Hostwinds seeks to make it easy for those seeking web services. The company is committed to long-term relationships and owns all of its systems, servers, and infrastructures. This is different from other web hosting companies that rent servers and pass the escalated pricing on to clients.
Owning its servers allows Hostwinds to offer low prices and also means every router, server, and deployment is managed and controlled by Hostwinds. They can fix any problems that arise.
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Pros:
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Unlimited domain hosting
- Unlimited email accounts
- Free domain name
- One-click WordPress Install
- E-commerce features
Cons:
- No SEO tools
- No free marketing
- Lacks security features and malware scanning
- Few server locations
Who is Hostwinds best for?
Hostwinds is best for those who are looking for an affordable online option that includes website building and who need great customer support. It is a good choice for those looking to build websites for others or who want an easy option for a personal or small business website.
It is also a good choice for those who are looking for an easy website building solution. The website builder tool integrated into the Hostwinds system is super easy to use and has good prompts for instructions.
What are the pros and cons of Hostwinds?
Pros
- Unlimited bandwidth: This is not common among web hosting services. Normally, you have to move up to a higher-tier plan to get anything unlimited. This offers a lot of scalability for those looking to grow.
- Unlimited domain hosting: There aren’t many web hosting experiences that offer unlimited domains without paying additionally. Yet, Hostwinds has it and that makes it the right company for those seeking to build several businesses or who want to manage websites for others.
- Unlimited email accounts: This is another feature that comes with all of Hostwinds hosting packages that typically aren’t offered by its competitors (like BlueHost) in lower-tiered plans. This allows you to have a more professional image with several branded email addresses.
- Free domain name: Many web hosts offer a free domain name for the first year, but the fact that Hostwinds offers a free domain with all plans is a plus. It proves the company is truly a one-stop shop.
- One-click WordPress install: The one-click feature makes the installation of WordPress easy for even those who know little to nothing about website building.
- E-commerce features: Many who start with a website want to know they can grow into an online business eventually. Hostwinds offers e-commerce options that increase the scalability of their clients. Knowing you won’t have to leave for another web hosting service to do e-commerce offers a sense of peace for entrepreneurs.
Cons
- No free SEO tools: Free SEO (search engine marketing) is a feature that many business entrepreneurs need to help boost their listings on the web. It is also important to have these tools because many new to website building don’t know anything about SEO and some don’t even know where to find them.
- No free marketing: Like free SEO, free marketing tools are incredibly helpful to those launching a website. Many new business owners don’t have a lot of marketing knowledge or skills and need some branding and exposure boosting.
- Lacks security features and malware scanning: This is where Hostwinds falls short. It offers free SSL (Secure Sockets Layers) certificates with all plans but doesn’t have a lot of other security features. That means it also doesn’t offer free malware scans, which puts some clients at risk.
- Few server locations: As a smaller company, it only has three data centers. Two are in the United States and the third is in Amsterdam. This limits Hostwinds global reach as sites located outside the U.S. will be slower to respond.
What are its top features?
Several top features make Hostwinds stand out from its competitors. Below are a few.
It has cloud hosting
Cloud hosting offers long-term positive features for companies. Its key advantage is it makes a web service scalable. That means you can grow without paying a lot more out for your web services.
Cloud hosting also offers better performance, solid disaster recovery and will reduce your costs over the long term.
Simple signup and even simpler hosting plans
No one, especially those new to web services like web hosting or website building, wants the signup to be complicated. Most people like the plans offered to be straightforward as well. Hostwinds does both very well in offering clearly stated plans and easy sign-up. The fact it has a 60-day money-back guarantee makes it a risk-free choice.
Hands-on approach to dealing with customers’ issues
Hostwinds doesn’t rely on bots and voice mails for resolving customers’ issues or routing customers through multiple channels to get to people. Its employees are involved in management. That goes for its CEO too. He owns and manages the company.
An easy-to-use dashboard
The cPanel dashboard is the easiest to use of those on the market today. Hostwinds web hosting doesn’t offer its own website building tool, but using the dashboard with Weebly site builder doesn’t seem to make much difference as they are well integrated.
Plus, Weebly is considered one of the best website builders available making joining Hostwinds a plus.
Those who haven’t built a website before or who have limited knowledge will be able to work this system well to get a website up and running fairly quickly.
What hosting types can users expect?
Hostwinds primarily offers VPS plans or virtual private server plans. That means it offers shared web server space, but each site will have some room to call its own.
Think of shared hosting plans like renting an apartment in a large building. You control what is in your apartment but share the building.
Hostwinds also offers dedicated servers with customizable control panels. That means you have a complete server and system to yourself. Dedicated servers are best for business hosting, specifically for those who have larger volumes of traffic or need extra disk space for things like products in online stores.
Finally, Hostwinds offers cloud hosting which is why it can offer some things unlimited that other companies can’t do. Cloud hosting is still relatively new and many website hosting companies don’t offer it. Reseller hosting is available too.
Cloud hosting options will become a necessity in the future as people seek affordable scalability, so finding a company that offers it now at affordable prices is a huge advantage for businesses looking to extend their websites beyond this year.
What’s performance and reliability like for Hostwinds?
Hostwinds has a great reputation for performance and reliability. It has an uptime guarantee of 99.9%, so your site won’t experience much downtime. It couples that with a 100% satisfaction guarantee and a 60-day money-back guarantee so the company is standing behind its pledges. Also, such a small company allows it to focus on the clients it serves.
What kind of security is in place?
Hostwinds offers reasonable security measures. It gives free SSL certificates for those in all plans and also nightly backups. That means you won’t lose your site should something happen and will not need to rebuild it.
The one downside of Hostwinds security is that it doesn’t offer free malware scans. (It’s not even an add-on service).
What’s the cost of Hostwinds?
There are four plans with the shared basic plan costing $4.50 per month. The Shared Advanced plan is $5.50 a month and the Shared Ultimate plan is $6.50 a month. However, pay attention to the discounts and how you get them applied.
The main difference in all the plans is the number of domains you get with each plan. Basic plans get one domain while the ultimate plan has unlimited domains and subdomains.
What can users expect in terms of customer support?
Hostwinds support is excellent. Polls show that 92% of Hostwinds.com customers are happy after using its live chat to deal with issues related to their businesses’ online services.
Those testing the live chat feature said it took two minutes to get a response, which is considered a good response time.
The test shows the representative had a complete answer with links to other information. The representative was also responsive and polite.
The company also has a phone option so you aren’t tied to live chat. It also has a knowledge base for those who want to research answers on their own. Those who have a problem that requires technical help can submit a ticket for the support team to address.
FAQs
Is Hostwinds a safe service to use?
Yes, Hostwinds is completely safe to use for web hosting and offers several security protocols to make sure all your information, and that of any of your viewers or customers, is protected. The cPanel is unbelievably secure as it uses encryption for everything, protecting you and your customers.
Is Hostwinds easy to install?
Hostwinds is super easy to install. All you have to do is go to the company’s main page. You will enter a few details and select a payment method. After that, you will be ready to work on and activate your website. There are prompts along the way to help you as you build your website.
Can I get my own domain name with Hostwinds?
Yes. Customized domain names come with even the cheapest of the Hostwind web hosting plans. It is part of the package. A customized domain name will help your business look more professional.
How affordable is Hostwinds?
All of Hostwind’s web hosting plans are affordable but the price depends on the plan you choose. The cheapest plan is $3.29 a month, which is highly affordable in today’s market. The typical cost without any discounts is $5 a month. Budget VPS is $7.50 a month and a reseller plan runs $25 a month. A dedicated hosting plan is $99 a month.
Does Hostwinds offer cloud hosting?
Yes, Hostwinds offers cloud hosting as well as VPS (Virtual Private Servers) for both Linux and Windows. You can also opt for dedicated hosting if you want a more customized service with a lot more room for traffic and growth.
Can I have multiple sites with Hostwinds?
It depends on which plan you choose as some of the higher-cost plans offer multisite capacity. The cheapest plan is meant only for a single domain while some of the pricier plans have unlimited domains.
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