Arvixe – Provides Solid Security

The search for a hosting service is a daunting one.

If I were to take out data, reliability, features, cost, and all the other things people should actually look at.

When deciding to choose a service to use – I would base my decision purely on name.

I’m all for using services with interesting names. Take Arvixe for example. What a cool name. Is it french? Is it vietnamese? Who can say. Probably the Arvixe website but stay with me here.

I assume Arvixe is a french word and pronounce “ar-veex” – BUT – it is so much more fun to say ar-vikes.

Say it with me – Arvixe.

How fun! It sounds like a mythical battle axe you use to slay evil gremlins attacking your peaceful fishing village.

Let’s see if their cool name lives up to the hype when it comes to web hosting.

TLDR;

Arvixe is not the only option that provides high level security but if you do value that in your web hosting then this service should be in the conversation. The high price and the less than stellar load time are concerns but the advanced coding features might make that irrelevant for you.

Our take on hosting providers are based on hard numbers, compiled over many months of testing with our own sample web projects.

With Arvixe, we ran a number of tests from data centers in Canada, the U.S., and Europe to determine their average level of performance. With that information, we can compare them to other cloud providers and provide recommendations.

When testing the performance of a web hosting provider, it’s important to spread out geographically, as different locations have varying local network speeds.

In evaluating Arvixe, we’ve run tests from several major Canadian cities to give you a good overall impression of what to expect from their data center. Here are the plain numbers:

What does uptime mean?

• Uptime – Represents a period of time when hosting provider is functioning as it should be (doesn’t have any breakdown) .
• Even small fractions of uptime can make a huge difference in how you percieve a service
• Anything north of 98% is considered a solid uptime.

What About Load Time?

• Load time – Real server speed.
• Unit of measurement – Everything we pointout about loadtime is measured in miliseconds.
• How this is tested – The numbers compiled are an average over months of testing with iPage’s platform with various browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Internet Explorer.
• Other factors – Naturally, there are many variables that come into play when it comes to load time, like internet speed, browser performance or the amount of traffic.
• Good load times – Load time should be as low as possible, so everything under 2,000 ms is considered good.

Arvixe’s overall tested performance was above average in uptime and below average in load time. To compare to other hosting providers feel free to check out our research page.

Now when you know all this, would you choose Arvixe with all of its features, good and bad,  to host your website?

Okay – we decided that you’re selling battle axes. You don’t have to name any of them Arvixe since you might be using a hosting service named Arvixe. It could get confusing.

These days, it’s feasible to run a web project on a small budget – battle axes are not cheap – but you still need to be sure that you’re getting good performance and support from your hosting provider.

It’s important to use a hosting provider that is very clear in its billing practices and has no hidden fees. That said, here’s a look at Arvixe’s plans and pricing:

On their website, Arvixe splits their offerings into two plans, although the setup is a little more confusing than that.

First of all, they force customers to pick between Linux and Windows environments. That’s great for people with deep technical knowledge who know want platform they want, but for those newer to website development, it may be confusing.

Most Canadian customers will be better off with the Linux option, especially since the prices for those plans are cheaper. From there, you can pick between the Personal Class or Personal Class Pro options.

Top Tip ⭐

They do offer other versions such as Business Class, Reseller Class, VPS Class, and Dedicated Class. Each version comes with standard and pro options. We’re going to stick to Personal Class since most users will be opting for that option.

The only significance between the two plans is that Personal Class limits you to six domain links, while the Personal Class Pro option will let you use unlimited domains within Arvixe’s data center.

Be aware that bills with Arvixe will quickly grow as you add more features. For example, using WordPress with Arvixe will typically cost an extra $7 per month.

In order to lock in Arvixe’s best payment rates, you will have to subscribe to a two-year plan that cannot be canceled.

There are no special introductory rates to be taken advantage of with Arvixe unlike other hosting services that we have reviewed.

In order to lure more customers to their platform, Arvixe boasts about a range of extra features that come included with their hosting plans. The screenshot below captures a few of the highlights.

On their website, Arvixe makes a big deal about their website building tool that is available to all of its customers, regardless of whether they pick the Personal Class or Personal Class Pro plan.

The tool helps new users design their website using a drag-and-drop interface. It sounds like a great solution, but we found it laggy and buggy compared to Wix and other top website builders.

That isn’t to say Arvixe isn’t a viable option but as far as website builders it might be a better idea to look elsewhere.

Arvixe also offers a few different features for email management. Their subscription plans include mailbox space so that you can link your domain to incoming and outgoing mail.

In addition, you can get set up with different email marketing tools. This could be helpful as you expand your web enterprise and want to start advertising over email.

One major thing to watch out for with Arvixe is the way they handle SSL, the protocol which encrypts transmissions between web browsers and servers.

A lot of hosting providers include an SSL certificate with their packages or else will help you set up a free one through Let’s Encrypt. But Arvixe does neither and will actually charge you $25.00 per year in order to secure your website.

They also charge you for “Priority Support” for $20 per month. I’m not a fan of this practice as support should be an included priority in most hosting services. The only time it makes sense to pay more for support is at an enterprise level.

Other features worth mentioning (more can be seen on their pricing page) are covered below:

Looking through Arvixe’s features reveals that this web hosting is marketed at people who are not beginners. Coding is a high priority on the features page.

Positives

Beginners aren’t going to find too many positives to latch onto with Arvixe. With that being said – advanced users will find a few things to like about the service.

Advanced Features ⚙️

Besides the free vouchers – if you refer to the chart above Arvixe offers a lot of features aimed at a more advanced market.

Even the way the pricing is set up makes it plain to see they care about more advanced users – especially in the higher tiered plans.

With the emphasis on development features being able to deploy different code is clearly an important factor when deciding to use Arvixe.

Security 🛡️

This is my favorite aspect of Arvixe by far. The security measures taken for free with Arvixe are above and beyond other hosting providers.

Specialized DDoS attack response is awesome seeing as how they are the most common forms of attacks on everyday websites. They also offer secured entrance/exit, network monitoring, firewall, brute force detection, and nightly security updates.

On top of all of that they provide daily backups which is an insane value add.

Negatives

If security is your number one priority then these negatives might not matter to you at all.

Not Beginner Friendly 🤝

If I was just starting out I wouldn’t touch Arvixe. Everything about Arvixe’s offerings is overly complicated. Someone who has a lot of prior knowledge won’t be confused but it still just isn’t user friendly – they need to simplify.

Slower Than Average Load Time 🐌

As mentioned previously – load time is super duper important. Yes. Super duper.

Using a service that is slower than other services or below average doesn’t make that much sense. If a customer or website visitor waits too long for a web page to load they will just leave your site. How long are you going to wait for a web page to load?

Knowledge Base and Customer Support ☎️

Sadly, Arvixe lets me down when it comes to their knowledge base.

It isn’t as if they don’t have a lot of topics – it’s just that the topics they cover aren’t that relevant.

The relevant topics they do cover aren’t explained thoroughly or step-by-step most of the time. They do offer the opportunity for you to review their knowledge base articles and the reviews aren’t pretty.

Arvixe also charges more money for priority support which is just bananas to me. As a Canadian I expect a certain level of support included in the price I pay. Their basic support is rather slow and doesn’t instill much confidence in their priority support available.

Price

Arvixe missed the memo when it comes to pricing in this market. Most hosting services offer awesome introductory rates allowing you to use the product relatively risk free.

Arvixe is just like – “Nah, check this out full price.”

There is nothing wrong with that but in order to compete with other options the service has to be worth it.

Arvixe is not a bad option if you prioritize security and advanced coding features above all else. I would recommend checking out our list of the best hosting providers in Canada, because if you are a beginner or value other aspects of hosting along with security there are a lot of services available.

References and image credits:

• RazorRank.com