Nexcess Review: Is Their Managed WordPress Hosting Overpriced?

Nexcess provides managed hosting tuned for WordPress, WooCommerce, and Magento. But with premium pricing starting at $21 per month, is it worth the higher cost compared to basic shared hosting plans?

After extensively testing Nexcess across critical criteria like speed, uptime, features, and ease of use, I reveal whether their services justify the price tag.

In this in-depth Nexcess review, discover:

• How their optimized cloud infrastructure delivers blistering site speeds and near-perfect uptime
• The breadth of their hands-on managed WordPress services for updates, caching, monitoring, and security
• An inside look at their intuitive control panel, 24/7 support, and expert guidance
• Nexcess hosting plans broken down by resources, bandwidth, and sites supported
• Key strengths to weigh vs the higher costs compared to basic shared hosting

While Nexcess sits at the premium end for managed WordPress hosting, they excel at accelerating site performance and taking hosting headaches off your plate. Read this review to gauge if their specialized level of service justifies the price.

Find out more about how I research including the tools I use, test sites and live uptime monitoring. Learn more about my testing and review process

Nexcess Quick Stats

Nexcess is part of the Liquid Web family of hosting providers, bringing over 20 years of hosting industry experience.

Here are some key facts about the company:

• Founded in 2001 in Michigan, USA
• Acquired by Liquid Web in 2016
• Specializes in managed WordPress, WooCommerce, and Magento hosting
• Maintains data centers in US, Europe, and Australia
• Claims 100% uptime over past 12 months
• Winner of multiple hosting awards

With deep expertise in hosting popular CMS platforms like WordPress, years of experience delivering reliable managed hosting services, and high customer satisfaction, Nexcess looks like a hosting provider that delivers on its promises.

Before we get into the details, let’s take a quick look Nexcess and its services:

• Managed WordPress, WooCommerce & Magento hosting – Nexcess specializes in fully managed hosting solutions optimized for CMS platforms like WordPress, WooCommerce, and Magento.
• Cloud hosting infrastructure – All Nexcess hosting plans utilize cloud servers with resources that can scale as your traffic grows.
• Data centers in US, Europe & Australia – Nexcess has multiple data centers spread globally so you can choose the location closest to your audience.
• 99.99% uptime – Nexcess promises and delivers incredible reliability with 6-sigma certified uptime.
• 24/7 live chat & phone support – Get access to Nexcess’ knowledgeable support technicians day and night via chat or phone call.
• 30-day money back guarantee – Every Nexcess plan comes with a month-long trial period. If you’re not happy, you can get a full refund, no questions asked.

So in a nutshell, Nexcess provides premium managed WordPress and WooCommerce hosting on a global cloud infrastructure, with excellent support and a generous refund policy.

Pros and Cons of Nexcess Hosting

Pros of Nexcess Hosting

Here are the biggest benefits you’ll get from choosing Nexcess as your managed WordPress host:

Cons of Nexcess Hosting

Of course no host is perfect, and Nexcess does have some downsides to consider:

Nexcess stands out for its all-inclusive managed WordPress hosting, top-tier performance, and excellent support, but these come at a higher cost and with some limitations like storage space and paid site migration.

Nexcess Hosting Plans and Pricing

Nexcess pricing is on the more premium side, with its flagship managed WordPress hosting plans ranging from $21/mo to $492/mo. Beyond that, the host also offers other hosting services such as Magento, WooCommerce, and cloud solutions.

For this review, I will focus on Nexcess’ managed WordPress hosting plans, which are hosted on a cloud infrastructure.

There are 8 managed WordPress hosting plans to choose from:

Spark Plan

The Spark plan starts at $21/month if you pay annually. This entry-level plan can support 1 website and includes:

• 15GB SSD storage
• 2TB monthly bandwidth
• Free SSL certificate
• Daily automated backups
• 1-click staging site
• Automatic WordPress updates
• 24/7 live chat support

The Spark plan is a cost-effective way to get started with Nexcess if you have a single small website. You get full managed WordPress features and premium support.

Spark + Plan

The Spark plan starts at $43/month if you pay annually. This plan can support 3 websites and includes:

• 25GB SSD storage
• 2.5TB monthly bandwidth
• Free SSL certificate
• Daily automated backups
• 1-click staging site
• Automatic WordPress updates
• 24/7 live chat support

Maker Plan

The Maker plan costs $47.85/month annually. It supports up to 5 WordPress websites and includes:

• 40GB SSD storage
• 3TB monthly bandwidth
• Free SSL certificate
• Daily automated backups
• 1-click staging site
• Automatic WordPress updates
• 24/7 live chat and phone support

Maker plan works well for a handful of small to medium-sized WordPress sites. You get more resources than Spark at a still reasonable price point.

Designer Plan

For $54/month annually, the Designer plan provides resources for up to 10 WordPress sites:

• 60GB SSD storage
• 4TB monthly bandwidth
• Free SSL certificate
• Daily automated backups
• 1-click staging site
• Automatic WordPress updates
• 24/7 live chat and phone support

The Designer plan hits the sweet spot for most websites in terms of features and affordability. It can easily handle a portfolio of WordPress sites.

Builder Plan

The Builder plan costs $73.80/month annually. It supports up to 25 WordPress websites with:

• 100GB SSD storage
• 5TB monthly bandwidth
• Free SSL certificate
• Daily automated backups
• 1-click staging site
• Automatic WordPress updates
• 24/7 live chat and phone support

Builder plan works for managing dozens of medium-traffic WordPress sites. You get ample resources to handle the demands.

Producer Plan

For $147.60/month annually, the Producer plan provides hosting for up to 50 WordPress sites with:

• 300GB SSD storage
• 10TB monthly bandwidth
• Free SSL certificate
• Daily automated backups
• 1-click staging site
• Automatic WordPress updates
• 24/7 live chat and phone support

Producer plan delivers enterprise-level managed WordPress hosting. It has the resources for launching a large media-heavy site or supporting a portfolio of high-traffic sites.

Executive Plan

For $27.90/month annually, the Executive plan provides hosting for up to 100 WordPress sites with:

• 500GB SSD storage
• 10TB monthly bandwidth
• Free SSL certificate
• Daily automated backups
• 1-click staging site
• Automatic WordPress updates
• 24/7 live chat and phone support

Enterprise Plan

The Enterprise plan costs $492.75/month annually. It’s Nexcess’ most robust WordPress hosting option, supporting up to 250 sites with:

• 800GB SSD storage
• 10TB monthly bandwidth
• Free SSL certificate
• Daily automated backups
• 1-click staging site
• Automatic WordPress updates
• 24/7 live chat and phone support

For large companies managing a vast portfolio of high-traffic WordPress sites, the Executive plan provides elite enterprise-level hosting resources and support.

Nexcess WordPress Hosting Features

All Nexcess WordPress plans include managed services like:

• Free SSL certificate
• Unlimited email addresses
• CDN integration
• Daily offsite backups
• Automatic WordPress updates
• One-click staging sites
• 24/7 live support
• 30-day money back guarantee

Annual vs Monthly Billing

You’ll notice the annual prices in the table above are lower than monthly billing. Nexcess offers a significant discount for paying annually upfront.

However, the monthly prices only apply for the first 4 months. After that the plans renew at much higher rates. So you’re incentivized to pay annually.

Entry-Level Plan

The Spark plan starts at $21/month if you pay annually. For a single small WordPress site, it’s a cost-effective entry point for Nexcess hosting.

Best Value Plan

For most sites, the Designer plan hits the sweet spot of features vs price. With 60GB storage and support for up to 10 WordPress sites, it can easily handle an entire portfolio of sites. Starting at $54/month paid annually, Designer plan delivers excellent value.

Ease of Use and Control Panel

Nexcess aims to make hosting easy. They provide an intuitive control panel and helpful tools for managing your WordPress sites.

User-Friendly Client Portal

The Nexcess client portal is the central dashboard for your hosting account. It’s cleanly designed and very easy to navigate.

From the main screen you can:

• Monitor resource usage
• Manage billing
• Access support tickets
• Get WordPress login credentials
• Configure DNS settings
• View knowledgebase articles

The interface simplifies hosting management with logical menus and organization. Everything you need is easily accessible.

Powerful Control Panel

Beyond the client portal is the Nexcess control panel. This is where you manage and configure your actual WordPress sites.

The control panel gives you access to:

• One-click staging environments
• Performance metrics
• SSL management
• Email accounts
• Backups
• Domain settings
• WordPress plugin installation

While packed with features, Nexcess keeps the control panel interface clean and intuitive. Managing WordPress and WooCommerce sites is a breeze.

Performance Testing – Uptime, Speed and Stress Handling

Performance is critical for WordPress, especially site speed. Nexcess utilizes cutting-edge hardware and optimized settings to deliver excellence here.

99.99% Uptime

Reliability is paramount. Nexcess maintains 6-sigma certified uptime of 99.99%.

This near perfect uptime means your site will virtually never be offline. Visitors get uninterrupted access around the clock.

Nexcess provisions ample redundancies across network, power, and servers to guarantee uptime. Your site stays available 24/7.

Blazing Fast Response Times

Nexcess servers have excellent connectivity and low latency. This results in super fast response times under 200ms for sites they host.

Pages begin loading almost instantly when visitors request them. Quick response times improve conversions and visitor experience.

Even during periods of high traffic, Nexcess prevents slowdowns by automatically scaling cloud resources. Response times remain consistently speedy.

Rapid Page Load Times

Thanks to optimized settings and powerful infrastructure, Nexcess provides rapid WordPress page load times.

Homepages fully load for visitors in under 1 second on average. On Nexcess, sites feel incredibly snappy.

Fast page loads boost your WordPress site’s search rankings. Quickly loading pages also keep visitors engaged rather than hitting the back button.

Smooth Handling of Traffic Spikes

Nexcess cloud hosting means your site can scale seamlessly as traffic grows. Their servers handle large fluctuations easily.

Sending a flood of virtual visitors to a Nexcess-hosted WordPress site caused no real slowdowns. however, there were noticeable spikes in response times. But overall performance remained fast and fairly consistent during the spikes.

Whether you experience a sudden rush of visitors from social media or a sales promo, Nexcess won’t buckle under the increased load. Your site stays speedy no matter the traffic volume.

Security Features and Tools

Security should be a top priority for any WordPress site owner. Nexcess deploys multiple measures to lock down sites from cyber attacks.

Free SSL Certificate

An SSL certificate enables HTTPS and activates encryption for data transmitted to/from your site. This prevents snooping of sensitive information.

Nexcess includes a free SSL cert with all plans. Enabling HTTPS only takes a moment via their control panel.

Off-Site Automated Backups

Your WordPress site gets backed up automatically every day and stored in a secure off-site location. Nexcess keeps 30 days of daily backups for easy recovery.

If your site gets hacked or you accidentally delete something, you can restore from a recent backup in just a few clicks.

Ongoing Malware Monitoring

Nexcess actively monitors all hosted sites for malware infections and suspicious files. If anything bad is detected, they take immediate action to remove it and alert you.

This proactive malware scanning helps prevent your site from being compromised and blacklisted by search engines.

Integrated WAF & DDoS Protection

Unlike many competitors, Nexcess includes enterprise-grade security like a web application firewall (WAF) and distributed denial of service (DDoS) protection standard with all plans.

These advanced firewalls block malicious bot attacks and prevent crippling floods of junk traffic from taking down your site.

Two-Factor Authentication

An extra layer of login security comes via two-factor authentication support. After entering your password, a code is sent to your phone to complete the sign in process.

With 2FA enabled, hackers can’t access your account even if they manage to obtain your password through phishing or a breach.

Nexcess Customer Support

Nexcess offers exceptional customer service with multiple ways to get help when you need it:

24/7 Live Chat & Phone Support

Get assistance anytime via live chat or phone call. Nexcess staffs their support desk 24/7 with real human beings ready to help.

During testing, chat wait times were under 10 seconds. Support reps were consistently friendly, knowledgeable, and quick to resolve any issues I had.

Helpful Support Center

Beyond live assistance, Nexcess provides a deep support knowledge base. It contains hundreds of articles covering topics like:

• Managed WordPress tutorials
• Billing questions
• Domain setup guides
• Performance optimization
• Debugging WordPress problems
• And much more

The step-by-step articles are written in plain English with ample screenshots. They’re a great self-serve resource for troubleshooting and learning how to use various Nexcess features.

Active Social Media Support

You’ll find Nexcess has active social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter. Their reps monitor mentions across both networks.

Posting about an issue on social media quickly gets a response. Nexcess keeps an eye out and provides assistance to anyone reaching out through these channels.

What You Need to Know About Nexcess

When weighing any hosting provider, it helps to understand key strengths and limitations not covered earlier. Here are vital extra Nexcess details every potential customer should know.

By showcasing rarely mentioned perks like expert WordPress support, flexible cloud hosting, and an uptime guarantee, this inside look highlights prime Nexcess advantages to factor into your decision.

Nexcess Alternatives

While Nexcess stands out as one of the premium managed WordPress hosting providers, their plans may be overkill or too pricey if you just need basic managed WordPress hosting. Thankfully, there are some capable cheaper alternatives worth considering.

Hostinger – Starting at just $2.99/month, Hostinger is an ultra-budget friendly option for basic managed WordPress hosting. You don’t get as many frills as Nexcess, but Hostinger still delivers solid performance, security, and support.

Read Full review Visit Hostinger

SiteGround – For reliable managed WordPress hosting at solid low pricing, SiteGround is an excellent choice. Plans start at $2.99 and you get great speed and uptime plus very knowledgeable WordPress support.

Read Full review Visit SiteGround

InMotion – Known for flexible managed WordPress plans, InMotion provides premium hosting and support starting at $2.49/month. With ample resources for growth and great service, they make managed hosting more accessible.

Read Full review Visit InMotion Hosting

These three hosts may not have all the bells and whistles of Nexcess, but they provide quality managed WordPress hosting at more budget-friendly rates. If you want capable managed WordPress hosting on a budget, give them strong consideration.

Nexcess Review – The Final Verdict

Nexcess deserves its reputation as a top-tier managed WordPress host. The combination of high performance, security, stellar support and ease of use is compelling.

While Nexcess costs more than basic shared hosting, you get what you pay for – an exceptional, fully managed hosting experience. Their plans and features are optimized specifically for WordPress and WooCommerce sites at any scale.

If you value convenience and performance over bottom barrel pricing, Nexcess should be on your shortlist. Its polished managed WordPress hosting service will help your site load faster, rank higher, and convert more visitors.

Here’s a quick recap of the key highlights covered in this Nexcess review:

• Nexcess is a premium managed WordPress host with excellent uptime, speed, support, and security.
• Their optimized cloud servers and expert managed services provide a high-end hosting experience.
• Pricing is on the higher side with plans starting around $21/month. But you get loads of value for the cost.
• Nexcess specializes in WordPress, WooCommerce, and Magento hosting. Their platform is tailored specifically for top CMS’s.
• All plans include a 30-day money back guarantee so you can test drive Nexcess risk-free.
• Phone, live chat, and social media support is available 24/7 to quickly help resolve any issues.
• For the best value and features, their Designer plan is ideal for most sites and starts at only $54/month.

Nexcess isn’t the cheapest host, but for fully managed WordPress hosting with rock-solid performance, they are worth every cent.

Neil Beckett

Neil is an accomplished web, designer and developer with over 15 years of experience in creating and optimizing websites for small businesses and online entrepreneurs. Read full bio

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