Founded by Michael Lavrik and John Quaglieri, InterServer is a New Jersey-based company that’s been in the game since 1999. Initially launching as a virtual hosting account re-seller, the hosting provider has grown over the past 17 years and now operates two data centers in New Jersey and is in the process of expanding to additional locations, including Los Angeles.
Self-deemed (and widely proven) a budget-friendly provider, InterServer specializes in , , and and co-location hosting solutions.
My experience with
This InterServer review is based on my experience with their VPS hosting and shared hosting service, which I still own at this point of writing.
One of my InterServer-hosted sites (the dummy test site) is located here – I’m monitoring the site performance (speed and uptime) using our in-house system named HostScore and publish its real-time server performance statistics on this page.
I also did an online interview with InterServer co-founder Michael in September 2014 and visited the company’s HQ in Secaucus, New Jersey in August 2016.
About , the Company
Headquarter: Secaucus, New Jersey
Established: 1999
Services: Shared, VPS, dedicated, and co-location hosting
About Michael Lavrik, InterServer Co-founder
Michael and I. Photo taken during my visit to InterServer HQ in August 2016.
Excerpt from my InterServer interview-
Hello Michael – can you tell us more about yourself and Interserver?
My name is Michael Lavrik and I’m an operating partner at InterServer, but my official title is Director of Business Development.
My colleagues and I work out of our office/datacenter in Secaucus, NJ. We started this business in 1999 -when I was only 15 years old- by reselling virtual hosting accounts for another provider. Then we bought our first dedicated server, switched to colocation, then a rack, then multiple racks. Fifteen years later we operate two datacenters in Secaucus NJ and are expanding rapidly into other locations like Los Angeles, CA.
After sitting in front of the computer at the office all day, I love to get dirty! In addition to the various maintenance and repair at the office, in my free time, I’m restoring a 1969 Pontiac GTO Convertible.
Summary: What’s in this ?
PROS
Extremely reliable – great server uptime over the years
Fastest budget hosting – TTFB below 220ms
Price lock guarantee for shared and VPS hosting
100% in-house customer supports
Good billing practices with 99.9% uptime SLA
Free sites migration for new customers
Highly customizable VPS hosting plan
20 years of proven business track record
CONS
“Unlimited hosting” is limited by other terms
VPS hosting not for newbies / non-techies
Limited server location – United States only
InterServer Plans & Pricing
Verdict
The Pros: What I Like About InterServer?
1. Reliable – Average hosting uptime above 99.99%
I have got multiple websites hosted at InterServer. In overall, I am impressed with the host performance. While most hosting sites shoot for a 99.9% uptime (and many fall short of that), InterServer managed to keep my site up 100% most of the time. The uptime history is published below.
InterServer Uptime January / February 2020
InterServer January 2020 uptime = 99.99%, February 2020 uptime = 100%.
InterServer Past Uptime Records (2015 – 2018)
February 2018: 100%March 2017: 99.97%.
February 2016: 99.99%.September 2015: 99.99%.
2. Fastest budget hosting around – TTFB below 220ms
InterServer Latest Performance
Image below shows Interserver speed for January and February 2020 – my InterServer-hosted test site took, on average, 116ms to respond.
We have built our own tracking system and measure hosting speed every four hours from 10 locations. Based on our record, InterServer hosting speed has been stable and fast for January and February 2020. You can also view
InterServer Bitcatcha Speed Test
InterServer server response speed meets my expectation for a $5/mo host.
Recent server speed tests show that InterServer is one of the fastest budget hosting services around.
We ping our test site from 8 different locations using Bitcatcha and compare the server response times with other websites. As you can see in images below, the results were pretty good.
InterServer speed test results from 10 locations. Range = 7ms (United States East Coast) – 185ms (Bangalore, India). .
InterServer WebpageTest.org Speed Tests
Speed test at WebpageTest.org is equally impressive as well for InterServer. I have tested the site using three locations (U.S., U.K., Singapore), all three received a high A rating in First Byte Time. You can see actual results , , and .
Side note: Why stress so much on server speed?
That’s because 1) according to expert case studies, just 1 second decrease in site load time offers a 7% improvement in conversion rate and 11% bump in page views; and 2) Google is now using site speed as one of their ranking factors – you need a faster site (or at least a up to par server) to rank well.
3. Price lock guarantee
Many hosting providers lure in new customers with super low pricing for their initial term of service and then jack the rate upon renewal. The renewal prices increase for more than 200% fro some hosting companies. I love that InterServer avoids this practice and instead values loyalty. The company’s price lock guarantee ensures that the price you start with will continue to be your price for as long as you keep your InterServer hosting account.
Unlike s, InterServer does not jack up their price on renewal – Shared hosting costs $5/mo for life.
4. Great support: Helpful + 100% In-house
InterServer customer support team doesn’t just say they’ll help you. They actually do.
For example, during a recent crackdown of another hosting company (Arvixe), InterServer stepped in to help the unhappy customers. It set up a special team to help the people migrate their sites over to the InterServer hosting platform, making the transition seamless. You won’t get that type of service with many hosting companies.
All customer supports are done from InterServer office at Secaucus, NJ. I was at their office and witnessed the team answering users requests – The new client list and support requests are shown in the screens hanging at the ceiling.
5. 99.9% uptime backed by SLA
InterServer service is backed by clear writing SLA (see image). Should they fail to meet the guarantee in a given month, they’ll credit clients on a case by case basis.
Going beyond the uptime guarantee, InterServer also gives a 100% guarantee of uninterrupted electricity.
6. InterServer free site migration service
One big plus for InterServer is their free, white-glove site migration service.
For those who are too busy to , just contact InterServer and get their support staffs to do it for you.
No matter what control panel or account access you have on your old host, the folks at InterServer are there to migrate your sites for free. To initiate account / site migration, .
7. Highly customizable VPS hosting plan
I tried InterServer’s VPS plan in 2014 and quickly appreciated how its flexibility.
InterServer VPS clients can customize just about everything, from their preferred operating system to the software, control panels, and server capacity.
Operating system options at InterServer – there are 15 of them to choose from.
There are 16 sets of pre-configured VPS plans at InterServer for both Linux Cloud VPS and Windows Cloud VPS. Users can choose the number of needed CPU cores, RAM, as well as storage and data transfer capacity.
Also, unlike many other VPS hosting providers that require users to pay for bundled software and apps, InterServer only requires its clients to pay for what they need and use.
VPS Upgrades
Additional Cost
Additional IP
Add $3/mo/IP
Fantastico
Add $4/mo
cPanel
Add $15/mo
Softculous
Add $2/mo
Direct Admin
Add $8/mo
Ksplice
Add $3.95/mo
* Note: Usually what many other VPS hosting providers do is to include the cost of these features into their VPS plans and claim that they are free. With InterServer, you get the choice to go without these additional softwares.
8. 20 years of proven business track record
With over 20 years of experience under their belt, InterSever has established themselves as one of the best hosting providers today with a business track record that’s equally impressive.
They’ve often been the choice for bloggers and website owners who want a great performing web host that is still affordable.
One of the server blocks in InterServer’s data center. “Everything is built and managed in-house at InterServer – including the power and room cooling system. This is how the company manage to keep their prices low, ” said Mike during our meeting.Play room for the geeks? InterServer servers are built from scratch by the team in this “Builders” room.
The Cons: What’s Not Good About InterServer
1. InterServer unlimited hosting is limited
For starters, although InterServer offers “unlimited” features in its shared hosting environments, .
This will always be the case with any provider, though… and, like with any provider, InterServer users are bound by server usage rules and terms. However, unlike many other hosts, InterServer gives users a clear foray into what those limits are, providing them in the ToS (quoted below).
No single shared hosting account is permitted to use more that 20% of the server resources at a time. A single account is limited to 250,000 inodes at any given time. Clients on the Unlimited SSD shared hosting platform using more then 1GB of space will be moved to SATA.
2. VPS hosting not for newbie or non-techie
Because InterServer does not bundle the usual software (like cPanel and Softculous) into their VPS plans – the initial setup process maybe overwhelming for newbies and non-techies who . I tested InterServer VPS in 2014, the setup process was very manual and took longer time than I expected.
If you plan to go with InterServer VPS, I recommend allocating a bit of additional time for the learning curve and setup process.
3. Host in the United States East Coast only
InterServer operates on only one data center – which is the one they built in their Secaucus, New Jersey office. If majority of your website traffic is non-U.S., you will need a content delivery network (CDN) to ensure that they can access your website quickly.
Note – is free of charge, charges ~$0.10/GB traffic.
InterServer Hosting Plans & Pricing
InterServer Shared Hosting Plans
The InterServer shared hosting plan is a budget-friendly option, at just $5 per month with discounts available for longer-term contracts. If you use promo code WHSRPENNY and pre-order 3 years, the price drops to $3.88/mo.
The service includes a wealth of handy features, including one-click installs, 24/7 customer support, a free migration service, SitePad site builder, “unlimited” features (more on that later), and more. InterServer shared hosting features, server specifications and other details are shown in the table on the right sidebar.
InterServer offers a variety of VPS and cloud hosting plans to provide the flexibility and scalability its clients are looking for.
Linux cloud VPS begins at $6 per month, while Windows cloud VPS starts at $10 per month. Both offer a variety of options, based on your needs for CPU cores, memory, storage, and transfer caps.
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