Verio review

Verio is a US-based web hosting provider that was incorporated in 1996, formed from a consolidation of over 200 smaller Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and web hosting services. Their initial success was largely owed to the fact that the ISPs they purchased were relatively well-known brand names (at least better known than Verio itself at the time). Verio is owned by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Communications, which bought them in 2000, but their Verio Shared SMB hosting division was sold to The Endurance International Group in May 2015.

Verio has data centers in Waltham and Boston, US, which have SSD-based pooled servers for increased redundancy and reliability, according to the company. The provider’s heyday was in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, and their website still reflects that, as it looks extremely dated, like it hasn’t been updated in a decade or two. 

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Verio’s age may lead prospective customers to believe that they’re a veteran of the hosting space. While this may have been the case for the first few years before and even following the dot-com boom, their overall service seems to be approaching obsolescence thanks to high prices first and foremost, but also because their service does not include things that are almost a given nowadays, like WordPress (available if you pay extra) or cPanel (not available at all).

Pricing

Verio web hosting is very transparent when it comes to pricing: you’ll have the option of seeing the prices for an annual and a biennial contract immediately, with the latter slightly cheaper, but those are promotional prices. 

A Verio Basic plan will get you unlimited disk space, “scalable” bandwidth (which they say is effectively unlimited as well), a Shared SSL certificate, one MySQL database, and one allowed domain for $10.99/mo annually, $9.99/mo biennially, and renews at between $11.95 and $13.95 monthly depending on the length of the contract. You’ll have to add an annual $17.99 for a domain name. 

A Verio Enhanced plan is significantly more expensive at $19.99/mo for a year ($18.99/mo biennially), renews at between $16.47/mo and $19.99/mo, but adds unlimited domains, your own domain is free for the first year, and a bunch of e-commerce features. 

You can pay with debit and credit cards, as well as PayPal, and they offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Ease of use

To register with Verio, you’ll have to provide your name, address, phone number, and billing information. SiteLock Website Security and Site Backup & Restore are add-on features that are not included in the price and will cost you extra, as is WordPress optimization ($3/mo), a Business Plan website builder ($6.99/mo), and the G Suite ($6/mo). Keep in mind that the provider already offers the Weebly website builder included in the price, so you may not need an extra website builder, especially at this price.

After logging in, you’re greeted with a very basic-looking control panel, not quite as dated as the website itself, but not very modern either. If you already have a website, you can upload it through a File Manager or file transfer protocol (FTP). If you’ve added WordPress to your account while the provider was upselling you during the plan selection process, you can also use this to create your website. A Weebly website builder is available by default, but keep in mind that the cheaper plan will get you the Basic version, while the Pro version is reserved for the Enhanced plan.

A significant drawback to many is that Verio does not offer cPanel with its simple, intuitive interface. In other words, everything is done through their proprietary control panel, which is not as easy to use as other, more modern solutions. 

Speed and experience

When it comes to the loading time of Verio’s website, the speed (4.3 seconds to fully load, as opposed to the average 8.4 seconds) is mostly owed to the fact that the website is tiny, less than a megabyte, whereas the average website tends to be around 3.19 MB, according to GTmetrix. It also took 51 requests, significantly lower than the average 89. This, unfortunately, does not say much about how a user-built website would do with their infrastructure.

On the other hand, Verio makes no claims for uptime, other than stating that they are unlikely to experience downtime thanks to their data centers. Our uptime test, which lasted for two weeks, shows that they’re right on track to make good on that promise: there was no downtime at all during this period. 

Support

Verio offers customer support through their Knowledgebase, but also through a phone number and live chat. An interesting feature is the ability to share your screen, for which you first have to download an app, and the provider offers in-depth guidance on how to install and use the app, as well as how to protect any sensitive information that may be shared, even inadvertently, while you’re receiving assistance from their customer service team. 

The Knowledgebase also offers a decent overview of common issues, along with some video tutorials, and the articles seem to be updated regularly. A search bar can shorten the time you need to find a guide addressing your issues, but you can also just take a stroll around the area and maybe learn something you never knew you needed.

The competition

When it comes to dated-looking hosting providers, Verio has some serious competition in Heart Internet - however, the latter is significantly cheaper and offers a greater variety of plans, although with a few more restrictions than Verio has.

Planet Hippo is another provider that will cost you less than Verio, but it is also much more restricted in terms of storage space and bandwidth, while Verio also offers superior customer support. 

Bluehost is a serious competitor to Verio, both in terms of a modern, sleek interface and vastly cheaper prices. Even though their prices jump after three years, they are still much more affordable in the long run.

When it comes to excellent customer support, Verio and HostGator both offer the best to their customers. However, the latter is also much cheaper, more modern, and more in tune with what customers are looking for nowadays.

Final verdict

Verio might offer fewer restrictions than most, but their prices more than make up for it, and customers who haven’t used the internet during its formative years may be lost in the old school interface. Better alternatives in almost every aspect include Hostgator and Bluehost.

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