Arvixe Introduction

Arvixe is a web hosting company which offers a range of services from shared hosting through to dedicated hosting. It does not seem to specialize in just one area like many other companies do, preferring to keep its options open.

The company was formed in San Luis Obispo, USA in 2003. It is a privately held limited liability corporation and hosts a variety of websites from around the world, from personal sites through to sites for enterprise-sized businesses. Its mission is to serve as a complete hosting resource to clients and provide reliable and high-quality services and support.

Hosting Plans

Arvixe offers both Linux (CentOS) and ASP.Net (Windows) hosting for all of their hosting plans. Whilst they offer shared, reseller, VPS and dedicated hosting, they do not yet offer a cloud hosting service.

Arvixe hosting plans are split into five classes, Personal, Business, Reseller, VPS and Dedicated.

• The PersonalClass plan represents competitively-priced shared hosting. Customers can choose Linux hosting or pay slightly more for Windows hosting. These plans provide unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth and up to 6 domains. The Windows hosting plan includes up to 6 dedicated application pools. The personal plans can also be upgraded to a Pro version, which allows for unlimited websites (and unlimited dedicated application pools for Windows hosting).
• The BusinessClass plans are similar to the PersonalClass shared hosting plans, but include a dedicated IP. The servers are set up to contain fewer users on each server and therefore increase reliability and uptime.
• Arvixe offers ResellerClass hosting plans based on the amount of disk space and bandwidth you need. Again, you can choose from Windows and Linux hosting and get up to 200 GB disk space, 2000 GB of bandwidth and unlimited domains.
• The VPSClass Linux hosting plan offers 40 GB of disk space with unlimited bandwidth, 1024 MB of dedicated memory, 2 cores and 2 IP addresses. You can upgrade to the pro version to get 80 GB of disk space, 2048 MB dedicated memory, 4 cores and up to 5 IP addresses.
• The VPSClass Windows hosting plan comes with 40 GB of disk space with unlimited bandwidth, 1536 MB of dedicated memory, 2 cores and 2 IP addresses, which can be upgraded to 80 GB of disk space, 3072 MB dedicated memory, 4 cores and 5 IP addresses.
• The DedicatedClass hosting starts with a choice of single-processor or multi-processor servers. Each plan can then be customised to suit your individual business needs.

The plans also allow you to pay for additional services such as a dedicated IP address, Coldfusion (Windows) or MSSQL reporting service (Windows), depending on which plan you have signed up for.

Uptime/Downtime

Like many other web hosting companies, Arvixe offers a 99.9% site uptime guarantee, and it will refund you if the guarantee is broken in any given month. It also offers a 100% uptime guarantee for dedicated servers with pro-rata refund for any downtime. The Arvixe datacenters are located in Dallas and Houston. Each has a fully redundant power supply with backup generators and a UPS power control system. The datacenters are monitored 24/7 from the network operations center with state of the art monitoring systems. Both datacenters have Statement on Auditing Standards No. 70 Type II certification. Servers are backed up daily and weekly for PersonalClass and ResellerClass accounts. For BusinessClass and EcommerceClass accounts, they are backed up hourly, daily and weekly. The backups are primarily for Arvixe in the event of a server going down. Arvixe advises customers to regularly backup their own data, but backups are made available to customers wherever possible.

Support

Arvixe customers have access to 24/7/365 in-house US based phone support, live chat and email support. They can also discuss issues on a customer forum and have access to raise support tickets on the Arvixe help desk. The help desk software also provides access to a knowledge base and a news feed which Arvixe keep up-to-date with news articles and videos about the company. The Arvixe blog is very active and provides regular ‘how to’ articles as well as other bits and pieces of information. The Facebook page is not very active, but the Arvixe Twitter account is busy and the team promptly replies to customer queries. Staff post out regular tweets to news stories and useful blog posts. All in all, the Arvixe support service seems to be very proactive in getting information to customers on a regular basis.

Arvixe Control Panel

Arvixe provide cPanel with all of their Linux based web hosting plans. Resellers, VPS and dedicated server Linux based hosting customers also get WHM control panel. Both are fairly standard and will be familiar to experienced users. For Windows hosting, they use Plesk.

Extras

• Arvixe offers a free domain name for life when you sign up; it will continue to renew your domain name whilst you are still paying for web hosting. If you move to another hosting company, you need to start paying for the domain name and transfer it away if you wish to.
• Customers who have signed up for Linux hosting get RVSiteBuilder, as well as Fantastico and Softaculous one-click script installers. These support Python, PHP, Perl, Ruby on Rails, SSI, Zend and more.
• Arvixe will transfer your website for no additional cost when you sign up. It also offers extra discounts for customers who purchase additional hosting accounts and a discount for linking to them from your own web site.
• Finally, there’s an affiliates programme which gives rewards for customers you successfully refer.

Money Back Guarantee / Cancellation Policy

Arvixe provides a commendable 60 day money-back guarantee, which is relatively generous for web hosting. Refunds do not include domain names, SSL certificates, dedicated servers and marketing accounts. Customers can cancel their account by emailing the sales department.

Summary

Arvixe stands up well when compared to most other web hosting companies. The sheer range of hosting types put them in a prime position and allows for easy upgrades as businesses grow.The support provision for Arvixe appears to be very proactive and the team are are keen to discuss different hosting options with customers.