HostMonster Review

This host is highly recommended : )

Overview:

HostMonster is a shared-host, like most companies, with a “one-size fits all” philosophy. While that doesn’t necessarily, as we’ve seen, mean that HostMoster will suit your needs (though they will for the vast majority of users), and we do tend to prefer companies that are scalable, HostMoster is still a shared-hosting company that deserves your attention because of their technology, their superior customer service, the ease-of-use and their pricing.

Please note: if you have been to other website hosting review sites, you should realize that I rate based on personal experience (rather than hosting company marketing) and am usually a tough grader. Please read the review to see the explanations and reasoning behind the ratings.

Hosting Plans and Scalability:
Pricing:
Speed and Uptime:
Bandwidth and Storage:
Power Rating:
Customer Service:
Ease of Use:
Overall:

Hosting Plans and Scalability:  

It feels harsh and wrong to give HostMonster a 1 out of 5 on anything because they really are a great hosting company, but that’s what you get when you only have one option. Remember, though, that this one plan will be just fine for about 97% or more of the sites on the Internet. The hosting plan comes with all the usual promises of “unlimited” this, “unlimited” that (remember that true “unlimited” doesn’t come from a shared host), but does have a few items that not everyone has. For instance, you get a free domain name, forever, with your hosting. You get up to 100 MySQL databases and PHP5 comes standard. Set-up is also free

Pricing:  

For what you get, which is very strong shared hosting, the pricing is very good. Remember, you can get really cheap shared hosting, but most of the time it will make you wish you were dead. Pay just a tad extra for quality. In fact, if they had a monthly payment option, I would give them at least 4.5 stars, but you can’t pay monthly. The price for one year comes out to $6.95 per month. Two or more years is at $5.95. There are no set up fees, and you get one free domain name.

As I say repeatedly, don’t pay for more than a year if you haven’t used a company before.  Pay the $6.95 per month this year, and if things are going great at renewal time, pick two or three years.  All major credit cards are accepted.

Speed and Uptime:  

Every host will slow down, or even drop off, occasionally, but HostMonster does its best keep things up and moving swiftly, and they are a world-class shared host in this regard. They have customized Apache servers running quad processors, and they have backup generators to insure that they always have the juices flowing.

HostMonster’s up-time hovers near 100%, which is as good as you can ask for. I have, as usual, tested sites on HostMonster and found them to be very responsive, quickly moving from one page to the next. The sites were somewhat complex, and I was amazed at the responsiveness.

Bandwidth and Storage:  

Sorry, that’s as good as I can do with a shared hosting company with no flexibility, regardless of the promises of “unlimited” bandwidth.

Power Rating:  

Despite being a shared host, which is what most companies are, you get a lot of “power” out of them because of how smoothly their servers run. It is exceedingly unlikely that you will ever feel underpowered at HostMonster.

Customer Service:  

Customer service is where they really shine. First of all, the ease-of-use and reliability of their hosting means you may never need customer service at all, but if you do, they are available 24/7 by phone, toll free at that. And this, I think, is important. While I prefer live chat to working over the phone for most of my customer service, most people prefer to talk to a live person. And what if you don’t have free long distance calling? Many web hosts who offer 24/7 phone support don’t offer it toll free. That can cause serious problems for some customers.

But what do you get when you call? You get HostMonster. They don’t outsource their customer service, which means they are more likely to care that you get taken care of. That’s even more important than just being able to call. After all, you want your problem to be solved, not just someone to hear about it. Their customer service agents are extraordinarily knowledgeable, friendly and helpful. I feel very comfortable in recommending them.

One more thing I would like to point out here.  It’s not something you would notice if you didn’t look at a lot of hosting ads, as I do, but if you look at the ads for HostMonster at the top and bottom of this page, they actually advertise their annual price instead of the lower, two-year price.  That may not mean much to you, but as someone who has used more than twenty hosting companies (and that number grows every week), I appreciate even the most subtle incarnations of honesty, which is all too rare in this business.

These are the good guys.

Ease of Use:  

This is anther place where HostMonster can hold their heads high. Customers have access to the intuitive cPanel functionality.  Hostmonster also has free installation, one-click, of over 50 popular software programs, from blogging and photo galleries to ecommerce solutions and forums.  Have difficulty with FTP programs and uploading to your server? Not with HostMonster, as that functionality is built right into the cPanel.  If that isn’t good enough, they provide a free site-builder with templates (I’ve never used it), and free search engine submission.

One of the better things about them is that they monitor the servers 24/7 and even do courtesy site backups. This is great for those of us who are too busy, or too lazy, to always remember to back up our sites.

Overall:  

If you’ve read my other reviews, you know how important I think that scalability is.  So you know when I still highly recommend HostMonster that I must really like them.  These guys are at or near the top of a very short line of good shared hosting companies in a number of vital areas, and I think they would be an excellent choice for nearly everyone.

If you’ve found this review helpful and want to try HostMonster, please click on the link below.  You absolutely cannot get a lower price anywhere.