UPDATED August 2018: IdeaHost has recently announced that they closed their business. Existing customers should check IdeaHost’s official website for further information.
IdeaHost is a US-based web hosting service provider specialized in affordable and unlimited, accessible shared hosting. In our IdeaHost review, we will cover all the relevant topics related to features, hosting plans, security and guarantee policies offered by this hosting provider. At the end, if you are still uncertain, we will offer up other suggestions that might fit your business better.
IdeaHost is a young company that aims to offer simplicity at a low-price, which sets them apart from the competition. They only feature a single hosting package with unlimited bandwidth and storage space that is hosted on a shared server. This basic plan has no bells and whistles, but that doesn’t mean that it is not high-quality. The Idea web host plan comes with some great feature, such as free domain registration, unlimited MySQL databases, and domains, which makes it a great value for money. They offer you the possibility of acquiring a new domain or using the one you currently own.
IdeaHost Overview
IdeaHost has one, low-cost plan that offers a nice mix of everything needed to get started. There is free domain registration for a year and unmetered resources. They also offer $200 dollars worth of paid advertising credits, split between Google AdWords and Bing, with online marketing guides to help to get the word out about the site.
A free website builder is also available for those that wish to use it. This site builder offers thousands of templates, a blog setup wizard, and a photo gallery setup wizard. For those looking into eCommerce solutions, there is a free online store option through the cPanel. It comes with your choice of shopping cart system and PayPal integration.
Pricing Information
In the pricing section of our IdeaHost review, we will give you all the relevant information about their prices. IdeaHost only has one plan. The IdeaHost pricing plan starts out at the promotional price of $2.99/month. Once the introductory period is over, the price goes up to $8.95/month. This is still a really low price for what IdeaHost offers.
Unmetered hosting is virtually unlimited, which means 99.95% of their customers will never use enough bandwidth or storage to consider this a problem. If you do a lot of file sharing, then it is probably best to look for another hosting service. They also include basic protection against malware and spam and special offers for marketing tools.
Package Name | Dedicated to | Price | Disk Space | Bandwidth | Websites | Hosting Type |
IdeaHost Plan | Start up Websites | $2.99-$8.95/mo | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unlimited | cPanel |
The marketing tools you can choose from are Google AdWords, Bing and Yahoo credit, as well as PayPal integration for online retailers. People who prefer to use a more specialized content marketing tool, such as WordPress, Drupal or Joomla can easily install them in order to create an unlimited number of pages.
Security & Risk
Like many web hosting services that offer only one shared hosting plan, IdeaHost does not focus on security. They do offer spam filtering, virus protection, and the most basic firewall on their servers. There are no upfront options to add any type of services, even at a cost.
This is really all that a website that’s just starting out needs. If the website starts making waves online and attracts a lot of traffic, a more substantial host would be needed.
It is important to know that the backups are not part of the guaranteed services, so they are not responsible in any way for corrupted or lost data. Apart from that, this IdeaHost review shows that they also place a limit of 20 gigabytes per site, so any site that exceeds this limit can no longer benefit from weekly backups.
Among the IdeaHost features, you can find a 99% uptime guarantee, and also a money back guarantee for anyone who doesn’t find their services satisfactory. If the uptime guarantee is not met you are eligible to get a one-month account credit back, and you can report this by submitting a simple support request.
Usability & User Friendliness
In this IdeaHost review, we will show you what options IdeaHost offers in terms of usability and how user-friendly it is. IdeaHost works with the most popular and well-known control panel option, cPanel. Users find this a great choice as it offers stability and ease of access without any technical skills required.
IdeaHost web hosting plan also offers a basic website builder created to help users manage their business easily. Equipped with a simple drag and drop option and thousands of templates to choose from, the IdeaHost website builder is a very accessible tool. All the options are available through a cPanel interface, which is also simple and safe to use.
The free website builder has two options. You can use the drag-and-drop builder or you can use the template-based builder. You can install WordPress, or the blog setup wizard will help you to create a blog through the free website builder. There is even a photo gallery option you can start and customize.
That’s not all. IdeaHost also allows for unlimited autoresponders and email forwarding and tons of information about how to market the website once you have made it completely how you want it.
Customer Support & Additional Info
If help is needed, IdeaHost has 24/7 customer support by phone, chat, and email. All phone calls are answered within two minutes by the customer support team. There is also step-by-step tutorials and an online help center.
IdeaHost also offers the industry standard 30-day money back guarantee. Unhappy customers can get a full refund if they cancel the service and request the refund within that 30-day trial period.
IdeaHost Overall Rating
What we like:
- Strong Customer Service – Answering calls within 2 minutes is unheard of in this industry. IdeaHost also offers several ways to reach them, which is ideal.
- Incredibly User-Friendly – Even a beginner can have their site up in no time at all.
- 99.9% Uptime Guarantee – This guarantee is standard, but users have reported up to 100% uptime on average.
What we don’t like:
- Low Security Rating – Not enough security for our taste.
- No Growth Potential – Unfortunately, there is nowhere to grow with IdeaHost.
Rating
Web Hosting Plans & Prices: 4/5
Security and Risk: 2/5
Usability & User Friendliness: 5/5
Customer Support: 5/5
IdeaHost Top Alternatives
Has our IdeaHost review changed your mind? Here are some great alternatives.
- Bluehost – A strong name in the web hosting industry. Bluehost has better security than IdeaHost, and a website can grow as big as it needs to without changing services.
- HostMetro – HostMetro has almost the exact same pricing as IdeaHost but they do not increase their monthly fees after a promotional period. They have 2 different hosting plans and offer much more security than IdeaHost.
- IX Web Hosting – IX Web Hosting has a strong focus on security as well and seems to favor eCommerce sites. They do not offer cPanel for the backend control panel, but they do have a very high customer service rating.
- KnownHost – With a much larger budget for web hosting, KnownHost would be a much better option. They offer great security features with their VPS and dedicated server hosting, which is something IdeaHost does not offer at all.
Our Verdict
IdeaHost is a typical low-budget shared web hosting service. In this IdeaHost review, we discussed how user-friendly their services are and how great their customer service is. We are glad to recommend this web hosting provider to any business owner who wishes to develop and host one or more websites. Its features are clear, and the interface is easy to use, and the price is unbeatable.
Their biggest problem is their security which rates very low. If security is what you’re looking for, it is best to look elsewhere. Do you have experience with IdeaHost or have questions about their services? Leave us a comment below! We love to hear from you!
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