• Expert Plan: $3.95/month
• Unlimited Pro: $7.95/month
• Business Plus: $7.95/month
• (Each plan features a 7-day trial period)

Pricing

The expert plan, which is currently priced at $3.95 per month, is undoubtedly among the most cost-effective hosting plans available in the market right now. This plan includes an industry-standard 30-day money-back guarantee; the other packages feature the same guarantee as well. From small-to-larger sized websites, the iX Web Hosting pricing plans are ultra-competitive for what you get and the services provided with each.

Features

iX Web Hosting supports all the essential features and components that are expected from a good hosting service. Apart from this, there are numerous other core features along with several site building tools, e-Commerce and promotions tools that are available at the user’s discretion.

• Unlimited Disk Space
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Unlimited Domains
• Easy “1 Click” Installs
• Free Site Builder
• Dedicated Support
• One FREE Domain Registration
• 99.9% Uptime Guarantee
• and more…

Performance

There are little, if any, gripes associated with iX’s overall performance. Its top-notch servers provide a blazing fast speeds for your website. The company seems to pride itself on providing its customers with reliable service; the 99.9% uptime guarantee is not taken lightly by the company. iX’s performance can be measured in its average 78.2ms response time, meaning your web pages load fast when a someone visits your website. This is extremely important because a website that loads slowly will often lead to the visitor clicking away from the page.

Conclusion

As is the case with most of the web hosting services, iX Web Hosting too has its own minor blemishes and hitches to address, but nothing unusual. Overall, you cannot ask for much more in terms of features, performance and customer service support. There have been some reported cases of server downtime (albeit, few and far between), but iX Web Hosting is a very capable hosting service.

iX Web Hosting Ratings

• Monthly Plan: $5.99/month (with 6 months free)
• 6-Month Plan: $8.99/month (setup fee applicable)
• 12-Month Plan: $7.99/month (with 3 months free)
• 2-Year Plan: $5.99/month (Best Deal)
• SPECIAL OFFER: See banner below for special $4.99 pricing!

Pricing

The pricing structure of HostRocket is available to its clients in spilt format as per their monthly we hosting requirements. Once priced at an exceedingly rate of $11.59 per month, HostRocket has revised its monthly plans to bring the fees down to a more affordable and competitive $5.99 per month. This move has attracted quite a few businesses towards HostRocket’s hosting service. No longer is HostRocket known exclusively as a service meant for large business corporate; small businesses are also jumping onboard.

Features

HostRocket web hosting offers features ideal for most personal and business websites; however, there are not any features offered that you can’t find at similarly-priced web hosting providers.

• Disk Space: Unlimited
• Bandwidth: Unlimited
• Real-time 24×7 Technical Assistance
• 99.5% Network Uptime Guarantee
• 128bit SSL certificates (Add-On Service)
• Software Support for PERL 5, MySQL 5, AwStats and Webalizer web statistics etc.
• Remote Backup (Add-On Service)
• Hotlink Protection
• Unlimited POP3/IMAP E-mail accounts
• Unlimited Domains & Sub-Domains
• and more…

Performance

HostRocket offers the type of service you’d expect from a quality hosting service provider. The differentiating aspect, however, remains on the performance-front where HostRocket certainly has a definite edge over its peers. It owns an entirely private and self-managed data center, which is one of the most technologically advanced hosting facilities worldwide. The best part about this self-maintained data center is that you get uncompromised reliability for your website with less downtime. Also, the response time and call turnover ratio of HostRocket customer support department is very much on-par with other top-level web hosting providers. You can get help on literally any topic you desire regarding your web hosting problems. Similarly, the ‘live chat’ facility connects you with the very knowledgeable support staff any time of day.

Conclusion

While most of the hosting companies these days offer a money-back guarantee of at least 30 days to the inexplicably displeased clients, HostRocket falls a bit short with just a 15-day warranty. However, the irrepressible servers show no such signs of being bogged down by the sheerness of workload, and the support staff and technicians of HostRocket are among the best in the industry. So combining all the available features as provided by HostRocket, it’s safe to say that the overall package looks very insinuating and clients are likely to be loyal to HostRocket for years to come.

HostRocket Hosting Ratings

• SPECIAL OFFER: $3.95/month (Regular price $7.95 per month)

Pricing

Every now and then hosting companies throw out some surprising perks at their clients or potential clients in the form of discounted offers or limited free service facilities. The reason behind such generous ploy is to either capture a new target market or to retain the already existing customers. Same is the case with HostPapa’s recently introduced “Special Offer” of $3.95 per month. The service offered by HostPapa is ultra-competitive in this price-point. Plus, HostPapa offers a claimed “$500 in free extras” when purchasing a new hosting package.

Features

There are quite a few very promising features that are being offered by HostPapa. These features include online web marketing tools and built-in security tools, as well as various instant applications and web-building software.

• Unlimited Web Hosting
• SSL Encryption
• Unlimited Data Transfer
• Support for GREEN Hosting
• Unlimited Domains
• Free setup without any hidden charges
• Free Domain for life
• Multi-programming Support (PHP 5,Fantastico,Perl,FrontPage Extensions)
• B2Evolution
• ZenCart Shopping Cart & CubeCart Shopping Cart
• Advanced CPanel
• and more…

Performance

The most promising aspect of hosting your website through HostPapa is that they provide you with tremendous control and added features for your site in almost the same price range as some of the “bigger” name hosting providers. In case of inevitable downtime during high-traffic times, HostPapa servers are back up-and-running in a matter of minutes with the help of a UPS Power Backup. Furthermore, the procedure of transferring your site to HostPapa web hosting is also quite efficient and painless. Security is a priority at HostPapa; measures are very well-monitored under the severely stringent Triple Redundant Firewall to provide maximum safety to your websites and all the core data lying within. In case of a technical disaster, your websites are always safe under the Raid Backup service on all the Linux-powered servers offered by HostPapa.

Conclusion

You’ll find very few negative comments floating around online regarding HostPapa. Although a relatively new hosting provider, its focus on server performance, security and green hosting initiative are attractive aspects of this up-and-coming hosting provider. At $3.95, HostPapa offers an attractive feature-set that is on-par with more popular hosting providers, such as Bluehost and HostGator.

HostPapa Hosting Ratings

• $56/year ($4.67 per month)

Pricing

The pricing structure of FatCow hosting service is competitive with some of the other alternative services in the market. However, with the added support for some of the most popular content management tools and applications — Joomla, WordPress, Drupal, phpBB, Gbook, Gallery2 and more — it offers advantages over the competition at this price point. All this, combined with a 30-day money back guarantee and zero-cost setup fee makes FatCow a smart choice. In addition, there is an added bonus (limited time offer, according to the FatCow website) for a free domain name with the purchase of a new shared hosting package.

Features

With FatCow, you get a multitude of useful features that is on-par or superior to most other web hosting services out there.

• Unlimited disk space
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Unlimited FTP users and sub Users
• 45-day money back guarantee
• 24/7 customer service
• Free website builder
• Free YELLOWPAGES.COM Listing
• Free Script Barn
• Unlimited POP Mail boxes
• and more…

Performance and Support

FatCow has to be ranked among the top of its performance pedigree. While other hosting companies are often a bit “iffy” when it comes to database and site speed, there are little if any such issues with FatCow. Moreover, they take ample pride in their superior after-sale support and customer service. A successful returned support call in “less than 2 minutes” is stellar, as is the 24×7 online chat support and email support service. The company’s website is full of user-friendly and interactive options that are capable of helping out the clients with some of the relatively trivial issues regarding their web hosting account. FatCow’s proprietary control panel – called vDeck – is user-friendly and easy to navigate when managing the back-end of your website(s).

Conclusion

So overall, barring the minor (and relatively common) glitches regarding server downtime issues and a few disgruntled customers complaining about platform compatibility, one could safely argue that FatCow brings more promise and quality service to its clients than many of its competitors. With a monthly hosting plan charged at a meager $4.67 per month, FatCow stands at or above other shared hosting services in this price range. In addition, the luxury to install as many websites as you wish (unlimited disk space) and an honest assurance to provide you a 99.9% uptime makes FatCow shared hosting a solid choice for both personal and business websites.

FatCow Web Hosting Ratings

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• 1 Year – Power Plan: $4.45/month | Power Plan Plus: $7.95/month
• 2 Years – Power Plan: $3.45/month | Power Plan Plus: $6.95/month
• 3 Years – Power Plan: $2.95/month | Power Plan Plus: $5.99/month
• 4 Years – Power Plan: $2.45/month | Power Plan Plus: $5.99/month
• 5 Years – Power Plan: $1.99/month (limited time offer)

Pricing

When you first notice the monthly web hosting subscription plan of just $1.99 (along with an offer of all the additional hosting services imaginable), it’s a rather intriguing sight. But given the endurance of staying loyal to this plan for 5 long years – and that too under the present service conditions – you would seriously want to rethink your initial reaction. The pricing structure, however, is very unique with no less than five different ‘Power’ plans to choose from. Going by the standard norms (which suggest availing a web hosting service on a yearly basis) the offer looks quite different to what you would normally see from similar hosting services.

Features

Web Hosting Pad supports a healthy pool of hosting services, which come at a fairly nominal price to the client. Along with unlimited web storage, web bandwidth, and unlimited add-on domains Web Hosting Pad has many more favorable hosting features to offer.

• Dual Xeon Intel Raid Protected Servers (with weekly backup support)
• Unlimited Hosting Space
• Unlimited Email Accounts
• Free Marketing Credits
• Free Domain Name
• Free Website Builder
• Free Website Transfer
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Multimedia Support
• Server Side Includes (SSI) Support
• Softaculous Script Support
• Support for phpForm Generator, Perl, Python etc.
• Bonus Features (Message Board, Form-mail Script, PHP Nuke, Coppermine, Mambo)
• and more…

Performance

In terms of hosting multiple domains in a single web hosting account, Web Hosting Pad stands almost at par with HostMonster and Bluehost. However, looking at the performance aspect, things look somewhat murky. Just because it’s cheap doesn’t necessarily mean that Web Host Pad has to be lauded as the best hosting service out there. There have been some seriously alarming concerns regarding the server downtime issues. What looks good in numbers (a promised uptime of 99.9%) might actually be reduced significantly to just 95% when put to reality. This is just one aspect of client concerns. An unresponsive cPanel, overloaded/faulty servers, severely adverse downtime issues and poor customer support service clearly does no good to boost the overall performance levels of Web Hosting Pad.

Conclusion

The biggest concern with Web Hosting Pad therefore remains its uncaring and lousy attitude towards the clients along with a diverted focus on actually delivering the promised features to them in exact capacities. An outdated PHP version on their servers (as of June, 2011) leaves your website(s) seriously vulnerable to destructive external attacks. Similarly, they have the tendency to keep blocking the clients’ websites for no obvious reasons and offer them only a limited hosting space in the wake of ‘unlimited’ hosting capacity. All this, when combined with a sub-par customer care support, spells a very indolent and irresponsible web hosting service that has to improve to keep up with the bigger hosting providers out there. All that said, the pricing of Web Hosting Pad is superior to most other hosting providers, so it still may be an ideal choice for small or personal website applications.

Web Hosting Pad Ratings

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• $5.95 per month ($71.40/year)

Pricing

A professional web hosting plan offered at around $6 per month might sound a bit fleecing from the critics’ point of view, but given the additional services that come along with this price tag, Bluehost certainly does enough to justify the monthly price tag. Plus, its ‘Any-Time Money Back Guarantee’ is unheard of in the web hosting industry; it’s really a tribute to the company’s focus on customer support and satisfaction. Bluehost’s website promotion features, such as search engine submission, also make its $6 price-point a more attractive one.

Features

Bluehost offers plenty of useful features. You’ll find almost everything in store to cater for the needs of small, medium as well as large size businesses that is expected of a good hosting service. A few of these features include Secure Shell Access through SSH, ultra-high speed servers, one-click installable Simple Scripts, a free domain, multiple 10Gb Ethernet connections and a truly commendable customer support service.

• Unlimited Domain Hosting
• Unlimited File Transfer Capacity
• Unlimited E-Mail Accounts
• Bluehost VPS Protection
• Free Site-Builder (with Templates)
• Multi-Platform Support (CGI, Ruby on Rails, Perl, PHP, MySQL)
• Guaranteed 99.9% Network Uptime
• Free Google AdWords Credit: $75
• and much more…

Performance

With blazing fast web servers installed at Bluehost’s facilities, you can be assured of limited downtime issues; it claims an uptime of 99.9%. Even after bearing the load of hosting almost a million websites on its servers, Bluehost shows no signs of wearing down in performance or unscheduled maintenance. The most important aspect of any web hosting service is the emphasis that it places on its customer care and assistance. With Bluehost, the first good signs in this regard are visible in the form of a free support forum, blog and board services through which the clients can collaborate with each other and with the company staff to get routine hosting problems solved. The live chat service ensures that you get 24×7 support from the company’s help desk. All this, when combined with a plethora of CGI and database options, constitute a robust and reliable shared hosting service. Performance and superior customer support is the reason that Bluehost has won multiple awards in the web hosting industry over the years.

Conclusion

As a whole, Bluehost shows signs of progressing even further up the ladder of web hosting excellence. Despite a few recent customer complaints of its server going down during heavy traffic times, the overall service and performance of Bluehost should be seen as well-above average. This type of server issue is not uncommon amongst similarly priced shared web host companies. Bluehost certainly has a very bright and ‘blue’ future ahead.

Bluehost Shared web Hosting Ratings

• Hatchling Plan ($4.95/mo.+)
• Baby Plan ($7.95/mo.+)
• Business Plan ($12.95/mo.+)

Pricing

The pricing for each plan is competitive, although you can find more competitively priced plans at other web hosting companies if price is you number one priority. The main problem I have with HostGator’s pricing structure is how you must sign-up for three years of hosting ahead of time in order to get the best pricing. For instance, In order to sign-up under the “Baby Plan,” you must pay $7.95/mo. for a three-year commitment, $8.95/mo. for a two-year commitment or $9.95/mo. for yearly or month-to-month plans. That said, most people I’ve talked to who have used HostGator are more than happy with their customer service and performance of the hosting, so the pricing structure shouldn’t be a huge issue for most people. Besides, many other web hosting companies have similar pricing structures, so it’s becoming an industry standard in many ways.

Features

When it comes to features, HostGator has got all the based covered; they offer solid features with each shared hosting package. All three shared hosting plans include:

• Unlimited disk space
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• 99.9% uptime guarantee
• 45-day money back guarantee
• 24/7 customer service
• Free site builder
• Support for WordPress hosting and unlimited MySQL databases
• $100 Google Adwords credit for signing up.
• and more…

One of the major differences between the “Hatchling” plan and the two others is that you are only allowed to use one domain. So, if you plan to host several websites, choose the “Baby” or “Business” plan – both allow you to host an unlimited number of domains. The “Business” plan includes a free 800 or 888 toll free number, which may be a bonus for anyone looking to have toll-free phone support at their website.

HostGator utilizes cPanel as its control panel. This is one of the most popular control panels in the world. It’s easy to use and allows for easy monitoring/updating of your site.

Performance

HostGator is one of the biggest web hosting companies around, and that’s because of their superior performance and support. Their 99.9% uptime guarantee is on-par with other top hosting companies, but what impresses me the most is their 24/7 support. There are loads of FAQ and forum Q/A’s available at the HostGator website that will pretty much answer any question you have. Additionally, there’s a toll-free number you can call 24/7 with questions about your account, as well as a live chat support feature and email ticket system available at the HostGator Support page online. Lastly, HostGator offers a nice set of video tutorials to help you get your web hosting account/website up-and-running fast.

Conclusion

While I was a bit skeptical of HostGator initially due to the fact that it is a heavily promoted web hosting company on the web, I was pleasantly surprised after digging deeper into the company structure and features that go along with each shared hosting plan. My only gripe, albeit minor, was regarding the pricing structure, but the features you get with each plan make the monthly price well worth it. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better value in terms of features, performance, support and pricing.

I would recommend HostGator shared hosting for any type of small website (personal, blog, ecommerce, etc…). If you plan to have more than one site, HostGator is a scalable web hosting company that allows you to easily add new domains to your account (except for the “Hatchling” plan that only allows a single domain).

HostGator Shared Hosting Ratings