Editor's opinion
Sean Thompson
I am a full-time web developer & IT professional with more than 18 years experience. I have been working with numerous hosting companies over the years.
First impression
LeapSwitch is a privately owned company that was founded in 2006 by Ishan Talathi, who also happens to be the CEO and founder of CloudJiffy, in Pune, Maharashtra, India. They provide ultra-reliable and cost-effective hosting solutions such as Shared Hosting, VPS Hosting, Dedicated Servers, and Domain Registrations to over 20,000 customers and are one of the few providers that can boast a 100% network and power guarantee.
They operate out of 18 locations worldwide that span 3 continents, with their servers located in the United States, India, Portugal, Spain, and Ukraine.
Trial Period
LeapSwitch, like most hosting providers, doesn’t offer a free trial period to try out their services, but they do have a 30-day money-back warranty in place for first-time signups. This warranty applies to their Shared, Reseller, and Managed VPS plans. Should you feel they are not the right fit for you, you can submit a cancellation request from the client area.
It is important to note that Domain Registrations, Dedicated Servers, Self-Managed VPS, Firewalls, Backup Plans, and software licenses are not refundable.
Billing Cycle
They provide hosting plans at exceptionally competitive rates, allowing customers to choose from paying on a monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually, biennially, or triennial basis. The longer the commitment, the greater the discount offered. Accepted payment methods include PayPal, Stripe, all major credit and debit cards, net banking, and UPI (Unified Payments Interface), an instant payment system developed in India.
Control Panel
Leapswitch offers cPanel, the most popular online graphical interface (GUI) control panel, with its Linux-based plans. For Windows-based packages, they provide Plesk, a secure hosting control panel that enables users to host, secure, and manage all aspects of their websites.
Limits
Their Shared Hosting service provides both Linux and Windows options, each offering three budget-friendly plans that include unlimited databases and email accounts. These plans are named Business 1, Business 2, and Business 3.
The entry-level plan, Business 1, offers 2GB of SSD storage space, and 20GB of bandwidth, and allows hosting for a single domain. It is suitable for basic personal blogs but may have limitations for more extensive use. Business 2 provides 5GB of SSD disk space, and 50GB of bandwidth, and supports hosting for up to 5 domain names. Business 3 offers 10GB of disk space, and 100GB of bandwidth, and allows unlimited hosted domains for Linux-based plans. Windows plan users, however, are limited to 10 domain names.
Their VPS plans are equipped with dedicated CPU, RAM, SSD/NVMe, network speed, and IP address(es). These plans run on AMD EPYC Servers and high-speed NVMe SSD drives. The options vary, starting from the entry-level plan (LMVM-2G) with 2GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 30GB NVMe SSD Space, and 1 TB Bandwidth, up to the top-tier plan (LMVM-384G) with 384GB RAM, 48 vCPUs, 4800GB NVMe SSD Space, and 12 TB Bandwidth.
Every plan includes Free Acronis Backup, Full Root Access, and Self-Managed and on-demand Scaling features, providing users with comprehensive control and flexibility over their hosting experience.
Website Builder
LeapSwitch does not provide its own custom coded website builder. However, their Linux-based plans come with the industry-leading cPanel control panel. This enables users to effortlessly install popular applications like WordPress and Joomla, facilitating the website-building process.
Security
LeapSwitch has robust security measures in place to ensure the safety and confidentiality of its client's data. Their data centers are highly secure facilities that offer several layers of security like Perimeter Fencing, 24/7 Security Personnel, Biometric Access Control, and CCTV camera surveillance.
Their servers and network are protected by Advanced Firewalls, to monitor and control incoming and outgoing network traffic, preventing unauthorized access and malicious attacks, Application Patching, to keep all server-side applications (like web servers, databases, etc.) up-to-date with security patches, Server Hardening, for disabling unnecessary services, removing default accounts, setting correct file and directory permissions, Host-based Intrusion Detection/Prevention Systems (HIDS/HIPS), for the monitoring of malicious actions and preventing breaches, DNSSEC to prevent DNS-related attacks, as well as DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) mitigation techniques to protect their network and servers from large-scale DDoS attacks, ensuring continuous service availability.
Furthermore, all VPS accounts are isolated, so in the unlikely event that one account is breached, it won’t put others at risk.
All accounts also come with free SSL Certificates, Daily Backups, Antivirus & Antimalware, Spam Filtering, and Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), for an added layer of security for accessing hosting accounts.
OS
For Shared Hosting, LeapSwitch utilizes Cloud Linux OS, a cloud-computing platform based on CentOS that offers a more robust and secure environment, and Windows Standard 2019 for Windows-based Shared Hosting plans. However, for VPS plans, customers have the flexibility to select from a wide array of operating systems such as CentOS 7, Debian 10, Ubuntu 22.04, AlmaLinux 9, and Rocky Linux 8 for Linux-based servers, and Windows Standard 2016/2019/2022 Edition for Windows-based VPS.
Support
I was genuinely impressed by their customer support. Their friendly and incredibly helpful agents are accessible round the clock through Live Chat, Phone, Email, or a Ticketing System. Live Chat responses are nearly instant, and email tickets are typically answered within 10 minutes, at least in my experience. Additionally, they have a 30-minute response time guarantee in place.
For those inclined to troubleshoot on their own, they offer a comprehensive knowledge base. Clients can also monitor the progress of their tickets through a user-friendly dashboard.
Conclusion
Pros |
Cons |
- 30-Day money-back guarantee;
- Affordable & Scalable plans;
- Excellent Support.
|
|
Leapswitch provides cost-effective and scalable hosting solutions suitable for businesses of all sizes, including startups and Fortune 100 companies globally. Their networks are secure, optimized for top-notch performance, and come with a 99.9% uptime guarantee, all backed by exceptional customer support. If you're searching for a new hosting provider, Leapswitch should be on your shortlist.