexibility with tools like the Softaculous Auto Install and features like unlimited subdomains, databases, and email accounts. Liquid Web focuses more on infrastructure management, with features like VMware Private Cloud and compliant solutions, appealing to those in need of high-performance and secure environments.
Free domain |
No |
No |
Free SSL |
No |
Yes |
Email hosting |
Yes |
Yes |
Website builder |
No |
Yes (Weebly) |
Staging environment |
No |
No |
FTP & SFTP account |
Yes |
Yes |
Git and SSH access |
Yes |
Yes |
Free backup |
No |
Yes |
Money back guarantee |
No |
Yes |
a location.
As a result in rare cases the features mentioned here can differ from the ones you see on their websites.
Both providers support a range of users from beginners to experts with user-friendly website builders and WordPress staging areas. However, in terms of developer tools, both Example hosting one and Example hosting two offer robust options including SSH access, support for multiple programming languages, and Git for version control, thus appealing to developers looking for advanced capabilities.
Email services:
Both providers offer email hosting services, ensuring users can set up their own email accounts through their hosting plans. Hostwinds includes unlimited email accounts across their web, business, and reseller hosting plans, making it easier for businesses to manage their communications. Liquid Web provides email solutions as part of their managed hosting, but the lack of specific details on free email services could imply additional costs. Neither provider explicitly mentions support for transactional emails or the reselling of third-party email services like Google Workspace.
Price
Score Components:
- Plan value (40%): What each pricing tier offers.
- Transparency and clarity (30%): Clearness of pricing structures.
- Flexibility of plans (20%): Range of options to suit different budgets.
- Hidden costs (10%): Additional expenses not included in the plan.
🏆 Winner Hostwinds: Offers comprehensive hosting solutions at competitive prices, making it an excellent choice for diverse hosting needs.
Evaluating the pricing of plans among various hosting providers can be complex due to their differing pricing and renewal strategies. Additionally, certain plans require annual commitments, which adds to the difficulty of making comparisons. The prices listed are based on monthly commitments; plans requiring annual commitments are indicated. Additionally, although some providers offer identical plans for WordPress and shared hosting, we have created separate tables for each to enhance clarity.
When comparing the pricing plans of Liquid Web and Hostwinds, several distinctions emerge. Liquid Web offers a variety of managed hosting solutions, with Managed WooCommerce Hosting starting at $21/month and escalating significantly for high-tier plans capable of handling numerous stores. Hostwinds, on the other hand, provides more budget-friendly options, particularly in shared and business web hosting, starting at $5.24/month with unlimited bandwidth and disk space. For cloud hosting, Liquid Web’s offerings include advanced security features and proactive monitoring, while Hostwinds focuses on scalability and instant setup. Liquid Web’s plans also encompass extensive dedicated server options and managed VPS hosting, which are tailored for higher performance needs. However, with a higher value-for-price score, Hostwinds edges out as the winner for most budget-conscious users seeking a balance between affordability and comprehensive hosting features.
Spark $21.00
1 site, 15GB Storage, 2TB Bandwidth, Managed, Free SSL, DDoS Protection Value for price:8.0
|
Basic Web Hosting $5.24
1 domain, Unlimited Disk Space, Unlimited Bandwidth, Unlimited Email Accounts, 24/7 Support, Latest cPanel, Free SSL Value for price:9.0
|
Spark+ $43.00
3 sites, 25GB Storage, 2.5TB Bandwidth, Managed, Free SSL, DDoS Protection Value for price:8.5
|
Advanced Web Hosting $6.74
4 domains, Unlimited Disk Space, Unlimited Bandwidth Value for price:9.2
|
Maker $47.85, $87.00 after 3 months
5 sites, 40GB Storage, 3TB Bandwidth, Managed, Free SSL, DDoS Protection Value for price:8.0
|
Ultimate Web Hosting $8.24
Unlimited domains, Unlimited Disk Space, Unlimited Bandwidth Value for price:9.5
|
N/A |
Basic $5.24
Unlimited Bandwidth, Unlimited Disk Space, 1 Domain, Free SSL, Latest cPanel, Unlimited Subdomains, 24/7 Support Value for price:8.5
|
N/A |
Advanced $6.74
Unlimited Bandwidth, Unlimited Disk Space, 4 Domains Value for price:8.7
|
N/A |
Ultimate $8.24
Unlimited Bandwidth, Unlimited Disk Space, Unlimited Domains Value for price:9.0
|
N/A |
1 CPU, 1 GB RAM $8.24
30GB Storage, 1TB Bandwidth, Multiple Locations, Instant Scalability, Full Management Value for price:8.2
|
N/A |
1 CPU, 2 GB RAM $16.49
50GB Storage, 2TB Bandwidth Value for price:8.5
|
N/A |
2 CPU, 4 GB RAM $29.99
75GB Storage, 2TB Bandwidth Value for price:8.7
|
N/A |
2 CPU, 6 GB RAM $38.24
100GB Storage, 2TB Bandwidth Value for price:8.8
|
N/A |
4 CPU, 8 GB RAM $59.99
150GB Storage, 3TB Bandwidth Value for price:9.2
|
N/A |
4 CPU, 12 GB RAM $74.99
200GB Storage, 4TB Bandwidth Value for price:9.0
|
Enterprise plans
For enterprise-level hosting, Liquid Web offers advanced Cloud Dedicated Servers and Managed VPS Hosting solutions, starting from $159/month. These plans include high-performance specifications and extensive security measures. Hostwinds, with its Dedicated Server Hosting starting at $122/month, provides fully customizable servers and additional management services. Liquid Web’s proactive monitoring and 100% uptime guarantee should attract businesses focusing on reliability, while Hostwinds stands out for its adaptable configurations and slightly lower cost for comparable resources.
Ease of setup
platform.
Score Components:
- Site migration (25%): Assesses whether the provider offers tools for site migration,
either automated or manual, and whether these services are free or require a fee. - Admin panel usability (35%): Evaluates the type of admin panel provided, such as the
standard cPanel or a custom solution, focusing on its accessibility and user-friendliness for both
technical and non-technical users. - Setup features (20%): Examines the availability and ease of use of various setup
features, including FTP accounts, file managers, email account setup, PHPMyAdmin, and easy CDN
configuration. - Help center quality (20%): Measures the quality and accessibility of the provider’s
help center resources, including articles and tutorials.
🏆 Winner Hostwinds: Offers an easy-to-manage cPanel and extensive support resources.
Both Liquid Web and Hostwinds provide easy-to-use admin panels, but their approaches are different. Hostwinds offers cPanel access across its different hosting plans, including shared, business, and reseller hosting. This control panel is widely recognized for its user-friendly interface, making it accessible for both technical and non-technical users. In addition to cPanel, Hostwinds integrates the Weebly drag-and-drop website builder, which simplifies the process of building a website for beginners.
Liquid Web, on the other hand, focuses on more complex hosting solutions with proactive management. They don’t explicitly mention cPanel but provide a full management service ensuring that all server and OS updates are handled. This could be advantageous for users running complex hosting environments who might prefer a hands-off experience. Their focus on server and security management makes it a suitable choice for users who need a heavily managed hosting solution.
When it comes to site migration, both Hostwinds and Liquid Web provide free migration services. Hostwinds offers free website migration with the help of their support experts, whether for shared, business, reseller hosting, or cloud servers. Liquid Web also offers assistance migrating your site, store, or application at no extra cost. Both services take the hassle out of moving your existing website to a new host, ensuring a smooth transition.
Liquid Web and Hostwinds have comprehensive help centers stocked with articles and tutorials. Liquid Web boasts an industry-leading knowledge base with featured articles on topics ranging from AI to security best practices, which can be accessed here. Hostwinds also has detailed product documentation, step-by-step tutorials, and a community for additional support. Their help center can be found here.
By focusing on usability and support, Hostwinds offers a more accessible solution for users of all technical levels. Liquid Web excels in providing managed services for complex environments, making it ideal for users seeking comprehensive support and management. Both platforms aim to provide seamless migration and extensive help resources, catering to a broad range of hosting needs.
User management
accessibility.
Score Components:
- Role customization (40%): Flexibility in creating and defining user roles and
permissions. - Ease of management (30%): User interface and tools for managing users.
- Access control (20%): Effectiveness of access control measures for different user
levels. - Scalability (10%): Ability to manage a growing number of users efficiently.
🏆 Winner Liquid Web: Superior user management and user roles functionality in Plesk.
Liquid Web’s Plesk control panel offers a highly structured approach to managing user roles, permissions, and accessibility. With the ability to create up to four default user roles (Administrator, Webmaster, Application User, and Accountant), administrators can easily assign specific permissions based on user responsibilities. In contrast, Hostwinds lacks detailed information on user management and roles, highlighting a significant gap in comparison. Liquid Web’s flexibility to create new user roles and alter existing ones provides a tailored experience to meet various user management needs, which Hostwinds’ offerings do not evidently match.
The user interfaces and tools for managing users in Liquid Web’s Plesk are user-friendly and well-defined. In Service Provider View, subscriptions can be easily managed, and user settings are accessible through a straightforward menu. Similarly, Power User View simplifies the administration by listing all user accounts directly from the main menu. Hostwinds does not present detailed tools or interfaces for user management, making Liquid Web’s Plesk a more intuitive and accessible platform for administrators.
Access control measures are robust in Liquid Web’s Plesk, with clear options for creating and removing user accounts, editing roles, and adding additional administrators. The structured approach allows administrators to manage a growing number of users effectively by providing defined roles and permissions. Hostwinds’ lack of detailed information about its user management features raises questions about its capability to scale and manage user access as efficiently as Liquid Web.
Liquid Web User Roles Table:
Role | Description | Access Highlights |
---|---|---|
Administrator | Full access to the Plesk control panel and server management functions. | Can perform all actions, including creating new Plesk users and managing server settings. |
Webmaster | Manage most aspects of the subscriptions. | Cannot create new Plesk users or manage roles but can configure DNS, mail, FTP, and create new sites. |
Application User | Limited access. | Restricted permissions tailored to specific application management tasks. |
Accountant | Can see details of the subscriptions but cannot modify any settings. | Read-only access to subscription details for financial oversight without altering settings. |
Customer support
hosting provider.
Score Components:
- Support communication channels (30%): Measures the variety of customer support types
provided (live chat, chatbot, email, phone, etc.) - Availability (20%): Assesses the availability hours for each channel, including 24/7
support options. - Technical support quality (30%): Assesses whether the provider offers comprehensive
technical support, including hardware upgrades (e.g., HDD to SSD), software installations, and web
server configuration changes. - Enterprise support (20%): Checks if there are dedicated or priority support services
for enterprise-level customers.
🏆 Winner
Liquid Web: Liquid Web excels with excellent 24/7/365 human support and highly praised customer satisfaction.
Phone support |
||
Live chat support |
||
Chatbot |
||
Email/ticket support |
||
Enterprise support (dedicated agent, priority support) |
Liquid Web and Hostwinds both offer various customer support options, but Liquid Web demonstrates several notable advantages. Liquid Web guarantees response times of 59 seconds for phone and chat, and 59 minutes for helpdesk tickets, in addition to their SLA promises. They also provide comprehensive, 24/7/365 support, including dedicated advisors and customer success managers for enterprise clients, reflecting their commitment to personalized assistance.
Hostwinds supports customers through multiple channels such as phone, live chat, and email, with strong response guarantees of 30 seconds for live chat and phone, and five minutes for email tickets. They offer additional services like website monitoring and nightly backups. Despite these features, customer reviews are mixed. Liquid Web’s superior customer satisfaction, support guarantees, and specialized services make it the better choice for hosting needs.
User feedback
Customer feedback for this hosting provider is mixed, with significant polarization in user experiences. While some have praised the company for its reliable uptime, exceptional support, and proactive monitoring, others have experienced severe dissatisfaction due to frequent downtimes, unresponsive customer service, and unethical billing practices. Long-term customers, in particular, have noted a sharp decline in service quality and support efficiency, attributing it to recent management changes. Despite positive reviews highlighting excellent technical support and overall reliability, a growing number of users advise against using this provider due to these negative aspects.
Hostwinds hosting provider receives high praise for its exceptional customer service, prompt support, and reliable performance, with many users reporting significant improvements in site speed and uptime. Customers especially value the knowledgeable and responsive support team, finding them instrumental in resolving issues quickly. The user-friendly control panel and fair pricing further enhance their experience, though some note that the service can be pricier compared to competitors. However, a couple of reviews highlight issues with site migration and technical support, advising caution for WordPress users. Overall, the positive feedback significantly outweighs the negative, making Hostwinds a highly recommended choice for web hosting.
FAQ
Which platform is better suited for hosting WordPress websites?
Hostwinds is better suited for hosting WordPress websites as it offers cPanel, Softaculous, and the Weebly Site Builder, simplifying WordPress deployment. Liquid Web does not provide specialized WordPress hosting, focusing instead on managed WooCommerce hosting and high-availability solutions.
Are both platforms suitable for beginners?
Yes, both platforms are suitable for beginners but in different ways. Hostwinds excels with user-friendly features like free SSL certificates, the latest cPanel, and Weebly Site Builder, making it accessible for small businesses and beginners. Liquid Web, though not as beginner-focused, offers managed services which can ease the technical burden for less experienced users needing enterprise-grade solutions.
Which hosting service offers better security features?
Liquid Web offers superior security features, including advanced firewalls, VPNs, DDoS attack protection, and hardened server configurations, along with a web application firewall and F5 AIP Intrusion Detection System. Hostwinds provides essential security features like SSL certificates, Litespeed Web Server, and Cloudflare CDN but lacks some of the advanced controls offered by Liquid Web.
Which platform offers better customer support?
Liquid Web offers better customer support with guarantees of 59 seconds response time for phone and chat, and 59 minutes for helpdesk tickets, in addition to 24/7/365 comprehensive support and dedicated advisors for enterprise clients. Hostwinds also provides strong support through phone, live chat, and email, but customer reviews are mixed, making Liquid Web the preferred choice for customer satisfaction.
Which service is more suitable for hosting a high-traffic website?
Liquid Web is more suitable for hosting a high-traffic website due to its advanced load balancing, 100% uptime guarantees, proactive 24/7 monitoring, and high-performance infrastructure with AMD EPYC and Intel Xeon processors. These features ensure continuous service and reliability for websites experiencing heavy traffic.
The making of this blog
We followed a clear, step-by-step process to write and research this article.