Nexcess Review

Nexcess is a subsidiary of Liquid Web hosting, a Michigan-based hosting company that has been around since 2000.

Liquid Web is one of the oldest and largest web hosting companies in the industry, proudly hosting over half a million websites.

Although Liquid Web offers several types of hosting solutions, Nexcess is their managed WordPress and WooCommerce hosting division.

If you check the company’s website, you’ll see that they are very proud of their WordPress hosting. They claim that their hosting offers better speed, security, and support than its competitors.

But do their claims hold up? Let’s find out in this Nexcess review.

I’ll review their hosting plans, features, server performance, support, and more. And at the end of the Nexcess WordPress hosting review, I’ll answer the question, “Is Nexcess worth it?”

Nexcess Review

After using Nexcess hosting, I can say that the service is fast and reliable. The customer support was helpful too. Each of their plans comes with free SSL, Nexcess CDN, daily backup, staging, etc. Their prices are also reasonable and come with a 30-day money-back policy.

My Overall Rating: 4.7/5 stars

Speed

Easy of use

Uptime

Support

Pricing

Nexcess Pros and Cons:

Pros:

• Excellent performance & uptime
• Auto-scaling
• Data centers in the USA, Europe, and Asia-Pacific
• Robust security
• Free website migration

Cons:

• Premium-level prices
• No file manager
• DNS manager could be simplified

Who Should Use Nexcess?

Picking the best hosting provider is a big decision. It depends on important factors like cost, disk space, reliability, security, and the support you can trust.

After careful analysis, I’ve found that Nexcess is the prime solution for specific websites and businesses.

• Ecommerce Entrepreneurs: Nexcess’s managed WooCommerce hosting is ideal for online stores, offering optimized performance and dedicated support.
• Serious Bloggers: For bloggers with high-traffic WordPress sites, Nexcess’s managed WordPress hosting ensures seamless performance and scalability.
• Growing Businesses: As traffic and demands increase, Nexcess’s auto-scaling capabilities accommodate growth without compromising site speed.
• Tech-Savvy Developers: Developers looking for sophisticated hosting setups, like Git integration and staging sites, will appreciate Nexcess’s advanced features.
• Businesses Prioritizing Security: With robust security measures, Nexcess is a wise choice for those who value safeguarding their online assets.

What is Nexcess?

Nexcess Hosting, a part of Liquid Web, is a reliable web hosting service. It started in 2000 and is located in Michigan.

They cater to 100,000+ customers and host a whopping 500,000+ websites, mainly for WordPress, WooCommerce, and Magento sites.

What’s cool? Nexcess handles the technical stuff and helps you focus on your business. Their cloud hosting makes your website fast, even with lots of visitors.

They also provide security tools such as malware scanning and automatic backups to protect your site.

Nexcess’s entry-level Spark plan offers managed WordPress and WooCommerce hosting options for just $17.50 a month, while Magento hosting starts at $24.

And if you change your mind, no worries! Nexcess gives you 30 days to try, risk-free.

Nexcess Hosting Review 2023

Hosting Management: How User-Friendly is Nexcess?

Nexcess has a good hosting management interface. It’s not as modern as some of its competitors, but it has all the features you need to manage your website.

The dashboard is well laid out and easy to navigate. You can easily see your active hosting plan, add-ons, payment details, and other account information with just a few clicks.

When you log into your Nexcess hosting account, you’ll see a menu bar on the top left of your screen. This is where you’ll find all of your account ID, PIN, support, system status, etc.

But before you start modifying your website, make sure that the domain name is correctly linked to your hosting account. Otherwise, you’ll get an error message when you try to change your website.

And I will show you how to do that in the next section.

Pointing Your Domain Name to Nexcess

If you have a domain name registered with another provider, such as GoDaddy or Namecheap, you need to point your domain name to Nexcess first before you start modifying your website.

However, if you have a domain name that’s registered with Nexcess, you can skip this step and move on to the next section.

But, is that necessary?

Yes! After activating your Nexcess hosting account, you get a pre-installed WordPress site with a random URL like “https://1a2b3c4df5.nxcli.net/”.

It looks ugly, and it’s not good for SEO either. So, you should point your domain name to this site before beginning any modifications. It’s simple, and you can do that by following the following steps:

First, go to the DNS Zones section and click on the Add DNS Zone.

A popup will appear, and you have to enter your domain name.

Then, click on your domain name to view the DNS records. Copy the nameservers from the DNS Records and go to your current domain registrar.

In this example, I will use Namecheap.

Click on DNS and go to the Nameserver section to Add Record.

Select the Custom DNS option and paste all four nameservers from Nexcess.

In this example, my four nameservers are:

• ns1.nexcess.net
• ns2.nexcess.net
• ns3.nexcess.net
• ns4.nexcess.net

Now, wait and check again in a few hours. If everything goes well, your domain name should be pointed to Nexcess now.

Here’s a complete guide on how to point your domain name to Nexcess.

Nexcess Site Dashboard

Once you have your domain name pointed to Nexcess, you can go to your website’s dashboard by clicking on Sites on the left sidebar.

From there, you can manage your website’s DNS settings, add websites and subdomains, view logs and more. You can also manage your website’s files, databases and other add-ons from your dashboard.

Here is a quick overview of what you can find on your Nexcess Site Dashboard:

• Credentials: This section is where you’ll find your FTP and SSH login credentials.
• Content Delivery: Configure Nexcess CDN on your site and purge the cache.
• Backups: You can manage your backups from here.
• Staging & Dev: Manage your staging and development sites from here.
• Email: access your email account or create a new one.
• Visual Comparison: check the changes after you make any changes to your site.
• Analytics: get detailed information about disk usage, CPU, auto-scaling, and web traffic statistics.
• Domains: manage your domain names and DNS settings.
• Management: turn on/off auto plugin upgrades, core upgrades, cloud accelerator, and auto-scaling.
• Databases: manage your databases, create a new one and manage existing ones.
• SSL: turn auto-renewal of SSL certificates on/off.
• Logs: view server logs, tail and search for specific errors.
• Schedule tasks: create cron jobs, schedule tasks, and manage existing ones.
• Containers: activate/ deactivate your containers like Elasticsearch, RabbitMQ, Solr.
• Integrations: enable New Relic’s performance monitoring on your site. This can help in diagnosing performance issues.

Performance: How Fast Is Nexcess Hosting?

Nexcess is a managed WordPress hosting provider, meaning that they have servers specifically designed to run WordPress sites.

As per their website, their servers are optimized for WordPress, boasting speed, security, and reliability.

But is that true?

In this Nexcess review, I decided to put Nexcess through some tests to find out.

Nexcess Uptime Test Result

First, I tested Nexcess’s uptime because uptime is crucial for any online service. Uptime refers to the amount of time a website or server is operational and accessible to users.

According to their website, Nexcess guarantees 99.9% uptime, which is good. However, I decided to put that claim to the test.

For the test, I used the uptime-monitor tool to evaluate Nexcess’s performance over three months.

In the first month, Nexcess maintained a flawless 100% uptime result.

The second month saw a slight dip in uptime to 99.9%, but it remained well above the industry average of 99%.

Fortunately, Nexcess swiftly recovered, achieving another perfect 100% uptime in the third month.

The uptime monitoring tool also showed that the average response time was pretty good. The average page load time was only 618 milliseconds, which is very fast.

Overall, Nexcess’s uptime performance was excellent. They maintained 100% uptime for two months and 99.9% uptime for the third month.

Nexcess Speed Test Result

The next step in this Nexcess review was to run a few speed tests on the site.

Speed tests analyze how long it takes your site to load and give you recommendations for improving its performance.

To evaluate Nexcess’s performance, I ran tests on it using various tools: Pingdom, GTmetrix, Bitcacha, etc.

This speed test was performed on a newly created WordPress site, which had not yet been customized. The following plugins were installed:

• WordPress (latest version).
• Astra theme with starter templates (free).
• WP Forms (free).
• Spectra (free).
• and W3 Total Cache with default settings.

Here’re the speed test results.

GTMetrix Result:

In the GTmetrix speed test (conducted from), Nexcess achieved an impressive Grade A rating.

The Web Vitals were equally impressive, with a Largest Contentful Paint of 70.ms, a Cumulative Layout Shift of 0.16, and a fully loaded time of just 753ms. 

Pingdom Result:

Nexcess got an impressive 89 (B) on Pingdom’s speed test, which is a solid score.

The page size was 965 KB; the load time was swift at 429 ms (conducted from Washington, USA).

PageSpeed Insights Result:

On Google PageSpeed Insights, Nexcess received a desktop performance score of 71 and a mobile performance score of 45.

The scores you saw here were achieved without any effort at optimization.

You can see in the screenshot above that there is plenty of room for optimization. The page has no minification, gzipping or anything.

There are also a number of files that are not compressed and could be optimized with tools like Lighthouse.

Bitcatcha Result:

Nexcess aced the Bitcatcha speed test with an exceptional performance grade of A+. The server speed clocked in at a blazing 157 ms. Furthermore, it showcased remarkable response times in various global locations: 29 ms in the US (East), 140 ms in London, 270 ms in Singapore, 256 ms in Mumbai, and 234 ms in Sydney, affirming its worldwide hosting prowess.

WebPageTest Result (TTFB):

The WebPageTest analysis of Nexcess’s website revealed that the time to first byte was 277 ms, and the total load time was 1.5 seconds.

This was faster than competitors offered, and it reaffirmed Nexcess’s commitment to providing reliable hosting services.

A user on X (Twi​tter) shared his progress after moving from Squarespace to Nexcess.

Who says WordPress is slow. Just note: didn’t go deep into this one.Thanks, @KadenceWP and @nexcess for making amazing products. The job was migrating from Squarespace to WordPress. pic.twitter.com/Jpv7h9380Z

— Ali Demirci | eCom UX/CRO (@ecommerceux) September 18, 2023

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Here’s the results.

Click to open full size image

Another one:

Click to open full size image

Nexcess Stress Test Result

Next, I conducted a stress test on Nexcess WordPress hosting using the K6 tool to assess its capability under increased traffic.

During the test, 9,769 requests were generated at a steady rate of 29 requests per second over 5 minutes and 39 seconds.

Impressively, Nexcess consistently maintained a response time of 63 milliseconds throughout the entire test.

Even during high-traffic intervals, Nexcess exhibited unwavering performance without any noticeable spikes or deviations.

The result was impressive, and it shows that Nexcess can handle a large amount of traffic with minimal impact on performance.

Security – Is Nexcess Secure?

Nexcess Hosting knows how important security is for your business, especially when it comes to your data. They’ve gone above and beyond to make sure your website is super secure.

They use several strategies to secure your site from hackers and other malicious actors, including:

1. Free SSL Certificates: Nexcess includes free SSL certificates on all plans, ensuring encrypted data transfer and trustworthiness for your site.

On top of that, these certificates have auto-renewal, so you’re always covered with security.

2. Daily Backups: Every Nexcess plan offers free daily backups, which are securely stored on off-site servers for up to 30 days.

Plus, you can do manual backups whenever you want, so you don’t have to stress about losing your data or unexpected issues.

3. iThemes Security Pro: Nexcess goes a step further by offering iThemes Security Pro, a premium security plugin worth $99 per year, absolutely free.

This plugin boosts site security with features like bad bot and user blocking, brute force protection, scanning, magic links, password-less login, reCAPTCHA, and more.

4. Auto WordPress Core and Plugin Updates: Nexcess automates the process of updating your WordPress core and plugins. This ensures your website stays current with the latest security patches and bug fixes.

5. Malware Monitoring: Nexcess constantly monitors for malware and suspicious activities, promptly addressing any security threats to keep your website safe from potential breaches.

In total, Nexcess offers a comprehensive range of security features that can help you safeguard and protect your WordPress site.

You don’t have to worry about password breaches, brute force attacks, or malicious plugins anymore because Nexcess takes care of them for you.

Nexcess Pricing Review

In this Nexcess Hosting review, I’ll assess their pricing and compare it to other providers. They offer hosting for WordPress, Magento, and enterprise cloud servers.

For those seeking managed WordPress hosting, Nexcess’s entry-level Spark plan offers a cost-effective starting point, with plans ranging from $17 to $912 per month.

The flexibility extends to payment options, so you can choose whether to pay monthly or annually.

Each plan, regardless of the tier, comes with a compelling set of features, including free SSL certificates, Nexcess CDN integration, daily backups, free migration assistance, email accounts, and a staging site environment for testing changes before going live.

Where these plans differ is in the allocated resources, such as disk space, domains, bandwidth, and server power. The more you pay, the more resources you get.

Nexcess’s entry level Spark plan is an excellent choice for smaller sites or blogs, as it provides all the basics you need at a very affordable price, starting at just $17.50 per month.

However, if you run a larger e-commerce store or expect high traffic volumes, consider the higher-tier plans (Spark+ or Maker) to ensure your site operates smoothly without slowdowns.

Nexcess Coupon (For You): Get a 20% discount on all new hosting plans with this Nexcess coupon. Enter the promo code “WPMyWeb” when signing up for any service.

However, if I compare Nexcess’s plans to other hosting providers, such as WP Engine and Kinsta, they are slightly more expensive. 

Plus, their plans are more restrictive than Nexcess. For example, WP Engine and Kinsta both have monthly visit limits. However, Nexcess’s plans do not have a limit on monthly visits.

In a nutshell, Nexcess’s plans are both budget-friendly and packed with excellent value for your money. And they have a 30-day money-back policy, so you can try them risk-free. 

Nexcess Support: Is Tech Support Helpful?

Support is a crucial part of any hosting service. You don’t want to be stuck with a product that has poor support or no community forums at all.

So, I took Nexcess’s support into consideration when creating this Nexcess review.

Because they offer live chat, email and phone support, I decided to test how well they handled my questions.

In my experience, live chat is usually the fastest way to get help from a hosting company.

But email/ ticket support can be more convenient if you have a lot of questions or need to go back and forth with the customer service rep.

Based on personal experience, Nexcess’s chat support stands out for its efficiency and helpfulness. When faced with a DNS configuration issue after purchasing Nexcess WordPress hosting, I reached out for assistance.

Within a mere 15 seconds, I was connected to a knowledgeable agent who not only patiently explained the required steps in the chat but also provided additional resources for reference.

Additionally, the agent went the extra mile by personally adding the name servers to my account and configuring them for me.

Then, I created a support ticket for website migration from my previous host.

The support ticket was assigned to a technician who quickly responded to my request. And within 14 hours, the website migration was complete.

All in all, I am happy with Nexcess’s customer service, especially when compared to my previous host. When I needed help, they were there for me.

Great customer support at @nexcess! I needed some assistance getting my client’s site migrated last night and Rithesh was incredibly helpful. Quick replies. Good guidance. And kindness throughout! pic.twitter.com/Fh0QiHVraj

— Michelle Frechette – Organizing WordCamp Rochester (@michelleames) May 2, 2023

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Nexcess Features Worth Mentioning

1. No Overage Fees or Traffic Limits

Unlike many hosting providers that impose overage fees or cap your website’s growth with traffic limits, Nexcess takes a refreshing approach.

With Nexcess, you have the freedom to let your website flourish without worrying about sudden cost spikes due to increased traffic.

2. Daily Free Backups with Restore

Data security is crucial in website management, and Nexcess understands this well. They offer an extra layer of protection with daily free backups.

This great feature offers peace of mind and data restoration convenience.

3. Free Automated Migration

Nexcess hosting understands the challenges of migrating websites, especially when moving from different hosts. 

To alleviate this, they offer free automated migration services. If you’re migrating multiple sites from a single host to Nexcess, you can submit a single migration request. 

However, if you’re migrating from various hosts, Nexcess recommends submitting each site as a separate migration ticket in their portal. 

4. Proactive Server Monitoring

Nexcess takes care of your server to keep your site running well. They keep an eye on how your server is used and find any problems that might slow it down. 

When they see an issue, they fix it before it causes trouble.

5. iThemes Security Pro

This is like a superhero for your website’s safety. iTheme security pro usually costs $99 per year, but with Nexcess WordPress hosting, you get it for free.

It keeps your website safe by stopping computerized attacks and keeping an eye out for any suspicious actions. It also helps make your login details stronger and checks if any of the bits of your website could be easily broken into. Plus, it kicks out those pesky, spammy robots and bad guys.

6. Plugin Performance Monitoring

It looks at how fast your website’s most essential pages load every day. It tells you if any of those little add-ons (plugins) on your site are making it slow. 

So, you know what’s causing the slowness and can fix it quickly. It’s like daily health check-ups for your website to keep it fast and happy.

7. Stencils for Rapid Site Creation

Stencils are templates that make building a website super easy. They’re like starting with a coloring book page that’s already partially filled in. 

You just add your colors (your content), and it saves you a ton of time because you don’t have to create everything from scratch. It’s great if you want to make websites quickly without starting from zero each time.

Do I Recommend Nexcess Hosting?

Yes, I recommend Nexcess Hosting. 

Their web hosting services are synonymous with outstanding performance, robust security, and a responsive support team. Additionally, the company has a stellar track record for uptime and reliability.

However, their pricing may be a bit higher compared to some competitors, so it’s essential to consider your budget when choosing Nexcess. 

To sum it up, Nexcess WordPress Hosting is a top pick for businesses, whether big or small, seeking rock-solid server hosting. They’ve got you covered!

Alternatives to Nexcess Managed WordPress

While Nexcess WordPress Hosting offers a range of hosting solutions with commendable performance and support, exploring alternatives is wise to ensure you make the best choice for your specific needs. 

Here are some of the best alternatives to Nexcess managed WordPress:

1. WP Engine

Starting at $30 per month, WP Engine is a popular managed WordPress hosting provider. It’s known for its high performance and reliability. WP Engine offers automatic daily backups, a built-in CDN, and one-click staging sites for testing changes to your website before making them live. Their platform is optimized for WordPress, ensuring fast loading times and security. To know more, you can read my full WP Engine review.

2. DreamHost

DreamHost offers shared hosting plans starting at $2.59 per month and managed hosting starting at $16.95 per month. They offer unlimited bandwidth usage and disk space, a free domain for the first year, unlimited websites, and a user-friendly control panel. Their managed hosting includes automatic updates, daily backups, and 24/7 support.

3. A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting is a versatile hosting provider with shared hosting plans starting at $2.99 per month. They offer high-speed hosting with turbocharged servers for faster performance. A2 Hosting also includes a free SSL certificate, unlimited websites, unlimited storage, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee. They cater to various needs, from shared hosting to dedicated and VPS hosting.

4. Kinsta

Kinsta is a premium managed hosting provider with prices starting at $30 per month. It boasts lightning-fast load times thanks to its use of the Google Cloud Platform. Kinsta offers automatic daily backups, free migrations, and a staging environment. It’s ideal for businesses and websites with high traffic.

5. Cloudways

Cloudways distinguishes itself with its remarkable flexibility and diverse cloud provider choices. As your website expands, you can effortlessly adjust your resources. They also offer valuable features such as automated backups, staging environment, content delivery networks, a complimentary SSL certificate, and continuous 24/7 customer support. Their price starts at $11/ month.

Nexcess Reviews: FAQs

Q1: How much is Nexcess managed WordPress?

Ans: The cost of Nexcess managed WordPress hosting varies based on the specific plan you choose. Pricing ranges from approximately $15 per month for shared hosting to higher-tier plans for Nexcess managed WordPress, WooCommerce, and dedicated hosting. You can check out the complete Nexcess managed WordPress price list here.

What is Nexcess used for?

Nexcess primarily offers web hosting solutions for websites, online stores, and web applications, ensuring a secure, reliable, and high-performance online presence.

Is Nexcess a hosting site?

Yes, Nexcess is a hosting provider. It specializes in managed hosting, including managed WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento, email hosting, and Nexcess cloud.

How do I cancel Nexcess?

You can cancel your Nexcess services by emailing their Billing team at support@nexcess.net or through the Nexcess Client Portal. After cancellation, you will receive your money back within 7-10 business days.