midPhase Review
Firstly, we should point out that when planning this midPhase review, we purchased our midPhase test account using exactly the same method as any other customer, via the sign-up page on the midPhase web site. Of-course, at no stage did we inform midPhase that we would be conducting a review of their services. In our opinion, this ensured that we received no preferential treatment and that our experience was truly representative of what a regular customer can expect from midPhase.
About midPhase
Founded in 2003, and based in the heart of Chicago Illinois, midPhase has grown rapidly during its short 4-year history to become a major player in the web hosting business. It currently boasts 68 employees and over 80,000 customers spread over hundreds of servers.
midPhase can provide a full range of web hosting services; everything from Linux and Windows shared hosting to Virtual Private Servers (VPS) and dedicated servers.
Plan Features and Pricing
The plan we chose for this review is the basic 'Mega-PHASE' shared hosting plan, which provides an ample 200GB of disk storage space, 3000GB of monthly data transfer, 1 free domain registration for life and all of the features that we have come to expect from a decent hosting package. The cost of this plan is a low $7.95 per month.
It is worth mentioning that this particular plan is restricted to the hosting of only one domain and provides just a single MySQL database. For those intending to host a single web site, these restrictions should not present a problem, but those wishing to host multiple web sites may wish to consider the slightly more expensive midPhase 'Pro-PHASE' plan, which provides unlimited hosted domains and 3 MySQL databases, or you may wish to check-out our other web hosting reviews.
midPhase include a total of $150 in advertising credits with each hosting plan sold, these credits can be used with companies such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to provide some much-needed exposure for your new web site on all the major search engines.
We do not have enough space in this review to list all of the features provided by the 'Mega-PHASE' plan, but the table below highlights some of the more important features. For a full list, be sure to visit the midPhase web site.
| Key features of midPhase 'Mega-PHASE' plan (as reviewed) |
|---|
| 200GB of disk storage space |
| 3000GB of monthly data transfer / bandwidth |
| 1 free domain name for life |
| 24/7 phone and e-mail technical support |
| $150 search engine advertising credits |
| POP3 and IMAP e-mail support |
| SpamAssassin e-mail filtering |
| E-mail auto responders |
| Easy to use cPanel-based control panel |
| Fantastico script support |
| PHP, Python, PERL/CGI scripting support |
| SSI - server side includes |
| Apache .htaccess support and CRON access |
| Full web site stats via Webalizer and Analog |
| Dreamweaver and Frontpage support |
| 99.9% uptime guarantee |
Control Panel
The control panel that midPhase provide with their shared hosting plans is something they call the 'midPhase Control Center', which is a highly customised panel built on top of the very popular cPanel/WHM package. Those with previous experience with cPanel will feel right at home here.
A web-based file manager, multiple web-based email clients and an easy to use site builder are all available from within the panel. The site builder in particular is very useful for those that need to create professional looking pages quickly without the hassle of using a full-blown web design package.
Scripting Support
The popular Fantastico script installation package is available from within the midPhase Control Center, allowing the easy installation of dozens of ready-made scripts / applications. Fantastico really does take the pain out of installing popular applications such as blogs, forums, photo galleries etc.
Manual installation of scripts is, of-course, also fully supported by midPhase, with scripting support for PHP, Python, PERL and CGI-BIN. The creation of private Apache .htaccess configuration files is supported; together with CRON access for the execution of scripts at regular intervals.
Overall, the level of script / application support provided by midPhase is very good, with most popular packages being available via Fantastico or relatively easy manual installation.
Reliability
Reliability is one area often overlooked by the in-experienced when shopping for a new web host. In our opinion, reliability is perhaps the most important aspect when considering a potential web host. Having all the plan features in the world will not be much consolation if your site is down more often than it is up.
On their website, midPhase boasts of a '99.9% Uptime Guarantee' and even says that they will provide one month hosting credit if they fail to meet the 99.9% uptime figure. This suggests that they are confident in their ability to keep your web sites online.
We are pleased to report that during our 3-month testing period midPhase easily exceeded the promised 99.9% uptime figure, with only two short (less than 30 minutes duration) outages detected during our testing period. Obviously, no downtime at all would have been preferable, but in our opinion, this is an un-realistic expectation with any shared hosting plan and we believe that two outages over a 3-month period is an excellent result.
Technical Support
midPhase supply technical support to their customers via a variety of means, including 24/7 phone support, email support and a community-based forum that seems to be populated by some very knowledgeable people, some associated with midPhase, but mostly just fellow customers willing to lend a hand.
There is also an online tutorial browser, where you can find information on a wide variety of subjects, in the form of Flash animations and PDF files. midPhase also maintain a network and service status page, which shows the state of their network at any given instant.
During our time with midPhase, we submitted three separate, unrelated email support requests; each was answered promptly (one within 10 minutes!) and each provided the information we were seeking in an easy to read style, without being condescending. Overall, we found midPhase support staff to be both friendly and very knowledgeable.
Conclusion
We were quite impressed with our midPhase experience. During our test, midPhase network reliability proved to be very good and their technical support staff did a splendid job in answering our enquiries.
The 'Mega-PHASE' plan that we reviewed provides a generous 200GB of disk space and 3000GB of monthly bandwidth for the low price of $7.95 per month.
In our opinion, midPhase unquestionably qualifies as a quality web host. If you are shopping around for your next web host, you owe it to yourself to give midPhase some serious consideration.
If, after reading this review, you have decided that midPhase is the right host for you, be sure to check out our midPhase coupon page, which explains how to obtain 3 free months of hosting when signing-up for any midPhase hosting plan.
| WebHostAnalysis.com Rating For midPhase |  |
Click to visit the midPhase web site
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