Liquid Web vs Nexcess; two brands under the same management targeting different client needs.
On the surface, Liquid Web and Nexcess do the same thing, provide reliable hosting, but under the hood, their hosting products cater to different audiences.
Offering the same service often confuses many folks about the relationship or difference between Liquid Web and Nexcess. To clear the confusion, Nexcess is part of the Liquid Web family.
That said, this comparison between Liquid Web and Nexcess is not about which is a better host (both are) rather which host meets your needs.
Instead of throwing them into a pit fight to compare which one throws a better punch feature-wise, we’ll compare their underlying technologies so you can decide which one of the two hosts to go with.
Disclosure! This article contains affiliate links. When you purchase hosting through my links I may receive a commision. No worries, this won’t affect your price, actually through my links you get a preferential discount.
Who is Liquid Web?
Liquid Web is an indomitable industry leader in mission-critical business hosting providing high-performance managed dedicated hosting, application hosting, and clustered cloud services.
Twenty-four years and counting Liquid Web has been recognized by INC Magazine’s 5000 Fastest Growing Companies for twelve years thanks to its hosting bells and whistles; global data centers, 24/7/365 solution engineers, exceptional customer support; managing over 1 million sites for 30,000 customers in 150 countries.
No doubt Liquid Web is indomitable in the hosting industry.
Who is Nexcess?
Nexcess has carved a niche out of the hosting industry for rock-solid managed hosting for content and eCommerce websites.
Though added into the Liquid Web family in 2019, Nexcess has been empowering clients to create and grow their businesses online for 20 years.
To show its hosting prowess, Nexcess is an 11 time Inc. 5000 honoree running 10 global data centers with 500,000 websites under management. Not bad for a once one-man business that started in a small garage in Michigan.
Difference between Liquid Web and Nexcess
As you can see, both Liquid Web and Nexcess are in the hosting industry. But there are some differences. Let’s look at them now.
Product offering
Though both Liquid Web and Nexcess offer managed hosting, Liquid Web provides traditional, cloud, and hybrid hosting environments while Nexcess provides a bespoke cloud hosting solution for eCommerce and content websites.
Confused?
Think of it this way, if your needs require a dedicated bare metal server or a VPS solution think Liquid Web, and if you need to just have the best online presence for your WordPress or Magento eCommerce or informational website, then Nexcess has a solution optimized just for that.
Here is a quick comparison of their product offering, later we’ll break down these product offerings.
Pricing
In pricing terms, Liquid Web prices start at $59 for the VPS to custom pricing for the higher-end Enterprise hosting, while the hosting prices of Nexcess range between $19 and $999 per month.
Note; on the Liquid Web website, you will see CMS & eCommerce offerings, these start at $19, but I don’t consider them in this comparison because they are offered by Nexcess.
Tip: To cut down on Liquid Web hosting costs, pay upfront. For instance with the special introductory offer on the 2GB VPS, if you pay monthly, you are billed $59, when you pay annually you are billed $420 upfront equating to $35 per month and if you pay for 2 years in advance, you are billed $360 upfront equating to $15 per month.
It is a no-brainer; paying for 24 months upfront is cheaper.
Best for which business
Another major difference between Liquid Web and Nexcess is the target customer. From price point to technology offerings the two target different audiences.
Liquid Web hosting targets medium to large enterprises.
Nexcess on the other hand targets small to medium businesses
Ownership
We settled this right from the start; Liquid Web and Nexcess have the same ownership. Liquid Web is the parent brand and Nexcess is Liquid Web’s digital commerce cloud platform; a sister company.
Support
Working with either Liquid Web or Nexcess avails you the same celebrated world-class support from the Most Helpful Humans in Hosting®.
Liquid Web and Nexcess Side by side feature comparison
| Liquid Web | Nexcess | |
| Fully Managed | Yes | Yes |
| SSL certificates | Included | Included |
| Firewall Protection | Yes | Yes |
| Solid State Drives (SSD) | Yes | Yes |
| Uptime guarantee | 100% | 100% |
| DDoS protection | Yes | Yes |
| Content Delivery Network (CDN) | Akamai Secure CDN – starts at $130 per month Cloudflare® CDN – Free plan available | Nexcess Edge CDN – Free |
| Branded E-mails | Available | Yes |
| Operating System | Linux, Windows | Linux |
| Control Panel | cPanel, Plesk, Interworx | Proprietary – SiteWorx, Nexcess Cloud |
| Website Migration | Free | Free |
| Support | Phone Email/Help Desk Live chat Available 24/7 | Phone Email/Help Desk Live chat Available 24/7 |
Tip: Moving from another website and worried about the messy WordPress migration issues? If you are DIY, use the free Migrate To Liquid Web & Nexcess WordPress plugin that does all the heavy lifting.
Liquid Web Products
Dedicated Hosting
Liquid Web provides a range of managed dedicated high-performance servers for your application or website. You can go with their built-to-order dedicated infrastructure or customize the infrastructure to suit your needs.
Servers are located in the United States of America; in Michigan (US Central Servers, Arizona (US West Servers) and in Europe in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
The built-to-order price for the dedicated servers ranges from $199 per month to $2,149 per month. Customized infrastructure attracts customized prices. Pay for 6 or 12 months upfront to get discounts.
Liquid Web Entry Level Dedicated Server Specifications
| Dedicated Servers | Cloud Dedicated Servers | VMware Private Cloud | Server Clusters | HIPAA Compliant Hosting | |
| Entry-Level Server Specifications | 4 cores @ 3.9 GHz Max 16 GB RAM 2 x 240 GB SSD Primary Disk 1 x 2 TB SATA Backup Storage 5 TB Bandwidth 250 GB Acronis Cyber Backups cPanel Included | 4 cores (8 threads) 3.40 GHz base (3.80 GHz turbo) 16 GB RAM 452 GB SSD RAID-1 5TB Bandwidth Linux or Windows InterWorx, Plesk Web Pro, or cPanel Pro Available | 12 vCPUs 32 GB RAM 1,000 GB Storage | Web/App Servers Database Server Firewall Private Switch | Single Server HIPAA Hosting Single Dedicated Server for Web & Database Use Cisco Firewall Fully Managed Threat Stack Oversight Intrusion Detection System |
| Starting Price | $199/month | $149/month | $510/month | $743/month | $344/month |
Main Features of Liquid Web dedicated servers
- ServerSecure Advanced Security
- Standard DDoS Protection
- Root Access
- Dedicated IP Address
- Business-grade SSD Storage
- 100% Network and Power Uptime SLAs
- Available Operating Systems; CentOS, Ubuntu, CloudLinux, Windows
- Interworx, Plesk, or cPanel Server management software
- IPMI Access
- Secondary Backup Drive
- Cloudflare CDN
Liquid Web Managed Cloud Servers
Liquid Web provides scalable cPanel cloud hosting for high-demand apps and websites.
It features;
- A high-performance platform that enables on-demand scaling for cPanel sites
- Built on OpenStack Technology
- 10Gb Public/Private Network
- Powerful API
- Integrated Firewall for security
- High I/O Redundant Storage
- Acronis Backups Included
- Easy to use
- Fully managed
Liquid Web Cloud Servers pricing
There are three cloud hosting plans to choose from; Standard –starting at $265 per month, Professional – starting at $500 per month, and the Premier plan starts at $740 per month.
Liquid Web VPS Solutions.
Want the power and freedom of a dedicated server at a fraction of the price?
For fares starting at $59 per month for Managed VPS Hosting and $149 per month for the Private VPS Parent, hop onto Liquid Web’s managed VPS solutions.
Liquid Web Entry Level VPS Specifications
| 2 GB RAM VPS | Single Processor Private VPS Parent | |
| Processor | 4 cores @ 3.9 GHz Max 250 GB Acronis Cyber Backups | Intel Xeon E3-1230 v5 8 vCPU Cores |
| Primary Disk | 2 x 240 GB SSD | 452 GB SSD RAID 1 |
| Backup Storage | 1 x 2 TB SATA | |
| Bandwidth | 5 TB Bandwidth | |
| RAM | 16 GB RAM | 16 GB RAM |
| OS | Linux and Windows | Linux and Windows VMs Available |
| Management | cPanel Included | cPanel, Plesk, Interworx Available |
| Starting Price | $59/month | $149/month |
Tip: If you subscribe for a 2-year term, you can save on your VPS bill. For instance with the special introductory offer on the 2GB VPS, if you pay monthly, you are billed $59, when you pay annually you are billed $420 upfront equating to $35 per month and if you pay for 2 years in advance, you are billed $360 upfront equating to $15 per month.
It is a no-brainer; paying for 24 months upfront is the best deal on VPS hosting.
Main Features of Liquid Web VPS Solution
- Single-Tenant Servers
- Unlimited Sites with InterWorx
- ServerSecure Advanced Security
- Standard DDoS Protection
- Root Access
- SSD Storage
- Dedicated IP Address
- Business-grade SSD Storage
- 100% Network and Power Uptime SLAs
- Available Operating Systems; CentOS, Ubuntu, CloudLinux, Windows
- Interworx, Plesk, or cPanel Server management software
- Gigabit Uplink
- Cloudflare CDN
Nexcess Products
Fully Managed Magento Hosting by Nexcess
Optimized Ecommerce Hosting for Speed, Security, and Scale. The perfect environment for your Magento store to grow.
Main Features of Managed Magento Hosting by Nexcess
- Proactive Security
- Nexcess CDN in 22 locations with advanced caching for ultra-fast loading sites
- Dedicated IP Address
- SSL certificate
- Instant auto-scaling
- 24/7 Magento expert support
- Free Magento Site Migrations
- PCI-Compliant Hosting
- Progressive Web Apps (PWA)-Ready
- Automatic daily malware monitoring
Managed WooCommerce Hosting Nexcess
eCommerce on WordPress is synonymous with WooCommerce. With the Managed WooCommerce Hosting from Nexcess your high-performing ecommerce store has got the right infrastructure to scale and grow.
Starting at $190 a year, escape the hassles of cheap hosting with the best WooCommerce hosting in the industry.
Managed WooCommerce Hosting Nexcess Pricing
Features of Managed WooCommerce Hosting Nexcess
No host in the industry provides the extra much-needed eCommerce features like Nexcess. See for yourself.
- WordPress Core Updates
- WordPress Plugin Updates
- Visual Regression Testing
- One-Click Staging Site
- Free SSL Certificates
- Daily Backups
- IThemes Security Pro
- Nexcess CDN Included
- Image Compression
- Image Lazy Loading
- WP Custom Order Tables (only in the Growth and Enterprise Plans)
- Sales Performance Monitor
- ElasticSearch (On the Enterprise plan only)
- Astra Pro
- Feature-Rich Product Listing (via Iconic WP) on all plans except Starter
- Beaver Builder Page Builder on all plans except Starter
- WP 101 WooCommerce Tutorials
- Glew Reporting (only in the Growth and Enterprise Plans)
- Thank You Redirect for WooCommerce
- Dokan Pro (only in the Standard, Growth, and Enterprise Plans)
- Thousands of Themes
- Image Compression & CDN
- On-Demand Performance Testing
- Mobile-Optimized
- Comprehensive Plugins Included
- Product Catalogs
- Staff Accounts
- Image Support
- Instant Auto Scaling
- Responsive Design
- Custom Fields
- Product Variations
Fully Managed WordPress Hosting by Nexcess
Speed, performance, and reliability are what you get when you host your WordPress website with Nexcess.
With the managed service, leave the nerdy tech stuff to the always-on security monitoring & support WordPress experts available 24/7/365 and focus on what you are good at.
Signup to any managed WordPress hosting plan risk-free with the 30-Day money-back guarantee.
Nexcess Managed WordPress Hosting Pricing
Features Nexcess Managed WordPress Hosting
- Automatic Core WordPress Updates
- Malware Monitoring
- Staging & Production Sync
- One-Click Staging
- Developer Tools
- Email Hosting
- Instant Backups
- Full Server Access
- Stencils for Rapid Site Creation
- Automatic Plugin Updates
- IThemes Security Pro
- Daily Backups
- Visual Regression Testing
- Multi-layered Caching
- Automatic SSL
- Nexcess Owned Data Centers
- Image Lazy Loading
- Image Compression
- PHP Optimization
- Visual Compare
- WP Merge
- iThemes Sync
- TinyPNG
- Qubely Pro
Nexcess Cloud Hosting
If your eCommerce store or content site isn’t running on either Magento or WordPress then the cloud hosting solution from Nexcess is home to your website and store.
In addition to Magento, WooCommerce, and WordPress, Nexcess’ hosting environment is optimized for Drupal, ExpressionEngine, CraftCMS, OroCRM, and many more content management systems and eCommerce platforms.
Nexcess Cloud Hosting Pricing
| XS | S | M | L | XL | XXL | |
| Monthly Price | $49 | $99 | $179 | $299 | $549 | $849 |
| Disk space | 50GB | 75GB | 125 GB | 400 GB | 600 GB | 800 GB |
| VCPU | – | – | – | 20 | 26 | 32 |
| RAM | – | – | – | 20GB | 26GB | 32GB |
| Bandwidth | 1TB | 2 TB | 3 TB | 5 TB | 8 TB | 10 TB |
Features of Nexcess Cloud Hosting
- PCI Compliance
- Nexcess security hardening
- 24//7 remote monitoring
- 100% uptime
- Web Application Firewall (WAF)
- Free Migrations
- 1-Click Installs
- Email hosting
- Advanced User Management
- 8 Global Data Centers to choose from
- Free Managed DNS Service
WPQuickStart
With WPQuickStart, Nexcess allows you to build your website or online store at record speed with some of the leading WordPress plugins and themes.
StoreBuilder
Take the guesswork out of building WooCommerce stores; leverage the power of Artificial Intelligence in Nexcess StoreBulder to build a unique website within minutes following the best industry practices with some of the best premium plugins and themes like Kadence and Recapture.
Sell unlimited products and process payments with Stripe or PayPal.
Get started with one month free, thereafter you are charged $19 per month.
Membership Sites
What if you had everything you need to build a thriving membership website?
Nexcess Membership Sites gives you everything you need.
Build a top-notch membership site with Kadence and gate your content with Restrict Content Pro.
With a collection of other premium plugins, you can accept payments out of the box, set up your subscription packages, automate emails, and a lot more.
Starting at $49 per month, you have everything to build and run your membership website.
Other Nexcess services
SSL Certificates – Secure your website with 128/256 encryption SSL certificates starts at $39.95 per year.
Domain Registration – reserve your domain name from $15 per year. Nexcess Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) are also available at $59.00 per year
CDN Services – with 22 locations around the globe Nexcess serves your website fast and safe
Grow your online business with NexcessWhy Host your website, App, or eCommerce store with either Liquid Web or Nexcess?
Two reasons.
1. Reliability.
For premium hosting, you shouldn’t expect less than 100% availability.
For that Liquid Web is true to its commitment to serve mission-critical websites. Data from the website monitoring company SolarWinds Pingdom show Liquid Web has had a 100% uptime in the last 6 months.
Real users are proud to testify Liquid Web and Nexcess are reliable.
Recently started moving clients over to @LiquidWeb – idk how so many of them were still on Network Solutions and other outdated platforms. The change in uptime, speed, and customer service has been gamechanging.
— Kelly Stanze (@KellyStanze) August 5, 2021
The biggest fear was a lower-cost host wouldn’t be able to handle massive traffic. Nexcess is handling it just fine & their support is great. We chose them because of great relationships in the WP community and ties with high profile, high integrity folks like @chrislema
— Scott Mann (@CScottMann) July 29, 2021
2. Out of this world support.
No host rivals Liquid Web support, none guarantees a 59-second initial response on live chat, a 59-second initial response to phone calls, or a 59-minute initial response to help desk requests.
24/7/365 support from the Most Helpful Humans in Hosting®is truly out of this world.
Don’t take my word or that of Liquid Web for it, read real feedback from real users.
Thank you @LiquidWeb for hiring awesome CSRs like Jake! Just got off the phone with him and he was thorough and helpful. It’s experiences like this with Jake that keep me referring my larger accounts to Liquid Web. Love your hardware/systems/etc, but your support is why I stay.
— Ben Jenkins (@benscoot) June 7, 2021
Wrap Up.
There you have it, Liquid Web vs Nexcess.
Both offer world-class hosting for your business.
If you only want an online presence with Magento, WooCommerce, Or WordPress, then Nexcess is my pick for you. If you need granular control of your server, then Liquid Web is the way to go.
Either way, you get your money’s worth.
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