InterServer Review: The Ultimate Guide to Dominate the Web with Ease! (September 2024)
In this InterServer review, I will take a very detailed look at this web hosting underdog. I will analyze its plans and prices, usability, performance, security, and customer support. No stone will be left unturned.
InterServer is not an ordinary hosting provider. It is not a big name in the industry, and no one really talks about it. It’s more of an underdog, except no one gets excited when InterServer wins at something. They are… surprised more than anything.
The biggest surprise is that the vendor is 21 years old, even though people don’t really give InterServer credit. So how did it make it this long without any significant marketing campaigns?
Was it word of mouth? He must have something up his sleeve, right?
All the reviews of InterServer.net that I read were positive. It seems that InterServer is a really good provider. Or it could be one of the best kept conspiracies ever. The website says that 70% of their customers are migrations, so there must be a reason.
My goal today is to find out what’s underneath InterServer’s servers.
Lots of testing and analysis has made this post quite long. I know you have a lot to do, so you can get straight to the verdict here.
| ⭐Rating: | 4.0★★★★☆ |
| 💵Price: | Prices start at $2.50/mo with a special discount |
| ▶️ Uptime: | 99.99% |
| 🏘️ Hosting types: | Secaucus, NJ, and Los Angeles, CA |
| 🌎 Server locations: | Secaucus, NJ and Los Angeles, CA |
| 👨💻 Support: | 24/7 ticket system, email, live chat, and phone |
| 🔥Coupons: | 🔥InterServer coupon 65% OFF🔥 |
InterServer Pricing
InterServer’s prices start at $2.50/month for shared hosting. However, this company offers any type of hosting in its own data centers. You can choose ASP.NET hosting, cheap VPS, dedicated servers, collocations, or data storage options.
| Hosting Type | Best for |
| Shared hosting | Beginners looking for ease of use and low prices. Get InterServer, now 65% OFF! |
| ASP.NET hosting | Hosting using Windows interface. |
| VPS hosting | An advanced hosting with dedicated server space. |
| Reseller hosting | For agencies, freelance developers or designers looking to sell websites. |
| Dedicated hosting | Advanced solutions. You get a private server with all its resources and management responsibilities. |
| Collocations hosting | Renting datacenter space for your own servers. Ensures security and redundancy. |
It seems that most of InterServer’s solutions are intended for advanced users. However, shared hosting is by far the most used option, as it can support websites that have just been launched, as well as medium-sized businesses.
For a long time, InterServer only had a shared hosting plan that was unlimited in every way – a number of websites, email accounts, disk space, and bandwidth.
*Remember that unlimited is limited by the server capacity itself.
Anyway, to serve a larger number of people, InterServer now has 3 shared hosting packages. All of them offer the same features like free domain registration, unlimited disk space, bandwidth, and email accounts, as well as the ability to join unlimited domains.
However, with the more expensive packages, you get more server resources like CPU cores and RAM.
| Plan | Features | Price |
| Standard | 1 CPU core and 2GB SSD storage | $2.50/mo |
| Boost 2 | 2 CPU cores and 4GB SSD storage | $9.95/mo |
| Boost 4 | 4 CPU cores and 8GB SSD storage | $19.95/mo |
So, choosing the best plan depends on the size of your project and its requirements:
But that’s not all. The additional features included in every single free plan are simply impressive:
Can you imagine having all of this for just $2.50 per month? Better yet, the increased renewal fees aren’t too high either. The additional features and server resources on offer are almost too good to be true and at such a low price. You can’t blame them for wanting a better return on investment for that.
But let’s say you tried it and didn’t like it. Then what?
Since the vendor offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, you can request a full refund within those 30 days of purchase, no questions asked.
Hosting Management – is It Easy to Use?
Using InterServer is as simple as it gets. When you buy a domain, it is automatically activated, and the SSL certificates are pre-installed. Besides, installing WordPress (or any other content management system) is a breeze. All you have to do is use the Softaculous installer in cPanel. However, there are some conditions associated with it.
Right at the beginning, you will notice that design and usability are not the main focus of this company.
This is the first window you will see when you log in for the first time. It is the user management area, where you can see what hosting accounts and domains you have.
The top menu bar is not very useful. It lists all the services you can buy. The 3 buttons you actually use there are Billing, Settings, and Support.
On the other hand, the main area functions as navigation to reach web hosting services and domains that you have purchased from InterServer.
Clicking on your domain name listed under Web Hosting will take you to the Hosting Management section.
The web hosting management interface is not much better. Lots of information and details, but the only thing that interests us is further down. It is the Login to cPanel button. It is one of the few things you will use from this interface.
Speaking of cPanel, this is where I start to like InterServer.
What Does the Interserver Control Panel Look Like?
InterServer uses cPanel, and it is the standard hosting control panel par excellence. Unfortunately, fewer and fewer companies offer it these days. The reason: cPanel became so successful that it started raising prices day by day. Uh-oh. Anyone can be replaced.
Nevertheless, InterServer still has cPanel.
It’s a well-organized interface with all the tools you need to set up and manage a successful website. This includes adding a domain, a webmail account, installing WordPress or editing files in the file manager.
cPanel is very beginner-friendly since most of the tools you need come with built-in explanations. The knowledge bases are also full of tutorials. Promise you won’t get lost.
So, apart from the very outdated look, InterServer is easy to use.
Shall we get to the details?
How to Install WordPress on Interserver?
WordPress installation with InterServer is simple and takes only a few minutes. It consists of three steps: find Softaculous in the cPanel, select the WordPress app and fill out the installation form.
Let me briefly show you what everything looks like and where to find it.
To find the Softaculous Apps Installer, you need to scroll down a bit in the cPanel. It is located under the Software tab. Alternatively, you can also use the WordPress Manager from Softaculous. This way you will save yourself a few clicks.
Whether you choose Softaculous or WordPress Manager, WordPress is the first available option. By the way, you can find all available applications here if WP is not your first choice.
The installation window can seem intimidating because of all the details that are asked, but it’s actually quite simple. All you need to enter or select is your domain name, username and password. The rest can be left as “default”.
Once you have entered the details, simply click on one of the blue Install buttons. One is at the top of the window, and one is at the bottom. It’s that simple.
How to Create a Professional Email With Interserver?
One of the most important things for a successful brand is a professional email, and that is very easy to set up with InterServer. All you need to make sure is that you have a working domain name.
To get a nice yourname@yourwebsite.com instead of the yourname9999@gmail.com email address, go to the Email tab in cPanel.
As you can see, there are a lot of email management tools here. You can customize autoresponders, create mailing lists, and even track deliverability. However, to create and access your email account, you need the first one – the Email Accounts module.
In this interface, you can create and access your mailboxes.
If you click on the blue +Create button, you will see how easy it is to set up a professional email account.
All you need to do is select your domain from the drop-down list, create a username for your mailbox, and set a password.
You can also limit the storage space or leave it unlimited – whichever you prefer. Just click Create when you’re done, and your mailbox is ready.
It should be noted that InterServer uses only the most basic email clients, such as RoundCube. They are good for everyday sending but do not meet the requirements of serious email marketing campaigns.
All in all, InterServer is easy to use, and everyday tasks like installations or email management are done in seconds. Although the interface could be nicer, I have no real complaints regarding usability and functionality.
Performance – is InterServer fast?
Like everything in this InterServer review so far, the performance is also very much standard. InterServer shows a very reliable 99.99% uptime, average server speed, and a pretty impressive website load time when put under pressure.
To see how InterServer performs, I ran several tests that included reliability monitoring, speed tests, and provider load.
InterServer Uptime & Response Time
The long-term performance monitoring results are both excellent and average. The uptime remained at 99.99%, which is amazing. Hardly an hour of downtime can be expected in a year, and that is basically the best you can expect from a server.
This result is even more pleasing when you consider the vendor’s official SLA uptime guarantee of 99.9%.
On the other hand, we have the response time of the server. It is on average 662 ms, which is…. average. In comparison, performance-oriented providers like Hostinger or SiteGround achieve values below 300 ms.
In any case, these are raw numbers. What about an actual website?
InterServer Speed
Actually, InterServer’s numbers loading an empty WordPress website are good. When tested from the United States (where my website is hosted), it loaded in 0.9s (see Largest Contentful Paint). Google says that if you manage to fit into 2.5 seconds, you’re good. Well, 0.9 seconds is more than good.
Other sites are also under 2.5 seconds, although they are much further away from the data center. And the farther the server is from the visitor, the longer it takes to load a website.
After setting up a website that could actually work for a real website, I ran the same GTMetrix test, but now only from the US. The website loaded in 2.3 seconds.
That’s not an exceptional result, but it’s fast.
We are still within the recommended 2.5 seconds, but that’s not all. From the Largest Contentful Paint onwards, there is no more delay until the website is fully loaded, as can be seen in the speed visualization.
Even though InterServer doesn’t exactly compete with such giants as SiteGround or A2 Hosting, the result is still perfectly fine.
Also, keep this in mind if you need top speed for your website. With InterServer, you get really good prices and good performance. With other providers that focus on speed, you will pay more than 2 times as much.
So if you’re just starting out, isn’t it better to invest in building a good website than chasing numbers that won’t have a significant impact on your success at first? You can upgrade as soon as you feel the need for speed and have the budget to do so.
But we’re not done yet. These tests only show performance when there is only one person on the site. What if I put more people on it?
InterServer Stress Testing
Now the fun begins. I sent 50 virtual users to my website using K6 software.
50 visitors is a significant load on the server. On a shared hosting system, that’s almost the maximum we would expect to pass the test.
And it failed. Miserable.
You can see the blue (speed), red (error), and purple (requests) lines jumping all over the place while the gray (virtual user) line does its job. Well, all that traffic wasn’t coming through. So I had to figure out how much InterServer could handle.
I started by decreasing the number of visitors by 5. The first test InterServer passed was with 35 VUs.
The blue line represents speed, and the red line represents HTTP errors when the server had trouble keeping up. The gray line represents our bots.
In an ideal scenario, the blue line would be flat, and the red line would not be there at all. However, InterServer had some trouble keeping up with all the traffic. It slowed down, and there were a few outages.
Nevertheless, it kept our website up and running and passed the test.
So, although InterServer is not able to handle the ultimate maximum, it does a pretty good job.
Honestly, the cheapest plan will support a small website that occasionally gets pretty big traffic boosts.
All in all, InterServer’s performance, although not spectacular, is still very good for shared hosting. Your website will stay live longer than expected, the speed is great, and the server can handle quite a bit of traffic.
Security – is Interserver Secure?
When it comes to security, InterServer leaves no stone unturned. When you buy a plan, an SSL certificate is included for free. Backups are performed weekly, and Cloudflare is easy to integrate. You also get InterShield and Inter-Insurance for free.
Like any other reputable hosting provider, InterServer offers a number of standard security features. What I appreciate is that InterServer outshines other, better-known and more expensive providers.
How does it manage to do that? By going the extra mile, of course. Here’s a list of the standard security features you have access to when you buy an InterServer plan:
InterServer also has its own security suite called InterShield. It contains 4 tools designed to detect and prevent attacks:
Inter-Insurance is another free package that you get. There is not much information about it, but it works for those whose websites have been infected or hacked. InterServer promises to investigate the problem, restore your website, and make sure that the problem doesn’t happen again in the future. All of this is free of charge.
This package can be a lifesaver. I did my part to break a website just to see how customer service would react. Most providers told me to take care of my own problems because it wasn’t their fault that I got hacked or infected. Well, Inter-Insurance shouldn’t leave that option to customer service representatives.
What I took away from InterServer’s security features is that the provider offers a wide range of tools to help you keep your site secure. I appreciate the fact that not only are the standard features, like the SSL certificate, free but so are the more thorough solutions for a highly secure web hosting experience.
Will InterServer Customer Support Help Me?
If you ever need customer support, InterServer offers 4 support channels. There is the 24/7 live chat, phone, email, and… Messenger. Facebook messenger? WhatsApp? Anyone? Please let me know if you have tried it. The provider also offers an extensive knowledge base with articles, guides, and tutorials.
I have to say that this InterServer review was going soooo well until I had to use the live chat option. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had worse, but I was so used to getting good stuff from this provider that the sky fell on my head when I got to the support part.
The wait times are usually very short. Up to 10 minutes, and you’re chatting with a real person. At least, that’s what you want to believe.
It all started well, a nameless employee got in touch after a few minutes and asked for my domain name. Just normal stuff. But then it all went wrong.
The agent simply said that my website was working fine now and that I should check my browser. But he doesn’t fool me.
Because I know why the outages and peak response times happened. It was my stress test. And they should be able to see that. Na-ah. The agent just disappeared. Half an hour passed, and I was just kicked out of the chat.
Other chats were more helpful. I had problems with my SSL certificate.
The employee simply went in and activated the SSL. No questions were asked.
I could see that SSL was working in my cPanel…. Or so I thought. However, it was not working properly.
So I contacted the support again. And got straightforward help again.
The employee fixed the problem for me. This time for good.
So… how is the support in the end?
I would say it is mediocre. The first experience was not pleasant at all. Other employees were helpful and quick. They didn’t refer me to the knowledge base, they did everything themselves. This is very efficient and great if you are a beginner.
I also contacted ticket support when my payment did not arrive. Responses came less than an hour later, and the problem was fixed.
So aside from the one really bad experience, overall customer support was helpful and efficient.
Aside from the live chat, InterServer also has a knowledge base. There you will find a variety of tutorials and guides. The search bar will help you find what you are looking for.
The knowledge base is a bit confusing. The tutorials themselves are great, but it’s not easy to distinguish which one you should use – different tutorials are meant for different hosting options and panels, even though they are named similarly.
Overall, you will be helped with InterServer. Basic problems are solved on the spot, and there is a large knowledge base. However, not all agents are equally trained, and you might have a bad experience along the way.
Pros & Cons of InterServer
Interserver Review – The Final Verdict
All in all, this InterServer hosting review left a good impression. It may not be a popular choice, and at this point, I don’t understand why. It’s more than capable, and the facts should speak for themselves.
So, here’s the gist of what it means to have your website(s) hosted by InterServer.
| Feature | 4.0★★★★☆ | Great all-Round Hosting Solution |
| Pricing | ★★★★☆ | InterServer is synonymous with affordability. Monthly billing is available, but you can also get a discount if you pay in advance. This is ideal for tight budgets. |
| Ease of Use | ★★★★☆ | InterServer does not have the flashiest user interface. Even cPanel comes with its own interface. But it is easy to use and has all the necessary modules. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced user, everything will work smoothly. |
| Performance | ★★★★☆ | The provider’s performance is great for the price you pay. It’s as reliable as you’d expect from standard web hosting, while being able to handle high levels of traffic with only minor slowdowns. |
| Security | ★★★★★ | InterServer really shines and gets an A++ rating for security. Not only do you get the basics like SSL, but also weekly backups, DDoS protection, malware detection and mitigation, and even assurances that your site will be restored if something happens. |
| Support | ★★★☆☆ | The provider’s performance is great for the price you pay. It’s as reliable as you’d expect from standard web hosting while being able to handle high levels of traffic with only minor slowdowns. |
So, Who Do I Recommend InterServer to?
InterServer is a good all-rounder and supports all small websites hosted with the standard tariff. This includes hosting small online stores, business sites, blogs, portfolios, you name it. There are also options to upgrade if your website becomes popular.
Alternatives to InterServer
There is no denying that InterServer is a high-quality hosting provider. It is reliable, easy to use, and affordable. Nevertheless, it has some flaws, such as an outdated-looking interface. If you are not a fan of it or just need something different, there are 3 options:
Hostinger is affordable in the long run and very fast. A2 Hosting is all about performance if you need speed. Bluehost is a modern-looking alternative with good business features.
Hostinger
Hostinger is very popular among beginners and business users. It offers great customer support, fast servers with built-in caching, and an easy-to-use native interface.
Prices start at $2.99/month. That’s not even $130 for 4 years. It’s a great option if you have a small budget.
A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is an established provider that focuses mainly on speed. You won’t run away from the outdated interface, as it uses cPanel. Nevertheless, it is easy to use.
Prices for the speed-focused Turbo plans start at $2.99/month. It’s not a cheap option, but business users will really get their money’s worth here.
Bluehost
Bluehost is a company specializing in WordPress that has a variety of handy tools for managing websites. You can use staging, convenient performance optimizations, and advertising management right from the control panel.
Pricing starts at $2.95/month. This makes it an affordable option for small businesses that are just getting online.
FAQ’s
Is InterServer good or bad web hosting?
When it comes to web hosting, InterServer’s offer is really very good. Speaking of value, it doesn’t limit the number of websites you can add, while the performance in this category is top-notch.
Is InterServer secure?
InterServer is very secure. It has a lot of security features. SSL certificates are included in all plans, and you have access to Cloudflare CDN. The provider also has its own security features like InterShield and Inter-Insurance. So, you don’t have to worry about anything.
Why is InterServer so unpopular?a
InterServer is not very popular because it does not do much for marketing. At least it didn’t. At the moment the company is growing and I see more and more InterServer posts on Youtube and other platforms.
Who owns InterServer?
InterServer is a privately held web services company owned by founders Mike Lavrik and John Quaglieri. It was founded in 1999 in Secaucus, NJ.
Alan Brock is an entrepreneurship-focused tech blogger with a track record of founding several startups and involvement in the tech startup scene for many years. Eric’s blog delves into startup funding, team building, and product development. He provides a critical perspective on the challenges and opportunities that come with starting a business, as well as the latest trends in the startup world. Alan’s experience as a startup founder has made him a go-to source for anyone looking to launch their own tech startup.
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