Heficed Review 2024 – A Web Developer’s Honest Review

One for the Hardcore Developers

Heficed (that’s hef + iced, like coffee) was founded in 2008 as Host1Plus to streamline the way its customers think about hosting and IP addresses. It specializes in cybersecurity, hosting, and business intelligence. Heficed has servers worldwide, including Los Angeles, Chicago, São Paulo, Frankfurt, London, and Johannesburg.

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Heficed isn’t the right host for everybody. It’s a good option if you have a thorough knowledge of server administration and command-line modules. Otherwise, you’ll struggle to complete even the most basic of tasks.

It also charges so much for customer support that you’d be better off hiring a third-party system admin to take a look at the problem for you.

Heficed offers cloud virtual server hosting (Kronos Cloud) and managed dedicated servers. However, it doesn’t have shared, reseller, or other traditional hosting types as an aside like many of its competitors do.

On the plus side, Heficed allows you to customize your cloud server right down to the last detail. This customization applies to the pricing, too, allowing you to pay per hour based on your usage.

So how can you tell whether Heficed is the right web host for you? This review is a good place to start. Let’s take a look at what Heficed has to offer.

Advanced Features for Advanced Users

I’ve already established that Heficed is a company that won’t make things easy with one-click installers and other software goodies. If you’re looking for these features, I suggest you check out our top web hosting comparison to find the most suitable web host for your needs.

However, this host does offer specialist tools for the developers the company targets through its Terminal and API. You’ll get access to different functions, including reboot, remote console, rescue mode, IP resource management, and more.

Plus, if you want advanced functionality and full control over your cloud server, you’re in luck. Heficed will throw in an optional hardware firewall, but you’ll want to install one of your own and take regular backups. Act as though it’s a physical server you own and not a virtual server you’ve leased, and get ready to fiddle around with command lines and operating system installation.

Tier 3 Classified

Heficed’s data centers are all Tier 3 classified and hold compliance certificates from ISO, PCI, BBB accreditation, and more.

What does this mean for you? In a nutshell, the infrastructure is more secure than most, and it has even paid attention to what will happen at the data centers in the event of a fire.

Full Root Access

Having full root access might not matter much to rookie webmasters and casual business users, but it can be essential for development purposes. This level of control even extends to the choice of which operating system you install.

Choose Between Linux and Windows

Take your pick of operating systems, including Linux and Windows. Heficed also allows you to use a custom ISO or to choose from pre-installed templates and applications. You can run any kernel you want or use the Microsoft Windows Server to automate processes via APIs.

Advanced IP Infrastructure

The company launched the world’s first automated IP management and network engineering platform, named Switch. Switch allows your cloud deployment to use a range of IP addresses over different continents. It’ll give you instant access to over half a million geolocated IP addresses, and the Terminal control panel helps you manage them all.

Difficult to Use Unless You’re a Seasoned Developer

There is no doubt that they designed Heficed for seasoned developers, so it doesn’t go out of its way to make things easy for you. This host assumes that you know what you’re doing, and if you don’t, the team will only help for a significant fee. All in all, it’s one of the more complicated web hosting solutions, but it makes up for it with how customizable its cloud servers are.

Lengthy Account Creation

The signup process for Heficed takes a long time, so you might want to make yourself a cup of coffee before getting started.

The good news is that you can register by using an existing Google, Microsoft, GitHub, or LinkedIn account. However, the not-so-good news is that you’ll have to set up a virtual machine and add a public SSH key, which might be intimidating for beginners.

Hard to Connect a Domain and Install WordPress

Installing WordPress and connecting a domain is a little tricky, too. You’ll need to log into the virtual console, install an Apache web server, PHP, and MySQL, all before you create a single database.

The full 12-step process takes quite a while, and if you want support, you’ll have to pay a hefty hourly price for the privilege. Luckily, I wrote about my own experience, and you can follow the step-by-step process here.

Easy Scalability

Heficed lets you scale up your resources and add more if you need them. It also gives you access to up to 2048 IPs on even its most basic plan and guarantees that its IPs will be blacklist-free.

The Heficed platform also allows for extensive automation, although that’s when it gets a little tricky.

Huge Resource Library

Heficed’s resource library is like a knowledgebase on steroids, offering up everything from white papers to business use cases and datasheets. These aren’t casual bedtime reads, though. They go into extensive detail and are for developers and programmers who want to go in-depth on subjects like the state of Brazilian IT infrastructure.

Epic Customization

One of Heficed’s cloud-based infrastructure benefits is that you can build a plan by selecting the resources you need. You can specify everything from the server location to the operating system, storage space, and the number of processor cores and memory you want your cloud server to have.

Global Servers But Some Downtime

Heficed has a global network of servers, and you have access to as many resources as you need, so you’d expect your site to load pretty quickly. I didn’t see any evidence of users who were dissatisfied with the loading speeds, but there are a few bad reviews from people who experienced downtime and struggled to get support to help them.

To test it out, I ran a Sucuri page load test to see how quickly its servers load from different locations. It did okay for the most part, though it was a little slower to load in Australia and Japan. The overall load time was on par with most of the other hosting companies I’ve tested.

The Team Will Help, If You Can Afford It

Heficed has different tiers available for its service-level agreement (SLA). On the standard SLA, it promises ticket responses within 12 hours and keeps no backups. Or you can upgrade to the enterprise plan if you need a response within the hour and three weekly backups. I’m not convinced it’s worth the 20% added to your bill, though.

While it has a support center and knowledgebase to help you out and a Slack community support forum, the support team isn’t incredibly helpful.

I waited on live chat for up to an hour on several occasions to get support, and then when the agent responded, they were far from helpful. For instance, when I asked if there were any tutorials for installing WordPress, they told me to Google it and then asked me to pay for support at a whopping hourly rate. Other times, no one responded at all.

It Quickly Adds Up

Heficed’s pricing starts reasonably, but it quickly increases as you add extra resources and functionality to build your bespoke cloud server. On top of that, the SLA can add 20% onto whatever your base price is.

The good news is that it accepts a wide range of payment options, including; Mastercard, Visa, American Express, PayPal, AliPay, and numerous cryptocurrencies.

You can customize the billing cycle and even pay by the hour. However, you’ll need to make a hefty deposit for the privilege.

Heficed has a 14-day refund policy, but this policy doesn’t apply to third-party services such as domains, licenses, and certificates.

Easy Cancellations and Refunds

Heficed is one of those unusual web hosts where it’s easier to cancel your account than sign up. You just need to log into your account, browse to the server you want to cancel, and hit delete. You can either cancel immediately or at the end of the next billing cycle, and if you’re within 14 days of your purchase, you will be automatically refunded. Click here to find out more about my easy experience.