In an industry of relentless mergers and acquisitions, pair is unique from the starting gate: they are still privately-owned even after more than a decade of extraordinary growth. This allows for an environment of truly supportive staff as well as management. CEO Kevin Martin is perhaps the single most accessible executive I've ever met. Either he truly enjoys spending his time in the message boards, email, or phone with his customers, or he truly realizes how brilliant such a strategy is. My guess is both: he, and the entire staff at Pair, are among the most customer-driven I've seen in more than 15 years in technology. That doesn't mean every request from every customer gets honored; that'd be impracticle. But it does mean serious consideration, and an ALWAYS open ear. Pair listens to their customers--intently and constantly.

I've been with Pair since their second month of operation. They started out with a single T-1 line a couple systems and a $10,000 family loan. Today they are the largest privately owned web hosting company in the world, and consistently profitable. Their services are almost unmatched in terms of features and value, and their services are very scalable. As my sites have grown (or in some cases gotten smaller), their service has been accomodating in both directions. On the fly as system demands dictate, or upon request.

What REALLY sets Pair apart is how intricately well balanced their features and value are with security, reliability, and consistent network and system performance. Don't be lulled by the marketing of other hosting providers--pair is well intentioned, well managed and consistent in their promises. Other vendors habitually over-promise and under-deliver, or offer features that on the surface sound fantastic but fail to sufficiently serve and protect behind the scenes. The result with those vendors is relentless frustration, hours upon hours of customer service calls, unpredictable security, and bottleneck performance that affects EVERYONE on a system, much less a broader network.

With Pair you know what you're getting, and you can always rest assured that it will be delivered in the best possible way. And if you ever have your doubts? Just email them. They are surprisingly and consistently transparent with their operations and performance metrics, and incredibly open-minded.

It is worth checking out and kicking the tires for a month. That was my plan, and here I am 11 or so years later still using their services. I've been with Pair more than twice as long as I've ever been with any other IT service vendor.