Taking a Look at MediaTemple’s New Shared Hosting Plan

MediaTemple, known best for Managed WordPress Hosting plans, recently made headlines by unveiling their new Shared Hosting Plan—also referred to as the Grid. It’s certainly a very different type of shared hosting aimed at a more advanced target market. Starting at $30 per month all the way up to $350 per month, MediaTemple’s Grid provides advanced resources and solid features. But, is it worth paying higher prices for a shared hosting plan?

Let’s take a closer look at what you get with MediaTemple’s Shared Hosting and how it compares to other top shared hosting plans.

The new Shared Hosting from MediaTemple comes in three different levels: Pro, Agency, and Agency+. The Pro plan is priced similar to other managed WordPress hosting plans such as their own and WP Engine. You are allowed to host 10 sites with the Pro Plan, which is nice. However, apparently only one of your sites can have access to the global CDN and malware detection and removal. Storage and bandwidth is capped—although 20GB storage and 1TB bandwidth should be enough.

The Agency and Agency+ plans obviously give you more power and resources. But at these prices, you’re probably better off looking for a VPS or Dedicated Hosting option.

Pro $30 mo.
Agency $150 mo.
Agency+ $350 mo.

Initial discount gives you:

• Two free months with annual plan
• Five free months with 2 year plan
• Nine free months with 3 year plan

Here are some of the premium features you get with the new shared hosting plans:

• Uses unique clustered architecture of servers called the Grid.
• Solid State Drives
• CDN from SiteLock
• Daily Backups, Malware Scans and OS Updates are handled automatically.
• If needed, you can add more resources for an additional fee.

The Grid’s architecture and the automated services are impressive. On the other hand, SSDs and CDNs are becoming more available in other hosting plans, so you’ll have to decide if you think it’s worth paying the higher prices for the new plan.

While MediaTemple’s new shared hosting plans have impressive features, the high cost will certainly be a deterrent for many website owners. Paying higher fees for VPS or Dedicated Hosting is expected. However, one of the benefits of shared hosting has always been that it is much more affordable. The high price tag of the Grid from MediaTemple (especially the Agency level prices) makes other alternatives more attractive. Impressive features—but personally, for shared hosting I would look at other options.