Apex Hosting review

Apex Hosting is a US-based company that was launched in 2013 with a goal (as they claim) to “deliver the highest level of customer support to our Minecraft server hosting clients.” They are registered in Florida (the USA) with their main office being situated in sunny Sarasota. As for data centers, currently users can choose between eighteen locations around the globe, which is quite an outstanding amount of choice and a good way to keep latency at a minimum level. 

These include six locations in the USA (Portland, Las Vegas, San Jose, Dallas, Vint Hill and Miami), and one each in the following countries: Canada (Montreal), Brazil (Sao Paulo), the UK (London), France (Gravelines), Poland (Warsaw), Germany (Frankfurt), Israel (Tel Aviv), Russia (Moscow), China (Hong Kong), Singapore (Singapore), Australia (Sydney) and Turkey (Istanbul).

• Interested in Apex Hosting? Check out the website here

Apex Hosting’s main website isn’t as visually appealing as some other websites we have seen so far, but it is, without a question, pretty simple to navigate. Most of the things you’ll want to know are found within a few clicks, so there should be no place for confusion. Apex Hosting claims they utilize cutting-edge hardware technology to ensure that all of their servers are lag free. If we pair that with “advanced” DDoS protection, “strong” 1Gbps connections and RAID hard drives, your hosting experience should be as smooth as possible.

If you want to find out more about Apex Hosting (and even more about Minecraft), don’t forget to check out Apex Hosting’s official blog. You can also follow them on a number of social platforms including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube (which features noteworthy Minecraft guides), Instagram, Twitch, Discord, Snapchat and even TikTok.

• Check out our complete list of the best Minecraft server hosting

Plans and pricing

Apex Hosting offers ten Minecraft packages with the most budget-friendly plan starting at $4.49, but for the first month only (and renewed at $5.99 per month), which is twice the price you would get with some of its competitors. This plan will get you 1GB of RAM and “unlimited player slots”, although if you try hosting the game with all of your fellow gamers, don’t be surprised if your computer decides to go up in smoke (well, not literally).  

As one would expect, the pricing of packages goes up with the amount of RAM. Accordingly, the most expensive one (and a new edition to the collection) will get you 15GB of RAM for a price of $59.99 for the first month (regularly for $79.99), which is a good option for those who want additional plugins, advanced modpacks and the option to add most of the people they know to their server. 

Although there is no free trial, Apex Hosting provides a 7-day money-back guarantee, which is always handy to have. 

As for payment methods, Apex Hosting accepts credit/debit cards, PayPal and Stripe.

Ease of use

Since there are ten Minecraft plans in total and all are presented reasonably well, opting for one of them should be as easy as falling over the edge of the map. Despite claims that there are unlimited player slots with all of the plans, there is always a limit to slots and it’s often determined by GB of RAM. Fortunately, users have the flexibility to change their chosen plan at any time, so if one plan doesn’t fit your bill, there is probably another one that will. However, if neither of them work for you, don’t forget about their money-back guarantee.

After choosing your server, you’ll have to configure some details about it (billing cycle, your Minecraft username, server version and optional subdomain) and decide if you want to include a few add-ons for extra cash (plugin installations, permissions setup, dedicated IP or premium support). Oddly, there are only two options in regard to the billing cycle (monthly and quarterly) and you’ll save a merely $2 by subscribing for three months instead of one. After this, you’ll have to provide your personal information, pick out a payment method, create a password and proceed to checkout.

Since Apex Hosting utilizes a customized version of easy-to-use Multicraft as its control panel, keeping your server running and managing all of its aspects should become a straightforward experience in no time. In addition to that, video guides are found only a click away, as is one-click modpack installer, all of which is sure to make things even easier.

Another noteworthy feature that is included with every package is automated backups, which will ensure the safety of your Minecraft world.

Speed and experience

While boasting (and rightfully so) about hosting over 200,000 Minecraft servers and having the best support in the whole industry (which should be put under question), Apex Hosting brings up  their dedicated hardware features such as “high clock speed” CPUs and the use of SSDs. This should indicate high TPS and lag-free servers for all of their customers. To check out the speed of their servers we tested the performance of their main website with GTmetrix as our tool. The results we got were pretty promising, with all the vital web metrics being above the average and rated with a conclusive grade of an A (100%).

Apex Hosting promises a 99.9% uptime and, as reported by UptimeRobot, it is very likely that you’ll be able to uphold it. We monitored Apex Hosting’s main website for more than a month and were presented with a report showing an impeccable 100% of uptime, which came as a welcome surprise. Not a second of downtime was recorded and while there were several oscillations in response time, they should have no substantial impact on the overall performance.

Support

Although we were rather skeptical about Apex Hosting’s claims to have “the best support in the industry” we decided to give them a chance to prove us wrong. Their customer support is available 24/7 through tickets and live chat, which they seem to take great pride in. From our perspective, chat seems well-organized and functions as a one-stop-solution for most of the problems one might encounter along the way. A support agent we got in touch with responded within five minutes and provided us with everything we wanted to know in a very kind way. If you are using some of the same social platforms they are active on, you can try to reach them there as well.

If you prefer finding solutions on your own, Apex Hosting’s knowledgebase should probably be your first stop, although their YouTube channel shouldn’t be overlooked since it offers a decent number of easy-to-follow video guides.

The competition

Both Shockbyte and Apex Hosting tend to get high on the majority of “best Minecraft host” lists, and rightfully so. While Shockbyte has more server options in general, a longer list of features and all at a budget-friendly price, Apex Hosting is stronger in terms of customer support.

BisectHosting is another provider determined to make a Minecraft server hosting experience as easy as possible, much like Apex Hosting does. However, BisectHosting is slightly stronger in terms of package options, features and included add-ons, while Apex Hosting provides superior support to its customers. Additionally the daily backups you’ll get with Apex Hosting are a great bonus.

Another difference between the two is the availability of web hosting options (shared hosting, VPS and dedicated server hosting) you have with BisectHosting, but not with Apex Hosting, since it’s focusing on Minecraft. Another web hosting alternative and quite a popular one, would be Bluehost, since in addition to attractive pricing, it provides a full range of hosting services capable of responding to most needs.

Another good (and beginner-friendly) choice for those looking to launch their own website would be HostGator. Besides everything one would expect from a well-known host, they offer their own easy-to-use website builder with all of their shared hosting plans (even the cheapest one) and a 45-day money-back guarantee with “no questions asked”.

Final verdict

There are several reasons behind Apex Hosting’s growing popularity among Minecraft fans, including a variety of server options and total control over it. When we add fast and lag-free performance, backups and DDoS protection, simple-to-use control panel and first-class support to the deal, it’s really hard to say “no” to Apex Hosting.

Although the money-back guarantee is valid for only seven days and might not seem particularly generous, it is actually a bit longer than what is found with some of the company's Minecraft-focused competitors. For a usual 30-day one, you can try out Hostinger, which is one of top web hosting providers out there, with and without Minecraft.

However, if you are on the lookout for a reputable and reliable host for your website and don’t even know how you ended up here in the first place, don’t miss out on checking Bluehost and HostGator.

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