Nine.ch review

First impression

Nine is a web hosting services provider that was founded in 2002 by Thomas Hug, who still serves as their CEO to this day. They are based in Zurich, the capital city of Switzerland, and are made up of a small but highly capable team of IT engineers, administrators, and hosting professionals. They offer services such as managed servers, dedicated root servers, virtual clusters, managed Kubernetes, GPU servers, domain registrations, and more, to their predominantly Swiss client base.

Trial Period

This provider doesn't offer any free trial periods for new clients to test out their services, nor do they have a backup policy in place, so you'd better be sure they are the right fit for your needs before committing. Luckily, all their plans are billed on a monthly basis, so if things don't work out, you won't lose too much.

Billing Cycle

All Nine's hosting plans are only available on a flexible month-to-month basis - no long-term commitments here! However, some products, such as domain registrations, are billed annually. They currently accept payments via all major credit cards, as well as bank transfers. 

Control Panel

This provider doesn't offer mainstream control panels such as cPanel or Plesk with their hosting plans, but rather their very own, custom-made control panel, the "Cockpit". This web-based control panel features a user-friendly interface from which one can manage most aspects of your hosting account, like DNS, SSL certificates, support tickets, billing, and more, from one convenient location. Users will also be granted SSH access to their servers.

Limits

Nine's managed servers are available in six scalable options that range from 4 vCPUs, 4GB RAM, and 100GB disc space, on the Managed nV4 plan, up to 24 vCPUs, 64GB RAM, and 100GB storage space on the Managed nV-X, their top-tier plan. All plans come standard with a complimentary SSL certificate by Let's Encrypt and 7-day rolling backups. It is important to note, though, that their storage works on a "hybrid" system, meaning it is a combination of standard HDDs and fast SSD storage drives. One can, however, request your storage to be exclusively on SSD drives, but it will come at an extra monthly fee. 

Their dedicated servers, on the other hand, come in three options, simply named the 'Managed Dedicated Server', 'Managed Dedicated Server Performance', and 'Managed Dedicated Server GPU'. The 'Managed Dedicated Server', their entry-level option, starts things off with 16 Core CPUs, 32GB RAM, and 2 x 960GB super-fast NVMe SSD drives. Next up is the 'Managed Dedicated Server Performance' which features 24 Core CPUs, 64GB RAM, and 2 x 960GB NVMe SSD drives, while the 'Managed Dedicated Server GPU' boasts an incredible 64 Core CPUs, 64GB RAM, and 2 x 960GB NVMe SSD storage, perfect for large projects.

Website Builder

As their focus is on comprehensive cloud computing solutions aimed at medium to large enterprises, and not shared hosting, it comes as no surprise that they don't include a dedicated website builder in their hosting plans. You can however, still install a CMS (content management system) like WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla that comes with all the tools necessary to create a professional and aesthetically pleasing site quickly and effortlessly.

Security

It is clear that this provider understands the importance of having solid security measures in place. Their infrastructure is protected by network firewalls, application firewalls (WAF), advanced DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) attack protection, and intrusion detection systems that monitor network activity and system behavior to identify and alert on potential security threats. Furthermore, all their servers are housed within 2 separate data centers that are ISO 9001, ISO 27001 certified for security, with strict access control and 24-hour surveillance. Both data centers are connected to each other via a route-redundant dark fibre ring to ensure high availability.

OS

Both their managed servers and dedicated root servers are usually set up with the latest Ubuntu LTS (long-term support) operating system, but one can request to get a specific version, such as Ubuntu Bionic 18.04, Ubuntu Focal 20.04, Ubuntu Jammy 22.04, or Ubuntu Noble 24.04 installed. Dedicated server customers will also have full root access to install their own preferred operating system. For CloudVMs, users can choose between Ubuntu, Rocky Linux 9, or Debian 12.

Support

Should you run into trouble and need to urgently get hold of their support, you can do so 24/7 via phone, email, or support tickets. Their agents are friendly and eager to assist, and response times are swift too. In my experience, tickets got answered within an hour. Their website also has a 'Status' page where they post all known issues, as well as the current condition of their network and services. Excellent support all round!

Conclusion

If Nine is a good hosting option depends entirely on your needs. Their servers are well structured, security excellent, and support fast and efficient. But they are slightly expensive, plans don't come with a free trial or money-back guarantee, and they don't offer shared hosting services. In my opinion, they are a good hosting option for medium to large corporations based in Switzerland, but if you are after more affordable hosting, best would be to shop around a bit.