Media Temple
Hassle free signup, smooth Wordpress installation.Signup Experience
Media Temple claims to be the world’s most popular website platform. They currently offer 4 different plans for managed Wordpress hosting. They also offer a variaty of different features aimed towards Wordpress sites.
The personal plan starts at a fairly steep $20/month, this does allow you to host up to 2 sites with 50GB of storage and unlimited bandwith. The other plans are more aimed towards professionals and can give you up to 100 different Wordpress sites.
In the first step you’ll be able to select the domain name you want to use, you can either register a new one (for $15), use an existing one, or skip this step completely.
While the most basic plan starts at $20/month, opting to sign up for 1, 2 or 3 years will give you a discount on your first year. Selecting 1 year would only require me to pay $200 the first year, thereafter it would be $240.
You’ll also have a few different extras that Media Temple recommends, this includes SSL certificate, an extra 5 sites and Google’s G Suite. The pricing for an SSL certificate is pretty steep at $75/year, this is something that can be done for free if you have the correct knowledge.
The final step of the process is to input your personal information and give them your payment method. They seem to accept AMEX, VISA, Master Card and Discover. I instantly got an email saying that my order is pending manual processing and could take up to two business days, but in most cases this should be instantly.
After my account was activated, I received a wellcome email and was able to log in into my account. There I could see my Wordpress site with a link to a temporary domain and a link to my admin panel.
The admin panel provides you with some extra tool that allow you to manage your Wordpress site. You’ll have quick access to the system status of your site and your FTP account details. Through this admin panel you’ll also be able to add a staging environment and migrate your existing Wordpress site to Media Temple.
When you access your Wordpress Admin panel for the first time, you’ll be greeted with a simple setup to get you started. For people unfamiliar with Wordpress it’s an easy way to setup your first Wordpress site, you’ll be able to pick a template and make some changes through the interface. Once you’ve gone through the setup, you’ll be greeted with the Wordpress admin interface, this is a fairly default one, with the exception that some plugins and themes are pre-installed.
Features
Site Migration
Media Temple offers a migration tool to migrate your existing website to them.
Staging Environment
Media Temple provides you with a staging environment which allows you to make changes without affecting your live site.
Automated backups
Media Temple provides you with automated backups every single night, so you’ll always have an up to date backup of your site.
Auto Updates
The benefits of automatic updates are pretty obvious. They just happen, in a stable and secure way, and that’s one less vital aspect of managing your WordPress site that you have to deal with or worry about.
Support
Media Temple provides quick access to their live support, staff there was very responsive and helpful.
Cancel Subscription
Media Temple allows you to cancel your subscription at any time through your account panel, this is a quite easy process.
I was able to get a refund after contacting support.
Pricing
Media Temple offers 4 different plans that are all monthly paid, you have the offer to selectin annual plans which will give you some discounts.
Monthly Payments
| Plan | Pricing per month | Pricing per year |
|---|---|---|
| Personal | $20 | $420 |
| Pro | $60 | $720 |
| Elite | $240 | $2,880 |
| Extended | $499 | $5,998 |
Payment Methods
- AMEX
- MasterCard
- VISA
- Discover
Free trial
Media Temple doesn’t explicitly offer free trials, but they do have a 30-day Money Back Guarantee.
Summary
Overall I was pleasantly surprised by Media Temple, the entire signup process was quick and hassle free. Getting my Wordpress site up and running was very straighforward and the wizard made it easy for people unfamiliar with Wordpress to get started.