Liquid Web vs Pressable: guide for 2024

Final verdict

Comparing Liquid Web and Pressable, both offer strong hosting services with unique strengths and weaknesses.

• 
  Liquid Web (Overall grade: 8.7)
  
  
  excels in providing a range of hosting solutions, including WordPress, VPS, and dedicated hosting. Its key strengths lie in uptime guarantee, customizable server options, and robust security measures including comprehensive compliance certifications like GDPR, PCI, and HIPAA. Features such as the 30-minute hardware SLA, proactive Sonar™ Monitoring, and 24/7/365 support ensure high reliability and quick resolution of issues. However, its more complex user management features and broader array of hosting types might be overwhelming for users seeking simplicity.
  
• 
  Pressable (Overall grade: 8.4)
  
  
  focuses on managed WordPress hosting with a user-friendly dashboard and strong performance backed by a global network of data centers. The platform offers auto-scaling, daily backups, free SSL certificates, and comprehensive security features, making it ideal for agencies and high-traffic WordPress and ecommerce sites. The excellent customer support and easy-to-use management tools provide a great experience for both beginners and experienced developers. Its primary drawback is the lack of email hosting services and slightly higher pricing compared to Liquid Web, but the exceptional performance and reliability often justify the cost.
  

Hosting types offered

Both platforms provide a variety of hosting types, each designed to meet the different needs of users.

Although both offer a variety of hosting plans tailored to different needs, in
certain cases, one platform may prove to be more suitable.

Detailed comparison

🏆 Winner
Pressable: A powerful hosting provider for WordPress websites with a 100% uptime guarantee and proactive support.

Pressable stands out with its geo-redundant automatic failover, ensuring site stability by replicating data in real-time across different locations. Its 24/7/365 monitoring and redundant data centers bolster WordPress site speed and scalability. Pressable’s health monitoring and proactive alerts help teams confidently deploy updates, further minimizing downtime.

Liquid Web offers compelling uptime and availability features, including a 100% network and power uptime SLA and proactive Sonar™ Monitoring. The 30-minute hardware SLA ensures rapid replacement if components fail. Liquid Web’s managed high availability services ensure reliability with instant data replication and redundancy across servers.

🏆 Winner
Pressable: Known for exceptional website speed and reliability.

When comparing general performance, Pressable takes the lead with its global network of 28+ data centers across six continents, ensuring lightning-fast page speeds and high availability. Their custom resource management system provides superior traffic spike handling. Liquid Web offers diverse hosting solutions, including high availability hosting and VMware Private Cloud, but their data centers are less globally distributed compared to Pressable. Both hostings offer built-in performance-enhancing features such as efficient caching and CDN support to boost website performance.

Website Speed

Pressable showcases impressive website speeds with their highly frequent CPUs and efficient image processing capabilities. Their response time stands at 5.2 milliseconds for static performance tests and 12 milliseconds for P95 performance tests. Liquid Web also provides excellent performance with their Next-Gen VPS Hosting powered by AMD EPYC Processors and a high-speed network. They offer automated plugin updates and proactive monitoring for managed WordPress hosting which helps maintain fast load times.

Scalability

Pressable excels in scalability with its auto-scaling features, allowing a seamless handling of high-traffic peaks without manual plan upgrades. They offer flexible plans that adjust to your traffic demands. Liquid Web also offers scalable solutions with easy scalability features across their VPS and dedicated server offerings. However, specifics on upgrade costs are not provided for either service, making it difficult to compare scalability costs directly. Liquid Web does support dedicated servers and custom multi-server solutions for more complex scaling needs.

🏆 Winner Liquid Web: Provides comprehensive security features and compliance solutions, ensuring robust protection for sensitive data.

Both Liquid Web and Pressable, have notable differences in their approaches to technical and operational security, as well as in their compliance with regulations.

Technical security measures:

Liquid Web and Pressable both offer SSL certificates to secure data transmissions, but Pressable provides them for free with every WordPress site. Liquid Web excels in offering detailed firewall, VPN, DDoS protection, and intrusion detection systems. Pressable also provides malware scanning and a Web Application Firewall. Both hosts support multiple PHP versions, ensuring applications’ compatibility and performance.

Operational security measures:

Liquid Web’s PCI Compliance includes quarterly scans and managed service for vulnerability remediation. They also feature 24/7/365 on-site support and highly secure data centers. Pressable focuses on proactive defenses, such as keeping WordPress core and plugins updated, and includes daily backups and automatic updates. Pressable further offers hack recovery assistance and global CDN for security and performance.

Compliance and certifications:

Liquid Web is prominent in meeting diverse compliance needs, offering GDPR, PCI, and HIPAA compliance. They also hold certifications like SSAE-22 and are HITECH Certified for HIPAA. Pressable, while not detailed in GDPR and PCI standards, emphasizes security measures that imply compliance. Liquid Web’s more extensive compliance credentials are advantageous for highly regulated industries.

🏆 Winner
Liquid Web: A reliable solution for fully managed and highly secure hosting tailored for complex needs.

Liquid Web and Pressable offer managed hosting solutions, but each has unique strengths catering to different needs. Liquid Web excels in delivering fully managed hosting services with a proactive approach to security and uptime. They offer high availability through multi-server environments, ensuring business continuity and managing complex hosting environments. Liquid Web also provides compliant solutions for industries needing HIPAA or PCI standards and offers diverse hosting options such as VMware Private Cloud, Managed VPS Hosting, Windows Hosting, and specialized hosting for WooCommerce and WordPress. Their 24/7/365 human support and rapid response times stand out, appealing to users requiring robust support and high performance.

Pressable focuses on ease of use and developer-centric features within their managed WordPress hosting environment. Their hosting dashboard offers quick access to vital tools and allows for one-click traffic enhancements with a free Global CDN and seamless staging environments. Performance and security are heightened through automatic scaling, regular backups, free SSL certificates, and Jetpack Security. Pressable supports developers with SFTP access, SSH, Git integration, and a simple WP-CLI interface. They also provide specialized support from WordPress engineers, making it a desirable option for developers who need efficient site management and reliable performance.

Both providers support a range of users from beginners to experts with user-friendly website builders and WordPress staging areas. However, in terms of developer tools, both Liquid Web and Pressable offer robust options including SSH access, support for multiple programming languages, and Git for version control, thus appealing to developers looking for advanced capabilities.

Email services:

Liquid Web provides email hosting, enabling users to set up their own email campaigns and manage business communications effectively. Pressable, on the other hand, does not offer email hosting services within their plans, potentially necessitating third-party integrations for users requiring comprehensive email solutions.

🏆 Winner
Pressable: Pressable scores slightly higher overall, mainly due to the robust features included in their plans and the transparency of what’s included.

Evaluating the pricing of plans among various hosting providers can be complex due to their differing pricing and renewal strategies. Additionally, certain plans require annual commitments, which adds to the difficulty of making comparisons. The prices listed are based on monthly commitments; plans requiring annual commitments are indicated. Additionally, although some providers offer identical plans for WordPress and shared hosting, we have created separate tables for each to enhance clarity.

When comparing Liquid Web and Pressable, Liquid Web offers a wide range of hosting options including managed WooCommerce hosting, managed WordPress hosting, managed VPS hosting, cloud dedicated servers, and extensive Windows hosting solutions. Pressable’s plans primarily target WordPress hosting with specific offerings in Signature, High Traffic, and custom Enterprise solutions. Liquid Web’s pricing and plan features are diversified, meeting various business needs, whereas Pressable’s plans are slightly more costly but come with extensive support and professional email services bundled across all plans.

Enterprise plans

Liquid Web offers custom enterprise solutions focused on security, load balancing, backups, and high availability. Pressable counters with completely customizable plans covering storage, vCPUs, PHP workers, and more, ensuring tailored business scaling. Both cater to highly demanding enterprises, but Pressable’s customizability and bundled features make it the preferred choice.

🏆 Winner Liquid Web: User-friendly and managed hosting that simplifies technical tasks and offers exceptional support services.

Liquid Web offers a variety of control panels such as InterWorx, Plesk, and WHM/cPanel, which provide user-friendly interfaces for managing servers and websites. These control panels cater to both technical and non-technical users, ensuring ease of navigation and functionality. Particularly for WordPress users, Liquid Web’s Managed WordPress Hosting includes features like automatic plugin updates and proactive monitoring, making it easy to manage sites without delving into complex backend tasks.

Pressable, on the other hand, offers an intuitive managed hosting dashboard tailored specifically for WordPress and WooCommerce websites. The dashboard is modern, sleek, and easy to use, which makes it suitable for users with varying levels of technical expertise. Features like one-click cloning and straightforward domain management enhance its accessibility, allowing both beginners and seasoned developers to manage their sites effortlessly. While effective, the custom dashboard might present a slight learning curve for users accustomed to standard cPanel interfaces.

Both Liquid Web and Pressable offer automated tools for site migrations. Liquid Web provides complimentary migrations for new server orders with most hosting control panels, including InterWorx, Plesk, and cPanel. This feature is highly beneficial for users looking to move their sites without additional costs. Pressable also offers free managed migrations, facilitated by their Automated Migration plugin, ensuring a smooth transfer process suitable for all user levels.

Liquid Web’s Knowledge Base is extensive and well-organized, containing articles, tutorials, and step-by-step solutions covering hosting basics, security, and technical support. Their support is available 24/7/365, guaranteeing a 59-second initial response for phone and chat and a 59-minute initial response for helpdesk tickets. Pressable’s knowledge base is also comprehensive, offering articles, tutorials, and troubleshooting guides. Support from certified WordPress engineers is available 24/7 directly from the MyPressable dashboard, known for quick response times.

🏆 Winner Liquid Web: Efficient user management coupled with extensive role customization ensures streamlined operations.

Liquid Web’s Plesk offers more flexibility in managing user roles and permissions compared to Pressable. Plesk’s user management feature provides four default roles (Administrator, Webmaster, Application User, and Accountant), with the capability to create and customize additional user roles based on specific needs. Conversely, Pressable focuses on a simplified collaborator access system and does not offer the same level of granularity in role customization. This makes Liquid Web better suited for environments where detailed role definitions and permissions are necessary.

From a user interface perspective, Liquid Web’s Plesk functions through a comprehensive control panel that segments user management into an organized structure, accessible through various tabs and menu options. On the other hand, Pressable’s dashboard offers a streamlined, albeit less detailed, interface featuring easy access tabs for site and collaborator management, and SFTP access, but lacks the depth provided by Plesk’s extensive user role management features.

When assessing access control measures, Liquid Web provides robust capabilities by allowing administrators to add, edit, and remove user accounts and roles, ensuring efficient management of a growing user base. Pressable’s collaborator access and SFTP tools, while secure and straightforward, do not offer the same level of control for a larger number of users or complex user role hierarchies. Liquid Web’s extensive control panel and customizable roles prove to be more efficient in scaling user management as the number of users and sites increases.

Liquid Web user roles table:

Pressable user roles table:

🏆 Winner Liquid Web: Liquid Web provides exceptional customer support with a wide range of options, including phone and live chat support available 24/7.

Liquid Web boasts an array of customer service channels, including 24/7 phone support, live chat with a 59-second initial response guarantee, and a dedicated helpdesk. The company emphasizes providing “Heroic Support®,” with a highly trained staff of over 250 Red Hat Linux and Windows Certified technicians. Their support options are extensive, including a customer success manager and strategic account executive for personalized attention.

Pressable, on the other hand, offers online support without a phone option but ensures a quick response time of within two minutes and an average resolution time of under 10 minutes. Their customer satisfaction rating of 98% is impressive, and their support team consists of certified WordPress engineers. Unique features include free website migrations, performance and security monitoring, and a dedicated Slack channel available as an upgrade for advanced support. Both hosting providers shine in their support capabilities, but Liquid Web’s broader support channels and specialized teams make it the stronger choice.

User feedback

Customer feedback for this hosting provider is mixed, with significant polarization in user experiences. While some have praised the company for its reliable uptime, exceptional support, and proactive monitoring, others have experienced severe dissatisfaction due to frequent downtimes, unresponsive customer service, and unethical billing practices. Long-term customers, in particular, have noted a sharp decline in service quality and support efficiency, attributing it to recent management changes. Despite positive reviews highlighting excellent technical support and overall reliability, a growing number of users advise against using this provider due to these negative aspects.

Overall, users have expressed high satisfaction with the hosting provider, citing exceptional customer support, fast response times, and reliable uptime as standout features. The platform’s ease of use, fast website speeds, and seamless integration with WordPress are frequently praised. Although some users noted that accessing core files and the staging environment process could be more straightforward, these issues do not significantly detract from their positive experiences. The main minor drawback highlighted is the pricing, which some users feel is on the higher side, but they acknowledge it is justified by the outstanding quality and support provided.

FAQ