Network Solutions Ratings

Looks good overall, though a bit pricey, and has some negative reviews. Caution!
Click here to visit Network Solutions

Or click here to see the recommended shared web hosting companies instead.

Summary

Network Solutions have been in business for a very long time now, and have compiled a large suite of services to offer their clients, from hosting plans to designing websites. Navigating this large assortment of options can be a challenge, and the prices are a bit higher than other hosting sites. Overall, they appear to be a hit and miss company depending on the person using the services.

Quick Facts About Network Solutions

• Network Solutions hosting was founded in 1979, hosting websites since 1995.
• Web Hosting Services: Shared (Small) Plan ($9.29/month), Shared (Large)  Plan ($12.41/month), Shared Unlimited  Plan ($27.18).
• Phone: 1-800-361-5712

Products and Services by Network Solutions

Trying to find the best hosting option available on Network Solutions proves to be a bit of a challenge. They have three different tiers for shared hosting, and the prices change depending on how long you are willing to pre-pay for the service.

The Small Shared Hosting plan starts at $9.29/month for a year contract, and with that you receive: 300 GB of hard drive space, 3000 GB of bandwidth, a free domain name, and 1000 email accounts.

The Large Shared Hosting plan is $12.41/month and gives you the following upgrades: 500 GB of space, 5000 GB of bandwidth, 2500 email accounts, but only the one domain name.

The Unlimited Plan is $27.18/month and gives you: Unlimited bandwidth, unlimited hard drive space, 3 domain names, and unlimited amount of email accounts.

Slightly confusing is that Network Solutions offers an additional plan for WordPress blog hosting. This plan starts at $4.13/month for a year contract, and gives you: 50 GB of hard drive space, 500 GB of bandwidth, one free domain name, and online marketing credits to help advertise your website. This is a steal of a deal for people just starting off with blogging.

In addition to the Shared Hosting plans and the WordPress hosting plans, Network Solutions has a wide assortment of services available: domain name registration ($35.00 without a hosting plan), website design, eCommerce websites, online marketing services, and various packages of services to get your website started. For example, their WebAddress Basic package is $34.99/year and includes one web page, domain name, and an email account. This option is only viable for people wanting to create niche mini-sites or need a landing page for an affiliate link.

Hostorian’s Review of Network Solutions

Network Solutions’ Performance

Network Solutions Hosting offers a 99.99% guarantee for uptime, plus a 30 day limited money-back guarantee.

Network Solutions’ Features

All plans contain the features that are becoming standard across all hosting companies. They include different options for blogging (WordPress, b2evolution, BlogEngine.net), Content Management Systems (Joomla, Drupal, Mambo, DotNetNuke), Wikis (TikiWiki, PHPWiki, and ScrewTurn Wiki), Message Forum, eCommerce (Magneto), Project Management, and more.

Support and Customer Care by Network Solutions

Support for Network Solutions Hosting has almost as many options as their hosting packages. They offer free 24/7 phone and email support, 365 days a year. They also have a series of video tutorials, user guides, support forum, knowledge base, getting started guides, and a domain maintenance guide. If you need assistance doing anything website related, you can find it on this site.

Pros

• Offers great choices for software to get your website operational right away.
• Plenty of hosting options available to find the perfect solution for your site.
• Offers a lot of services to help your website and business succeed.

Cons

• Domain name registrations are expensive compared to the competition.
• Site is overly complicated in setting up a website.
• Plenty of negative reviews out there, including complaints of the support staff being located overseas.

Actual Customer Reviews for Network Solutions

“Absolute worst email service I have experienced (and I have been around since email was invented . Constantly battling to simply log on to the site. Constantly tossed off for no apparent reason. Horribly slow response time. Doesn’t work with Internet explorer. Doesn’t scroll properly on my iPhone. I could go on and on but I refuse to let Network Solutions ruin another morning for me!” - NS User

“I have been with Network Solutions for over 10 years…I have NEVER had any problems with Customer Service…it has been fantastic…I have NEVER had my two sites go down…I have NEVER had any issues with the email packages…I have NEVER had ANY problems with image cafe…
I believe the negative reviews are not valid…nor do I think they are written my true NS customers…I have been with NS TOO long know what’s what…
Cmon people…get a grip…
Network Solutions has been nothing but FANTASTIC to me and my two sites…” - Mooosie2

“Used to be great. Not too sure recently. Customer service now offshore and hard to understand and not very responsive. After two days of inoperative email and no resolution to the matter, as well as inconstant information, I am seriously considering a change. to my email and web hosting.” - Fred Carmean

Verdict of this Network Solutions Review

Network Solutions looks like a company that has a lot going for it if you judge it from looking at the website alone. It can be tricky to navigate and to find exactly what you are looking for. Sometimes having too many options is not a good thing when it comes to site design packages.

The prices are a bit high when looking at domain registration or the basic shared hosting accounts, but the WordPress Blog Hosting prices look like a great deal. I would highly recommend checking this site out for your hosting needs, except some of the customer reviews raise red flags for me. Some of the problems were for large sites, but people do not seem to have much luck when it comes to their email services or the customer support. Some complained about the support being overseas help after the office hours had finished and had problems communicating effectively with the support staff. Others complained of their site going down completely and services being canceled.

That being said, all the negative reviews were balanced by positive reviews. I am not sure which way to lean in terms of recommending this hosting company, so I would advise in backing up all your data along the way to ensure your site remains secure and portable to another option if problems arise.

Click here to go to the official Network Solutions website.

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IX Web Hosting Ratings

An excellent web host — highly recommended!
Click here to visit IX Web Hosting’s website

Summary

ix Web hosting has been in business for just over ten years, and they show their love for customers in several ways. They have a great support system for clients, have specials happening throughout the year, and offer a free 7 day trial, plus a 30 day money-back guarantee after those first seven days. They have a lot of other services to offer beyond a hosting account, allowing you to find the ideal product for your site.

Quick Facts About IX Web Hosting

• ix Web hosting was founded in 1999, has 110,000 clients, and hosts 470,000 sites.
• Web Hosting Services: Expert Plan ($3.95/month), Unlimited Pro Plan ($7.95), Business Plan ($7.95).
• Phone: 800-385-0450

Products and Services by IX Web Hosting

ix Web Hosting has three hosting plans available. The Expert Plan is priced at $3.95/month, Unlimited at $7.95, and Business at $7.95.

All three plans include unlimited amount of domain names to host, unlimited bandwidth, and an unlimited amount of storage space. That is simply outstanding pricing for the Expert Plan, but it gets even better. It includes a free domain name registration (3 for Unlimited, and 2 for Business Plus). The main differences between the hosting plans occurs with the amount of MySQL databases and their capacities, and the amount of email accounts and the inbox storage. With the Unlimited Pro account, you receive 10 GB of space to host an unlimited amount of email accounts. The Unlimited Pro account is accurate when it says it’s unlimited.

Hostorian’s Review of IX Web Hosting

IX Web Hosting’s Performance

ix Web Hosting offers a 99.9% guarantee for uptime, plus a 30 day money-back guarantee for all hosting plans.

In addition, there is a free 7 day trial available, and your credit card is not charged until after those seven days have expired.  They also offer UPS Power/Back-up Generator, Firewall protection, 24/7 server monitoring service, and a spam filter.

IX Web Hosting’s Features

All hosting plans come with the ability to install different web software, forums, blogs, online shops, and CMS. Unfortunately, they do not include a list of the software that is available to install. There is also free web templates to use, an online web editor, full multimedia support (Flash, streaming audio, streaming video), and full support for all major scripting languages.

Support and Customer Care by IX Web Hosting

Support for ix Web Hosting comes in four different flavours: 24/7 phone support, 24/7 ticket system, live chat during business hours, and a catalogue of video tutorials.

Topics for the videos vary from setting up an email client for your account, transferring your domain, and setting up WordPress, amongst others. They are all very informative and easy to understand.

Something a bit different about ix Web Hosting is that they assign you a Support Hero, someone you get to know over the length of your hosting contract that can help you out with all your issues. I thought this is a nice touch, because the support person would have first-hand knowledge of any previous issues you have had.

Pros

• Great pricing with lots of features included.
• Personal Support person assigned to handle your account.
• Great reviews from current clients.

Cons

• No clear list of software available to install
• A few customers noted downtimes, but ix Web Hosting is open about their issues over at  http://status.ixwebhosting.com

Actual Customer Reviews for IX Web Hosting

“Ix has solved every problem encountered in a professional and timely manner. The support has been great on all matters needing attention. Live support waiting time was very minimal for the few times help was needed and all issues were resolved to my satisfaction.” - Donald Clem

“Generally there were a few issues to start but I have found that with most hosting companies. Ix have consistently helped me to do things that other hosts just refer you to articles to read.
I don’t usually write reviews but have felt that after reading many reviews that it is only fair to give credit where it is due.” - Trevor L

“I had a problem today and Alexey has assisted me, his support was amazing, professional and friendly. I love the online chat, always get great results and what I most love is that no-one treats me as an idiot even though I have limited knowledge of websites and no knowledge of programming.
Thank you! Alway recommend for others, has been hosting our other businesses for over 5 years with ix.” - Erika

Verdict of this IX Web Hosting Review

ix Web Hosting looks like one of the best kept secrets for hosting companies. They offer a lot, especially if you’re willing to pay the extra dollar a month to get the Unlimited plan, and their prices are extremely low in comparison to some other companies out there. The plans are loaded with features, and has the great option to try out their services risk-free for seven days. That gives you plenty of time to get familiar with the administrative tools and the tutorial videos.

Some customers noted some down times, but after scanning over the status logs that ix Web Hosting posts, some of them are fairly minor, and I have yet to see a duplicate issue. One user suggested that if your business needed a solid 24/7 uptime that they choose a different hosting solution.

Because of all the positive reviews that I came across on the web, I will have to say ix Web Hosting is one of the best companies available on the web to host your site on. It is rare to come across a company that receives positive comments, is customer service oriented, and has some great web tutorials. ix Web Hosting is highly recommended and gets a rating of 4.5/5.

Click here to go to IX Web Hosting’s official website.

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ImHosted Web Hosting Ratings

A poorly rated web host. Not recommended!
Click here to visit ImHosted’s website

Or click here to see other top rated shared web hosting companies instead.

Summary

ImHosted appears to have been a great company that has slowly gone downhill. They claim to serve customers in 78 countries, and their Facebook fan page has nearly 4,000 fans, but no current reviews of the company could be found. Their prices are reasonable, but there are better options out there.

Quick Facts About ImHosted

• imhosted serves customers in 78 countries.
• imhosted data servers are located in Dallas, TX and Atlanta, GA.
• Web Hosting Services: Simple Plan ($4.95/month), Power Plan ($9.95/month) – plus a 30 day money-back guarantee.
• Phone: (877) 777-0744

Products and Services by ImHosted

The Simple Plan ($4.95/month, $3.95/month if prepaid for a year) offers the most basic service. You receive 10 GB of space, 100 GB of bandwidth, but you’re only able to host one domain. With the Power Plan ($9.95/month, $7.95/month if prepaid for a year), you get unlimited domains, bandwidth, and hosting space.

In addition, you receive 110+ one-click install scripts (including WordPress, b2evolution, Joomla, Drupal, CubeCart, ZenCart, etc.), unlimited email and ftp accounts, a full suite of web statistics, direct server access, and much more.

Hostorian’s Review of ImHosted

ImHosted’s Performance

imhosted offers a 99.98% guarantee for uptime, and 100% customer satisfaction.

ImHosted’s Features

In addition to the usual features included in a hosting plan, imhosted also provides you with a one year subscription to MegaTemplate.com ($60 value), and $215 value in ad credit coupons with services like Yahoo and Miva. The services also include a professional web design tool, and the use of cPanel to control your server.

Support and Customer Care by ImHosted

Support for imhosted comes in many options, including 24/7 phone support, a ticket system, extensive knowledge base, and flash video tutorials. Some of the answers given in the knowledge base are fairly brief, but the video tutorials were quite instructive in nature.

Pros

• Offers great choices for software to get your website operational right away.
• Extensive knowledge base and flash tutorials
• Reasonably priced, and well worth it if you prepay for a year.

Cons

• No real upgrade between the two service packages apart from unlimited domains and bandwidth.
• Poor customer reviews, but all reviews are dated from 2009 and earlier.
• No good reviews for customer support.

Actual Customer Reviews for ImHosted

“I would think twice about this host. I canceled right away as their support sucked. So they refunded my money. Next month I am not their client any more and they billed me anyway. So I asked for a refund. They answered one email and said checking into. No response ever again. And No Refund Ever Came!” - Kevin G

“As a user of this host for over 3 years I can say that this site is incredibly over farmed. My reason for using it was strictly that 3 years ago they offered a competitive price, however, as technology has significantly improved competitors now offer better prices while their price have stayed the same and their servers have become bloated and more and more unreliable. My users constantly complain that they are blocked from my website since Imhosted will block IP addresses indefinitely when their server becomes overloaded and Imhosted keeps these IP blocks secret so that as the owner of a website, I can’t even tell when a user of my website has been blocked. A sorry excuse for a host.” - GSplayer

“Please stay away at all costs! I currently have 2 sites on ImHosted. I asked for an updated release of PHP, as they were still using 4.4.5? on the shared server I was on. All they told me was that they will be updating their servers in a couple of days. Now, my sites have been inaccessible for days. I am not sure what they did, and their support is the worst. They definitely did not upgrade their servers. I have written them and am yet to get any answers.” - Rachel M

Verdict of this ImHosted Review

As mentioned in the summary, imhosted appears to be a company that has lived beyond its life expectancy. The fact that there are no reviews out there for the company that are within a year old, tells me that there aren’t that many new clients coming to the site. In fact, most reviews were from 2005-2007, which is considered ancient in the Internet Age.

Because of all the poor reviews out there were dated from before 2009, I would remain cautious with this company. They claim to have a 99.98% uptime, but on several reports I saw, there were outages at least once a week, if not more. They do offer a 30 day trial of the services, so take advantage of it for a month, but keep track of how often the service is unavailable to protect your future investment.

I can only rate imhosted as a 2.5/5, but may rate higher if there were more recent and positive reviews.

Click here to go to the ImHosted website.

Or click here to see the top rated shared hosting companies instead. (Recommended!)

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Host Papa Web Hosting Ratings

A poorly rated web host. Not recommended!
Click here to visit Host Papa’s website

Or click here to see other top rated shared web hosting companies instead.

Summary

Host Papa is a hosting company powered by 100% renewable energy sources. They focus on offering solutions for small to medium-size businesses. It is easy to make a decision on your hosting solution: just pick a duration for your site.

Quick Facts About Host Papa Web Hosting

• Host Papa is based out of Niagara Falls, NY and Oakville, ON in Canada
• Majority of customers are not happy with the services.
• Web Hosting Services: Price dependent on how long you sign up for. $4.95/month for 3 year contract, $5.95 for 2 years, $6.95 for 1 year.
• Phone: 888-959-7272

Products and Services by Host Papa

With Host Papa, you do have a lot of the features other hosting sites have, but there is a catch. With other companies, the hosting packages are tiered, meaning the more you pay, your services are upgraded (more bandwidth, domains, etc.) With Host Papa, the price of the package is dependent on the length of your contract, and you do not receive any upgrades in the services.

With the package, you receive: a free domain for life, unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth, 24/7 email support, online help, and a 30 day money-back guarantee. Pricing starts at $6.95/month for a one year contract, $5.95/month for a two year plan, and $4.95/month for a three year contract.

Hostorian’s Review of Host Papa

Host Papa’s Performance

Host Papa offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee, with 24/7 network monitoring, UPS power backup, and a triple redundant firewall protection.

Host Papa’s Features

The standard features are available at Host Papa, such as one click install for popular software (WordPress, Joomla, B2evolution, ZenCart, and more), uses CPanel for FTP control, and unlimited email accounts.

The features that are being offered at Host Papa that may not be available everywhere are ad credits to several services, and a free website builder (SohoLaunch), and hundreds of design templates. The ad credits are for Google Adwords ($25), Yahoo ($25), MySpace ($25), Miva ($25), Ask ($50), and Bidvertiser Advertising Network ($25). That’s a total of $175 of free advertising to get the site off to a great start.

Support and Customer Care by Host Papa

Support for Host Papa is rather limited compared to some of the larger hosting companies. 24/7 support is only available through email, while live chat and phone support is only during regular office hours.

There is a knowledge base available, but the amount of messages in the forum are a tiny fraction of the amount found on the others. They do list free video tutorials, but I was unable to find them easily in their support system.

Pros

• Offers great choices for software to get your website operational right away.
• Packages offer a lot of features and services for a very low rate (with the 3 year contract).
• Powered through green initiatives to help out the environment.

Cons

• No added features for longterm commitment.
• No 24/7 phone or live chat support.
• Very low customer review scores.

Actual Customer Reviews of Host Papa Web Hosting

“Host Papa are ABYSMAL. I’ve just built 4 websites for small businesses, On Monday they were down for 4 HOURS and they’ve been down for a hour this evening…and this is just when I’m trying to work on them…so who knows how often they’re down when I’m not looking. Not the 99% uptime they promise…Online support say “this is a shared hosting it’s bound to happen occasionally” “ - Rowena

“What a selection of idiots. Only a country with such liberal views could allow a shower of incompetents to operate from there. My sites are constantly down (6 times in the last 2 weeks) and even planned maintenance is scheduled wrongly and the given dates are not accurate. I would be interested to hear from Canadians who actually runs Hostpapa. I really think they should start all over again. I suppose if their servers were as efficient as their program for spotting criticism of their sites online then we may not have the problems they do.” - Dissatisfied Brit

“Firstly- I wanted to vote 0 out of 10 but I can’t so my review is 1/10. Don’t bother, no RUN from Host Papa! They are the worst web hosting company on the planet. Our site was down so may times that our customers stated to think we had gone bankrupt! We are in the process of switching to Host Gator and waiting to transfer over completely. In the meantime Host Papa has kindly posted on our webpage that our account has been suspended and we need to contact them immediately for payment!!! LOL, we don’t owe them a penny, we just canceled with them!! “ - DBCL

Verdict of this Host Papa Review

Host Papa is a hosting company that has good intentions with their green initiative, but falls short in terms of performance. They have some interesting ideas in terms of pricing their hosting packages, and it’s nice to see that returning customers get a slight discount with the longer they commit to Host Papa – a common complaint with other hosts. I do think people would prefer the option to boost the performance of their packages, however.

The big problem with Host Papa arises when you do a due diligence report on them. Repeatedly when reviewing the customer review sites, people are ranking Host Papa poorly. The two major complaints are with the customer service, and with the uptime of the servers – the two features that people rely on the most with hosting companies. If it were one or two complaints, it would be easy to overlook, but there are countless amounts of complaints against the company, on different websites, too.

If it were up to me, I would heed the advice of these complainers and not take a chance with Host Papa. I would gladly go with Host Papa other than the larger companies because of their environmental policies, but not until they improve their performance.

Because of the limitations with their services, and the poor reviews, I can only give Host Papa a 2/5.

Click here to visit Host Papa’s official website.

Or click here to see other top rated shared web hosting companies instead.

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HostMonster Web Hosting Ratings

A good web host for beginners, not suitable for sites with heavy traffic
Click here to visit HostMonster’s website

Summary

HostMonster is a fairly large hosting company, having over 750,000 websites use their services. They have been offering their services for a long time, since 1996, and have built their business by offering lots of services for a good rate.

Quick Facts About HostMonster Web Hosting

• Host Papa has been in operation since 1996
• Are hosting over 750,000 domains
• No long term contracts, or tiered pricing. A flat rate of $5.95/month, and can cancel at anytime.
• Phone: 866-573-4678

Products and Services by HostMonster

With HostMonster, you do have a lot of the features other hosting sites have, but there is a catch. With other companies, the hosting packages are tiered, meaning the more you pay, your services are upgraded (more bandwidth, domains, etc.) With HostMonster, you pay a flat rate of $5.95 a month, and can cancel at anytime.

With the package, you receive: a free domain for life, unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth, host unlimited domains, 24/7 email support, online help, and have access to free installation scripts to install the best online software available.

Hostorian’s Review of HostMonster Web Hosting

HostMonster’s Performance

HostMonster offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee, with 24/7 network monitoring, UPS power backup, and courtesy site backups.

HostMonster’s Features

The standard features are available at HostMonster, such as one click install for popular software. From blogs (WordPress, b2evolution, Nucleus), Content Management Systems (Drupal, Geeklog, Joomla, Mambo Open Source), Support systems (Helpdesk, Help Center Live), eCommerce (CubeCart, Zen Cart), and much more. They also offer free site promotion tools, a free SiteBuilder with templates, and advertising credits for Yahoo ($25) and Google ($50).

Support and Customer Care by HostMonster

Support for HostMonster is much better than a lot of the other hosting companies out there. They offer 24/7 phone support, a live chat system, a knowledge base, and video tutorials.

The knowledge base has several hundred articles available to read, and there are easily a hundred video tutorials to view.

The tutorials are very straight forward and easy to follow. They also go at a slow enough pace that you could easily watch, change windows, and do, if you wanted. They cover topics from basic (setting up your email client) to more complicated (modifying WordPress installations).

Pros

• Offers great choices for software to get your website operational right away, plus advertising coupons to market the site.
• A very good rate for unlimited domains, space, and bandwidth, and can cancel at any time.
• Nearly 15 years of hosting experience to help you succeed.

Cons

• Only one hosting package available, no room for upgrades.
• No other services available apart from shared hosting.
• Several customers warn about accounts being suspended after surpassing certain metrics (bandwidth, processes, space).

Actual Customer Reviews of HostMonster Web Hosting

“HostMonster is a decent host for the price you pay. It isn’t expensive so you can’t expect as much as you can from the more expensive ones. But it is a great host to start your business up from the ground. After you get enough traffic you can always move up to a better, but more expensive, host. As for uptime I have had no real downtime for the past 8 months.” - minitech.org

“I am with HostMonster for 2 years now and I am think I change it. All my sites are down at least one time every week during the day when the traffic is good. They always have problems with servers or the network. Avoid them and pay a little bit more and get a good host.” - myusedcubagear.com

“Always read fine print. There is no such thing as “unlimited storage and bandwidth.” If you use too much, they will cancel your account on the grounds that “they can cancel you for any reason at any time” even though it contradicts their advertising. That aside, the deal is pretty good. That is, until they have a disk failure and suddenly all your sites are down. You call support and they offer to restore one of the backups they have for you, obviously you say “go ahead.” Then they call back and say “whoops it turns out we didn’t have a backup for you after all.” Now you are stuck uploading your own backup over a household DSL line which will take forever… Local colocation space and servers are cheap these days. Time to move on from HostMonster. I’m done with hosts like this. Beware.” - Anonymous

Verdict of this HostMonster Review

Before reading the customer reviews of HostMonster, I had a positive outlook for the company. They have a wealth of experience with hosting, have over 750,000 domains under their belt, and have a full suite of software options to choose from that can be installed easily. Between the knowledge base and video tutorials, they can help you get any site you would like up and running in no time.

I was disappointed to see that they only offer the one price for hosting services, though. It does make it much easier for newcomers to get started, but a power user will definitely want more with their package than what HostMonster offers. While it is nice to have no longterm commitment, it would be beneficial to have some upgrades available, or a discounted price for using the service for a long time.

Several users left comments noting that their accounts had been suspended after they surpassed bandwidth or space allocation metrics, despite HostMonster’s claim of unlimited bandwidth and space available. For heavy traffic sites, this would be a risk not worth taking, so I would suggest they look for a service that is able to handle high loads of traffic. This hosting company seems to be geared towards someone just starting out and not expecting to have major traffic levels.

With the limitations of the hosting plans, and the user comments, I would be cautious with this company. They do offer a lot of software and other features, however, so I will rate them as a 3.5/5 until I see some more positive reviews.

Click here to go to HostMonster’s official website.

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Dotster Web Hosting Ratings

Not a very good web host!
Click here to visit Dotster’s official website

Summary

Dotster is a hosting company that prides itself on offering a one-stop shopping center for your hosting needs. They are currently managing over 3 million domains, which makes it one of the largest hosting companies in the world. They have built upon relationships with their customer base to add several services to make it more convenient for current and future customers.

Quick Facts About Dotster Web Hosting

• Dotster is based out of Vancouver, Washington
• Are managing over 3 million domains
• Services: Basic ($5.75/month), Deluxe ($8.75), Ultra ($15.99). All packages have discounted rates depending on length of contract.
• Phone: 360-449-5800

Products and Services by Dotster

Dotster is impressive with their range of services available to you, covering all of your needs. From domain registration to hosting to offering you design tools for your website or blog, Dotster has it all.

Basic Hosting starts at $5.75 a month, but that prices drops if you choose a longer contract (up to 30% off with a 5 year contract). With the Basic plan, you receive 10GB of space, 300GB of bandwidth, and only one domain. With the Deluxe ($8.75/month), those increase to 100GB of space, unlimited bandwidth, and 50 domains, and then Ultra plan ($15.99/month) offers unlimited in all those features.

All plans include some great tools to use for your website, including one-click installation for WordPress, Joomla, ZenCart, TikiWiki, Nucleus, and more. You also receive 100 email accounts with the Basic account (500 with Deluxe, unlimited with Ultra), and remote access to your server.

You can also register your domain at the site (limited types of domains, however).They also offer various business solutions, including the website builder package that starts at $49.00/month and includes free domain, Basic Hosting, and a professional web design. There are also options for SEO Marketing, Local Site Promotion, Email Marketing, and Social Networking.

Hostorian’s Review of Dotster Web Hosting

Dotster’s Performance

Dotster offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee, with 24/7 network monitoring, full network redundancy, data backups, and Tier-1 Gigabit Internet connections.

Dotster’s Features

There are plenty of features available to the hosting packages. The packages include web analytic tools, remote database access, lots of one click install software packages (WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, ZenCart, TikiWiki, etc.), and email anti-virus, auto-responder and POP/SMTP support.

Support and Customer Care by Dotster

Support for Dotster is rather limited considering the amount of domains under their control. Support is given by 24/7 phone support, and email, no live chat support. Several customers have noted that the support they received was rather poor, which is not a good sign.

They do have a FAQ/Knowledge base system on their website, but there is no way to input your own questions and there is no community feedback for helpful tips. You rely solely on the knowledge of the technicians at Dotster. The questions they answer are fairly diverse, but the answers do not have any videos or screenshots to help guide you through the process.

Pros

• Offers one-stop shopping for all your hosting needs
• Discounted rates depending on length of contract
• Nearly 10 years of hosting experience to help you succeed

Cons

• Basic Hosting is rather limited compared to other sites
• Additional services offered are expensive
• Poor reviews of customer support

Actual Customer Reviews of Dotster Web Hosting

“Dotster is absolutely the worst registrar I have ever had to deal with. I have been trying for two weeks now to change the name servers for a client to point to GoDaddy where he has his hosting account. I have been on hold with their non-existant “customer service” (now there’s an oxymoron) for as long as 178 minutes. My client is getting mad at me because I can not get his web site to show, I have submitted numerous tickets to Dotser with only one canned reply telling me someone would get back to me with-in 24 hours and never did and I can not reach them by phone. I have even tried calling their sales line and have gotten a message that said to contact them during normal business hours. When exactly are their normal business hours since it isnot 9-5 M-F Use Godaddy or another hosting company that also acts as a registrar, avoid Dotster like the plague – the Worst they should be investigated! “ - John Martin

“I switched from Register because of endless problems every time they implemented “improvements” and “upgrades,” to Dotster. I am very disappointed in its webmail, which is hardly user friendly. Downloading is extremely slow and most functions are also very slow. Technical support is limited to 9-5 weekdays and nothing on weekends. Support is poor and there are never any call backs.” - Jean Kirshenbaum

“I have dealt with many hosting companies in the past and I would rate Dotster as the worst. Buyer beware. I have never been in a situation where if I canceled early, I would not get a refund. I do not need to be hateful or anything but their plans are high and the service is not something I would recommend. At first things seemed great but after a while, service went down as well as speed. We were running a site with videos and the HD videos were so slow to load where Go Daddy has faster service and lower priced plans.” - Roger Sandoval

Verdict of this Dotster Review

After looking over all the services that Dotster offer, they looked like a good company to work with. The one-stop shopping is most convenient for people who do not want to worry about redirecting their name-servers and want options for design services. The list of one-click install for software options is impressive, and I was happy to see that you don’t need to pay an outrageous amount to get a blog or CMS site operational.

When I started reviewing the customer reviews, however, a different story emerges. There are plenty of poor comments about the lack of support received, customer service skills were poor, or there was no response at all. Support and customer service are very important when dealing with a hosting company because so many problems can arise, and often do, when setting up a site.

I would suggest people proceed with caution, and maybe go with the Basic package at first until you find a comfort level with the hosting services available to you. Several people made longterm commitments only to later regret them. Because of the customer complaints that were quite numerous, I would only rate Dotster a 3.5/5.

Click here to go to the official Dotster website.

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Bluehost

Bluehost is one of my top recommended web hosts for shared hosting. Not just because I have a personal experience with them, or because their CEO personally replied back to my email.

I love Bluehost because of their superior performance and uptime, their commitment to customer support (I usually get replies to my emails withing minutes!), their rich feature set, and competitive pricing.

• Read the full Bluehost review.
• Visit the Bluehost website.

IX Web Hosting

IX Web Hosting offers a lot of features in their hosting plans, and their prices are extremely low in comparison to some other companies out there. They have the great option to try out their services risk-free for seven days. That gives you plenty of time to get familiar with the administrative tools and the tutorial videos.

Because of all the positive reviews that I came across on the web, I will have to say ix Web Hosting is one of the best companies available on the web to host your site on. It is rare to come across a company that receives positive comments, is customer service oriented, and has some great web tutorials.

• Read the full IX Web Hosting review.
• Visit the IX Web Hosting website.

Inmotion Hosting

Inmotion Hosting looks like one of the best kept secrets for hosting companies. Because of all the positive reviews that I came across on the web, I will have to say inmotion Hosting is one of the best companies available on the web to host your site on.

It is rare to come across a company that receives positive comments about the server uptime to support to the features available. inmotion Hosting is highly recommended and gets the top rating at the Hostorian.

• Read the full Inmotion Hosting review.
• Visit the Inmotion Hosting website.

HostGator

HostGator is one of the most referred hosting sites on the Internet today. You will hear good things about HostGator everywhere. They have excellent customer service, and their customers rate them 5/5.

With great choices for software to get your website operational right away, they offer more bang for your buck than most competition out there.

• Read the full HostGator review.
• Visit the HostGator website.

Jumpline Web Hosting

I like Jumpline because of their superb infrastructure that enables them to have a 100% uptime Service Level Agreement (SLA) and reliable connectivity. They have a great offer going at the time of this writing, letting you get two years of free shared hosting with them.

• Read the full Jumpline review
• Visit the Jumpline Web Hosting website

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Summary

Apollo Hosting hosts over 165,000 domains since 1999. They provide reliable and affordable website hosting services for business, ecommerce, reseller and personal use with all the tools you need for a successful website.

Website: Click here to go to the official Apollo Hosting website

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