To compare the best web hosts, we hosted the same WordPress website on each one and tested performance, customer service, and value for money. Check out the results here.
3essentials is an American hosting provider and IT solutions company that has been in business since 2001. It has more than 30,000 customers, and is proud to have remained a privately owned company with an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau (BBB). They operate three data center facilities in the U.S.A.
Features and Ease of Use
3essentials is as close to an all-in-one hosting provider as you are ever likely to find, with a superb variety of plans and features including:
- 99.9% uptime guarantee with all plans
- Regular automatic backups as well as manual backups
- Unlimited domains
- Free SSL certificates via Let’s Encrypt
- 100% SSD storage
- Plenty of unlimited traffic options
3essentials operates its hosting services out of three U.S. data centers with a national Tier 1 network provider, which means you get great performance and scalable resources with Intel Xeon E3 processors and SSD/RAID 1, 5, or 10 storage. The premade plans don’t offer the highest resources, but you can scale up at any time.
This provider offers both Windows and Linux options on its Shared, VPS, and Managed Services plans, plus WordPress hosting. Windows hosting comes with the Plesk control panel, and Linux hosting comes with cPanel. Both operating system options come with a huge range of software frameworks, and anything that isn’t included out-of-the-box can easily be installed using the Softaculous auto-installer.
All hosting solutions provide full email capability and complete backups. They take snapshots every night and store two successive ones for you.
Pricing and Support
3essentials has a huge selection of plans on offer. You can get up to 75% off the entry-level micro plan, and you can typically secure 10%-20% average savings when you go for yearly billing. You can also get an additional three months free with Windows hosting. Most plans also include a free domain name and a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate, and you also get a free basic cPanel or Plesk license that can be upgraded to premium.
All plans are backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee that excludes SSL certificates and domain names. If you or 3essentials ever choose to suspend your account, it can be reinstated for a fee.
3essentials pricing is pretty good value-for-money considering the hardware that these servers run on and the richness of their features, and it’s in line with international (not just American) competitors. You can also get up to 50% of your monthly fees back if you experience downtime.
All customers have access to 24/7 technical support that covers all aspects of the hosting product, including the control panel. You can summon support via email, telephone, ticket, and live chat, but the telephone support is limited to office hours. In addition to free support, you can pay per 15 minutes for enhanced managed services support.
The good news is that the following email response was received almost immediately from the support team:
If you like to support yourself, you will find that this provider has some of the best self-help resources with more than 1000 knowledge base articles, videos, and “getting started” tutorials.
How much does 3essentials Hosting cost?
3essentials Hosting offers plans from $3 to $40. The price depends on which type of hosting plan you choose. You can see the updated pricing table (updated weekly) below.
Which 3essentials Hosting plan should I get?
My recommendation is to start with a cheaper plan. You can always upgrade later on. 3essentials Hosting can help you with the migration to a more expensive plan. The increase in visitors many times takes longer than expected and you shouldn’t pay a lot of money until the need arises. Of course, your needs may vary, and you can consult with a hosting expert from 3essentials Hosting.
How good is 3essentials Hosting’s customer support?
3essentials Hosting is not ranked as one of our top web hosts. But that can also be a result of 3essentials Hosting being a small, under the radar, hosting provider. There are advantages to a small hosting company – as a customer, you are more important to them. You can also check out our comparison of the most popular web hosting services here.
