Web Hosting Reviews – WiredTree Review

Dear Readers,

I tried out WiredTree hosting services on the 30th of July 2009. At that time I was still with LiquidWeb. However, I wanted to try out WiredTree as they did offer a much better deal than the former. However, I did not immediately terminate my server at LiquidWeb. So this WiredTree VPS is an additional machine at that point of time.

I proceeded with WiredTree after a couple of email correspondence with one of WiredTree’s staff. I was asking them if they could help me migrate some of my accounts from the other server to WiredTree’s should I decide to proceed with the ordering of their VPS. The staff was helpful and assured me that they will help me with the migration for free! 🙂

The server which I tried out was the most basic Virtual Private Server (VPS) with much better specifications than what LiquidWeb offers. The decision was also made after reading a lot of positive reviews about WiredTree on Web Hosting Talk forum.

Two Years With WiredTree’s VPS

I was with WiredTree’s VPS for almost two years. I cancelled the server somewhere in July 2011. As far as the service is concerned, I had an absolutely great time with WiredTree. ALL of my support requests were answered promptly and professionally. The staff were extremely helpful in trying to help resolve any problems that I encountered. Even the follow-up support in a support ticket was quick, unlike the experiences that I encountered with LiquidWeb. There is a possibility that this happens because WiredTree is still considered a relatively new company with a smaller number of customers as to be compared with LiquidWeb. It is quite a common experience among many people to experience better quality service standard with companies that have a smaller number of customers than the larger ones. This could be true since smaller numbers could mean more time to handle customers’ requests. But of course, this doesn’t happen all the time.

In terms of security, my VPS machine was also well taken care of. Never did I encounter any unpleasant situations. The good thing about WiredTree is they also offer fully managed servers with pro-active monitoring 24 hours, 7 days a week just like LiquidWeb. Their ServerShield package is a comprehensive set of services and tools designed to enhance the security, performance and reliability of the servers. This includes an advanced firewall, e-mail anti-virus and anti-spam systems, HTTP DOS and intrusion protection, kernel and filesystem hardening and more.

The Grove Experience

The Grove is the client admin area for complete account control. I love the clean interface and browsing through it makes it easy for anyone to manage their account. Below are a few screenshot images that I took from my own Grove account:

From the screen-shots above, you can see how easy it is to manage your account from your Grove account. Anyway, here’s my conclusion for my review on WiredTree based on my 2 years experience with them:

The Pros:

• Fully-managed servers with pro-active monitoring

Their servers are fully managed with constant monitoring of security updates. Thus I do not need to worry about the up-time of my sites. They also offer 100% up-time guarantee, but I don’t think that is possible in real life. The good thing is that I spent more time taking care of my online business rather than worrying over my server. Everything has been well taken care of.

• Quick to update their customers in Social Media platforms like Twitter

One thing I like about WiredTree is they constantly update any news on their Social Media Network accounts like Twitter & Facebook. This gives me great confidence in them as I know that they really treat their customers like gold.

• Great hardware specifications

Their servers also feature the latest in true server-grade hardware. Their custom-built VPS servers feature quad-core Intel Xeon processors, Registered ECC Memory for best reliability, Hot Swap 8 disk RAID-10 RE4 arrays to minimize downtime, the latest Adaptec hardware RAID cards for best performance, and SuperMicro motherboards and chassis for stable power and engineered airflow. Great hardware means better reliability and greater performance!

• They own their own data-centers (not resellers) and thus they have immediate access to the physical location of the servers.

They operate private data-center space in downtown Chicago, Illinois, United States and own all of their network equipment and server hardware! Their network is powered by top-ranked Tier 1 providers: Level(3), Global Crossing, Savvis, and NTT. Since they are not resellers, they can quickly resolve any pressing issues since they can access the servers physically at any time.

• Support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to save the day quickly and thoroughly for their customers.

Since support is available 24/7/365, I did not have to wait whenever I need any help from them pertaining to my server. Just like I’ve mentioned in my previous post regarding LiquidWeb’s review, imagine if you have an issue with your server, or something unexpected came out from your server that are affecting your customers. When that happens, you would surely need immediate attention and help from your web hosting company. Imagine getting help only a few hours later… how would your customers react to your shortcomings? I have encountered a few occasions whereby potential customers did not proceed with ordering my products due to the long wait in getting my pages back online. The support team of that hosting company only got back to me regarding the downtime more than 6 hours later!! And the best (worse actually) part was that it was just a reply of acknowledgement, not a reply of letting me know that the problem has been resolved. With WiredTree’s 24/7/365 support, it really saves the day for me!

The Cons:

• Can’t recall anything as far as I can remember

I’m not biased in this review. It is absolutely true that I can’t recall any bad experiences with them. This review is solely based on my experience alone and therefore, this may not be the case for other clients. The only issue that I know of did not affect my server. It was an occasional Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack that hit WiredTree servers. However, it could be either my machine wasn’t affected at all or the technicians handled the situation quick enough that my customers & I did not notice anything unusual on my sites during the attack. There was also one downtime that happened when one of the technicians accidentally switched off one of the main cables that affected a few racks of machines. Again, WiredTree was quick to apologize to their customers and handled the situation well.

Overall Conclusion

WiredTree is by far one of the best hosting providers for VPS & dedicated servers. Their hard work and great support in dealing with their clients proved to me that they really take care of their customers. There is no doubt on why they are becoming one of the fastest growing companies in the United States. I can’t recommend WiredTree enough if you are looking for a VPS or a dedicated server. My 2 years of experience with WiredTree shows that you cannot go wrong with them. Go for WiredTree and I am sure you will NOT regret your decision.

UPDATE: WiredTree has been acquired by LiquidWeb.