Netfirms vs Atlantic.net: guide for 2024

Netfirms vs Atlantic.net: Final verdict

Looking over Atlantic.Net vs. Netfirms, it’s clear why both hosts are so popular. They have both hosted millions of
websites that run on WordPress for decades, building up a loyal customer base.

• 
  AtlanticNet (Overall grade: 8.2)
  
  offers a variety of hosting services, including dedicated and cloud hosting but does not support shared hosting or WordPress-specific plans. Ideal for agencies and multimedia websites, it stands out due to its exceptional performance, comprehensive security measures, and flexibility. Key features include compliance with SOC 2 and SOC 3 standards, 100% uptime SLA, and a support team with over three decades of experience. Their plans cater well to high-security needs, and their support infrastructure is robust. However, its advanced features and control may require a steeper learning curve for less technical users.
• 
  Netfirms (Overall grade: 7.3)
  
  is suitable for smaller businesses and offers user-friendly shared and dedicated hosting plans with a strong focus on eCommerce and high-traffic sites. They provide unlimited storage in shared hosting, 24/7 customer support, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Netfirms excels in its straightforward approach, ease of use in onboarding, and integration with tools like Google Workspace. Despite these strengths, it lacks advanced customization options, certified data centers, and the extensive security features found in Atlantic.Net, making it less suitable for users needing higher customization and security.

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 Atlantic.Net: Demonstrating superior uptime and diverse availability features.

When looking at hosting options, Atlantic.Net stands out due to its 100% uptime SLA covering network, hardware, and infrastructure. Their data centers are SOC 2 TYPE II and SOC 3 TYPE II certified, ensuring high standards for operations and security. The company offers 24/7 support via phone and email, with active monitoring and maintenance to uphold their reliable service.

Netfirms, while reliable, does not make explicit uptime guarantees on its official site. Their services include data centers in New York and Toronto, and customer support is available 24/7 through multiple channels. They promise a 99.9% uptime and offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, but their lack of certified data centers and explicit guarantees makes Atlantic.Net the stronger choice for reliable hosting.

🏆 Winner Atlantic.Net: Better performance and flexibility.

When comparing general performance, Atlantic.Net stands out with its diverse hosting plans optimized for speed, memory, and compute efficiency. Atlantic.Net boasts multiple global data centers, providing faster load times due to geographical proximity to users. They also offer extensive performance-boosting features such as RAID-10 Cloud Storage and powerful CPU options, which enhance website speed and reliability. In contrast, Netfirms provides solid shared and dedicated hosting options with a 99.9% uptime guarantee, but it lacks the enhanced CPU and memory-focused plans of Atlantic.Net. Both providers offer 24/7 customer support, with Netfirms having the added benefit of comprehensive eCommerce and marketing tools.

Atlantic.Net offers impressive website speeds, enhanced by features like one-click WordPress VPS Hosting, automated daily backups, and the use of RAID-10 Cloud Storage, which improves data redundancy and access speeds. Their high-performance processors further reduce load times. Netfirms, on the other hand, includes scalable bandwidth and free SSL certificates with their plans, but falls short of Atlantic.Net’s advanced infrastructure and optimization capabilities, resulting in generally slower page load times.

Website Speed

Atlantic.Net offers impressive website speeds, enhanced by features like one-click WordPress VPS Hosting, automated daily backups, and the use of RAID-10 Cloud Storage, which improves data redundancy and access speeds. Their high-performance processors further reduce load times. Netfirms, on the other hand, includes scalable bandwidth and free SSL certificates with their plans, but falls short of Atlantic.Net’s advanced infrastructure and optimization capabilities, resulting in generally slower page load times.

Scalability

Atlantic.Net shines in scalability with options like Managed Private Cloud and Hybrid Cloud Solutions, allowing seamless scaling without downtime. The detailed performance metrics and live migrations provide flexibility and efficiency in scaling needs. Upgrading plans for more resources is straightforward via their custom or pre-optimized plans. Netfirms offers a range of plans with upgrades but lacks the automated and elastic scaling features of Atlantic.Net. The cost to scale with Netfirms can vary significantly depending on the specific plan chosen.

🏆 Winner Atlantic.Net: Provides extensive security measures and compliance certifications suitable for high-security needs.

Technical security measures

Netfirms offers SSL certificates with different levels of protection, from basic Domain Validated SSL to enhanced E-commerce SSL. They include malware scans and blacklist monitoring, with a free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt available with every hosting plan. Atlantic.Net also provides SSL certificates, emphasizing their necessity for HIPAA compliance and includes managed firewalls, intrusion prevention services, encrypted VPN, and encrypted backups. Both providers are robust in their SSL and overall security features, but Atlantic.Net’s specialized measures for healthcare data are more comprehensive.

Operational security measures

Netfirms ensures daily malware scans, blacklist monitoring, and various levels of response times through their SiteLock Security plans. They also include domain privacy and continuous monitoring alerts. Atlantic.Net offers a managed firewall, intrusion prevention, multi-factor authentication, and 24/7 log management with additional SOC 2 and SOC 3 certifications for internal controls. While both providers include proactive monitoring and malware protection, Atlantic.Net’s operational security, involving log management and multi-factor authentication, is more thorough.

Compliance and certifications

Both Netfirms and Atlantic.Net are GDPR compliant, ensuring the protection of personal data. Netfirms also supports PCI compliance, providing automated scans through their partner SiteLock. Atlantic.Net, additionally, offers HIPAA-compliant hosting services, including BAAs and multiple layers of encrypted protection, and holds SOC 2 and SOC 3 certifications. Atlantic.Net’s broader range of compliance, particularly with HIPAA and additional certifications, provides an edge for organizations with rigorous regulatory needs.

🏆 Winner: Atlantic.Net: Known for its versatile hosting solutions and advanced customization options.

Netfirms and Atlantic.Net offer a variety of hosting features, but they cater to slightly different needs. Netfirms focuses on providing an all-inclusive package suitable for small to medium-sized businesses looking for user friendliness. It includes a free domain name for a year, eCommerce solutions, and marketing tools. It’s particularly user-friendly for those looking for simplicity and efficiency. The website builder is easy to use but lacks the deep customization required by advanced users. On the other hand, the low entry pricing and unlimited disk space are attractive, especially for those who need a straightforward, cost-effective solution.

Atlantic.Net caters more to users needing complex customization and robust infrastructure. The one-click WordPress VPS hosting and various predefined plans (such as storage, memory, and compute-optimized plans) provide flexibility for those with specific requirements. Advanced features like root access and support for multiple operating systems (Windows, CentOS, Ubuntu) offer superior control and customization. Unique selling points include load balancing, server migrations, and patching and updates assistance. This makes it an excellent choice for businesses requiring higher performance and scalability.

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 Netfirms and Atlantic.Net 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:

Netfirms does not offer dedicated email hosting services while Atlantic.Net includes comprehensive email services, enabling users to set up their own campaigns. Atlantic.Net stands out with its support for transactional emails and reselling of third-party services like Google Workspace. Users seeking more robust email capabilities and integration will benefit from Atlantic.Net’s offerings.

🏆 Winner Atlantic.Net:Atlantic.Net scores higher overall, mainly due to the robust features included in their VPS and dedicated hosting plans.

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 Netfirms and Atlantic.Net, Netfirms offers a variety of plans with diverse pricing structures tailored for shared hosting users. Features such as unlimited storage and scalable bandwidth are appealing, but Atlantic.Net provides more specialized hosting solutions, including WordPress VPS, Linux VPS, and Windows VPS hosting. For dedicated needs, Atlantic.Net’s plans range from standard to custom options, catering to high-performance requirements. Both have unique offerings, but Atlantic.Net’s extensive options for VPS and dedicated servers, backed by comprehensive security features, make it a strong contender.

Enterprise plans

Netfirms offers dedicated hosting but lacks detailed plan specifics, likely focusing on general shared hosting users. Atlantic.Net, however, provides extensive enterprise-level hosting with options for dedicated servers, bare metal servers, and PCI-compliant hosting. These plans offer advanced features like managed firewalls, intrusion prevention, and fully managed services, suitable for large-scale, high-security needs. Atlantic.Net’s broader range and detailed customization options give it an edge for enterprise-level hosting solutions.

🏆 Winner
Atlantic.Net: One-Click WordPress VPS Hosting and a support team with three decades of experience.

Netfirms offers an integrated control panel that combines hosting management with Google Workspace. This approach simplifies onboarding, especially for non-technical users, as it centralizes domain, email, and hosting settings. With its 24/7 technical support, Netfirms ensures users have continuous assistance. However, it might not be as flexible or feature-rich for advanced users who require more customization options.

Atlantic.Net uses a custom-built cloud management interface designed to swiftly deploy virtual private servers, including a one-click option for WordPress. This admin panel provides root access and extensive configuration capabilities, tailored to experienced users who need granular control over their hosting environment. While it is slightly more complex for beginners, it offers superior performance and security features for those comfortable navigating server settings.

Both hosting providers offer site migration tools, but their approaches and costs differ. Netfirms does not explicitly mention automated migration tools within the given information, suggesting it might require manual steps or coordination with their support team, potentially incurring additional costs. Atlantic.Net provides extensive support for server migrations, which likely involves manual processes but is bolstered by their experienced support team. No clear indication is given whether these services are free or paid.

The platforms provide extensive knowledge bases filled with guides, how-to articles, and instructional content. Netfirms offers a wide range of resources alongside 24/7 chat and phone support. Atlantic.Net also boasts a detailed help center with an intuitive search function and around-the-clock support via live chat, phone, and ticketing, ensuring comprehensive user support.

🏆 Winner
Atlantic.Net: Known for its advanced access control measures and multi-factor authentication, Atlantic.Net stands out for enterprise-level user management.

Netfirms provides user management within WordPress by defining five basic roles: Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, and Subscriber. These roles offer a straightforward approach to managing user permissions and accessibility, suitable for small to medium-sized websites. In contrast, Atlantic.Net integrates comprehensive access control with PCI and HIPAA compliance. This involves restricting access based on the necessity, identifying users through unique IDs, and employing multi-factor authentication. Atlantic.Net’s policy enforcement and endpoint access capabilities allow for a more granular control over user roles and access permissions.

Netfirms offers an intuitive and easy-to-navigate WordPress Dashboard for managing user roles. Adding a new user involves basic steps such as providing user details and selecting the appropriate role from a dropdown menu. Editing or removing users is equally straightforward. Atlantic.Net, on the other hand, provides a more advanced user management interface suitable for larger enterprises. This includes bulk user import, intuitive self-enrollment, and multiple options for multi-factor authentication. These tools are designed to streamline user management, especially in environments that require stringent security protocols.

In terms of access control, Netfirms relies on the basic WordPress role-based system, which, while effective for smaller setups, might not scale well for large organizations with complex security needs. Atlantic.Net excels in this area by providing PCI and HIPAA-compliant solutions. Their managed services can enforce password policies, key rotations, and set automated alerts for account activities. Multi-factor authentication for remote access and detailed audit controls make Atlantic.Net more efficient in managing a growing user base, ensuring both security and compliance.

Netfirms user roles table:

Atlantic.Net user roles table:

🏆 Winner Netfirms: Superior customer service availability and response times.

Netfirms offers 24/7 customer service through multiple channels, including phone, web chat, email, and a ticket system. Their response times are impressively quick, with phone support typically answering in less than a minute and web chat taking only a few minutes. Netfirms’ representatives are knowledgeable and provide direct answers, ensuring the customer feels supported and informed. There is an added benefit of a 30-day money-back guarantee for those who pay via credit card, showcasing their commitment to customer satisfaction.

Atlantic.Net also provides extensive customer service, with 24/7 access via phone and email, bolstered by an online knowledge base and a blog that offers tutorials. They have dedicated email addresses for various queries, enhancing the specificity of support. With over three decades of experience, Atlantic.Net has built a strong reputation, further validated by testimonials from reputable organizations. Despite these strengths, Netfirms edges out with their exceptional response times and slightly higher customer score.

Netfirms vs Atlantic.net: User feedback

User feedback on this hosting provider is mixed, with significant criticism and some praise. Many users appreciate the good uptime, active customer support, and affordability of domain registration. However, frequent complaints include slow server speeds, poor usability, and unsatisfactory load times, which hinder site performance and development. Additionally, some users have faced issues with server reliability and confusing setup processes.

Users generally praise the hosting provider for its strong reliability, great value for cost, and high performance, particularly in maintaining uptime and fast network speeds. The customer portal and service tools are appreciated for their ease of use, although some customers find navigation to help pages cumbersome and suggest improvements in the console’s functionality. Support is often noted as responsive and helpful, although a few users desire faster response times and multilingual support. Some users also wish for expanded backup options and additional features in specific data centers but overall, find the service robust and dependable for their needs.

Netfirms vs Atlantic.net: FAQ