Arvixe prides itself in providing web hosting with a rare combination of unmatched reliability, quality and affordability. Arvixe’s edge is derived through unparalleled company management and a culture of employee driven initiatives.
Founded in California, Arvixe is a privately held hosting company built on a basis of solid ground work and planned growth. Since 2003, Arvixe has been hosting hundreds of thousands of personal, small business and enterprise websites on a global level. Go ahead and give Arvixe a try, and you will experience first hand what we call the Arvixe Advantage, the advantage of working with the best.
Here at Web Hosting Geeks we consider it sort of our sworn duty to keep you informed about all of the bigger hosting companies running around. It’s like your our Gotham, and we’re like Batman with a keyboard and a website. We’ve been diving deeper into the fold lately, bringing you reviews of some of the smaller web hosting providers out there with a growing face and membership list. We’re going to continue that train today, bringing you one of the latest and greatest upstarts to join the ranks: Yes, we’ll be looking at Arrive.
The company has been doing there thing for almost ten years now, and during that time they’ve built up quite a reputation. So if you’re interested to see what sort of services they offer, at what price they offer them, and how they actually perform under pressure, then come along, Soldier! We’ve got all the answers and more, and it’s all resting just below beyond the break. So without further ado, may we present to you now the Big Daddy, in-depth review of one of the Web’s newest up-and-coming web hosting providers, Arvixe. To kick things off, here’s a deeper look at who these guys actually are:
Who is Arvixe Anyway?
If you’re wondering who Arvixe is, we can’t entirely blame you. They’ve been around for a while now, but they’ve been growing during that entire time period. So what are the facts on these guys? Where did they come from?
Firstly, Arvixe was founded in 2003 in San Luis Obispo, California. They are a privately held limited liability corporation built on the basis of providing solid ground work and planned growth for the businesses and website that they host. During the time that they’ve been running, they’ve hosted thousands of personal, small business and enterprise websites on a global scale. And in 2005 and 2007, they actually won several awards from Host Review, including being named as the top 10 Fastest Growing Web Hosting Company in the world. They were also awarded as one of the top 10 Budget Web Hosts on the block. We could keep paraphrasing, but we feel like the guys at Arvixe sum themselves up the best, so here’s their final thoughts on the matter.
“Arvixe prides itself in providing web hosting with a rare combination of unmatched reliability, quality and affordability. Arvixe’s edge is derived through unparalleled company management and a culture of employee driven initiatives. Go ahead and give Arvixe a try, and you will experience first hand what we call the Arvixe Advantage, the advantage of working with the best.”
The Technology Behind Arvixe
One of the first things we look for in any new web host are statistics on the technology that the company is using to back their customers. The reason for this is really quite simple: Without good hardware, the customer service, performance, and web hosting is guaranteed to bomb. So what’s Arvixe got under the hood that we should know about?
Firstly, Arvixe uses multiple SAS 70 Type II data centers located in Houston and Dallas. These data centers are also backed by a fully comprehensive and redundant power system that protects all of the company’s servers from malfunctions and power outages. Both of these go a long way toward providing the sort of constant uptime that we demand out of an host. They also use an Uninterrupted Power Supply to ensure that their data centers are receiving the necessary juice at all points in time to keep your data on the Web.
Arvixe also makes use of one of the coolest networks we’ve ever seen in this industry. To begin with, they offer Tier 1 telecom provider supported networks, as well as direct Internet connections to offset the loads. Not to mention a full parallel, redundant, and multi-tiered network architecture to add even more power. To sum things up, Arvixe has gone a long way toward providing one of the most solid and dependable networks around. Barre none.
The Advantages of Arvixe
So now you have the full scoop on who Arvixe is, what sort of power their backing, and how that power is produced. However, what are the specific advantages to using the provider? Why on earth should you consider them over one of the much larger and better-known companies like HostGator or Web Hosting Hub? The answer is really quite simple.
To keep it short, Arvixe offers everything that you could ever need in a web hosting provider. For instance, they’ve got a full 60-day Money Back Guarantee to ensure the safety of your new account. If you don’t like the service, they’ll refund your money with no questions asked. In addition, you’ll also get 99.99% uptime, which we’re more inclined to believe, thanks to the technology that was listed out earlier. Add to this 24-hour support, a free website transfer for all your existing data, returning customer discounts reaching as much as 50%, and no hidden fees, and you’re looking at one incredibly solid hosting experience. It’s perhaps too early to call it, but just looking at the paper guarantees that Arvixe offers, we’re really quite impressed with the hosting provider. All the points are there, which leads us to wonder about their hosting plans themselves. So on that note:
The Hosting Plans Offered by Arvixe
Up until this point we’ve talked an awful lot about who Arvixe is and what they can guarantee you as a customer. We’ve also taken a pretty in-depth look at the hardware and network that serves as the back bone of the company. However, what we have yet to do is take a really hard glance at the web hosting plans themselves. We’re going to be rectifying that issue now, however, bringing you from the top of the list all of the plans that Arvixe currently sells. And where else does one start than with a personal-sized Linux hosting plan?
The Personal Linux-Based Hosting Plan:
We don’t often like to quote directly from the web hosting provider, but in this case, we fell like Arvixe states a pretty bold claim. Here’s what they’re saying about their personal Linux hosting plans:
“Our number one priority for our linux web hosting plans is to provide the quality service our customers expect, at the lowest prices possible. We are proud to say that we have mastered it. Go ahead and compare us to some of the leading providers in the world and you will soon realize that choosing Arvixe is having the Arvixe Advantage, the advantage of working with the best.”
It’s a bold statement, and one that we’ve heard at several other web hosting providers during the years we’ve been doing this. So what ultimately makes them different from the rest of the heard? To answer that, let’s take a peek at the services that come with the Personal Linux Hosting package.
The PersonalClass package, as the company calls it, comes with—first and foremost—all of the unlimited features that we’ve been telling you about for so long. You’ll get unlimited disk space, unlimited monthly transfers, and even unlimited domains with the PersonalClass Pro tier—more on that in a second. You’ll also get a free domain for life, no matter which of the two PersonalClass tiers you decide to opt for.
If you’re a programmer or tech-ready individual, you’ll find a lot to like in the features list that comes with the PersonalClass selection. For instance, you’ll get unlimited FTP accounts, a free HTML editor, Adobe GoLive support, Cron jobs, MIME types, page redirects managers, a custom error page, and even password protected directories. If you’re not so technically inclined, signing with Arvixe will get you an hefty amount of other features like unlimited email box support, free spam filter and forwarding tools, and free statistical information trackers. In this way, you can track easily and effectively what’s going on with your website.
We could prattle out all of the software that Arvixe supports for you developers, but to be honest, it’s one intimidating list. As such, we’ll simply say this: Nowhere have we seen such an extensive and exhaustive list of supported softwares and languages. In essence, if you’re looking for a developers’ paradise in a web hosting provider, you’ve found it with Arvixe. And better still, the company actively promotes itself as a developer friendly company. To us, that sounds like a sandbox environment just ripe for the picking.
The pricing rundown looks something like this: For the PersonalClass package alone you’ll need to cough up a scant $4 a month, which is far below what we’re used to seeing with this kind of support. For the slightly beefier edition of the same Linux-based package—that is the PersonalClass Pro model—you’ll need an only slightly more intimidating $7 a month. That’s a full two dollars less than most comparable hosting providers, leading us to certify Arvixe as a true bargain. If you’re looking for cheap hosting that doesn’t miss out on features with a Unix backing, there’s no better place to go by the looks of things.
However, Linux isn’t the only game in town. So what does Arvixe offer on the Windows side of everything?
Personal Windows Hosting Plans:
If you’re looking for a more business approach to web hosting, there’s really no better option than Windows. That being said, we’re seeing fewer and fewer hosts actually support the operating system, as it’s often quite hard to handle and requires a lot of data processing power to get right. We’ve already established, however, that Arvixe has the power needed, so what do their Windows hosting plans look like?
At first blush, the Windows hosting plan looks a lot like the Linux one, with some fairly obvious differences. Firstly, there’s a large guarantee promising support for the latest and greatest .NET applications, which is a tremendous boon for the business concerned. After that, the features start rolling out one by one.
You’ll get the same unlimited disk space that we mentioned earlier, which is also a big notch in the company’s favor. Add to this unlimited monthly transfers, unlimited email accounts, unlimited FTP accounts, unlimited MySQL databases, and unlimited email utilities: It’s one impressive set of unmetered functions, to be sure.
Alongside all of this, of course, you’ll be getting the same Windows functionality that we’d expect from an high-end service provider. You’ll have up to 6 dedicated application pools with the cheaper PersonalClass ASP service, or an unlimited number with the slightly more expensive PersonalClass ASP Pro. Either way you’ll still get support for 30+ ASP components, ASP .NET MVC, LINQ/AJAX/Silverlight, remote access to MsSQL databases, and MySQL 5 database support. Oh, and if you’re looking for coding support, you’ll find PHP 5, PERL, Python, and CGI all right here. It’s one powerful kick in the Windows pants, but surely all of this must cost a pretty penny?
In all actuality, the Windows hosting plans offered here are some of the cheapest we’ve seen anywhere. For instance, the PersonalClass ASP pricing tier starts at only $5 a month—only slightly higher than the Linux branded services. If you’re looking for a more robust feature set, the ASP Pro package will only set you back $8 a month. Both of those prices are far below what we’re typically seeing for Windows hosting, which is a tremendous surprise (but a real lucky strike) for the businessman in need of Windows hosting.
On the subject of business hosting, it turns out that Arvixe also offers plans to cater there, as well.
The Business Hosting Plans
The business-branded hosting plans offered by Arvixe appear to be a lot like the personal hosting plans, but with one very important distinction. You see, having so many personal users locked up on one server is a great way to maximize space and power for the whole. It can also reduce the amount of resources available to a steady, consumer traffic. As such, Arvixe has avoided this problem for the business crowd by offering more private and select servers. These servers feature fewer customers, freeing up more of the total space for the business user to take advantage of. If you’re wondering, these plans also come with the same software, language, and unlimited support that we talked so much about earlier. In fact, the plans are nearly identical save the segregation of the power. There are even two unique pricing tiers for both Linux and Windows hosting.
So what are the rates like? For the Linux Business Hosting plans you’ll be paying either $22 or $35 a month. On the Windows side of the coin, you’re looking at $27 and $40 a month for service. Neither of these are bad prices, though the benefit of the “business” plan is fairly hard to certify.
Reseller Hosting Plans
One of our favorite aspects of modern web hosting is the reseller account. We love the fact that we can call up a big hosting provider, purchase a portion of their mammoth hardware, and then create our very own web hosting company right there on the spot. As such, we’re more than excited to see Arvixe offering such services to their consumers. What do those services look like? That’s an excellent question, and one we are just about to answer!
There are Linux and Windows reseller accounts offered here, but for the sake of brevity, we’ll be sticking to the Linux side of things: With this, you’ll get 50 gigabytes of disk space at the lowest pricing tier, as well as 500 gigabytes of monthly data transfer. This total clocks in at $20 a month, which is incredibly low for the industry. A slightly more expensive $50 a month will earn you 200 gigabytes of disk space and 2000 gigabytes of data transfer. That’s a lot of power for a reseller account, and with so many unlimited features (hosting accounts, domains, FTP accounts, etc.) you have a lot of potential to turn a real profit in the bargain. You’ll also be given a full roster of account management tools to ensure your business tarts off on the right foot.
Dedicated Server Hosting
Another one of our favorite web hosting options on the market is the dedicated server. It’s rare to find a small company like Arvixe that offers the service, but it’s just as cool, to boot. So what do dedicated hosting plans with Arvixe look like?
To keep things brief, their rates start at a competitive $105 per month, which is a fair bit lower than most other hosts we’ve seen on the market. This money will buy you a dual core processor, and all the hosting options you could ever have wanted. At a slightly higher premium ($300) you’ll get a multi-core processor with higher performance and bandwidth capabilities, making it ideal for the largest businesses. All in all, it looks to be a comprehensive package, and with managing options available, you may not even need to worry about your server once purchased.
CMS and Blog Hosting
And finally, if you’re looking for something even simpler and more blog-oriented, Arvixe has you covered there as well. They offer an entire roster of fully-supported content management systems and blogging tools to get you from a no-name without a website to a full-force blogging powerhouse with one of the largest sites in the game. For instance, they offer blogging support for PostNuke, WordPress, B2evolution, TextPattern, Habari, BlogEngine.net, Oxide, and even Serendipity. On the content management system side of the coin, they also offer support for Mambo, phpNuke, Drupal, Geeklog, Gimbal, and Dotnetnuke. They also guarantee that each of this is as simple as a pre-fab install, meaning from the minute you sing onto Arvixe, they’ve got your content management solution geared up and ready to go. And with prices that are competitive as well as fair, Arvixe looks to be one of the simplest and easiest ways to get yourself a blog and get it running quickly.
Support and Technical Assistance
So there you have a full rundown of all the varied hosting methods and options that are currently available with Arvixe. However, what about technical support?
If you’re looking for assistance with sales or simple answers to simple hosting questions, you can easily get an hold on the provider using the information stored here.
Aside from that, appears to offer solid 24×7 technical assistance with just about any problem, as well as one of the largest knowledge bases we have ever seen. If you’re looking for speedy answers, we can only guess that the provider will be there to help. Then again, there’s really no way to check aside from using that money back guarantee we talked about earlier!
The Final Conclusion
At the end of the day, Arvixe is a smaller venue, which means they can likely offer more personal service. In addition, they also feature some of the cheapest prices we’ve seen anywhere in the game. Add to this a full and comprehensive list of features and you’ve got yourself one interesting proposition.
However, you can never be sure with any web host. As such, we highly encourage you to read the user review submitted to our site, as well as other avenues of web hosting information. And before you sign to any host, always be sure to check out some of our favorites like Web Hosting Hub or InMotion Hosting. These are the gold standards you should be comparing all the other options to, which means they always come recommended. And if you try Arvixe and like them, be sure to submit a review yourself!
