Media Temple Reviews of 2021
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Our Verdict: #1 for Grid Hosting
Media Temple offers unique web hosting plans that combine the best features of shared and cloud hosting — this is known as grid hosting. They also provide automated backups on all plans and WordPress plans with staging servers.
Our community has given Media Temple an average score of 3.5/5. In particular, users praise this provider for their customer support and high-end features like SSD storage and developer tools. Below, we’ll review everything else you need to know about Media Temple.
Also, you can save 20% on Media Temple plans when you use our special Media Temple discount link in combination with our promo code (WIHT20).
About Media Temple
Media Temple was founded in 1998 and is based in Los Angeles, California.
Over its two decades of service, Media Temple has gained more than 125,000 customers based in over 100 countries. The company states that it currently hosts over 1.5 million websites.
Their client base spans creative professionals and small business owners to well-known brands like CBS, Samsung, Starbucks, Adidas, and Toyota.
GoDaddy Acquisition
In October 2013, Media Temple announced its acquisition by GoDaddy. The company stated that GoDaddy’s brand relaunch, overseen by then-CEO Blake Irving, was instrumental in its decision to make the deal.
An Independent Firm Targeting Web Developers
Media Temple, known as a provider of high-quality services and hosting plans targeting developers and web professionals, continues to operate independently of GoDaddy.
They even kept on the same staff that they had before the deal, with the exception of the pre-planned exit of Media Temple’s founders.
Co-founder Damien Sellfors told TechCrunch: “We’ve had our eye on an exit since we started 15 years ago. We regard ourselves as entrepreneurs first, even if on the way we accidentally built a phenomenal culture and a business that resounded with the marketplace”
Pros and Cons of Media Temple
In the table below, we’ve broken down the main advantages and disadvantages to using Media Temple.
| Pros | Cons |
| >Grid hosting allows for advanced features on cheaper plans >Hosting plans are available for any type of website, from personal to enterprise >Affordable managed WordPress plans | >Uptime guarantees vary by plan |
Media Temple Hosting Plans
Media Temple has a variety of Linux-based web hosting plans on offer, from basic hosting for personal sites to enterprise AWS (Amazon Web Services) solutions.
Grid (Shared) Hosting
The cheapest shared plan includes 100 databases and 1 TB of scalable bandwidth.
Currently, there are three different grid hosting plans. The packages vary in the number of sites you can build, the storage and database allocations, and the maximum bandwidth allocated to your account.
These plans start at $20/month and come with features that are typically not included with entry-level hosting plans, such as:
- SSD (solid state drive) storage, which is faster and more reliable than HDD (hard disk drive) storage
- Scalability, which enables your site to stay online when experiencing a traffic surge
- Protection against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and intrusion
Grid plans also come with 30 “managed apps”, such as WordPress and Drupal.
Customers benefit from automatic backups with a 30-day restore history. You can upgrade to Grid Pro for more features, such as a CDN (content delivery network) for improved performance.
Managed WordPress Hosting
Media Temple’s WordPress plans are “managed”, which means that the company handles a fair amount of the maintenance required to keep your site running smoothly.
Managed WordPress hosting with Media Temple includes:
- Website optimizations
- Updates to the WordPress core
- 30 days’ worth of backups
- Security monitoring
- Unlimited 24/7 technical support and customer service
- Not one, but two staging environments
- Developer tools like Git (for version control), WP-CLI, SSH, SFTP, and phpMyAdmin
- Customizable themes
Rather than being priced by bandwidth, Media Temple prices by storage space and visitor count, similar to WP Engine and other managed WordPress competitors.
Upgrading from the most basic managed WordPress plan would provide you with bonuses such as malware protection, G Suite logins, and SSL certificates.
VPS Hosting
If you opt for Media Temple’s VPS hosting, you can choose between managed and unmanaged options.
The self-managed VPS option is designed for advanced users comfortable with Linux and the command line. You get a choice of operating system (Ubuntu, Debian, or CentOS), full root access, and the ability to scale instantaneously if necessary.
The managed hosting options are control panel plans designed for intermediate or advanced users. You have to be comfortable with using a GUI-based control panel, but you are not relegated to command line-only access. Your control panel will be either Plesk or cPanel/WHM.
Other benefits include performance and security scanning by Media Temple, as well as automatic backups.
For those who want the power of VPS hosting but are not interested in the system administration required, Media Temple offers a fully managed VPS plan where they take care of everything on behalf of the customer.
Dedicated Servers
If you want the best in speed, power, and storage space, then Media Temple’s dedicated servers are for you. You get the entire box (server) to yourself.
Like most of Media Temple’s offerings, you can choose from a dizzying array of customization and management options.
You can opt for everything from a bare metal server (essentially, Media Temple provides you with the physical infrastructure and nothing else) to a fully managed plan complete with white-glove service.
Regardless of which options you choose, all dedicated servers come with 128 GB of RAM, 1 TB of SSD storage, 10 TB of bandwidth, and a 99.99% uptime guarantee.
Managed AWS
Finally, Media Temple offers plans where your site is hosted using Amazon Web Services infrastructure.
These options are fully managed and optimized for your website.
You will receive, at every point of the project, assistance from the Media Temple team in getting your site up and running.
Media Temple claims that you can go from start to product within two weeks and that they will respond to critical failures on your site within fifteen minutes.
Looking for the right host?
Media Temple provides a 30-day money-back guarantee and 24/7 expert support. Get special pricing by using this discount link.
Media Temple Infrastructure
Media Temple offers a rare 99.999% guarantee on its “DV” hosting only. This includes certain VPS plans (but not all of them), as well as the company’s dedicated hosting plans.
Uptime Guarantees
If downtime lasts longer than 20 minutes, you can request a 20% credit on your monthly fee for every subsequent 20 minutes of downtime, up to a maximum of 100% of your bill.
Media Temple will need to verify the downtime, and you’ll need to put in a manual claim within five days of the downtime to be eligible.
“Off-Peak” Hours are Based on Pacific Standard Time
Other products do not come with an uptime guarantee. Media Temple says that its grid infrastructure makes outages less common than they would be otherwise.
But if servers do need to be taken down, Media Temple says that their team will try to do this during “off-peak” hours.
Remember: Media Temple is based on the west coast of the United States, so their off-peak hours may not be the same as your own.
Media Temple Customer Support
Media Temple offers complete 24/7 support. You can get help via live chat, Twitter, ticket, or phone.
Only one US phone number is provided; there are no local numbers for other countries.
Their site also has a knowledge base and an active community forum for self-help.
In addition, they offer a premium support package called CloudTech, which you can use to purchase one-off support assistance or pay for assistance by subscription.
Money-Back Guarantee and Cancellation Policy
You can cancel your purchase within 30 days to receive a full refund. This is only for hosting and excludes additional products such as domain names and service add-ons.
If you cancel a 12-month plan before the end of your contract, you may be granted a pro-rated refund.
However, Media Temple provides two months’ free service when you sign up for 12 months — if you cancel part-way through the year, that discount disappears, and your refund is calculated accordingly.
Other Hosts to Consider
So, since you got this far down the page, I take it you are slowly becoming a Media Temple fan. But here are a couple of other hosting providers which may also be of interest.
WP Engine
If you have a WordPress site that sees sizable levels of traffic, you cannot go wrong with WP Engine, a provider of managed services.
The company is known for its technical expertise in the WordPress ecosystem and its top-notch customer service.
SiteGround
SiteGround is an excellent provider of hosting services aimed at the consumer and small business market.
Their specialties are security, customer service, and WordPress expertise.
Most Popular Media Temple Alternatives
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Media Temple Review Conclusion
Media Temple is one of the more established hosting companies, and its position as a prominent brand has been boosted by backing from GoDaddy.
They offer hosting for practically any purpose, with impressive features included with even their cheapest plans. But an uptime guarantee for shared and WordPress hosting would probably give newcomers some reassurance, and the money-back clauses are slightly more complex than they need to be.
However, as a brand, Media Temple has long been known for quality, and their comprehensive support options will give most users the backing they need to get their site off the ground. For more information, visit Media Temple now.
Contributing writer: Katie Horne.
Contributing editors: Natalie Mootz, Marko Csokasi, and Sherrie Gossett
About Claire Broadley
Claire has been creating websites for over 20 years and has been using WordPress for over ten. She is an expert in web hosting, design, HTML, and more. She lives with her husband and son in the United Kingdom.Connect with Claire
Media Temple Frequently Asked Questions
- Do hosting plans come with a free domain?
No. Media Temple does not provide free domains.
- Will the renewal price be higher than the price I pay today?
No. Media Temple offers a consistent pricing structure. When your plan comes up for renewal, your price will be the same.
- Do technical staff provide help with transferring an existing site?
Media Temple offers “Site Mover” — this is the name of their main site migration service. There’s a $150 fee per site. Those who use Media Temple’s “premium” customer support can request the “Move a Site” service. This migration service can be used to migrate a site to Media Temple’s grid (shared) or DV hosting.
- Does Media Temple offer phone support?
Yes. Live phone support is available 24/7 via the number on their site. You can also get help by using live chat, sending a ticket, or by sending a message to @mediatemplehelp on Twitter.
- Where does Media Temple have datacenters?
The company uses two datacenters in the United States. One is in El Segundo, CA, and the other is in Ashton, VA. The El Segundo datacenter is one of the largest on the west coast.
- Can I have more than one website on a shared hosting account?
Yes. Up to 100 websites can be run under one grid hosting account.
- Which technologies are supported on shared hosting accounts?
Media Temple supports PHP, Perl, Python, Apache, MySQL, Git, and SVN.
- Could I host an image-heavy site on a grid hosting account?
Yes. This host does offer unlimited bandwidth and disk space with its shared hosting packages, which would cover running an image-intensive site such as a gallery.
As long as you are not offering file downloads, it’s unlikely that Media Temple would object to an image-heavy site.
- Does it support Magento installations?
Magento is provided as a one-click installer. However, no specific Magento packages or support exists.
- Are there any special security features?
Media Temple provides SiteLock security services for an additional fee.
- Does Media Temple offer CDN services on its platform?
The SiteLock product comes with an optional CDN, TrueSpeed. There is an extra fee for SiteLock.
- What type of one-click installers are provided?
On VPS and dedicated servers, you can install WordPress, Joomla, Magento, phpBB, and other applications with one click. This feature is available regardless of the control panel you choose.
On their grid hosting plans, Media Temple offers 20 one-click scripts in its Managed App Catalog.
- Is there a plan that is suitable for video streaming?
Video streaming is most appropriately served by one of their VPS or dedicated hosting plans.
Media Temple Reviews by Our Community
Overall Rating from 68 Reviews by Media Temple Customers
| Support | |
|---|---|
| Quality | |
| Features | |
| Value |
Most Helpful Reviews
James Curran beyondvisual.co.uk
Jan 16, 2013
Amal Murali activenerds.com
Sep 22, 2014
I’ve been using MediaTemple’s gs package for an year and I consider it to be one of the best clustered hosting products around. MediaTemple is the best host I’ve used till now. You don’t need to be a tech-geek to use their service.
They have a slick-end admin panel everything is easily accessible. The support staff are just amazing and are available 24/7 to resolve your queries. Their KB has most of the answers to your questions.
It’s worth the money you spend. The only problems I’ve had was with uptime. It was sorted out quickly and I’m really comfortable with MediaTemple. I’d recommend their service to anyone who’s serious about actually wanting a serious hosting with excellent support.
Shivendu Madhava cozli.com
Nov 25, 2012
I run few high traffic websites and initially they were hosted at Media Temple starting out the things was easy and good to as I don’t need to bother much just buy any of the suitable plan and start hosting the website don’t need to contact them for creating DNS record and all as I was having dedicated server where many web host need to contact their support for creating DNS record whenever you are going to host a new domain to your dedicated server this is really frustrating so you don’t need to bother about this with Media Temple. They provide us with a control panel where one can host unlimited domain access to their cPanel or Plesk whichever you would have opted and manage services, finance and support ticket as well. Their knowledge base is awesome most of the issues you can resolve on your own just stumble one to the knowledge base and most probably you would find a solution.
Support I think that’s the best part of Media Temple they provide support through support tickets but if you are having some general issues you can just tweet to them and they will be generous enough to help you out if they don’t need any special permission from you. Why I moved from them was downtime I think they promise to provide 99% uptime but I didn’t got that its not due to them but it was me my sites started getting large amount of traffic and I need to upgrade my servers for that I need to pay and their plans are bit highly priced so I moved. I would suggest if your startup is backed with so VCs or you have enough funds to spend on hosting and need a very well web host then you must got with Media Temple.
I have been using Mediatemple for a few years. It is an exceptional hosting service, the best I have ever used. I host a number of websites on the business grade DV service.
DV is scalable, meaning resources can be increased as required. So as your sites grow and gain momentum, your existing server can easy be upgraded to handle it. It uses Plesk software which is great for server management and has benefits like easy WordPress installation and customer accounts.
The only thing I can think of that would improve the service is better tools for handling domain names, but that is a minor gripe when balance against the benefits. Of all the hosting platforms I have tried over the last decade, MT is by far the best