How Good is Arvixe Hosting?
Arvixe is a promising hosting company that has a strong feature set. They have some good things such as a wide range of hosting plans, and a ton of tools to help you get started. Some downsides include poor up time and slow support response. One of the most frustrating things is bad support, so keep that in mind when you compare hosts.
Our Official Arvixe Hosting Review
At one point in time, Arvixe was at the top. They were even the king of the hill as far as PC Mag was concerned. On paper, they have a lot of potential. However, real-world testing tells us that they have some work to do.
Pricing Table
The price and plan that Arvixe offers are separated into two categories: Linux Hosting and Windows Hosting. Each of these hosting plans has two different offers: Personal Class and Personal Class Pro.
Linux Hosting
| Hosting Plan | Personal Class | Personal Class Pro |
| Disk Space | Unmetered | Unmetered |
| Monthly Data Transfer | Unmetered | Unmetered |
| Websites (Domains) | 6 | Unmetered |
| Free Domain Name | Yes | Yes |
| Pricing | $15.99 / month | $20.99 / month |
| cPanel | Yes | Yes |
| Domain Aliases | Unmetered | Unmetered |
Windows Hosting
| Hosting Plan | Personal Class | Personal Class Pro |
| Disk Space | Unmetered | Unmetered |
| Monthly Data Transfer | Unmetered | Unmetered |
| Websites (Domains) | 1 | 5 |
| Free Domain Name | Yes | Yes |
| Pricing | $17.99 / month | $22.99 / month |
| Plesk Control Panel | Yes | Yes |
| Domain Aliases | Unmetered | Unmetered |
Best Features of Arvixe Hosting
Arvixe hosting has some of the best potential that we’ve seen. It really seems that they have their stuff together and here’s why.
Capable Website Building Tools
The entire reason people need a hosting service is so that they can build a website. When a Web hosting company offers capable website building tools, it’s as if they’re killing two birds with one stone. These types of tools are especially helpful for beginners who are just barely getting their hands dirty. They’re compatible with Softaculous Script Installer, which means you have the ability to install apps and plug-ins directly in your website with a single click.
Unlimited Monthly Data Transfers
Many Web hosting providers often place a cap on your data transfers. They can either limit how many email addressesyou can register with your domain, how many domains you have, or simply how much data you can transfer between your client computer – your laptop that you have in front of you – and their server. Hosting providers are also known to place limits on the number of visitors a website can have per month. Arvixe does away with all of that – giving you a peace of mind with unlimited monthly data transfers. You don’t need to worry about what you’re transferring or how big the files are – Arvixe doesn’t care.
Unlimited Domains and Email Addresses
The ability to have unlimited data transfers doesn’t end there. Arvixe hosting also doesn’t care about how many different email addresses you want to register with your domain. This enables you to provide a separate and distinct email address for every single one of your employees or colleagues. Arvixe hosting is perfect for those who are in the business of domain flipping. What this means is that you purchase a domain name and you “park” it – you hold it back and wait for someone to buy it from you.
Both Linux-based and Windows-based Servers
Many Web hosting companies offer either Linux-based servers or Windows-based servers – but not both. Each one has pros and each one has cons. While many people will say that Linux is a better operating system, more robust and is open source, many more people are familiar with Windows-based servers then Linux-based servers. Either way, Arvixe hosting doesn’t care which one you would rather go with because they offer both.
Wide Range of Hosting Plans
Arvixe has a wide range of hosting plans, starting with the most common one – the shared hosting plan. The shared hosting plan comes with SSL certificates, which are crucial for running an e-commerce website. The next step up offers dedicated class servers, which means that you have your own dedicated server for your business. The difference between the shared hosting plans and dedicated hosting plans is that with dedicated hosting plans, the entire physical server and its accompanying resources are yours to use – they’re not shared between different clients. In between shared hosting plans and dedicated hosting plans are VPS class servers which allow you to have your own virtual private server. All these plans are essential and give you the ability to scale your business as it grows.
Downsides of Arvixe Hosting
As I’ve said before, Arvixe hosting looks fantastic on paper. However, they have some gaps to fill which are simply unacceptable.
Poor Uptime
With these gaps is the amount of uptime you can expect with Arvixe hosting. Within a two-week period, Arvixe hosting was down for a total of 29 minutes and 41 seconds. We had it set up so that we could monitor the precise amount of time that our website was down. The offensive part of this poor uptime was that it wasn’t due to a specific issue. The 29 minutes and 41 seconds was spread out sporadically – a few seconds here in a few seconds there. That tells me that there’s something wrong with the connection and a bigger problem is at fault.
Long Customer Service Holds Times
There was a survey done not too long ago wherein they asked a large group of people what they thought was a definition of poor customer service. The No. 1 factor that caused customers to leave one company and go to another was putting people on hold. People do not like to be on hold – especially if they need support. The long customer hold service times for Arvixe hosting is a completely preventable problem that they need to pay attention to.
Bottom Line
Arvixe hosting has a lot of potential. In fact, they used to be one of the best. Right now, at the time of this writing at the end of 2015, our recommendation is that you look elsewhere. However, Arvixe hosting has enough potential and an excellent Web hosting history. That makes me want to keep my eye on them to see if they can fill in the gaps and become a rising star once again.
- Lots of website building tools
- Unlimited monthly data transfers
- Unlimited domains and email addresses
- Both linux-based and windows-based servers
- Wide range of hosting plans
- Poor uptime
- Long customer service holds times
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