LiquidWeb CDN
Liquid Web offers top-quality web hosting. The company’s features-packed plans are popular with businesses of all sizes. Although many Liquid Web reviews already cover the basics of the service, we want to explore its most important features.
What is Liquid Web?
Liquid Web, based in Michigan, USA is an veteran of the web hosting industry. It started out offering affordable shared hosting services in 1998 and has since expanded to offer a variety of hosting plans.
Liquid Web keeps up with industry changes as it adopts emerging technologies such as cloud servers or global CDN network . All plans include DDoS protection and daily backups , as well as highly scalable servers .
Hosting services are currently provided by the company to 45,000+ companies globally. This includes American Airlines and FedEx as well as GM. For organizations handling sensitive data, the HIPAA/PCI compliant data centers and enterprise firewalls are ideal.
Liquid Web Infrastructure and Network
Liquid Web Inc. hosts 25,000+ servers in Europe, Australia and the United States. They are connected via a web of 8500+ premium downlink/uplink ports.
Multiple power backup systems are required to guarantee 100% availability. This includes batteries that can be used in conjunction with mains supply lines derived from renewable energy sources.
Verizon, Comcast and Cogent offer Liquid Web fast internet connectivity to ensure that customers get top-notch services.
Liquid Web’s CDN can be used with WordPress
You might have already read our previous article about the Liquid Web Content Delivery Network CDN Overview and are now curious how you can actually use the Liquid Web CDN to install WordPress. It is easy to use the W3 Toxic Cache plugin. W3 Total cache is actually one of our recommended plugins to WordPress.
W3 Total Cache provides many performance-enhancing options for WordPress. However, this article will focus on the CDN functionality. This article will also use Origin Pull CDN as an alternative to Origin Storage. Don’t worry, though. W3 Total Cache supports Origin Storage.
We will assume that you have already ordered a CDN account. If you have any questions regarding ordering or configuring CDNs with Liquid Web contact the Liquid Web Sales Engineer at this number.
The process
If you have not already done so, the first step is to activate and install W3 Total Cache. If you need help installing WordPress plugins, please refer to our article entitled “WordPress Tutorial 3”: How to Install a New Theme, Plugin or Widget.
Next, open the W3 Total Cache settings page and navigate to the CDN section. There will be a checkbox to enable CDN functionality and then a drop-down menu for “CDN Type”. Select “Generic Mirror” to do this. Once you are done, click on the Save button.
You will see an alert at the top telling you that you must fill in the “Replace website’s hostname” field. This is the next step.
This field can be filled by going to the CDN settings page of W3 Total Cache.
Enter the CNAME for your CDN account. It will be usually cdn.yourdomain.com. It is not necessary to click “Add CNAME”, as this button is only for if you are going to use other CDN accounts such as Cascading Style Sheets and JavaScript. Simply click “Save All Settings”.
After saving your settings, you’ll be asked at the top to deploy your changes. This is the time to do so.
After you’ve done this, you can check that your WordPress installation is using the CDN. You can do this by looking at the source or another tool in your browser and verifying that the domain used to host images, Cascading Style sheets, and other static content is the CNAME of your CDN.
Liquid Web Features
Liquid Web has many great features. These are our top picks based on user-written Liquid Web reviews.
Website Builder
Liquid Web hosting also includes Beaver Builder and an drag-and-drop website maker . It is easy to create professional-looking websites.
Many pre-built templates can be used for many different website types.
Unlimited Bandwidth
Liquid Web offers unlimited bandwidth unlike other web hosting platforms. This allows you to receive millions of visitors without any restrictions. Fair usage policies exist.
Enterprise Security
This highly rated hosting provider offers many solutions for website and application security. You will receive a free SSL certificate. This encrypts all data between your server and your visitors . An SSL certificate can also help you increase your search engine ranking.
The Website Application Firewall (WAF), protects against DDoS attacks and malware injections. It also blocks bot traffic. This tool also blocks hackers from scanning your site/app looking for vulnerabilities.
Real time monitoring lets you view blacklist/whitelist trackers, Ips and specific countries. It helps stop users from hiding behind proxy to access your site/app.
WordPress users have the IThemes Pro plugin which adds an additional layer of security to their site. It supports brute force detection and secret admin login URLs.
The company also offers a serverSecurePlus premium add on at a $45.00/month cost point. This includes anti-malware, malware cleaner and hardening against common vulnerabilities.
Plesk/cPanel/InterWorx Control Panels
Liquid Web hosting allows you to choose from three control panels. cPanel is the most popular and is simple to use due to its straightforward and detailed user interface.
cPanel has a file manager and a database organizer , as well as an easy method for configuring emails and domains . With the apps installer, you can install apps like WordPress or PHP packages.
Plesk is the second option. Although it is a dashboard for intermediate users, the best tools are server manager and webmail organizer . You can add administrators to manage your services.
Liquid Web also offers an InterWorx control platform that is ideal for resellers. It offers advanced features that allow webmasters to manage hundreds of customers at once. It includes server monitoring and root access configuration.
Free Content Delivery Network
The Liquid Web CDN works well for resource-hungry apps. All requests during traffic spikes are routed to a nearby data center which is less busy . This reduces packet loss as well as high-ping from distant network facilities, while still maintaining your website’s speed.
This service is not available on Cloud hosting. All other plans have CloudFlare, which is free.
Scalable
When you scale Liquid Web hosting, your website will grow with it. You can upgrade to improve your website’s performance and gives you a smooth user experience.
Server Virtualization
Liquid Web Inc. Supports virtualization of dedicated servers. Each section will have its own operating system and drivers.
This configuration, unlike shared hosting allows for the efficient management of your websites/apps. Each user has different resources to use. By doing this, overloading one virtual server will not affect the rest.
This feature is perfect for resellers as it allows them to pay for dedicated server plans.
Load Balancing Servers
Liquid Web data centres allow users to connect to multiple servers in order to balance their load for larger websites. They can simultaneously handle more than 100,000 concurrent connections. This add-on is available at $250 per month.
Daily Automatic Backups
Liquid Hosting creates daily backups for its users. You can store websites/applications of up to 100GB.
These are just a few of the most important Liquid Web features. But there’s more. Let’s take a closer look at some details.
Liquid Web Uptime
Unreliable hosting can cause you to lose potential customers and visitors. Liquid hosting offers uptime. As a backup, the company uses a global network of servers .
This feature is not available as per the Service Level Agreement (SLA). This does not include incidents such as planned maintenance, hacking and cPanel issues.
Some Liquid Web users complained about server downtimes lasting hours despite a 99.99% uptime score for 2019.
Liquid Web Speed
This full-service web hosting company scores high in performance. We tested Liquid Web and were pleased with the results.
Our free trial account showed an average 200ms response time to ping. Our Time To First Byte test result was impressive at 50ms. The site loaded in less than 500ms , and videos were played with without buffering.
This is a result of an unoptimized website.
Hosting Services
Liquid Web offers many hosting plans including:
Managed WordPress
The most basic plan is Liquid Web for WordPress. This plan includes a no-cost SSL certificate, site staging and daily backups. Expert users can also access tools like GIT and root access, which are all available to them. A website builder is included, as well as iThemes security.
All plans in this category can be fully managed. This means that any security or maintenance issues will be handled by Liquid Web. An easy dashboard lets users monitor server usage. You can then focus all your attention on creating content.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is the best choice for managing an ecommerce shop. It provides productivity tools like DokanPro’s MarketPlace or ShopMaster’s Dropshipping.
The top domain hosting provider offers a payment processor that can handle up as well as 3,000+ orders an hour. You’ll also get 500+ templates, and Beaver Builder allows you to customizethem easily. Custom fields allow you to modify content and product lists.
Everything is SEO optimised. Liquid Web reviews pointed out that their products appeared quickly in Google search results, which brought in tons more traffic.
Liquid Web VPS
VPSs provide additional resources to run high-performance websites. You can choose between Linux or Windows. Full root server access is possible, even though services are fully managed. This allows you to install software/apps that are not offered by the host.
Liquid Web also offers cPanel and Plesk free of charge. They all offer reseller features that allow you to add customers and give them logins to your dashboard.
Users can get up to 100GB free backup per day, DDoS protection and real-time monitoring. This package also includes Cloudflare CDN as well as a dedicated IP.
Dedicated servers
You can have a whole server dedicated to you, and you can customize it to your specifications. Its most notable features are root-level access to the server, 16GB+Â RAMÂ , and 250GB of free backup space .
For load balancing, you can also access servers in Atlanta, Michigan, and Amsterdam. Additional security is provided by daily backups, an enterprise firewall and real-time monitoring.
Cloud Dedicated servers
This hosting provider is a top-rated one. It offers high-end Cloud Dedicated Plans for websites/apps that are complex. It is simple to set up and flexible support is available 24 hours a day if you need it.
This plan offers data encryption and fast connectivity. It also includes load-balancing and SSD storage. Many LiquidWeb reviews praise the rich features of this dashboard, which allows you to manage projects, resize resources and manage billing.
HIPAA/PCI-compliant Hosting
Liquid Web offers special servers to businesses that deal with sensitive data. It assists you in complying with regulations such as the USA’s Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, (HIPAA), and Payment Card Industry (PCI), compliance.
enhanced security measures are available to users. These include 24/7 server monitoring and administrative safeguards.
Access to any data must be granted with advanced user permission. The company keeps customer records in the safest environment.
VMware Private Cloud
This service provides high-end servers with VMware software. It makes it simple for users to upsize resources while on the move.
Users can group servers together depending on their needs. This allows you to set flexible prices because there is an analytics tool which forecasts pricing based upon usage.
Advanced security tools can help keep your website/app secure throughout. This includes free backup, data encryption and 24/7 monitoring. Plus, you get 24/7 monitoring. For technical assistance in optimizing performance, hosting engineers are available.
Customer Support
Liquid Web provides many support channels including live chat, ticket support and tutorials.
To help users quickly find answers, the knowledgebase has categorized many topics. Liquid hosting also offers helpful tutorials but they are mostly for advanced users.
Support is available 24/7 via live chat if you need immediate assistance. We were impressed by the team’s expertise and found them friendly, helpful, fast, and responsive.
This is not true for everyone. Many Liquid Web users complained about long wait time. Users also stated that they were recommended to open support tickets in order to resolve technical issues. Our experience with support representatives was positive.
Liquid Web Pricing
Liquid Web has a variety of plans that will meet your needs. All of these plans can be found on the official website. These are the subscriptions available:
- WordPress starting at $9.50/month. Includes Unlimited Visitors, Daily Backups, and a Free SSL.
- WooCommerce starting at $9.50/month Includes custom templates, payment processor and product manager
- Liquid web VPSÂ starting at $15/month Includes multilevel protection, SSD storage and proactive monitoring.
- Dedicated servers starting at $169/month: Includes root access, 500GB+ back up, and up 32+ CPU cores.
- Cloud Dedicated starting at $$149/month: Includes a powerful firewall, rapid deployment, and data encryption.
- HIPPA/PCI compliant Hosting – starting at $344/month Includes enterprise multilevel security for the financial industry.
- VMware Private Cloud starting at $510/month: Includes custom applications and virtualization.
This host does not offer refunds, but it offers a 14 day free trial for each plan.
Liquid Web Review – Verdict
Liquid Web offers a broad range of hosting plans that are suitable for all sizes of businesses. It’s fully managed so novice users won’t have any difficulties getting on board. Free backups, CDN and priority support are some of the most important features.
This host is a great choice for enterprises as it provides HIPAA/PCI-compliant servers with strong security. They include administrator privileges as well as 24/7 data centre monitoring.
Custom WooCommerce Plans provide productivity tools to process customer orders and handle payments. This is a great tool for any ecommerce company.
Liquid Web reviews agree that the price is high. However, the service is well worth every penny.
