WestHost is a web hosting service that’s great for startups and entrepreneurs. In addition to web hosting, they offer email hosting and domain services. Positives of hosting a website with WestHost include great security features, 100+ email addresses, SEO tools, and custom redirects. They also offer 24/7 support and a 30-day money back guarantee. Many of their hosting packages come with SSL certificates as well. Our WestHost review analyzes the web host based on plans and prices, security and risk, usability, and customer support.
WestHost Service Overview
WestHost offers three types of hosting packages: personal, preferred, business, and WordPress. Their non-promotional prices range from $8-$16 per month. This web host is generous with disk space and bandwidth, offering higher amounts than many other web hosts. Another benefit they provide is free SSL certificates for business hosting. Web hosts usually charge extra if you want an SSL certificate.
Each plan at WebHost comes with 100+ email addresses, 100+ FTP accounts, custom redirects, and SEO tools. SEO tools can help your website rank higher in the search engines. As their pro web hosting packages, WebHost offers SSD VPS hosting, dedicated servers, and managed hosting. These hosting packages are for when you outgrow your personal, preferred, or business plan.
Pricing Information
Website hosting at WestHost costs $8-$16 per month depending on which plan you’re on. For WordPress users, they offer optimized WordPress hosting for $9.99-$12.99 per month. WestHost’s SSD VPS Hosting costs $12-$128 per month. You’re able to customize your service when you sign up for an SSD VPS Hosting package. They have servers in the UK, the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
WestHost’s dedicated servers range from $122.87-$246.82 per month depending on which plan you choose. And their managed hosting costs $221.87-$345.82 per month. WestHost offers 50% off on their website hosting for first-time users if they sign up for an annual billing cycle.
| Package Name | Dedicated to | Price | Disk Space | Bandwidth | Websites | Hosting Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Website Hosting | Personal bloggers, new businesses, small businesses |
$8 per month for personal plan $13 per month for preferred plan $16 per month for business plan |
50 GB for personal plan
200 GB for preferred plan Unlimited for business plan |
1,000 GB for personal plan 2,500 GB for preferred plan Unlimited for business plan |
1 for personal plan Unlimited for preferred and business plans |
cPanel |
| WordPress Hosting | WordPress websites |
$9.99 per month for primary plan $12.99 per month for pro plan |
10 GB for primary plan 20 GB for pro plan |
N/a | 1 | N/a |
| SSD VPS | Medium to large businesses | $12-$128 per month depending on plan | 25-400 GB depending on plan | 3-7 TB depending on plan | N/a | N/a |
| Dedicated Servers | Large businesses | $122.87-$246.82 per month depending on plan | N/a | 10-100 TB depending on plan | N/a | N/a |
| Managed Hosting | Large businesses and intensive business needs | $221.87-$345.82 per month depending on plan | N/a | 10-100 TB depending on plan | N/a | cPanel |
Security & Risk
WestHost offers free SSL certificates with some of their hosting packages. An SSL certificate protects your customers’ data when they buy from your website. On WestHost’s blog, they publish blog posts on how to increase the security of your website. WestHost also offers automatic malware removal, regular backups, and support for CloudFlare CDN. Due to good options in security features, our WestHost review gives them a high rating in the security and risk category.
Usability & User Friendliness
Our WestHost review can’t give full points for usability and user friendliness because their site is difficult to navigate in comparison to other web hosts. Navigation isn’t intuitive. Some may become frustrated when they can’t quickly find what they’re looking for. However, WestHost does have some user-friendly features, such as instant activation. Your account is instantly activated at WestHost, whereas other web hosts sometimes make users wait days until it’s activated.
Customer Support & Additional Info
WestHost’s customer support is friendly and helpful. The downside is wait times are sometimes long. One customer stated in their WestHost review that it took 40 minutes to get in touch with support through chat. WestHost reviews on their customer support are mixed. Another customer stated he always gets a response within five minutes on live chat.
Aside from live chat, you can contact WestHost’s customer support via phone and support tickets. They have a help center on their website where you can search for the answers to your questions before contacting customer support as well.
WestHost Service Overall Rating
What we like:
- Friendly and helpful customer support
- Options in phone, live chat, and support ticket to get in touch with customer support
- Affordable plans available for those who are starting out
- More elaborate plans when you’re ready to upgrade or for established businesses
- Good security features
What we don’t like:
- It sometimes takes a while to connect with customer support through chat
- The site can be difficult to navigate
- Only one domain is allowed under the WordPress hosting package
Rating
Web Hosting Plans & Prices: 4/5
Security & Risk: 5/5
Usability: 3/5
Customer Support: 4/5
WestHost Top Alternatives
Some of WestHost’s top competitors are Lunarpages, HostRocket, and A2Hosting. Lunarpages offers a free domain, unlimited email accounts, one-click app installs, and a free website builder with their web hosting packages. If you’re unhappy with their service you can claim a refund within 30 days of purchase. As you’ve seen in our WestHost review, they only give refunds on certain hosting packages. Similar to WestHost, they keep their customer support open 24/7 to solve any problems that arise.
HostRocket has a user-friendly interface that’s easy to navigate. Like WestHost, they offer a variety of plans that fulfill the needs of those who are starting out and large businesses. Ways you can get in touch with HostRocket are phone and support tickets. They offer 24/7 tech support. Different from WestHost, they provide unlimited disk space, bandwidth, and domains on all of their shared hosting packages.
A2Hosting is known for having fast servers and a 99.99% uptime guarantee. They offer a wide variety of hosting packages, such as shared hosting, dedicated hosting, reseller hosting, and VPS hosting. Like WestHost, A2Hosting provides 24/7 support and you can contact them by phone, chat, or email.
Our Verdict
In summary, WestHost is a decent option in web hosts. It comes down to what’s most important in a web host and what things are non-negotiable for you. WestHost offers good security features to keep websites safe and has a variety of hosting packages to choose from. Keep in mind that there are split reviews on how fast WestHost’s customer support is. It may differ depending on the time of day you contact support. Have you tried this web host before? Share your own WestHost review in the comments below.
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