the hostorian (& his reviews!) » top hosts

IX Web Hosting

Hostorian — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 06:42:27 +0000

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.

InMotion Hosting

Hostorian — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 16:38:57 +0000

Inmotion Hosting Company Ratings

A top rated web host with excellent customer reviews and low prices. Highly recommended!
Click here to visit Inmotion Hosting’s website

Summary

Inmotion hosting has been in business for nearly ten years, and that experience shows in the many awards they have received. They have taken home awards for best hosting company, best dedicated servers, and best support every year from 2005 to the present. They offer quite a few different hosting plans that make sure to cover any of your needs to make the hosting affordable.

Quick Facts About Inmotion Hosting

inmotion hosting was founded in 2001.
Web Hosting Services: Starter Plan ($3.00/month), Basic Plan ($4.00), Max Plan ($5.00). Business Plans starting at $3.95/month.
Phone: 888-321-4678

Products and Services by Inmotion Hosting

inmotion Hosting has two tiers of hosting plans available to choose from. They have the Value Plans which start at $3.00/month, or the business plans that start at $3.95/month. After looking through the options of the plans, the business plans offer a lot more for only a $1.00 more, so that’s what I will highlight below. The best Value Plan hosting option you can get is the Max Plan ($5.00/month), and it offers less than the lowest grade option of the Business plans ($3.95/month), for example.

An important thing to note about these plans before I get into specifics: you do have to prepay for two year’s worth of services when looking at the Value Plans. With the Business Plans, you can order by a monthly, annual, or prepay for multiple years. Value Plans offer a 30 day money back guarantee, whereas Business Plans offer a 90 day money back guarantee.

The Business Plans include everything you could possibly need to get started with any kind of website. The one exception is the Launch Business Plan does not come with any eCart software options (the Max Plan is the only Value Plan that comes with them). With the Power and Pro Business Plans, you get those features included. The Launch Business Plan comes with 6 domains, and that scales up to unlimited domains with the Pro Business plan. The Launch Business Plan also only comes with two MySQL databases. Enough to host one blog, but not enough to do much more than that. Otherwise, all three business plans come fully stacked with features.

Hostorian’s Review of Inmotion Hosting

Inmotion Hosting’s Performance

inmotion Hosting offers a 99.9% guarantee for uptime, plus a 30 day money-back guarantee for Value Plans and 90 day money-back guarantee for Business Plans.

They also offer daily backups with the Business plan, or weekly with the Value packages. There is the usual 24/7 server monitoring.

Something different about inmotion Hosting is the added feature of Max Speed Zones. Sites are hosted in one of two datacenters (one on the East coast, one on the West coast of USA) that help speed up downloads. They have a test setup to download a file from each datacenter to see which is fastest for your connection. I’m located on the West coast, and both files came in at around the same speed. This may make a difference with larger files, and especially streaming audio or video, but I could not test that feature out.

Inmotion Hosting’s Features

All business plans contain the features that are becoming standard across all hosting companies.

They include different options for blogging (WordPress, b2evolution, Nucleus, geeklog), plugins (web calendar, forum software, Joomla, Mambo), support for the major scripting services, and the Power and Pro Business plans come with support for eCarts (OsCommerce, ZenCart, CubeCart). The Business plans also come with a free new domain, or a free transfer from a different host.

Support and Customer Care by Inmotion Hosting

Support for inmotion 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 live chat during business hours. In addition, they have a series of flash 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.
Cheap Hosting plans with the Value Plans make it affordable for amateurs
Great reviews from current clients.

Cons

All Value plans have to be pre-paid for two year minimum.
Some issues with the migration from a different host to inmotion, but all issues were resolved quickly.

Actual Customer Reviews for Inmotion Hosting

“I am using InMotion business class hosting (shared server) for my web site, and they have been pretty good for me. Their customer service is excellent. I had a complaint about their MySql version, and they offered me right away to switch to another server that had an updated version. Besides that I haven’t had any issues.” - Jeff Patrick

“I signed up with InMotion, and am perfectly happy with how prompt they were in setting me up and getting my sites up and running.
I am a web designer, and I construct my own sites using professional software, FTP, etc. However, within 12 hours, I successfully transferred my site (which is almost 1 GB in size) to InMotion, and it works flawlessly.
Their prices are excellent, their online support and documentation is tops. They have superb Flash tutorials, and you have extensive access to web analysis info about your site. Couldn’t be happier.” - Elliott

“We have dedicated servers with inmotion hosting as a web design and development company and thus so far we have had a few issues with support but that is to be expected in any technologic arena. They are fairly supportive and promote but any one using a hosting company should keep in mind this is what they do best. Do not expect them to configure websites or files for you or upload software to support your websites even if it may be a server software, this is your responsibility.
Even though everything has not be perfect with inmotion hosting, needless to say things do happen and this is something we should all keep in mind. We have leased servers from other companies and I can truly say my experience with Inmotion Hosting has been far better then my past experiences.” - Adam Kanji

Verdict of this Inmotion Hosting Review

inmotion 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 Business plans, and their prices are extremely low in comparison to some other companies out there. All the major software that you may want is included with the plans, allowing you to get your website operational quickly.

The only downside comes with the Value Plans, since you have to commit to them for two years ahead of time. You do have a 30 day money-back guarantee, but that may not be enough time to fully judge the service for yourself. The Business plans come with a 90 day money-back guarantee, which does protect your interests. That being said, the customer reviews have been stellar, and no one has mentioned any significant downtime apart from server maintenance or a routine restart of a server.

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 a rating of 4.5/5.

Click here to go to Inmotion Hosting’s website.

Top Rated Web Hosts For Shared Web Hosting

Hostorian — Sun, 16 May 2010 07:42:45 +0000

Here are the top rated web hosts for shared web hosting, ranked in no particular order.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.