Media Temple Review

Ryan Frankel

By: Ryan Frankel

Ryan Frankel

Ryan began developing websites in the late '90s and has personally tested just about every web host and cloud platform worth trying on the market today. With a masters degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Florida, he leverages his extensive knowledge of hardware, software, and their engineering relationship to inform HostingAdvice readers of the technical implications of their hosting choices. Ryan's subject matter expertise includes, but is not limited to, WordPress, cloud infrastructure management, product UI/UX design, and popular web development languages such as JavaScript and PHP.

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Editor: Lillian Castro

Lillian Castro

Lillian brings more than 30 years of editing and journalism experience to our team. She has written and edited for major news organizations, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the New York Times, and she previously served as an adjunct instructor at the University of Florida. Today, she edits HostingAdvice content for clarity, accuracy, and reader engagement.

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OVERALL RATING 4.8 / 5.0
★★★★★
Features4.9 / 5.0
Ease of Use4.3 / 5.0
Pricing4.5 / 5.0
Reliability & Support4.9 / 5.0
Discount for Our Users See Deals

Media Temple has long been the standard to which web hosts are set. As an innovator in the cloud hosting arena, the company always seems ahead of the curve with high-touch managed services. Media Temple keeps customers happy with a focus on high-performance technology and easy-to-use features.

Category Ratings

We had one of our resident hosting experts, Ryan Frankel, sign up for a Media Temple account and take it for a spin. Below are Ryan’s ratings of the Media Temple experience, broken down by the types of hosting Media Temple offers.

If you decide to go with Media Temple, you may get a discount by using our link to sign up. While we often make commissions on purchases made through our links, this had no bearing on Ryan’s review.

Here’s what Ryan found in reviewing Media Temple:

Disclosure: When you sign up through links on our site, we often earn referral fees from partners. For more information, see our ad disclosure and review policy.

Media Temple's Overall Rating (4.8 / 5.0)

Best Overall Rating

4.8
★★★★★

Price:

Setup Time:

Ryan Frankel

Ryan Frankel (HostingAdvice.com):

You've heard all the buzzwords: VPS, the cloud, clustered architecture — it all started here! If site performance and reliability matter to you, look no further than Media Temple's Grid hosting service. Considered the first public cloud host, Media Temple is the benchmark by which all other hosts are measured.

Interested in what makes Media Temple's Grid so exceptional? How about its exclusive cluster of redundant, blazing-fast SSDs. That means your database will never slow down your site, regardless of the amount of traffic you take in. Other features that make your site scream are pre-installed PHP with FastCGI and the TrueSpeed CDN by SiteLock.

For the novice users, please don't let the jargon scare you. The best part about all those features is they are there automatically, allowing you to focus on the other details that make your website great. Automatic data backups and security mean that your data is always safe. All of that is wrapped up nicely in an extremely easy-to-use interface built by the experts at Media Temple.

The company provides award-winning 24/7/365 live support via phone, chat, email tickets, and Twitter. If you are ready to take your website to the next level, there is no better host to consider than Media Temple.

  • One-of-a-kind, clustered Grid hosting platform
  • Maintains speed, regardless of traffic
  • SSD database storage and scalable bandwidth
  • Best-in-class support via, phone, chat, email, and Twitter
  • Custom-built control panel and 20+ app installs
  • Get started on Media Temple now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
20 GB SSD - 250 GB SSD
Domain Name
New or Transfer
Setup Time
4 minutes
Media Temple's Cheap Hosting (3.0 / 5.0)

Cheap Rating

3.0
★★★

Price:

Setup Time:

If site performance and reliability matter to you, look no further than Media Temple's unique Grid hosting service. Ranked lower on our list of cheap hosts because of the high price tag, the performance value of Media Temple’s service is hard to fully appreciate when compared with the crowd of bargain-basement hosting providers.

The company's forward-thinking shared hosting platform is built with cloud-grade scalability and redundancy — this is not an average shared hosting plan. Media Temple clusters servers with blazing-fast SSDs to provide top-notch reliability and room to grow.

Despite the complicated, high-priced services, Media Temple excels at providing a positive, streamlined user experience. The custom-built control panel seamlessly directs you to the adjustable resources and tools you need to succeed, all while the company's team of support agents is constantly on standby to help. Media Temple's award-winning service is available 24/7/365 via phone, chat, email tickets, and even Twitter.

If you are ready to take your website to the next level, no matter the cost, there is no better host to consider than Media Temple.

  • Unique platform powered by clustered servers
  • One-click scalability for ultra-fast speed
  • Ample SSD storage and dedicated containers
  • Live customer support available 24/7/365
  • Around-the-clock monitoring and DDoS protection
  • Get started on Media Temple now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
20 GB SSD - 250 GB SSD
Domain Name
New or Transfer
Setup Time
4 minutes
Media Temple's Dedicated Hosting (4.8 / 5.0)

Dedicated Rating

4.8
★★★★★

Price:

Setup Time:

Are limitless server resources and a clean neighborhood invaluable to your business? If you answered "yes," look no further than Media Temple’s dedicated hosting. While not for everyone because of the higher-than-average pricing, there is no arguing the impressiveness of this enterprise-level server.

Offering self-, semi-, or fully-managed options, Media Temple’s dedicated servers have boundless flexibility to go with their power. First, start with your choice of Linux operating systems pre-installed for you. Then, if you are on the self-managed plan, the sky is the limit with full root access (the stuff geeks dream about). If you opt for the semi- or fully-managed solutions, you get to choose between the always-familiar cPanel or Plesk control panels, or even receive the assistance of one of the company's system administrators. Those customers enjoy performance monitoring, daily backups, operating system and application updates, constant security, and regular malware scanning.

All of that comes with a pretty hefty price tag, but the next-level services and computing power goes a long way toward justifying the investment. If you already use the company's VPS options and are in need of something more, you’ll be pleased to hear that it is a seamless, zero-downtime transition to a dedicated server.

Finally, Media Temple offers a 99.99% service uptime guarantee on the company's dedicated products. If the company falls short, you get 20% of your monthly hosting fee back for each 20 minutes of downtime that month.

  • Your choice of fully, semi-, or self-managed service
  • Multi-core CPUs, 128GB RAM, and 1TB SSDs
  • Scale up instantly from VPS hosting
  • 99.99% network, hardware, and infrastructure uptime guarantee
  • Choice of Linux OS with optional cPanel or Plesk
  • Get started on Media Temple now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
1 TB SSD
Domain Name
New or Transfer
Setup Time
8 minutes
Media Temple's VPS Hosting (4.6 / 5.0)

VPS Rating

4.6
★★★★★

Price:

Setup Time:

Although Media Temple is more expensive than most hosts, the company's managed VPS hosting is second to none from a performance perspective. With an incredible amount of hardware for the price and fully-managed virtualized servers, Media Temple offers serious VPS hosting for serious people.

In today’s online world, speed matters. Whether it’s website conversions or search engine exposure, how fast your site loads dictates a lot. That is where Media Temple’s VPS shines. The company's all-SSD servers, guaranteed resources, and instant scalability mean you are ready for anything.

Beyond straight speed, what you are truly paying for with Media Temple is reliability. The company boasts a ridiculous SLA that guarantees a 99.99% uptime, or less than an hour of downtime for the entire year.

We love ourselves some awesome modern hardware, but our favorite part about Media Temple has always been the team's support and luxurious managed services. At a fraction of a dedicated IT team, offering assistance by phone, chat, email, or Twitter, the company's award-winning support staff is standing by no matter the issue.

  • All-SSD servers, guaranteed resources, and auto-backups
  • 1-click installations of hundreds of scripts and applications
  • Above-average 99.99% uptime guarantee
  • Choice of Plesk or cPanel plus root access
  • Managed services with performance and security monitoring
  • Get started on Media Temple now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
30 GB SSD - 600 GB SSD
Domain Name
New or Transfer
Setup Time
6 minutes
Media Temple's WordPress Hosting (4.7 / 5.0)

WordPress Rating

4.7
★★★★★

Price:

Setup Time:

Media Temple has long been one of our favorite web hosts for luxury managed hosting, and the company's WordPress offerings are no exception. If you value cutting-edge technology, do not overlook Media Temple. Having helped pioneer cloud technology, the company has taken its knowledge and applied it to an exceptional WordPress-focused plan.

Web developers will love Media Temple's fully integrated tools, such as one-click staging, site cloning, and standard Git integration. SSH, SFTP, and phpMyAdmin access are also appreciated additions. Everyone can appreciate the company's modern load-balanced, all-SSD hardware.

Media Temple’s interface is incredibly approachable and easy to use, and the company's support is truly second to none. A quick setup wizard gets you going and automated daily backups, core updates, and 24/7 uptime monitoring remove the stress of any maintenance.

Starting at $20.00 per month for two sites, Media Temple is a moderately priced managed WordPress host. With features comparable to other WordPress-specific packages elsewhere, the company's modern hardware and exception support make Media Temple a strong consideration for anyone serious about their website’s performance.

  • Picked as a top WordPress host among developers
  • Preview changes with custom staging environment
  • Automatic WordPress core updates
  • Blazing-fast servers, SSDs, and built-in caching
  • WP Easy Mode suggests themes and plugins
  • Get started on Media Temple now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
50 GB SSD - 200 GB SSD
Domain Name
New or Transfer
Setup Time
5 minutes
Media Temple's Website Builder Hosting (not yet rated)

"We haven't evaluated Media Temple for this type of hosting service — yet. Either the company didn't offer this option at the time this review was written or this section of the review hasn't made it to the top of our editorial queue just yet. Either way, check back later, as we're always working to keep our reviews up to date and as comprehensive as possible!"

Ryan Frankel

Ryan Frankel, Tech Expert

Want Ryan to review your hosting service? Request a review.

Features

(4.9 / 5.0)

The Latest Technologies

  • Scalable bandwidth enables websites to keep up with large spikes in traffic
  • SSD-based storage and dedicated database storage, which guarantees plenty of resources to every Grid shared hosting service
  • Automatic backups and recovery, along with security and performance monitoring to ensure your data is secure
  • TrueSpeed content delivery network, powered by SiteLock, further boosts website performance

Easy-to-Use Account Center

  • Instantly install apps like Wordpress, Drupal, Zen Cart, with just one click
  • Manage email users and inboxes across all your domains
  • Quickly add, reboot, repair, and manage MySQL database permissions
  • Add new domain names to your account instantly

Robust Plans with Room to Grow

  • Storage: Tons of premium, all-SSD storage
  • Bandwidth: 1TB of scalable bandwidth
  • Multiple sites per account: 100+ unique sites or alternate domains
  • Multiple databases per account: 100+ databases with available dedicated containers
  • Security: Around-the-clock security monitoring, DDoS protection, plus automatic backups and restores

Business-Class Email

  • Configure up to 1,000 separate email addresses across all your domains
  • Access your messages, contacts, and calendars anywhere through a clean, simple browser interface
  • Use your favorite desktop programs or mobile devices, thanks to full IMAP support
  • G-Suite add-on unlocks unlimited spam protection and productivity tools

Ease of Use

(4.3 / 5.0)
Instant & Easy Signup
Media Temple Review
Room to Grow
Media Temple Review
World-Class Support
Media Temple Review

Media Temple excels in providing straight-forward and easy-to-use hosting services. With automatic scaling built-in to seemingly every plan and a focus on customer support, Media Temple is a hosting option you'll doubtfully regret picking. Whether you've got hundreds of visitors or hundreds of thousands, you can feel secure in your choice to host with Media Temple.

Pricing

(4.5 / 5.0)

"Personal" Plan

"Pro" Plan

"Elite" Plan

While Media Temple is a more expensive choice then other hosts, we're pleased to say you get what you pay for. Sure, the company's prices might place the premium services outside of many potential customers' budgets, but businesses looking for enterprise-grade hardware and high-touch support will find Media Temple to be well worth the added investment. Sometimes a little extra cost is worth the peace of mind.

Reliability & Support

(4.9 / 5.0)

Media Temple prides itself on being the world’s most accessible web hosting company. Everything — from Grid shared hosting to fully-managed dedicated servers — comes with the company's award-winning 24/7/365 support by chat, Twitter, phone, and email tickets. Paired with an extensive online knowledgebase and an above-average 99.99% uptime guarantee, Media Temple is poised to solve any problem you may face.

Media Temple Includes:

Live Support via Chat, Twitter, Forums, Account Center, or Phone, Plus a Huge Knowledgebase

Other Hosts vs. Media Temple

Wondering how Media Temple stacks up againt other web hosting services? See our host-vs-host reviews below and compare them side by side.

Media Temple vs. HostGator

HostGator and Media Temple may offer a similar breadth of services, but their price difference is stark.

See full comparison »
Media Temple vs HostGator

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0
Media Temple vs HostGator

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.5/5.0

Media Temple vs. GoDaddy

If these web hosts graced the cover of a mid-2000s tabloid, the headline would read “Fast, Reliable, Super-charged Hosting at Affordable Prices.

See full comparison »
Media Temple vs GoDaddy

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0
Media Temple vs GoDaddy

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.7/5.0

Media Temple vs. Flywheel

We’re comparing two premium, specialized providers: Flywheel and Media Temple.

See full comparison »
Flywheel vs Media Temple

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0
Flywheel vs Media Temple

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

Media Temple vs. DreamHost

We’re daydreaming of the best web host in this comparison.

See full comparison »
DreamHost vs Media Temple

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0
DreamHost vs Media Temple

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

Media Temple vs. InMotion

It’s all about California love: our two web hosts hail from Los Angeles and have delivered top-tier hosting services since the early days of the web.

See full comparison »
InMotion vs Media Temple

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0
InMotion vs Media Temple

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

Media Temple vs. Bluehost

Experienced site owners need to look no further than Media Temple for its premium services, including insanely powerful servers, expert-level technical support, and über-reliable uptime.

See full comparison »
Media Temple vs Bluehost

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0
Media Temple vs Bluehost

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

Media Temple vs. SiteGround

Your web host, similar to your business partner, plays a significant role in the success of your business.

See full comparison »
SiteGround vs. Media Temple

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0
SiteGround vs. Media Temple

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 5.0/5.0

Media Temple is the winner
2 out of 7 times.

The Rundown

Ryan Frankel

Ryan Frankel

Hosting Expert:

To recap, here's a rundown of what Media Temple has to offer

Media Temple has been consistently reviewed as a favorite among high-class web hosts. The company's emphasis on performance includes automatic scalability to handle large traffic spikes. Media Temple offers the ultimate reliability, enterprise-class email, and advanced technology with every plan, plus one of the easiest-to-use user interfaces in the shared hosting space. Finally, the company's US-based customer support is backed by knowledgeable engineers who are armed and ready to help you with any troubleshooting need.

Media Temple review

Overall Rating

4.8 / 5.0
★★★★★

About The Author

Ryan Frankel has been a professional in the tech industry for more than 20 years and has been developing websites for more than 25. With a master's degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Florida, he has a fundamental understanding of hardware systems and the software that runs them. Ryan now sits as the CTO of Digital Brands Inc. and manages all of the server infrastructure of their websites, as well as their development team. In addition, Ryan has a passion for guitars, good coffee, and puppies.
Ryan Frankel
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