MidPhase Introduction:

MidPhase hosting started in 1998. They have offices based in Providence and Salt Lake City (Utah, USA), London (UK) and Lviv (Ukraine). MidPhase offer web hosting, email hosting, domains and a website builder.

One of their unique features allows you to enter details of who you are and what you’re looking for. They’ll then suggest products suited just for you, which makes sense for beginners.

Visit MidPhase.com (£3.08/Month)

MidPhase appeared to have some above-average reviews. On TrustPilot, they had 69% EXCELLENT reviews, with 3% poor and 9% bad. Compared to some other web hosts I’ve reviewed recently, this didn’t seem too off-putting.

It was a real mixed bag for this hosting company. Plenty of people saying that they were great web hosts, whereas others reported issues with their services and customer support. However, it seems as though MidPhase are good at responding to reviews (positive and negative).

MidPhase’s Facebook and Twitter page were active but didn’t really have any comments from customers. This can only suggest to me that customers are able to contact their support by other means, which is a good sign.

MidPhase Server Speed & Uptime

MidPhase offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee. To be honest, from such a big hosting company, I probably would have expected more. But, my own tests will see whether their guarantee can be met, across a 6 month period.

An unreliable web hosting platform could impact your website performance and even lose you customers. Midphase offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee across all web server packages.  Also consider the benefits of 24/7 round the clock support.

 

Across 6 months, I monitored my website’s performance hosted with MidPhase. I was SUPER excited to see my results. My site had a 99.99% uptime record with only an hour of downtime. Considering they only guarantee 99.9%, I was very pleased.

My site’s response time, unfortunately, wasn’t that great. The average response time was just over 1100 ms which is 1 second. Whilst this might not seem a lot, it’s recommended that website’s don’t take longer than 1 second to respond as after this, the abandonment rate goes up.

Visit MidPhase.com (£3.08/Month)

MidPhase Features

MidPhase have 3 shared hosting plans. Across these plans, each offer something a little different to suit various customer needs. However, there are a few features in common that run across all of their shared plans.

Let’s take a look at some of those features below:

Unlimited storage space
Unlimited bandwidth
Free domain name
Unlimited emails
Ad-free hosting

Considering all plans offer the above features for free, I’d consider MidPhase very generous. A free domain name is worth around £10, along with unlimited disk space and bandwidth which can be hard to come by.

Some more noteworthy features I’ve come across include:

• No-risk Policy: MidPhase operate a no-risk policy, so if you’re unhappy with their services in the first 30 days, you can get your money back. This excludes domain names but applies to everything else within 30 days of sale.
• No hidden fees: MidPhase don’t operate any hidden fees. What you see is what you get, which is very refreshing to see. They have a full price list that you can view, including new and renewal prices.
• cPanel: This web host has decided to stick with the most popular control panel, cPanel. This means you can use 1-click installs like WordPress, protect your emails from spam, and lots more.
• Email accounts: If you want unlimited email accounts on your primary domain, you’ve come to the right place! Operating a business or portfolio can often require the need for multiple email accounts.

MidPhase Customer Support

MidPhase have several support options. This includes live chat, email and knowledgebase articles. Their support center is easy to use and to navigate. If you have a topic in mind you want to find out more about, just simply enter the details into the search box.

The knowledgebase was easy to navigate. The style was slick and simple, meaning even a beginner could figure it out. The articles were detailed and helpful and it was easy to go back to the previous pages.

Next up I wanted to try their live chat. Previous customer reviews indicated this should be a good experience. All across MidPhase’s website there’s an option to chat to an agent, so already the process felt inviting.

I asked the agent about their fair usage policy. They advertise unlimited bandwidth and storage space but I want to know more about it. After 4 minutes of “gathering details” the agent still hadn’t responded. I feel like this information should be ready to hand and that the agents should KNOW this.

Even after trying to squeeze more information out of the agent, it seemed like getting blood out of a stone. I felt the experience to be a bit of a struggle and not very personal at all.

MidPhase Pros and Cons

MidPhase have some really positive reviews from their customers. So far my experience has been really good, bar a few minor issues. They offer great features at affordable prices, including domains, web hosting and a website builder.

However, there were a few problems that I noticed. Personally, although their support was available 24/7 and reasonable quick to respond, I didn’t find the experience very personal. They just directed me elsewhere on their website which was a bit of a pain.

Pros

Affordable pricing: MidPhase are a very affordable web hosting company. For only £3.08 per month you’ll get a plan that offers unlimited disk space and bandwidth. You’ll also get a free domain and unlimited email accounts.

Uptime: Although MidPhase only guarantee a 99.9% uptime, my own personal tests were different. I got an overall uptime of 99.99% across a 6 month period which is great!

Ease of Use: MidPhase is super easy to use. Their website makes signing up very simple, as well as cool little features. For example, if you’re not sure what plan will be best for you, you can fill out their short questionnaire which will suggest the best shared hosting plans.

Cons

Customer Support: Although other people have praised their support, I wasn’t a fan. Yes, it was quick and my questions did get answered, but it really lacked a personal touch. Being re-directed to other areas of their website isn’t helpful and it shouldn’t have taken 4 minutes to confirm their unlimited disk space and bandwidth really are unlimited.

Response time: The response time on my test website exceeded over 1100 ms. This is just over 1 second which is the turning point for people to start abandoning your website. For a host that’s been around for so long, I would have expected more.

MidPhase Pricing

From just £3.08 per month, MidPhase offer some pretty decent features for free! £4.64 can barely get a you a sandwich for lunch, but in this case it can get you MidPhase’s business plan. You’ll get a free SSL certificate, analytics and dedicated IP.

Do I Recommend MidPhase?

If you’re looking for cheap web hosting with a reliable uptime, I WOULD recommend MidPhase. However, if you’re concerned about speed and performance, I would have to say NO. Unfortunately their performance just isn’t up to scratch.

For beginners or those hosting a personal portfolio, MidPhase probably offers enough to justify the cheap price. In some cases, affordable pricing doesn’t mean cheap technologies. For example, SiteGround is only £2.95 per month but their speeds are AWESOME!

Here’s a quick summary of MidPhase:

Great uptime (99.9% guarantee but 99.99% in my own tests)
Wide selection of knowledgebase articles (their support center is super easy to navigate)
Plenty of free features (including a FREE domain on all their shared plans)
Positive reviews from other customers (this is always a good sign when looking for a web host)

Lack of personal customer support
Website response times were over 1 second