1.9
POOR
  • User Friendly
    1.8
  • Support
    1.7
  • Features
    2.2
  • Reliability
    2.1
  • Pricing
    1.5
Write Review Visit SoftLayer

SoftLayer Review - Expert and User Insights by Paid Customers

Pricing Range

Dedicated Server £128.70 - £1,172.11
Cloud Hosting £20.36

Data Centers

Kostas Dakanalis

Pinned Review

Kostas Dakanalis,
4.8
Top hosting company for real online business !!!
Ty Roden
Ty Roden from United States,

Softlayer is no longer a good hosting solution. Save yourself the headaches and avoid them.

1.8
Softlayer used to be a good company to have for hosting. Little by little it has become less support and more fees - everywhere. They just closed a datacenter in Dallas - they sent out migration emails to people saying that server...Read Mores were being migrated. Not very clear.

They literally turned off all servers in that datacenter even if you were a paying client, and proceeded to flat delete all data. If you missed the email, tough. I have spoken with others that were affected by this, same response. " We will give you 2 free months of service, but your data is gone ". Considering that these servers were virtuals, they could have literally just migrated the files to operational servers, instead they send emails, and just shut you off. Period. This is horrible and unprofessional. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
Less
Tom Z
Tom Z from Switzerland,

low level support and services

1.8
Hi been using their services since the time it was called the planet, I must say that since the IBM bluemix take over of Softlayer things went wrong in this company, no central support, poor network performances, higher prices and...Read More the list can go on. There are enough other quality hosting provider around dont waste your money and time on this one.Less
Dalton Said Junior
Dalton Said Junior from Brazil,

They use deception tactics to lower costs

2.2
I was happy in the beginning, but apparently they've just become excessively greedy.
They sell you a plan with a huge amount of bandwidth (mine was 20TB at the time). Then, after a while, they send you an email stating that they ...Read Moreare decommissioning your server so you have to acquire a new one, however, what they don't tell you is that now you only get 500GB monthly bandwidth. No need to state that now I am paying surcharge for overusage. STAY AWAY!Less
Nora Ky

Bad service, fake bandwith

2.0
I rent dedicated server cost for 168$ / Month and my bandwidth allow is 500GB, My server just run small game server turnbase game, but only a week my bandwidth was excess. I am sure that my game send and recieve only 20kb to 30kb ...Read More/ seconds. why that over 1,338.03 GB? Now I shut down my server and stop to use Softlayer, or IBM bluemix.
Here is email sent to me everyday. It look spam.
Allowed Usage: 500 GB
Current Usage: 1,338.03 GB (267.6%)
Surcharge: $0.12/GB
Less
Paul Williams

Excessive bandwidth charges

1.0
Hello,
With Softlayer we have a 10GB bandwidth allowance which we thought was fine but now we're using about 50GB per month in bandwidth.

The web hosting costs have now risen to another $150USD per month , it is $75 USD per 30...Read MoreGB per month and we need 60GB in case we go over and the site is pulled perhaps which would be catastrophic. I don't understand why SoftLayer are charging this as GoDaddy have unlimited bandwidth. I'm still in the process of asking SoftLayer about this but we may need to move away from SoftLayer if possible in light of this review.Less
Eric Caldwell
Eric Caldwell from United States,

Softlayer has last it's edge

1.8
I've been with Softlayer for over 8 years and up to this point, they have been great. Now that IBM has taken them over, when you call support, support is now off-shored! Also, we cancelled a server 21hrs before the anniversary dat...Read Moree, they still billed us the full amount and refuse to refund our charges. Petty..

Softlayer is now truly IBM and no longer interested in doing biz with small hosting companies. They only care about cloud services and BIG contracts. So, I can say with a clear conscious that IBM/SL is not the outstanding company it used to be. Poor support and only interested in extracting every penny they can from customers. Sad...
Less
Jonathan Mueller
Jonathan Mueller from Ecuador,

I wouldn't recommend going with SoftLayer

1.0
Based on what I have seen I would not go with SoftLayer. I am the dev for several different accounts and one of my employers went out of business leaving a small bill behind. Now SoftLayer is threatening my services and I am just ...Read Moregoing to go with the competition. Maybe this situation doesn't apply to you, but beware!!!Less

Expert Review

Michael Levanduski
Michael Levanduski
Expert Hosting Writer & Tester

Expert Overview

Exceptional hosting for busy sites or large businesses

SoftLayer has been one of the best hosting companies around since they opened their doors in 2005.  They are focused primarily on enterprise level customers, and don’t really have any ‘entry level’ packages to offer.  With this in mind, if you are a general blogger or looking to start up a simple site, they aren’t going to be the right choice for you.

Those who need dedicated servers or cloud based hosting options, however, will want to look closely at them as an option.  Since they are so focused on this market they have set up their servers and really their whole business structure around providing businesses with this high level of service.

They also offer data centers in seven locations around the world (Amsterdam, Dallas, Houston, San Jose, Seattle, Singapore, and Washington DC) so you’ll be able to have your sites hosted in a location near your target audience.  All of this is made possible because of the fact that SoftLayer is an IBM company, which gives them the technical skill and financial backing necessary to meet the needs of all their customers.

9

SUPERB!

Rated by Michael Levanduski

  • User Friendly
    9

  • Support
    10

  • Features
    9

  • Reliability
    9

  • Pricing
    8

Uptime & Reliability

100% uptime SLAs available

You can sign up for service level agreements that guarantee 100% uptime.  This is a premium service for those customers who absolutely cannot tolerate downtime.  It is provided by setting up fully redundant web hosting, so even if a server or full data center goes down, the website traffic will be picked up by the other location.

Even for customers who don’t sign up for this full redundancy, the uptime and reliability is still exceptional.  All their hardware and software is setup by true professionals, which helps to avoid any unnecessary outages.  They will even work around your needs when performing scheduled updates that may require a restart.

Features

A variety of features focused on business hosting

You’ll get quite a few great features that you won’t find with most other hosting companies.  First, they offer fully redundant hosting for those who need 100% uptime.  This is an advanced feature that most hosts don’t even offer at any level.

They also help to improve their service by standardizing all their activities across each of their data centers, which can help to avoid problems and prevent outages.

The control panel that they offer provides the ability to manage your server remotely and perform many tasks, such as reboots and updates, without even having to contact their technical support teams.

Support

Great support for all customers

SoftLayer has 24/7/365 phone support available at all levels of service.  They also offer an online ticketing system so you can report issues and get them addressed fast.  They boast that their support tickets are addressed within an average of 20 minutes, which is quite impressive.  In addition, their toll-free support phone number is answered by the 2nd ring (according to their site).

When you get in touch with a support technician, you can be confident that they will be able to address your problem correctly the first time.  All their technicians are experienced and have the ability to address even complicated issues.

In addition to their live support, they also offer a full knowledge base, user help from forums and several automated features to address problems on your own.

Pricing

Higher prices but you get what you pay for

Anyone who is looking to use SoftLayer as their host isn’t likely going to have price at the top of their list of concerns.  You can expect to pay significantly higher for your hosting than you would at most other hosting companies, but that is really comparing apples to oranges.

When you look at the powerful servers your site(s) will be hosted on, and the great service that you are getting, the price actually seems like a great deal.  This service is, after all, targeted toward businesses that will be using their website to make money.

Summary

An ideal host for demanding customers

This is one hosting company that is either the ideal choice for you, or one you won’t even want to consider, depending on the services you need.  If you are looking for simple hosting to get a blog or other site up and running, this is not the host for you.  If, on the other hand, you need a high quality hosting for a large corporate site, there aren’t many options that can compete with SoftLayer.

Pros:

  • Multiple data centers around the world
  • Exceptional technical support
  • Fully redundant hosting available
  • Cutting edge hosting technologies

Cons:

  • No entry level hosting packages available
  • Price is higher than some might expect
  • Lots of things cost extra (cPanel, WHM, Fantastico)

SoftLayer Prices, Plans & Features - 2023

Dedicated Server Plans

Plan Name Space CPU RAM OS Price Score
Custom Single Processor 500 GB 4 x 3.40GHz 2 GB £128.70 2.2 Details
Custom Dual Processor 500 GB 12 x 2.00GHz 16 GB £285.90 1.8 Details
Custom Quad Processor 1000 GB 32 x 2.00GHz 128 GB £1,172.11 1.9 Details

Cloud Hosting Plans

Plan Name Space CPU RAM Bandwidth Price Score
Virtual Servers - Custom 25 GB 1 core 1 MB Unlimited £20.36 1.4 Details

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