Congratulations on being a Web site entrepreneur. It’s the constant, dedicated creativity of people like you that makes the World Wide Web so interesting, so entertaining, and so useful for so many people.
What Is HostMySite?
HostMySite has everything that you as an entrepreneur, or as a human being who wants to better connect with others, need to accomplish your professional or personal mission. It’s highly scalable and offers low introductory rates, so you can test the waters a bit before jumping in.
Product Specs
The cool thing about HostMySite is that it offers both Windows and Linux Web hosting, and it’s ASP.NET 4-ready. There is a wide gulf between the specs of the Basic and Pro hosting plans. Actually, the gulf is infinite: for Web Storage, and your quota of parked domains, it’s the difference between “as much as you want” and a finite amount. Another cool thing is that you get as much bandwidth as you need, regardless of the plan you sign up for.You’ll get ten databases with the Basic plan versus an unlimited amount of databases for the Pro plan. Either plan supports ASP.NET, and classic ASP. Both plans come with always-on support plus a 100% uptime guarantee.
Pricing
HostMySite is one of the better deals, but as with all Web service providers, please don’t be fooled into thinking that great introductory rate is going to last. We’ll go into this a little more in a bit.
How HostMySite Compares
We picked a few similar Web hosts on the market to see how they compare:
- 1&1 IONOS
- Tsohost
- Bluehost
HostMySite
We’ve already gone over the basics, so let’s delve in deeper and find out about the relative price, features, and some of the downsides of HostMySite.
image via: hostmysite.com
Price: $$ Out of $$$
$8 gets you a basic monthly plan whereas $16 gets you a pro monthly plan. The difference is that you get unlimited storage, bandwidth, and databases with the pro plan, plus other perks plus the ability to create 10 websites. In contrast, the cheaper plan is much more limited.
Ease of Use:
You don’t get to be in the Web Hosting industry as long as HostMySite has been in it if even the newest entrants to the Web site game can’t build a Web site. In other words, this is a slickly designed interface that your great-grandmother could figure out. And the result is that when you need to make changes, which is more and more frequent in this electronic age, HostMySite makes it relatively easy.
Uptime:
The HostMySite.com standard is a whopping 100% uptime guarantee, and HostMySite stands behind its guarantee. It actually credits the customer 5% of their monthly fee for every half hour of network downtime. The guarantee extends to infrastructure, meaning that all your critical systems will be on 100% of the time, as well as all hardware.
Features:
The “unlimited” specs are impressive, like unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited databases, and unlimited database storage.
Customer Support:
The toll-free number is always available so you can talk to a person in addition to the more traditional live-chat ticket-opening tools. The staff is available 24-7, 365 days a year. Setting up your account can be done in less than an hour, and there’s even a 30-day money-back guarantee if you’re not completely satisfied with everything.
Pros
- Windows and Linux hosting available
- Domain name registration available
- ASP.NET 4 configuration capability available
- Unlimited storage and bandwidth under pro plan
Cons
- Domain registration fees jump after first year
HostMySite – Small Business Hosting
1&1 IONOS
1&1 IONOS is so basic, and yet so smart. In fact, it promises to be more than just Web hosting with great customer service; it takes your incredibly inexpensive starter package and promises not to just tell you how to work your Web hosting and its myriad of compatible features. It promises to be your personal consultant. That’s right, your personal consultant. Just don’t expect it to babysit your kids and do your laundry, because it’s not quite there yet. However, with technological developments growing by leaps and bounds, we wouldn’t put it past them in about twenty years from now!
image via: ionos.com
Price: $$ Out of $$$
We know it’s just an introductory rate, but 1&1 Ionos can be obtained, appropriately, for just $1 per month when you sign on for your first 12 months. As the skeptic in you probably figured out, it doesn’t last, jumping in price by a whopping 800% after your first year. But hey, it’s a great gimmick, and the after-intro price is fairly competitive with the other deals out there.We know it’s tough to switch from one provider to another, but if you’ve got the IT staff to do it, by all means, leave during the introductory period if you need to. Be prepared to shell out $14 for the premium “expert” package” here, but they do spell out the implications for PHP in the price descriptors.
Ease of Use:
1&1 IONOS is really “one – and done!” It’s taken center stage in the Web hosting game, duking it out with GoDaddy for the number one title worldwide. Perhaps they can offer such ease of use thanks to that famous German engineering, because the Germans are a people that love life and love their beer, sometimes drinking lightly even at work. While we don’t necessarily recommend drinking at work, whatever 1&1 IONOS is doing is working—most of all for their clients and very importantly, the end-user.
Uptime:
Have you heard of geo-redundancy? Neither had we. Leave it to the Germans to re-engineer the English language. What it means for you is super-reliability; what the rest of us IT geeks call transparent replication. Bottom line is: in the unlikely case that your server does go down—it won’t! There’s always another server somewhere around the globe to back it up. But don’t ask us where the redundant servers are because it’s classified.
Features:
Okay, so we covered the transparent replication. You’ve also got 24/7 support via email or phone—your choice. A neat little feature is that they’ve got your SSL certification covered, and they give you some basic software to help get you started on your online storefront if you don’t have a team of Web designers on hand.
Customer Support:
The options for customer service and support are endless; the option between phone or email is just the beginning. You don’t get to where IONOS is, as basically the second biggest player in the industry if you don’t back up your product and service. 1&1 IONOS knows what they’re doing.
Pros
- Affordable introductory rates
- Ease of use
- Security certificates integrated into hosting
- Scalable PHP performance levels
- Up to 50 websites in Expert plan
Cons
- Prices jump after the introductory period
- Expert rates jump to $14/month
Tsohost
UK-based Tsohost offers some unique packages for situations that might just be a really good value for you.
image via: tsohost.com
Price: $ Out of $$$
Pay the bare minimum, $2.15 per month, and you’re going to get unlimited bandwidth! So if you have a very simple website that you can keep easily under 500MB, this could be a heck of a deal for you. Of course, managing that 500MB of storage to allow all your eager visitors to log in at the same time is up to your web team’s creativity. Want your own server? If you do, be prepared to part with $315/mo. We don’t include that in the price consideration here because most won’t need that. However, we just thought we’d mention that scalable service means scalable price!
Ease of Use:
The Tsohost service is more flexible, compatible, and capable than it is easy. We’ll discuss the customer service in just a bit, but all told, it’s usable, and if you already have a good degree of web know-how, it will work for you at a price you can afford. That said, they’ve got a loyal following of more than a quarter of a million customers.
Uptime:
What Tsohost Web hosting lacks in uptime it makes up for in daily backups, which don’t cost you anything, by the way.
Features:
Tsohost offers WordPress and Cloud Web hosting. and a fairly straightforward control panel. If you need VPS hosting, Tsohost has a reliable system trusted by many at highly affordable rates for hosting in its class. If you want your own dedicated server, again, you’re going to pay the equivalent of $315 a month, but they’ve got you covered.
Customer Support:
We can’t accuse Tsohost of quick response times. However, if you need something and have a little patience, you will get the answers you need.
Pros
- VPS hosting available
- Dedicated server available
- Insane unlimited bandwidth starts at <$5/mo
Cons
- Bells and whistles will cost you
Visit tsohost
Bluehost
Are you feeling blue? If so, check out the BlueHost, the self-proclaimed “Best Web Hosting” starting at $3.95 per month. It’s so easy, the graphic seems to imply, that even the college fashionista on the BlueHost.com homepage can build a website. In that regard, it’s kind of a good cause, too. Because if smiling coed thinks it’s a great deal, you should too, right? Well, let’s take a look.
image via: bluehost.com
Price: $$ Out of $$$
Lots of free stuff is included to keep you from feeling blue with Bluehost. And the introductory rate isn’t bad either, although, for an introductory rate, it’s not $1/mo like some of the others, it’s $3.95/month. Which makes you wonder—what will it jump up to when the introductory period is over? Bluehost is counting on the slick, millennial-targeted marketing and, if nothing else, best use of the word “FREE” to grab your attention. That said, we give them credit for giving you a “FREE Domain” and “FREE SSL Included.” As we’ve seen, SSL is included with at least one of your other options here, so we’re not sure what the big deal is.
Ease of Use:
For the basic level of service presented in fairly straightforward terms, the Bluehost team will give you what you need or help you find it. Definitely five out of five stars for friendliness!
Uptime:
We weren’t able to find any kind of server uptime guarantee. If, for some reason, your site should fail for long periods of time, don’t expect to be compensated for the downtime. But if you inquire into the matter, they’ll be super-polite about it and make you happy you chose them anyway.
Features:
We found the main selling points of Bluehost to be mostly gimmicky. For instance, the low introductory rate which jumps like many others after the introductory period. The cheapest normal monthly price for a basic plan starts at $8.99, which is not all that competitive with plans from the others, especially in terms of the lack of detail. Actually, there are tons of fun add-ons you’ll probably need if you’re serious about building a website, and all of these will cost you an arm and a leg. If you want SEO tools, SiteLock, Domain Privacy, or premium SSL certificates, be prepared to pay. And not just once—continuously.
Customer Support:
If you’re not satisfied for any reason with your super-friendly customer support from super-happy Utah people keeping a watchful eye over your servers, just cancel within 30 days and Bluehost will give you a complete refund. It’s kind of like how when you call Wendy’s you know you’ll get a friendly Ohio person. With Bluehost, you get super-happy Utah people—who know your services servers inside and out.
Pros
- Tools get your page on search engines
- Includes $100 in Google ads
- Includes $50 in Facebook ads
- Located in super-friendly Utah
Cons
- No uptime guarantee
Visit Bluehost
Conclusion
We like HostMySite. However, 1&1 IONOS gives HostMySite a run for its overall value. While we wonder why BlueHost isn’t a tad more cerebral in its marketing since we are dealing with computers, we still appreciate their attempt to make their site a little more personable, and we appreciate TSOHost’s reliability. IONOS is rather impressive with its system of “geo-redundancy,” and might be of comfort for those who want to skip the guarantees to jump right to the reliability.We wouldn’t necessarily let the introductory rates shade our decision too much in choosing the best server because it amounts to a long-term commitment. HostMySite and 1&1 IONOS would be our top two contenders for overall Web hosting greatness.
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