Features
For the most part, most of what Arvixe offers are pretty standard stuff. In fact, their offerings should immediately feel familiar if you’ve had experience with hosting providers before. For instance, you get unlimited storage and bandwidth, unlimited email and autoresponders, and unlimited databases. They also provide a one-click installer via Softaculous, over $200 worth of ad credits, cPanel, and more.
What sets them apart from most providers, however, is the fact that they provide a free domain for life (that is, for as long as you host with them). More than that, they also offer customers the choice between Linux or Windows servers, which is an option that, unfortunately, is not offered by a lot of web hosts. Even better, even though they have less subscription options to choose from compared to the competition, you get a lot of advanced features even if you go with the lowest plan.
6th Place8 out of 10Performance
Arvixe claims that their servers are optimized specifically for Magento to give you the best performance possible. The reality, however, is not as great as they make it seem. For one thing, their uptime of 93.38% falls short of the 99.90% industry average. This may seem okay on paper, but this translates to days or even a week or so of downtime – and that’s not good for any online store.
Similarly disappointing is their page load speeds, which is currently at 1030ms. Compared to the industry average of 850ms, Arvixe’s performance is around 21% slower. Page load performance is one of the most important factors that any hosting provider must deliver on, especially since something as seemingly inconsequential as a 0.5s delay could cause a massive 20% drop in traffic (just ask Google). So if your Magento store is run on a hosting platform that can’t keep up, then there is a huge chance that your traffic and sales could go down.
Pricing
Arvixe’s Magento hosting services are neither cheap nor prohibitively expensive. Their prices lie somewhere in the middle. For example, you can subscribe to their lowest plan, the PersonalClass, for only $4.00 per month, but that is only if you pay for two years’ worth of service upfront. If you go for shorter terms than that, then you will have to pay more. A yearly term will cost you $5 per month, while a monthly or quarterly option will set you back $7 per month. Take a look at a quick price breakdown of both their subscription plans so you can see for yourself:
| PersonalClass | PersonalClassPro | |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Year Term | $4/mo | $7/mo |
| 1 Year Term | $5/mo | $8/mo |
| Semi-annual Term | $6/mo | $9/mo |
| Quarterly Term | $7/mo | $10/mo |
| Monthly Term | $7/mo | $10/mo |
If your needs go beyond the capabilities of their shared hosting plans, Arvixe also offers other hosting services, such as business, VPS, and dedicated. Beyond that, they also offer a 60-day money back guarantee so you effectively get 2 months’ worth of virtually risk-free service. If you are unsatisfied with their offering, cancelling within that period entitles you to a full refund.
Customer Support
Arvixe’s customer support is decent, for the most part. They have an extensive knowledgebase you can visit if you prefer to sort things out yourself, and live chat and a ticketing system if you need assistance from their support team. Unfortunately, the response times of their team is rather slow, so there is a chance that you might have to wait a while before they can assist you. They do offer priority support, but you would have to pay extra for it. On the bright side, their representatives are pretty knowledgeable and helpful, all things considered.
What's the Verdict on Arvixe?
Arvixe for Magento Review 2020– Conclusion
Arvixe may not be the best Magento hosting environment out there, especially due to their various shortcomings, but for those who are willing to give them a shot there are still a lot of benefits here. You get a lot of great features, like unlimited storage and bandwidth; free domain for life; automatic Magento installation, and more.
If you are intent on going with Arvixe, just be sure that you are ready to face below average uptime and page load speeds, as well as slow customer response times. At the very least, their uptime guarantee should be nice a safety net to fall back on in case of downtime; and the 60-day money back guarantee ensures a lengthy risk-free first two months.
To sum up, if you are looking for an overall solid Magento hosting performance, Arvixe might not be up to snuff. But if an okay service, coupled with a good range of features, is all you need, then it might be worth considering.
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