MacHighway is a Florida-based hosting provider that’s been in operation since way back in 1997. Chris Graves, the founder, started the company out of his own frustrations with hosting providers: he wanted to resolve all the internet compatibility issues that Mac users tend to face.
Although it’s “made by Mac users for Mac users,” MacHighway’s platform is also compatible with other operating systems, including Windows. It’s widely popular among users for its high-quality web hosting and email solutions. The website is neatly-organized and available in English only.
Features and Ease of Use
There’s a lot of hype around MacHighway and for good reason. Even though it doesn’t offer cloud hosting or dedicated servers, MacHighway provides premium-quality shared and VPS hosting services with a diverse range of powerful features and tools. These include:
- 99.9% guaranteed uptime
- Weebly site builder
- cPanel
- Application auto-installer
- Cloudflare CDN
What I like most about MacHighway is that it brings you Weebly’s exceptional drag-and-drop site building tools for free. This is one of the most intuitive builders on the market and enables you to easily build a professional website that’ll stand out and attract more visitors.
There are also many free goodies up for grabs, such as free cloud storage, free domain registration with annual plans, free Attracta SEO tools and search engine indexing, $100 Google Ads credit, free Cloudflare CDN, and a free one-click web application installer (including WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, phpBB, PrestaShop, and more).
Another advantage of MacHighway is its focus on security, offering users a range of security options. These include the SiteLock Malware Scanner, Trust Seal, advanced spam/virus filter, and SpamAssassin. With these features, you can ensure that your website stays protected and secure.
All that said, the one thing I don’t like about MacHighway is that it doesn’t provide much information about its data center. All I know is that the company has servers in Florida and Colorado, and that it uses 100% renewable wind power to guarantee 99.9% network uptime.
Pricing and Support
MacHighway isn’t only popular for its high-quality services, but also for its budget-friendly prices that’ll suit different needs. Its shared hosting packages come in three sizes: Small, Medium, and Large.
If you’re a beginner or a student who doesn’t need much web space to host your website, then I’d recommend the Small plan. You’ll get a generous ten gigs of storage, 20 email addresses, and support for a maximum of two websites. If that still isn’t enough, the Medium plan has unlimited disk space, unlimited email accounts, and support for a maximum of five websites.
For business owners and professional users, MacHighway’s Large package comes with support for an unlimited number of websites, unlimited email accounts, and unlimited web space. All packages come with unmetered bandwidth and annual subscriptions include one free domain registration. Unfortunately, SSL certificates won’t come free (or cheaply) with this provider.
MacHighway doesn’t charge any setup fees and offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can make payment via credit/debit cards or PayPal.
Moving onto customer support, MacHighway couldn’t be more customer-oriented. The website is well-designed, clear, and has an extensive support center with several tutorials, step-by-step guides, and a knowledge base filled with a copious amount of articles. Support is also available through a ticket system and phone. In addition, MacHighway offers an excellent 24/7 live chat channel, which I personally tested and couldn’t be more pleased.
How much does MacHighway cost?
MacHighway offers plans from $3 to $7. The price depends on which type of hosting plan you choose. You can see the updated pricing table (updated weekly) below.
Which MacHighway plan should I get?
My recommendation is to start with a cheaper plan. You can always upgrade later on. MacHighway can help you with the migration to a more expensive plan. The increase in visitors many times takes longer than expected and you shouldn’t pay a lot of money until the need arises. Of course, your needs may vary, and you can consult with a hosting expert from MacHighway here.
How good is MacHighway’s customer support?
MacHighway is not ranked as one of our top web hosts. But that can also be a result of MacHighway being a small, under the radar, hosting provider. There are advantages to a small hosting company – as a customer, you are more important to them. You can also check out our comparison of the most popular web hosting services here.
