MidPhase Hosting Company Review

For all of you who have not chosen to host your website through Charlotte Web Development, or are simply still deciding if that is the best option, I have another hosting company review for you. This time the focus is on midPhase, a hosting company that I have personally used (but stopped), and which some have found quite satisfactory. It is always good to do thorough research before signing up for any hosting plan, since you really do not want to do it by trial and error, and I do hope that this article will help bring you closer to an informed decision.

MidPhase Company Overview

MidPhase was founded in 2003 by Dan Ushman and Zac Boca, and taken over by the British UK2 Group in 2007. MidPhase pride themselves on their speed, reliability and price, which is what really sets them apart from the competition. It has only taken them five years to go from a two-person operation, to a very successful web hosting company, currently employing over 75 people and hosting more than 120,000 websites out of their Chicago headquarters.

Most of their success can be attributed to their low prices and reliable business hosting plans, which are aimed primarily towards small and medium sized businesses. They do, however, have very attractive hosting solutions for individuals as well, which are all very affordable and very easy to operate. In addition to basic shared hosting, they also offer VPS and dedicated hosting for both Linux and Windows. They also boast of a 99.99% uptime, and offer around-the-clock customer service, both by email as well as through a toll free phone number. MidPhase has won many web hosting awards during the course of their existence, while it also comes highly recommended by CNET users.

Pros and Cons of Hosting With MidPhase

According to reviews on hostjury.com and whoishostingthis.com, the biggest complaint is that customer support is not as responsive as people would like it to be. Although up-time is satisfactory, users are also complaining that this company does not offer as many extra features as other, similar hosting providers do, and also that they are more expensive.

There are really not all that many reviews, favorable or otherwise, of this provider, which could be a good thing, since less customers means less strain on the shared servers and thus, faster loading pages and better uptime. Also, the lack of reviews of midPhase could mean that the majority of people using this service are satisfied with it, since it is more often people with a negative experience that tend to write reviews.

One of the biggest pros of hosting with midPhase is definitely the price, as this is the most affordable hosting of all that I have reviewed here. Their simplest package starts at only $2.95, but before you jump on it, make sure they have all that you need, as some users have complained that their basic plans have a lot less features than the competition.

The Bottom Line

If price is your main objective, you really can’t go wrong with midPhase, as they certainly have the cheapest basic plan out there. In addition to this, they also offer some more complex hosting plans, such as reseller, VPS and dedicated hosting, for those who need a more robust hosting solution for their websites. In other words, there is plenty of room to grow with midPhase should your website or blog outgrow the basic hosting plan. The other plus of using midPhase is that they are, reportedly, very reliable in terms of uptime and have one of the bigger names on global hosting market, namely the UK2 Group, behind them.

Users do, however, complain that midPhase’s basic plan includes less features than some of the competition, though they do offer unlimited space and bandwidth in their simplest package, and boast of offering a lot more than HostGator, DreamHost, GoDaddy and others, for a much lower price. You can check out that comparison at http://www.midphase.com/website-hosting/compare-hosting.php.

So, if you are looking for cheap and reliable hosting, look no further that midPhase. Though with such low prices they are bound to oversell their capacities soon. You might also consider HostGator, or DreamHost, which are close to midPhase in pricing, but have many more great reviews.

Hosting Plans Overview

Below you will find the pricing and basic features list for each of the plans offered by midPhase. Though, as these are subject to change, please check their website for the most up to date version of midPhase’s offer.

Basic Shared Web Hosting

They offer three versions of the shared hosting plan starting at $2.95. All except the cheapest one include:

• Unlimited Domains (only 1 with the $2.95 plan)
• Unlimited Databases (only 1 with the $2.95 plan)
• Unlimited Web Space
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• PHP5, MySQL, SSL, …

Reseller Hosting

They offer two of these, one for $24.95, which comes with 50GB of web space and 500GB of bandwidth, and the other for $34.95, which comes with 125 GB web space and 1000GB of bandwidth. For the full features of each, check out the midPhase website.

Ecommerce Hosting

This is a tailor made solution for all of those who wish to set up an online store. For only $19.95 a month you get all that you need to get started, including a vast choice of integrated payment solutions, the ability to create unlimited categories and product pages, as well as a static IP address, the SSL security certificate, and more. This is definitely a great choice for anyone looking to start a purely ecommerce site.

VPS hosting

MidPhase offers VPS hosting through their partner company VPS.net that is also owned and operated by UK2. This provider is especially well regarded by Chris Pearson of pearsonified.com who is the creator of the Thesis WordPress theme. He speaks very highly about the customer service of VPS.net, as well as the reliability of their VPS hosting solutions.

Dedicated Hosting

MidPhase’s dedicated hosting plans start at $85.95 and go all the way up to $424.95 a month, depending on the type, quality and size of the server you wish to get, as well as on how much RAM, bandwidth, etc. you require.