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Romeo is a Dead Man is an action game in which you play as a guy named Romeo Stargazer who - in the first five minutes - has his face ripped off by some kind of demonic creature, only to be saved from the brink of death by his time traveling scientist grandfather and enlisted into the FBI’s Space-Time Police division and reborn as a cyborg known as DeadMan. Your enjoyment of the game may hinge on whether or not you vibe with this bewildering setup.

Review information

Platform reviewed: PS5
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Release date: February 11, 2026

It’s a bonkers premise that could only come from developer Grasshopper Manufacture, and the oddball creative minds of Goichi ‘Suda51’ Suda (killer7, No More Heroes, The Silver Case) and Ren Yamazaki (No More Heroes 3).

It’s quite appropriate, then, that Romeo is a Dead Man’s difficulty selection screen is presented as a literal box of chocolates, because you never really know what you’re going to get from a Grasshopper-developed game.

Romeo is a Dead Man is not a visually stunning tour de force for the action game genre. Its story that traverses time and space can be tough to follow along with, and its cast of utterly bizarre characters seems as random as they are deeply charming. It may even disappoint those looking for something as fleshed out as, say, a Devil May Cry or Bayonetta, with its relatively straightforward combat and short runtime.

Me, though? Outside of some wonky performance issues (and a somewhat disappointing final act), I greatly enjoyed almost every moment of Romeo is a Dead Man in the 12 hours it took me to finish the game. And I loved it even more when turning up the difficulty for a New Game Plus run, as that’s where the game really forces you to learn the nuances of its combat, varied enemy types, and the hilarious ‘Bastards’ summoning system (more on that in a bit).

It might not be your pick for game of the year, but considering it’s not a full-price title, I highly recommend Romeo is a Dead Man if you’re in the mood for a wonderfully weird action game that’ll stick in the memory long after you roll credits.

Killing the past, again and again

(Image credit: Grasshopper Manufacture)

So what is the deal with this Romeo fella? Long story short, he falls in love with a woman he finds injured on the road while out on patrol. She’s rather fittingly named Juliet, and after being rescued himself and enlisted with the Space-Time Police, Romeo learns that she’s an extraterrestrial capable of duplicating herself, adopting various powerful forms, and generally disrupting the flow of time. Hey, happens to the best of us, right?

Best bit

(Image credit: Grasshopper Manufacture)

Romeo is a Dead Man has a vibe all its own. My favorite thing about the game is that it's unashamedly unique in many aspects. The way it handles combat and its supporting systems is one thing, but the ambitious narrative that weaves together so many striking art styles is something that Grasshopper continues to excel at.

Thus, Romeo embarks on a quest (aided by the spirit of his grandpa, who assumes the appearance of a large patch on the back of Romeo’s jacket) to save space-time from Juliet and a menagerie of other very evil people.

It sounds utterly nonsensical, and that’s because it is, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary for games developed by Grasshopper Manufacture. What’s here in Romeo is a Dead Man isn’t as immediately parseable as, say, No More Heroes or Lollipop Chainsaw, but it doesn’t reach the dizzying ‘what on earth is going on’ heights of killer7 or The 25th Ward.

Romeo is a Dead Man, like the No More Heroes series, is a third-person 3D action game, but it loves to play around with other styles. Your hub is a spacecraft called the Last Night, and here you’ll be presented with a top-down, 2D pixel-based art style.

The ship is a joy to explore between missions, as there are plenty of colorful NPCs you can interact with for some fun dialogue. You might even recognize a couple of them from past Grasshopper works. My favorite has to be GreenRiver, a woman with - and I promise I’m not joking here - an encyclopedic knowledge of Premier League football/soccer club Manchester United and its most iconic strikers.

Vamos!

(Image credit: Grasshopper Manufacture)

Jumping into combat, then - the thing you’ll be doing most in Romeo is a Dead Man - you’ll find gameplay that’s very easy to pick up, but deceptively tricky to master. Especially at those higher difficulties.

Playing like a mixture of No More Heroes and Shadows of the Damned, Romeo primarily attacks with melee and ranged weapons, of which there are four of each. The weapon types are your pretty standard affair at a surface level. On the melee front, a balanced beam katana-like weapon is accompanied by a heavy but slow greatsword, and fast and agile fists, for example. Your ranged weapon options include a highly accurate pistol, as well as a shotgun, machine gun, and even a rocket launcher.

Going into Romeo is a Dead Man for the first time, I quite wrongly assumed that the ranged weapons wouldn’t feel nearly as useful or impactful as their melee counterparts. In actuality, they’re arguably your most essential option in combat.

Your standard zombie-like ‘Rotter’ enemies will tend to rush you down (some even plagued with nasty status effects) and thus are best dispatched with melee. However, more specialist enemy types that dot mobs in less frequent numbers will typically require you to shoot at weak points first for massive damage. These targets should take high priority, too; one is a ballerina-like monster that can buff all other enemies around it. While another can drop dangerous landmines in your vicinity.

Combat can be tough as you dance around mobs and prioritize certain enemy types. Rotters are largely fodder, but they effectively act as fuel for Romeo’s ‘Bloody Summer’, a devastating attack that does massive damage to anything it touches, which you’ll charge up by landing hits on enemies in the first place.

The game’s superb boss fights will then take everything you’ve learned - knowing when to attack and avoid, and carefully hunting for weak spots on these larger targets - and bookend each chapter with style. Bosses have terrifyingly grotesque designs and come with several mechanics and moves of their own you’ll need to learn. Especially, again, at those higher difficulty levels.

Bring in the Bastards

(Image credit: Grasshopper Manufacture)

Without a doubt, Romeo is a Dead Man’s weirdest, quirkiest, and most charming gameplay system is the ‘Bastards.’ You might want to sit down for this one. Bastards are zombie-like creatures (that honestly look alarmingly similar to killer7's Heaven Smiles) that you’ll grow and cultivate at home base on the Last Night.

They come with their own stats and parameters (such as attack power and cooldown rate), and a specialty to aid you in battle. During stages, you’ll collect Bastard seeds of three rarities, with the most desirable ones offering the most power, naturally.

By holding L1 and pressing another button, you can summon one of the four Bastards you’ve brought into a stage. There are so many different types, and almost all are useful and can help you form a playstyle all your own. One Bastard, for example, draws the attention of all enemies around it. Others still can freeze enemies, form a powerful energy beam between themselves and Romeo, and even plant a temporary weak spot on a foe.

There are tons of different Bastard types, to the point where I don’t think I even saw the majority of them in my initial 12-hour playthrough. You can even fuse two Bastards together, forming a new seed that, upon cultivation, will create a more powerful version based on those base Bastards’ stats.

It’s not the most straightforward system, but once I had my head around it, creating new and powerful Bastards almost felt like a game in and of itself. And with everything carrying over to New Game Plus (Bastards, Romeo’s stats, weapons, and more), there’s plenty of replay value to be had with Romeo is a Dead Man thanks to its fast-paced action and relatively short runtime.

Out of time

(Image credit: Grasshopper Manufacture)

There’s a decent amount of side content in Romeo is a Dead Man, too, often rewarding you with upgrade currency and badges that you can equip to give Romeo various effects in battle. Partway through the game, you’ll unlock a Boss Rush-style mode, as well as Palace Athene; a procedurally-generated dungeon of four scaling difficulties that you’ll gradually unlock throughout the story.

I found Palace Athene to be the weakest aspect of Romeo is a Dead Man. All difficulties of it share a pretty bland street-like aesthetic, and its narrow corridors can make dealing with enemies a real pain. Worst of all, though, these dungeons completely tank the game’s performance - likely due to the entire thing being rendered all at once. It’s horrendous to play at the highest difficulty setting, as that’s where the largest dungeons lie, and those are populated by the highest volume of enemies.

Another thing about Romeo is a Dead Man that, I think, could’ve been handled better is its closing chapters. The final two levels heavily reuse assets and locations found elsewhere in the game. And while the last couple of bosses are brilliant, the act of getting to them is a seriously painful gauntlet that completely ditches the often clever and semi-explorable design of earlier levels.

It’s something that really strikes me as odd; Romeo is a Dead Man is a self-published game. Which means Grasshopper, presumably, wasn't tied down by strict publisher deadlines. It’s a real shame, especially given the relatively high quality of the rest of the game. Well, bar one horror-themed stage that strips all your weapons away for a forced stealth section. Wasn’t too keen on that part, either.

Stages are often interspersed with trips to an alternate dimension known as Subspace, and I'd say these were the weakest parts of the game for me. While they do provide a nice break from combat, they can often drag on a bit too long with mazelike design and extremely simple puzzles. They get worse as the game progresses, too, as they tend to get longer with each passing stage.

These issues aside, I found plenty to love about Romeo is a Dead Man. As a huge fan of Grasshopper’s prior works, I certainly wasn’t let down by the game, and I’m happy to see the creative juices flowing once again at the developer. Especially after the rather rushed and divisive (but still mostly great) No More Heroes 3.

Romeo’s eclectic shifting of art styles, amazing soundtrack, the way it tells its story across cutscenes, comic books, even one or two visual novel-style sections - it all adds up to form a wonderfully unpredictable ride; one I really didn’t want to get off.

Should you play Romeo is a Dead Man?Play it if...

You feel the AAA space has gotten a bit bland
Romeo is a Dead Man is a sensational palette cleanser if you’ve gotten a bit sick of big-budget open-world games and the checklist-style design they often employ. By comparison, Romeo is an undiluted injection of fun, madness, and irreverence. It’s an extremely confident game that won’t be for everyone, but if you dig it, you won’t soon forget the time you spent playing it.

You want fast-paced combat with a twist
The Bastards system is a brilliant addition to combat in Romeo is a Dead Man, and can really help you overcome the game’s higher difficulties when used in creative ways. You’ll even randomly generate a name and hobby for them upon cultivation, lending a bit of personalized charm that makes me smile every time.

You like weird, offbeat stories
Romeo’s journey is far from simple, and the game has a story to back that up. It’s bizarre and unpredictable, but not so much that it comes off as contradictory or pretentious. A cast of intensely likeable characters, however minor, also really helps the story and its overall presentation.

Don't play it if...

You would’ve preferred a longer game
Romeo is a Dead Man is pretty lean, at around 12 hours long for a first playthrough on the standard difficulty setting. While I’d argue there’s plenty of replay value to be had (I’m halfway through my first New Game Plus run), the rather abrupt way the game wraps up could certainly leave you wanting more, as it did me.

Accessibility

There’s little in the way of dedicated accessibility options here. You can toggle melee and ranged weapon aim assists, and there are three distinct colorblind settings (protanopia, deuteranopia, and tritanopia) available. You can also adjust the intensity of these colorblind options, too.

How I reviewed Romeo is a Dead Man

I completed Romeo is a Dead Man from start to finish in around 12 hours, on PlayStation 5. That playtime included the whole main campaign, all Palace Athene instances, some Boss Rush time, and heading off the beaten path to find optional upgrades and collectibles. I played the game with a DualSense Wireless Controller, on an LG CX OLED TV, and with my gaming headset of choice, the Nacon RIG 900 Max HS.

First reviewed February 2026

When celebrating the 40th anniversary of Super Mario, I expected something more substantial for gaming's most iconic character than Mario Tennis Fever. But even if it's not a brand-spanking new platformer, the ridiculous success of Mario Kart 8 means it would be unwise to dismiss a Mario spin-off.

Review info

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
Available on: Nintendo Switch 2
Release date: February 12, 2026

Mario sports spin-offs have always been a fun arcade sports alternative to the more serious simulations. But Fever feels like it takes the most inspiration from Mario Kart, while retaining the solid tennis mechanics of its predecessors to make for a more fulsome Nintendo Switch 2 game.

It also does the opposite of what Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash back on the Wii U failed to do, and that's layering these mechanics with a wide variety of content, whether that's different modes and challenges or just having a large roster of characters and fever rackets to unlock so that you can mix up and experiment with the combinations to keep the gameplay feeling fresh.

But with Mario fans having to make do with re-releases like Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2, and the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 edition of Super Mario Bros. Wonder, is Mario Tennis Fever going to be enough to satisfy those hankering for a truly new Mario title?

Courting with content

(Image credit: Nintendo)

As the first new Mario game for the Switch 2 since launch title Mario Kart World, Fever makes less of a strong case than the faux-pen world racer as an exclusive for Nintendo's new hardware.

Apart from the motion controls of Swing mode previously included in its Switch 1 predecessor, there's a lack of any hardware gimmicks or technical grunt. The most clear difference from previous instalments is that Fever gives more bang for your buck - as it should, being the most expensive Mario Tennis title to date.

The main menu is packed with different modes to play, and sometimes breaks down into further modes. For instance, Ring Shot from Mario Tennis Aces returns, but this time just as one of many other modes under Mix it Up. Here, even more unusual rules come into play, which are also linked to the themed court you're playing in.

For example, one court is designed like a pinball machine where you and the ball can get bounced off pinball bumpers that pop up from the ground or the side, while another is themed after Super Mario Bros. Wonder, where hitting a Wonder Flower causes random things to happen.

This does, however, mean the annoying Talking Flower is a character here, and actually serves as the commentator. You'll also find that even though there's an option to turn off commentary, there will still be times when you can't shut him up.

Best bit

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Although Adventure mode is short and largely consists of tutorials, its latter half does make up for it, where instead of just tennis matches, you've also got some fun boss fights to make use of your tennis skills to defeat. It's the closest you'll get to a Mario game.

If you're after something more traditional, Tournament mode offers different tiers of difficulty playable in singles and doubles. A more unconventional challenge, however, is Trial Towers, where you have to complete a run of pre-set challenges with just three lives, progress resetting once you've failed three times.

What makes these trials fun is that each challenge has its own conditions, and also gives you a different character to play as, a good way to force you to mix things up if you're usually only sticking with one or two characters.

That choice of how and who to play is arguably one of Fever's strengths, with a total roster of 36 characters to unlock, more if you take into account the different colour options of several characters, such as Yoshi. There's a nice sense of progression that you'll always be unlocking something new, be it a new character, court, or difficulty mode, especially as some of these come from just playing a set number of matches.

So even if you eat dirt in an online match, you can at least console yourself that it counts towards your goal of unlocking something else. Any piece of grayed-out content will also tell you what you need to achieve to unlock it, which helps with working towards ticking off your achievements.

Fever dream

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Adding to that variety is, of course, the introduction of Fever Rackets. The best way of describing it is basically if you put Mario Kart-style items into a tennis match. Once you fill up your Fever gauge, you can activate this on the next returning ball, while having a short window to aim where in the court for it to go, and create all sorts of shenanigans on the court for your opponent.

Flame Racket, for example, scatters flames around where the ball lands, but this is also different from the Fire Bar racket, which creates one of those iconic spinning fire bars on the ground. Then there are rackets that give you an advantage, like having a shadow double running away to return shots for you, or another where you instantly dash to impossible lengths to catch a returning shot.

While these rackets can disrupt and even cause damage to an opponent, they're also not meant to be an ace. Where Mario Tennis Aces could let you win a match by breaking an opponent's racket, a KO isn't an instant forfeit in Fever. It's also possible to counter fever shots by returning the ball before it lands on the ground, meaning you can return a fever racket's effects back to the other player, potentially building up a tense rally with the knowledge that the loser is going to have the disadvantage of mud, slippery ice, or worse to stick out at least the next point.

If you'd rather not do with the gimmicks, then you can also just play classic tennis, where in the ranked online mode, you can choose between singles and doubles modes with or without fever rackets, while on the other extreme, Free Play or custom online lobbies gives you the option to pick two fever rackets in a match then swap between them before a serve so you can change up tactics.

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Where fever shots feel underutilised is in the game's Adventure mode, which is also on the short side, even though it has some lovely presentation, including several of the best-looking cinematics in a Mario game since Luigi's Mansion 3.

Even the premise, which finds Mario, Luigi, and Peach (as well as the no-good Wario and Waluigi) turning into babies, is a fun idea that also justifies having to train Baby Mario back to his prime through a role-playing game-style levelling system.

Unfortunately, this also means much of the campaign is a glorified tutorial where you're being taught (and occasionally quizzed) by multiple Toads in every aspect of tennis, with the fever mechanics reduced more to aiming at an enemy weak spot. While there are some well-designed minigames in this section, which can also be replayed on higher difficulties, it's deflating to discover that the adventure proper will have you racing through its world map in and the whole campaign over in about 4 hours.

It's not without some highlights, though if you've already dipped into some of the other modes, there'll also be a touch of deja vu in some of the challenges encountered. The consolation is that there is at least plenty more for you to do in Fever, even if you've rolled credits in Adventure mode.

Should you play Mario Tennis Fever?Play it if...

You're after a variety of content in a wacky arcade tennis game
Mario Tennis Fever keeps things fresh with a generous variety of content, from unlockable characters to unlockable fever rackets, so that you're never far away from having something new to play with and master.

You want a fun tennis game to play with friends
The tennis mechanics are simple enough that you can play with a friend out of the box with a single Joy-Con 2 each, either with in-button or swing modes. You can play against each other or together in doubles, and multiplayer supports up to four players local or online, and even using Game Share locally, where only the host needs to own the game.

Don't play it if...

You're after a deep Adventure mode campaign
While there's plenty to be unlocked just playing matches or the different modes on offer, if you're after a meaty story mode, then you may find it short-lived when it's over in a few hours.

Accessibility features

Mario Tennis Fever doesn't have accessibility settings specifically, but its settings do allow for adjustments, such as performing moves like lobs and drop shots as one-button inputs, which you can assign to the bumpers or triggers. The camera position can also be adjusted between standard and raised perspectives, and you can also set which racket hand your character is using in both button and swing modes.

(Image credit: Nintendo)How I reviewed Mario Tennis Fever

I played Mario Tennis Fever for about 15 hours on Nintendo Switch 2, which included completing Adventure mode and unlocking a substantial amount of content over 100 matches across different modes. This also included playing some local and online multiplayer matches, but not its Game Share functionality.

I played primarily in docked mode on an LG C2 OLED TV with the default TV speakers. I played mostly with a Switch 2 Pro Controller, but also tested it in handheld mode, as well as the Joy-Con 2 for swing mode.

First reviewed February 2026

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Mario Tennis Fever injects its fun arcade sports gameplay with Mario Kart-style antics, with a variety of content to unlock and mayhem to master, even if its Adventure mode could have been more substantial.

Intel's Nova Lake flagship is rumored to have eye-opening power usage — but I don't think this is anything to worry about (yet).

A modder has released a new Witcher 3 questline that acts as a prelude to The Witcher 4 and stars Ciri, and it took them approximately 800 hours to create.

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Atlantic.net is one of the older brands in the web hosting industry. Founded in 1994, its history stretches even further back than common consumer-oriented hosts like GoDaddy and IONOS. It was also among the earliest providers of cloud hosting.

Today, Atlantic.net boasts formidable infrastructure, operating from data centers spanning the globe and covering multiple regions from New York to Singapore.

Unlike most mass-market web hosts, Atlantic.net focuses on the more technical end of the spectrum. It offers cloud hosting, dedicated servers, GPU hosting, and specialized managed services. You can also get specialized options here, such as HIPAA and PCI hosting.

What types of hosting does Atlantic.net offer?

Aside from some typical hosting products most will recognize, like cloud hosting, the rest of Atlantic.net's product line is best described as either high-performance or meant for control and compliance. These primarily affect companies with specific regulatory, privacy, or other needs.

Cloud hosting

(Image credit: Future)

Atlantic.net's cloud hosting range is the most recognizable and should suit everyone, from regular users to developers and SMEs. It's also the most flexible, offering scalability from micro (1 CPU, 2GB RAM, Linux at $8/mo) to "wow" (32 CPUs, 192GB RAM, Linux at $816/mo).

This is surprisingly cheap compared to other cloud providers like DigitalOcean and VULTR, where plans with the same specifications cost $10/mo (the same at both providers). And that's not even mentioning Cloudways, which offers a managed Cloud at those same specs for $278/mo.

Pricing is also daily flexible, with customers able to choose between on-demand, 1-year, and 3-year terms. Naturally, the 3-year term option offers the greatest price reduction. You can also choose Windows-based cloud plans, but they cost more due to licensing fees.

Cloud hosting plans are also sub-categorized to cater to those with specific needs. This includes storage-optimized, memory-optimized, and compute-optimized plans. Each of these plans have their resource allocations tweaked to best serve your needs.

GPU cloud hosting

(Image credit: Future)

In the booming age of AI, GPUs have become more essential than ever before. If you're dabbling in this area, Atlantic.net offers a good range of NVIDIA-based GPU cloud hosting plans. The plans start at 32 CPU and 192GB of RAM with a single NVIDIA L40S card and range up to 224 CPU and 1920GB of RAM with 8 NVIDIA H100NVL cards.

Prices for these plans are naturally hefty (from a consumer's perspective) and start at $1058/mo on 3-year terms. At the upper end of the scale, expect to pay up to $19,262/mo on the same terms.

Dedicated hosting and bare metal

(Image credit: Future)

Atlantic.net's dedicated hosting plans start at pretty modest levels. That means servers with 6 cores, 8 threads, and 128GB of RAM for $266/mo on 3-year terms. At the high end of the scale are servers with 32 cores, 64 threads, and 1TB of RAM for $1,895/mo on the same terms.

Bare-metal servers are priced lower, with the starter server offering 6 cores, 12 threads, and 64GB of RAM for $138/mo (sale price). On the other end of the scale, it goes to 64 cores, 128 threads, and 256GB of RAM for $495/mo. You can also reach out to them to create a customized server that fits your requirements.

Specialized hosting plans (HIPAA and PCI)

(Image credit: Future)

Unlike regular web hosting plans that are loosely marketed by many service providers, specialized offerings like HIPAA and PCI hosting are beasts of an entirely different nature. You can't simply slap a "secure" label on a standard server and call it compliant.

Atlantic.net builds these environments from the ground up to pass audits and is one of the few providers willing to sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA), which legally binds them to protect your data. That's one of the most critical requirements for any HIPAA-compliant application.

Atlantic.net's HIPAA solutions offer pre-configured packages. These servers also include the full compliance stack (Firewall, VPN, Backups) for Windows or Linux servers. Prices range from $333/mo to $757/mo, with custom options available.

(Image credit: Future)

For those running ecommerce websites or online stores, PCI-compliance is where Atlantic.net shares your responsibilities. The company ensures that your hosting infrastructure (physical network, hardware, and OS) is secure, while you ensure your application code is compliant. Prices range from $416/mo to $6,872/mo.

How fast is Atlantic.net hosting?

Since Atlantic.net is currently offering new customers 1 year of free cloud hosting, we decided to go big and test a server with 4 CPUs and 8GB of RAM based in their Singapore data center. That was apparently a good choice, as we recorded some strong results in both core performance and resilience.

However, take these test results in context because, unlike most other hosts we test, this one had to be built and configured from scratch. That process alone took us two days (due to slight server-end technical hiccups), unlike shared hosting, where a few clicks will do.

WordPress benchmark testing (G3.8GB Plan)

CPU & Memory

Operations with large text data

10

Random binary data operations

8.2

Recursive mathematical calculations

7.4

Iterative mathematical calculations

9.55

Floating point operations

8.44

Filesystem

Filesystem write ability

9.28

Local file copy and access speed

9.5

Small file IO test

10

Database

Importing large amount of data to database

1.4

Simple queries on single table

6.12

Complex database queries on multiple tables

7.17

Object Cache

Persistent object cache enabled

0

Wordpress core

Shortcode processing

6.9

WordPress Hooks

8.83

WordPress option manipulation

8.18

REGEX string processing

7.94

Taxonomy benchmark

8.47

Object capability benchmark

9.08

Content filtering

4

JSON manipulations

7.03

Network

Network download speed test

9.63

Overall

Your server score

7.7

WordPress core benchmark scores were quite good, with strong results across all categories. However, the overall score of 7.7 wasn't particularly good compared to other unmanaged VPS providers, especially Bluehost.

Part of the reason for this is likely the lower CPU core speed of 2.5 GHz, which is slightly lower than what we see in most contemporary hosts. For example, Bluehost runs 4th-gen EPYCs at 2.7 GHz, while ScalaHosting sticks with Intel running at 3.6 GHz.

Siege test (G3.8GB Plan)

Concurrent users

5

9

15

Transactions

8582

10888

10584

Availability

100

100

100

Elapsed time

299.08

299.01

299.82

Data transferred

701.37

891.56

865.25

Response time

0.17

0.24

0.42

Transaction rate

28.69

36.41

35.3

Throughput

2.35

2.98

2.89

Concurrency

5

8.91

14.99

Successful transactions

8582

10888

10584

Failed transactions

0

0

0

Longest transaction

5.42

5.26

6.16

Shortest transaction

0.02

0.02

0.02

True to form, with decent server specs, Atlantic.net held up well under siege, passing all three tests with 100% availability. It also did so without specific load-balancing features configured, showing similar results for longest transaction times even at high loads.

Customer support

(Image credit: Future)

Atlantic.net's customer support offers a "High Touch" approach that gives customers direct access to engineers, rather than navigating a maze of chatbots and menus.

This was proven during our test of their systems when he encountered issues with server provisioning. We sent a message to the support team from our customer dashboard and received a response within an hour.

The support staff at Atlantic.net knows what they're doing, and when first-line assistance can't help, problems are automatically escalated to the proper technical department. Our server provisioning issues were caused by a technical fault at their data center, and engineers worked overnight to resolve the complex issue within 12 hours.

You get several support channels here, including phone, email, a ticket system, and live chat. The support channels are available 24/7. However, it's essential to understand that support is available at several tiers, depending on the packages you purchase.

For self-help, there is a blog section that covers some content, but we find it a little unstructured and challenging to access. Seeking an answer from Google seemed faster - even if the answer leads you back to Atlantic.net's content. There is, however, very visible and extensive API documentation covering everything from authentication to DNS.

Who should use Atlantic.net?

Server deployment at Atlantic.net is fairly easy. (Image credit: Future)

Atlantic.net is a little special from our point of view. It's unlike Cloudways, which comes with an excellent server management dashboard. However, it's unlike a typical cloud provider because it lets you deploy servers that are fully configured to run specific apps, such as WordPress. You can even choose the deployment framework, such as a traditional LAMP stack or Docker.

That makes it technically usable by a broad range of users, while also being highly flexible in its options. Here, though, we have to insert a massive caveat. While deploying a WordPress-ready server (for example) works in a pinch, you'll still need technical skills to manage it. Imagine having to handle server security hardening, package updates, and everything else via the command line, and you'll get the idea.

Learning to manage your server via Linux command line may not be everyone's cup of tea. (Image credit: Future)

At the end of the day, the overall vibe it gives off is highly technical and professional. Because of this, we feel that Atlantic.net is suitable for either those with more niche requirements or, at the very least, certain categories of individuals with a decent level of technical skills, such as developers, system administrators, and the like.

So, who do we recommend it for? Here's a short list:

Healthcare Organizations and MedTech Startups: This is the group that will find Atlantic.net the most vital. Specific products here help them to solve a complex problem. For example, in healthcare, the biggest hosting headache isn't technical, but legal compliance.

SMEs without IT Teams: Thanks to managed services, Atlantic.net becomes accessible to a much broader market. SMEs that need more robust hosting but lack technical backing can rely on these services to move forward.

Ecommerce and Fintech Companies: The vital points to consider here are security and, again, compliance. Atlantic.net's PCI-Ready hosting options make this abundantly clear. Additionally, the 100% Uptime SLA and scalability can prove lifesavers during the sales season.

Final verdict

It would be a mistake to take Atlantic.net as your run-of-the-mill cloud provider. It's highly scalable and flexible, plus gives relatively non-technical customers some quality-of-life tools to make cloud hosting more manageable.

But don't expect it to be as simple to manage as Cloudways. That makes sense as well, since Atlantic.net charges significantly less. Almost half as much as Cloudways, plus Atlantic.net throws in more system resources.

For those seeking a middle ground between affordability and ease of use, Atlantic.net is definitely worth looking into.

Atlantic.net FAQIs Atlantic.net HIPAA compliant?

Yes, Atlantic.net is HIPAA compliant. It offers a fully audited HIPAA-compliant hosting environment and is willing to sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA). This document is required by law to share liability for protecting patient data. Their compliance stack includes encrypted VPNs, off-site backups, and intrusion detection systems.

Where are Atlantic.net’s data centers located?

Atlantic.net claims to operate a global network of data centers to ensure low latency and compliance with local regulations. However, when we signed up for a cloud plan, our options seemed limited to various US locations plus Singapore.

Will Atlantic.net help me migrate my existing website or application?

Atlantic.net claims to operate a global network of data centers to ensure low latency and compliance with local regulations. However, when we signed up for a cloud plan, our options seemed limited to various US locations plus Singapore.

How does the billing work for Atlantic.net cloud VPS?

Atlantic.net uses a per-second billing model for its cloud platform that's similar to Cloudways. While there is a set monthly fee, that's more of an upper-end cap. The reality is that you only pay for the exact time your server is running (not the time it's idle).

Does Atlantic.net support Windows or just Linux?

Atlantic.net is one of the few remaining places that offer Windows-based plans, especially across almost its entire product range. That means Windows Server editions (2016, 2019, 2022) across both their Cloud VPS and Dedicated Server lines.

Atlantic.net offers an excellent range of unmanaged hosting plans, with the option to add-on expert managed services.

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