Pair Networks is a hosting company that specializes in mid-tier shared hosting for medium sized websites and blogs.
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Pair Networks used to be pretty popular back in the day.
Here is how they’ve trended over the years:
Features
Pair Networks offers a number of features that separate them from other popular hosting companies (see: Arvixe, Codero, and Netfirms).
Here are some of them:
1) Web Inspector: The internet is becoming increasingly hostile and requires constant monitoring to ensure your files are safe. Your visitors and customers entrust you to protect their data, and it’s important to protect your own files to stay in business.
To help you keep all of your information safe, pair Networks offers the Web Inspector service. It’s a monitoring system that inspects your site for malware, detects vulnerabilities and even protects it from thousands of different known threats.
Included in the service you also receive other benefits like PCI compliance scanning, daily malware checks, blacklist monitoring to make sure your site stays active, and a trust seal to display on your site. There are monitoring options for pages up to 1000 and costs as low as $99/year. If you want to make sure your site is safe on a daily basis, Web Inspector is a great way to do it.
2) pairCDN: Having a good content delivery network (CDN) is a great way to make sure your files get to those who are visiting your site quickly. The more complex your site is (images, style sheets, and other coding) the longer it takes to download and be seen.
CDN’s help by spreading the data onto different servers in several geographical locations. When someone accesses your site, the server that is able to process the data fastest kicks in, delivering files as fast as possible. Pair Networks has created a network of servers called pairCDN which allows you to spread your files across the network, improving your site speed. This host also makes it affordable with fixed billing and no monthly contracts. You can try it to see if it’s making your site better and cancel anytime.
You can request pairCDN from your control panel and a sales rep will contact you. Then, depending on your hosting plan, you’ll be billed in something they call buckets. If you have a shared hosting plan you’ll pay an extra $1 for each 10GB of data.
3) pairSIM: Choosing the best content management system and other software to enhance your website can come with a large learning curve to download and are a lot to maintain, but it’s a lot easier with pairSIM. SIM is short for software installation manager and it keeps track of everything you’ve downloaded (with one click) and let’s you know of any updates that are required via the control panel.
You’ll get a prompt the next time you log in, alerting you of the need to update, and with the push of a button, it’ll be done. Pair Networks has an entire software team that makes sure that all of the options they offer are up to date and compatible with their system. The cost of the service is $2.49/mo and can be cancelled anytime. You can keep it to alert you of updates, or just install the scripts you want and cancel. If you decide you want it back at a later time you can sign up again like you never skipped a beat.
Customer Support
Pair Networks is one of those hosting companies that offers better support for customers on the premium plans, and less help for those on cheaper plans.
They offer 24/7 support by telephone and email, but there is no live chat option to contact support reps.
If you really value live chat and quality support for beginner hosting plans, probably not the right hosting company for you.
Reviews
We have looked over several online sources to find out how pair Networks stacks up. Users here have had positive experiences with the host’s uptime.
One happy customer states: “They are the masters of uptime as my server has gone over a year of uptime without a reboot or crash.”
Another reviewer agrees saying: “Great uptime and excellent support with fast replies to requests. Their private self-hosted newsgroups are a goldmine of hints and tips.”
Not all reviews we found were positive. Some negative reviews for pair Networks revolve around support and server issues.
One former customer explains: “Been with Pair for 10 years, leaving shortly due to an AWOL account advisor and poor, inconsistent support.”
Another frustrated reviewer writes: “The servers have generally been pretty responsive, except for mysql. Pair seem to overload their db servers, as we’ve had trouble with mysql being responsive over the years.”
Pros
1) Personal Support: Pair states they never outsource and if you call you will talk to an expert in their facility.
2) Reliability: Their network is monitored and maintained 24/7/365. Server and network uptime is well in excess of 99.9%, and they back up your data daily to ensure full recovery in the event of a disaster.
3) Security: Their entire facility is protected by multi-stage security, FM-200 fire suppression systems, battery backup systems, and two redundant 1.5 megawatt Detroit Diesel generators that can run indefinitely.
4) 100 day money back guarantee: All virtual private server packages include a 100 Day Money Back Guarantee. If you’re dissatisfied with your hosting package for any reason, cancel and get a refund, however a few restriction apply.
5) Mobile Account Control Center: All of the ACC interfaces are available on the mobile ACC page, but with better layouts, sizing, and navigation for mobile devices.
Cons
1) No Chat: Pair does offer email and phone support, but does not offer instant chat.
2) Overwhelming Options: Pair offers multiple hosting options with multiple pricing/level options for each which may be confusing to someone starting out.
3) Backups: Backing up data costs extra for paircloud servers and you only get one snapshot a month on the budget servers.
Summary
Pair Networks has great options for webmasters of any level.
Although, they seem to cater to medium and large size businesses by providing their more expensive plans with better support. Their inexpensive plans are a good value, but if great support at a low price is your goal you may want to look for another place for your site.