Launched in 2014, Servebolt is a relatively recent addition to the WordPress-oriented sector of the web hosting market. The company was founded by Hans Kristian Rosbach and Erlend Eide in Norway and was known under another name for some time. The name was "Raske Sider" and can be translated into English as "Quick Pages". Whether you prefer the past or current company name is an academic question, but one thing is for sure: They have been known to make performance issues a thing of the past, and their name is synonymous with blazing-fast internet speeds. Servebolt's head office is located in Drammen, Norway, and users can choose between Oslo, Norway, and Amsterdam, The Netherlands, when deciding where to locate a data center. Although initially targeting the Scandinavian web hosting market, Servebolt began serving an international audience in 2017, and its popularity continues to grow across Europe. Servebolt's main website has a simple design, predominantly white with occasional yellow patterns, and is available in four languages: English, Norwegian, Dutch, and Swedish. Recently, the Servebolt site offers an official blog and a very good place to start. Apart from blogs, they seem to be quite active when it comes to social media (mainly Facebook and Twitter), while the rest of their social media accounts (YouTube and Instagram in particular) feel a bit outdated.
The Servebolt price may seem steep at first, but that's probably what you will also pay for hosting that is fully managed by other providers (Image credit: Servebolt)
Packages and prices
Since Servebolt is for demanding users who need near-perfect top speed and performance (such as media-heavy sites, community sites, third-party resource sites, etc.), its product is priced accordingly. So if you're not willing to pay full price, this is probably the wrong web host for you. Servebolt offers a wide variety of managed WordPress hosting solutions, separated into two categories: "High Performance" (containing six plans) and "Enterprise" (three plans). Fees aside, the differences between these plans are mainly related to storage, files, database, and dynamic queries. The closest to being "pocket-friendly" is labeled "Pro Plan" and starts at $99 (£119.71) per month. It provides 4 GB of storage, up to three (3) websites, unlimited PHP workers, countless domain names, and up to a million dynamic queries. All plans except the enterprise-level customizable plan come with an exceptional 60-day free trial. Therefore, there is no money back guarantee. Available payment methods include: credit cards, PayPal and direct debit (for Eurozone and Sweden only).
You can manage your Servebolt account from the company dashboard (Image credit: Servebolt)
Ease of use
Servebolt is all about speed, speed, and more speed, so it's no surprise that his answers to the "Why us" question are somewhat related to the speed issue (you can guess). The same goes for its list of features that highlights its network infrastructure, its "state of the art" hardware solutions, its optimized cache settings, the use of the latest and fastest PHP, and its custom version, Linux, among others. With all this, Servebolt is poised to make all your website performance, security and scalability concerns a long time ago. Once you've inspected all of Servebolt's hosting plans and decided on the ideal plan, you can immediately sign up or test the plan by starting your free trial. Either way, the process is pretty much the same, except you won't be charged for the free trial, until you decide to make a purchase or upgrade your Bolt (that's what they call the individual environments you manage from your dashboard). with a live domain to launch your website with Servebolt.
Servebolt offers detailed explanations on their site about how their Bolts compare to other types of web hosting solutions (Image credit: Servebolt) To sign up, you'll need to create an account with Servebolt, and to do so, you'll need to provide a certain amount of personal information. (first name, last name, email address and mobile phone number). After that, we went through the email verification process and our new account was activated in less than a minute. There, you'll be greeted with a welcome message that contains a link to a well-written entry in their knowledge base, which explains what Bolt actually is and how things work here. After reviewing the reading material, we did our best to get creative with a password (and the strength was "strong," the algorithm decided), passed another verification (this time via mobile), and entered the dashboard. Servebolt administration in all its simplicity and glory. From there, you can manage your server settings, define your domains, control your databases, individual websites, access SSL settings, and change whatever you want in your account.
Servebolt supports a wide variety of platforms (Image credit: Servebolt) In addition to WordPress (which the Servebolt platform is specifically designed for), a wide range of additional content management systems (CMS) are also supported, including WooCommerce , Magento, Prestashop, CraftCMS, Drupal and more. If you find yourself lost, don't hesitate to contact Servebolt support staff, because with them you'll get all the assistance you never thought you'd need.
We use GTmetrix to measure the performance of our Bolt (Image credit: GTmetrix)
Speed and experience
Without false modesty, Servebolt points out how they use a faster network (including Infiniband), which should ensure super-fast data transfer between computers on your network and minimal latency for everyone on it. Furthermore, they promise that their users will experience charging speeds that they have never seen before. While this all sounds good in theory, we were forced to check out how it works in practice with our beloved GTmetrix. After completing the speed test on the main Servebolt website, no one was surprised with an A (100%) final score. However, the time it took for the website to fully load was 3.8 seconds (average score is 8.2), which is great, but not the fastest speed we've seen. When it comes to uptime, Servebolt offers a 99,9% "SLA always included" uptime guarantee and (oddly enough) an opportunity for your potential users to check your website's uptime for themselves during the last 30 years. days (it is 99,99% right now). Either way, we monitored their website uptime for two consecutive weeks (via UptimeRobot) and got the results to back them up. There was no evidence of downtime, showing a flawless 100% uptime.
Support
If you need help, the first option that might catch your attention is the live chat, which should be available 24 hours a day, as it promises a response time of less than five minutes. There you will see apparently authentic photos of all available support agents. Apart from that, you can contact them by email or phone number (international or the Norwegian one), although the Servebolt site subtly suggests that you should check the chat first.
The Servebolt Knowledge Base contains how-tos, guides, manuals and more to help you solve common problems (Image Credit: Servebolt) If you prefer not to rely on others, Servebolt offers a 'Help Center' that serves as a knowledge base and covers everything related to hosting from A to Z. With common categories for different types of issues (account, billing, startup, platform, security, etc.), this knowledge base contains manuals, guides, how-tos, news, and updates. Most of these tutorials are short and to the point, but they seem very helpful. Ultimately, if you need help with setup and migrations, or well-written guides to follow, along with ongoing support from your technical teams, Servebolt will take care of it.
Competition
While HostGator offers several well-structured, managed WordPress packages that can give you a good bang for your buck, they're not exactly aimed at mission-critical websites that require flawless performance without compromise. On the other hand, Servebolt was designed with this mission in mind. Like HostGator, DreamHost is another fan favorite, famous for offering a wide range of hosting options, features, plugins, and all at an affordable price. However, Servebolt is dedicated to the highest level of managed WordPress hosting and would overdose for less demanding users. Similarly, Servebolt's customer support is on par with their services, while trying to get help from DreamHost staff can easily turn into a nightmare. Bluehost is another informed American host that has a lot to offer, especially for those looking for a way to launch a website without critically hitting their budget. Servebolt is aimed more at those who don't have to worry about their budget, as well as European customers, since its two data centers are located within its borders. Aruba is another European web host with over two decades of experience under its belt, famous for its cost-saving plans and (unfortunately) lack of in-depth support (especially in English). By contrast, Servebolt is neither cheap nor lacking in customer support. So deciding who will do the trick ultimately depends on what kind of website you had in mind and how much you're willing to pay to make it a reality.
Final verdict
If you're looking for a rock-solid WordPress oriented host for your mission-critical website that additionally focuses on...